General: US contractors in Iraq "shoot people...It happens all over"

[Rose Siding]

snip>
Recent shootings of Iraqi civilians, allegedly involving the legion of U.S., British and other foreign security contractors operating in the country, are drawing increasing concern from Iraqi officials and U.S. commanders who say they undermine relations between foreign military forces and Iraqi civilians.

....But their activities have drawn scrutiny both here and in Washington after allegations of indiscriminate shootings and other recklessness have given rise to charges of inadequate oversight.

"These guys run loose in this country and do stupid stuff. There's no authority over them, so you can't come down on them hard when they escalate force," said Brig. Gen. Karl R. Horst, deputy commander of the 3rd Infantry Division, which is responsible for security in and around Baghdad. "They shoot people, and someone else has to deal with the aftermath. It happens all over the place."
....
The shootings became so frequent in Baghdad this summer that Horst started keeping his own count in a white spiral notebook he uses to record daily events. Between May and July, he said, he tracked at least a dozen shootings of civilians by contractors, in which six Iraqis were killed and three wounded. The bloodiest case came on May 12 in the neighborhood of New Baghdad. A contractor opened fire on an approaching car, which then veered into a crowd. Two days after the incident, American soldiers patrolling the same block were attacked with a roadside bomb.

Employees of private security firms are immune from prosecution in Iraq...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/09/AR2005090902136.html

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. Killing "terrorists" is in Amurka's best interests... however, creating

more terrorists by killing someone's brother, sister, mother father, is kinda stupid, and it is exactly what I would expect from someone who partied so hard in college. It goes with the terrority.