War On Reality Part 75 ; The Brothers Blackwater

The congressional hearing into the Blackwater shootings had a surprise chapter last week. After denying that he had any connection to the US military contractor, Howard Krongard, who was leading the hearing, made a phone call during a break to find some interesting family details.

On his return to the room, Krongard told the hearing that his brother, 'Buzzy' Krongard attended a Blackwater advisory board meeting. He recused himself and left.

Mr Krongard later said about his Blackwater brother, "we do not discuss our business with each other."

Tell The Truthiness ; We don't mind if you don't know everything about your brother. But when you don't know he's working for a firm that you are investigating for shooting members of the Iraqi public, you really do need some one-on-one time.

War On Reality Part 66 ; Blackwater Do Good Stuff - Bush

Another gem from the Presidential News Conference was when Mr Bush was asked about Blackwater. He tried to spin the firm's record in Iraq by saying that they "provide a valuable service that protects people's lives".

Clearly Mr Bush hadn't heard about the people who were killed in Baghdad by the company and hadn't heard the Iraqi government's decision, following a report to "insist" Blackwater leave the country.

The US is conducting it's own investigation into the shootings and both reports will be reviewed by a joint Iraqi/US commission, after that, decisions will be made on Blackwater's future.

Something of note that may influence those decisions by the US side of that commission ; the US has paid Blackwater $830 million since 2004.

Tell The Truthiness ; Since most of the chiefs at Blackwater are former appointees of Mr Bush, we're totally sure the report from the US will be fair and balanced.

Blackwater 2 ; Australian Private Company Opens Fire

An Australian company opened fire on a car at a checkpoint after it failed to stop after warnings, reports say.

Employees of the Unity Resources Group shot dead two woman today despite repeated warnings in central Baghdad to slow down and stop, including hand signals and a flare.

The Chief Operating Officer of Unity was "unaware" about the deaths when questioned.

Tell The Truthiness ; Reportedly, this is the first time Unity have been reponsible for a fatal shooting, lets watch and see that they keep to their promise and do "whatever" the Iraqi Interior Ministry asks them to in relation to this shooting.

War On Reality Part 62 ; $8 Million A Life, Blackwater's Fixed Costs

An Iraqi report into the Blackwater shootings has called the incident "pre-mediated murder" and a call of $8 million compensation per victim has been made.

The report is due to be presented to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government for review soon. 17 people died and 27 other citizens were killed after the private contractors opened fire after, it's reported, no provocation in Nusorr Square, West Baghdad.

Tell The Truthiness ; Lets make sure justice comes to those responsible for this.

War On Reality Part 55 ; Blackwater's Black Iraq Record

The level of force used by the US private security firm Blackwater has been strongly questioned by a congressional staff report.

They say that Blackwater's use of force has been "frequent and extensive" and that in 80 percent of cases, Blackwater employees fired first. This is despite Blackwater only being allowed to fire weapons to defend itself.

Tell The Truthiness ; We should get more details and possibly an admission of poor management tomorrow when Blackwater's CEO answer's questions on his company's conduct in Iraq.

War On Reality Part 49 ; Baghdad Is Safe, But Stay Inside The Resort

Yesterday, travel by anyone who's not military personnel outside of the Green Zone in Baghdad was suspended following the alleged killing of Iraqi citizens by US security firm Blackwater.

Blackwater is a private security firm employed in Baghdad by the US Embassy to protect employees. Two other companies carry out similar duties.

The amount of employees of Blackwater and the other firms is huge, representing massive contracts and millions of dollars to earn.

Tell The Truthiness ; This war, among other things, was all about the money.

PS - If you're anti-war and happen to live in Baghdad, make sure if you do get fatally shot it hits you in the back of the head, because then that will count in the casualty figures.