WASHINGTON - Most of the more than 100 private security companies in Iraq open fire far more frequently than has been publicly acknowledged and rarely report such incidents to U.S. or Iraqi authorities, according to U.S. officials and current and former private security company employees.

Violence caused by private security guards in Iraq has come under scrutiny since a Sept. 16 shooting in Baghdad involving employees of Blackwater USA. The company’s chairman, Erik Prince, told a congressional committee Tuesday that Blackwater guards opened fire on 195 occasions during more than 16,000 missions in Iraq since 2005.

However, two former Blackwater security guards said they believed employees fired more often than the company has disclosed. One, a former Blackwater guard who spent nearly three years in Iraq, said his 20-man team averaged “four or five” shootings a week, or several times the rate of 1.4 incidents a week reported by the company. The underreporting of shooting incidents was routine in Iraq, according to this former guard.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21111402/

HERE YOU HAVE BLACKWATER'S CEO STATING THAT THE FIRE RATE OF BLACKWATER IS LESS THAN A THIRD OF WHAT IS BEING REPORTED BY EX-BLACKWATER EMPLOYEES ON THE GROUND. DO YOU THINK THIS PROBUSH COROPRATE CRIMINAL WHO HAS THE BLOOD OF PROBABLY HUNDREDS IF NOT THOUSANDS OF IRAQIS ON HIS WEALTHY WHITE HANDS WILL EVER FACE CHARGES.

This is the new Middle east, American corporate mercenaries slaughtering iraqis with impunity. One story surrounding Blackwater, which has been verified by many media accounts involves a drunk blackwater employee killing in a wrongful shooting a body guard of the iraqi Vice President. This Blackwater employee simply had to leave the country. Imagine killing the equivalent of secret service guard and not even having to pay the equivalent penalty of a speeding ticket. And you even happened to be drunk and in the wrong. THIS IS WHITE AMERICAN RACISM FOR EVERYONE TO SEE IT, KILL AN ARAB AND AS LONG AS YOU ARE AMERICAN, YOU WALK. EVEN OUR SOLDIERS ARE GETTING AWAY WITH MURDER. OUR TROOPS RAPED AND MURDERED A 14 YEAR OLD GIRL AND HER FAMILY, AND THEY GOT NOTHING BUT A SLAP ON THE WRIST. Meanwhile jews and their lawyers who get killed by Palestinians sue the government of Iran for millions. AS IF PALESTINIANS WOULDN'T FIGHT ISRAELIS IF NOT FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF IRAN. THEN THESE LAWYERS TRY TO FORECLOSE ON IRANIAN WORKS OF ART IN US MUSEUM ON LOaN FROM THE IRANIAN MUSEUMS. THE AUDACITY OF THESE THIEVES. THEY STEAL A COUNTRY AND NOW THEY COME AFTER THE CULTURAL HERITAGE OF IRAN, A COUNTRY THAT QUITE FRANKLY HASN'T DONE ONE HUNDREDTH OF THE EVIL TO THEM THAT THEY COMMIT AGAINST MUSLIMS. Why is only jew and white blood expensive, there is a blood debt to be paid here. And in a just world Israel will one day pay it. IF THERE IS A GOD, I PRAY FOR JUSTICE, AND IF NOT JUSTICE RETRIBUTION ON THESE VILE CRIMINALS.

Bill Sizemore of The Virginian-Pilot has a article out that puts a spotlight on some of the behind-the-scenes operations of Blackwater USA, a private security firm co-founded by a major Republican donor from an extremely wealthy and politically well-connected family.

About three dozen former Colombian soldiers are engaged in a pay dispute with Blackwater USA, saying their salaries for security work in Iraq turned out to be one-quarter what they had been promised by recruiters in Bogota.

According to stories published by the Columbian paper Semana and London’s Financial Times, the thirty-five Columbians are "mostly seasoned counter insurgency troops." These soldiers say they were promised salaries of $4,000 a month when they were only paid $34 a day, or roughly $1,000 a month.

"We were tricked by the company," one former Colombian army captain was quoted as saying in the Financial Times.

American contractors can earn $10,000 a month or more working for Blackwater and its competitors in Iraq.

Soldiers are subject to rules of engagement and can be court-martialed for breaking the law. Contractors are governed most directly by the terms of their contracts—their extraterritorial activities and corporate status make them virtually immune from federal law. While some contractors are civilians accompanying an armed force in the field and are subject to military law, that law applies to other civilians only when there's been a formal declaration of war. There hasn't been one of those by the U.S. since World War II.

Worse, because the military has no direct control over its contractors, it won't accept responsibility for their actions. And PMCs allow the Pentagon to evade accountability to Congress, because they circumvent caps on the number of troops approved for deployment and their casualties aren't counted.

Soldiers serve their country; contractors serve their managers and shareholders.

I forgot to mention that Blackwater's contract with the government is reimbursement of all cost plus 30 percent.

I am sure Blackwater's contract is most profitable, nothing republcans like more than corporations and killing. Blackwater embodies both these manly republican ideals. And by the way they are not contractors, they aren't replacing the tile in your kitchen. They are involved in the shootings of hundreds if not thousands of iraqis and they fire first more often then not. Afterall, they face no liability whatsoever for vaporizing a car full of iraqis whether they are threat or not. These people are mercenaries, and calling them contractors is just another trick of the zionist media conspiracy.