Blackwater deaths in Falluja. Court case- no right to sue.

[stuartj]

This is an intersting read. Blackwater are arguing that their employees (or the estates) killed in 04 in Falluja, have no right to sue.

"In essence, the company is claiming that it is part of the US military. "As it stands now, there appears to be no accountability for the conduct of private security contractors operating in Iraq," says Marc Miles, a lawyer for the families. "Companies like Blackwater appear to be operating above the law. This lawsuit seeks to hold Blackwater accountable for its actions and liable for the deaths of four Americans.""



http://www.theage.com.au/news/in-depth/military-or-mercenary-cashing-in-on-a-war-zone/2007/04/06/1175366469539.html

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THERE are images of the war in Iraq that will outlast the conflict. One of them is so stark it need not even be witnessed in colour. In the background, what look like two stick figures are suspended from the girders of a bridge. In the foreground, the mob gathers in celebration.

This was the morning of March 31, 2004, in the city of Fallujah, a Sunni Muslim stronghold, population 300,000, violent and restive. Two Mitsubishi Pajeros, carrying four employees of private military company Blackwater Security were escorting three empty trucks from the city of Taji to Camp Ridgeway, a US Army base, where they would pick up kitchen equipment. Each of the Pajeros carried a driver and a navigator, the latter armed with a semi-automatic weapon. The armour plating that was supposed to be part of their vehicles had been removed by contractural sleight of hand, a saving of $US1.5 million. The SAW Mach 46 machine-guns that could fire 850 rounds a second, also contractually part of each vehicle's arsenal, were back in Kuwait, still unassembled.

A third man, the so-called "rear gunner", who would sit in the back seat and watch behind them, giving them a 360-degree field of view, had been pulled from both vehicles by the project supervisors at the last minute.

Although they were unaware of it, they had a choice of routes to Camp Ridgeway: a 2½-hour detour around Fallujah, or a 45-minute drive through the city's centre. What happened next is now the subject of a court case due to open in the US state of North Carolina on Monday.

Fallujah was known to be a core of insurgent activity, so dangerous and hostile that when responsibility for it was handed from the US Army to the Marines, according to an account in the Raleigh News and Observer, of North Carolina, the army had a rule that no patrol in the area — let alone Fallujah itself — could proceed without at least three vehicles packed with troops.

Blackwater, through its lawyer Andrew Howell, took a different view in hearings before a congressional committee in Washington in February. "The mission they were on that day at that point in time given the threat as it was known on the ground in Iraq, the norm was not to have the third person," Howell said.

The convoy was met outside the city by a two-vehicle escort from the Iraq Civil Defence Corps, which would guide it through Fallujah. At the tail end of the line, Stephen "Scott" Helvenston drove a red Mitsubishi Pajero. With him was Michael Teague, a former US Army Ranger, the most highly trained of the army's infantry troops. Both were 38 years old and would be paid $US600 a day for 60 days in Iraq.

Helvenston needed the money. He was a former navy commando, or SEAL, for Sea Air Land. At 17, he was the youngest ever to complete the gruelling SEAL program. He stayed with the navy for 12 years but went bankrupt in 2001 after a series of failed business ventures. His marriage also ended. Helvenston decided to put his military skills and background to use by joining the Blackwater company in Iraq. This was the world of the private military contractor, or private security contractor, or mercenary. It is a place and a philosophy that sees Iraq less as a war and more a place of boundless opportunity. The most widely reported estimate is that there are 100,000 private military contractors in Iraq. According to figures reviewed by the Congressional House Oversight Committee, those private security forces have been paid $US4 billion since the start of the war.

Among the most high-profile of those forces is Blackwater, founded in 1996 by Erik Prince, also a retired SEAL, although with the financial advantage of being the son of a multimillionaire. Both father and son were devoutly religious and major donors to the Republican Party. When Lewis Paul Bremer arrived in Baghdad in April 2003 to run the Coalition Provisional Authority, his security was provided by Blackwater at a reported cost of $US21 million for 11 months. In the almost three years since mid-2004, Blackwater has received another $US320 million through a "diplomatic security" contract with the US State Department. Blackwater is the company that governments turn to when they cannot do their own work.

Stephen Helvenston's contract with Blackwater is 18 pages long. On page six, in paragraph 11, he agrees "to assume any and all risks of personal injury, including, without limitation, death and disability which may result from contractor providing services pursuant to this agreement".

The risks he accepted and signed off on ranged from being shot to earthquakes. Paragraph 11.3 bound him against suing the company for any reason whatsoever. Notwithstanding subsequent legal arguments, which have gone all the way to the US Supreme Court, the contract noted that it was governed by the laws of the state of North Carolina. The contract was signed by Helvenston. It gave as his emergency contact his former wife, Patricia Irby.

THE convoy stopped inside Fallujah, for reasons still unknown. As it did, a group of men armed with AK-47 assault rifles rushed the vehicles, metres from Helvenston's car, from several angles. In a multi-part series on the ambush, the News and Observer said Helvenston and Teague were fired upon before they had time to react. The second Blackwater team, Jerry Zovko and Wesley Batalona, saw the ambush, did a U-turn and accelerated onto the road back to Baghdad. Another group of insurgents appeared, firing into the black Pajero at point-blank range.

The incident was filmed by a video camera. The original gunmen disappeared after looting both vehicles. A crowd gathered, some carrying containers of petrol. The 4WDs were doused with the fuel and set alight. When those flames died, the bodies of the contractors were pulled from their vehicles, doused and also set alight. The blackened bodies were kicked and beaten with pipes and shovels. Two of the bodies were dragged through the streets, towards the nearby Euphrates River. One was tied to the girders of a bridge with electrical cord. The other was suspended, feet first, from framework on the other side.

These were the images that went around the world: American bodies, alone, abandoned, desecrated. For Helvenston's mother, Kathryn Helvenston-Wettengel, the truth relayed to her of her son's fate was even worse. Addressing a hearing of the House Oversight Committee in Washington on February 7, she said: "I was told he was still alive when they tied him to the back of that truck and (dragged) him through the streets of Fallujah. And that was before they decapitated him, dismembered him and torched him."

The families of the four contractors have sued Blackwater and two of its employees, alleging wrongful death and fraud. The company has counter-sued, claiming that the estates of the dead men, by suing, have breached the contracts they signed.

The outcome of the case will be closely watched for legal reasons. Rather than defending itself on the facts, Blackwater is claiming exemption from civil lawsuits under US law passed during World War II, which provided protection for construction workers building military bases in Europe. The law was expanded in 1958 to cover civilians working off bases in war zones.

In essence, the company is claiming that it is part of the US military. "As it stands now, there appears to be no accountability for the conduct of private security contractors operating in Iraq," says Marc Miles, a lawyer for the families. "Companies like Blackwater appear to be operating above the law. This lawsuit seeks to hold Blackwater accountable for its actions and liable for the deaths of four Americans."

Gerard Wright is a freelance journalist based on the US west coast.