The Spy Who Billed Me

Report on BW Shooting Raises Questions

The Washington Post describes a "Quick Report" by the Regional Security Office at the US Embassy in Baghdad describing the Blackwater shooting incident from September 16th.  I obtained the same report today (uploaded here).  The report is far from enlightening, but the WaPo seems to have missed a few interesting details.  (For the following to make the most sense, please read the actual report or the WaPo rendition.)

It appears that the dispatch of the Blackwater Tactical Support Team (TST) 23 (the one involved in the shooting) to support TST 22 was predictable by the bad guys, both from the perspectives of time and route taken (i.e., through Gray 87, the traffic circle that was the site of the ambush).

If TST 23 had already departed Gray 87 (i.e., the ambush site) after the termination of the ambush with their Bearcat in tow, why did the second team--TST 22--then enter it, particularly if it was “congested with traffic?"  (A tactical faux pas, to put it politely.)

Now for the really interesting point, why was an ambush site where multiple civilians had just been killed “congested with traffic” in the first place?  This implies that either TST 23 had been gone for some time (less than forty-six minutes, probably in considerably less time) and Gray 87 had returned to “normal” before TST 22 entered it, or that the ambush and associated casualties were not seen by the civilians subsequently congesting Gray 87 as any particular big deal.  (We do know from the report that at maximum 46 minutes could have transpired, probably less.)

Now for the second act of the incident, the Iraqi standoff with TST 22 (the one not involved in the shooting):

Why did the Iraqi Quick Reaction Force block TST 22 within Gray 87 if Gray 87 was indeed a congested intersection?  Did they believe that TST 22 had opened fire on civilians in Gray 87 without provocation, then stopped shooting, waited on them to come while in the meantime the civilians had resumed normal congested traffic activities around a bunch of heavily-armed guys that had just opened fire on them for no apparent reason, and now the Iraqi Quick Reaction Force was going to take TST 22 (the alleged perps) into custody without a fight?  And what the Iraqi police and military on scene thinking?

It would appear that the Iraqi QRF and reinforcements believed that the Blackwater TST was the perpetrator of an unprovoked attack.  Who would’ve told them that?   Do they really have a 911 system that works so well?  Somehow that seems doubtful.  Did they perhaps hear it on their radios from a bad guy conducting manipulative communications deception in simulating their operations center?  If so, don’t we have any advisors with the Iraqi police/army or, if not, don’t we monitor their frequencies both to pre-empt manipulative communications deception and give our guys warnings on the possible potentially lethal results of such?  Are there any recordings of their communications?

The report does suggest that the bad guys may have some sophisticated capabilities.  It also makes clear that the Iraqi police and military were quick to believe that the Blackwater guys would willingly inflict casualties on civilians.  Seems that BW may have a bit to learn about the diplomatic side of the Diplomatic Security Services.

To My Regular Readers

I suspect some of you have been wondering why I've been absent lately at a time there's plenty to blog about regarding the Blackwater situation in Iraq.  I had a sudden and unexpected medical issue arise and had to go to go off-island for surgery and a few days hospitalization.  I'm now pain-free for the first time in a couple of weeks and recovering at home, so I'll back to my usual mischief shortly. 

RJH

Blackwater banned from Iraq? Probably not.

After a shootout on Sunday, allegedly killing several civilians, the Iraqi government has announced that it has revoked Blackwater's license to operate in Iraq.  It's unclear whether Blackwater actually had a license from the Iraqi government and it has operated there most of the time without a license--the media doesn't seem to have clued into this one yet. 

The issue of BW operating in Iraq without an Iraqi government license came up in the summer regarding a contested contract award covered in the Washington Post:

Blackwater said that it obtained a one-year license in 2005 but that shifting Iraqi government policy has impeded its attempts to renew.

There is always the slight chance that BW did attempt and was able to renew the license since this June 2007 statement.

It looks like the incident happened when BW was performing the contract for State, so it will be interesting to see if the US government allows the Iraqis to put limits upon who it's contracting with--for both white and black contracts.  Regardless of whatever gymnastics State goes through to appease the Iraqis, somehow I suspect that the CIA contracts are not going to be subject to Iraqi government licensing.  Smart money says that Blackwater is in Iraq for the duration.

Thank You, IC

The 9/11 anniversary seems like a good time to thank the intelligence professionals--blue and green--who've helped prevent another 9/11.   (And you guys are the largest readership of this blog, FYI.)  I know that your successes usually go unrecognized and the media is quick to point fingers at your failures and presumed failures, but seeing the German bomb plot unfold last week was a good reminder that it's the dedication of so many professionals who are able to make the intelligence system work--despite its many flaws. 

An Exceptional Performance Award should go to whomever convinced al-Qaeda that 1500 lbs of peroxide were a swell idea for a bomb.  Same goes for whoever got bin Laden talking about global warming, among other diversions, and not the old nonstop rantings about attacking America. 

 

(I'm the last person to believe my own conspiracy theories, but those two events from last week are sure making it appear that OUTSOURCED's plot might cut even close to the bone than I realized.)

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And congratulations to longtime reader Alice Marshall of Presto Vivace, who is a publicist specializing on technology firms and national security contractors.  In an informal survey of editors in the government trade press, she was cited for excellence and one editor called her the best he had worked with. 

Forbes: Tom Clancy of the Corporate Military and Intelligence Age

Some reviews are just too good not to share.  This one was published by Forbes this week:

....Enter author R.J. Hillhouse with a fictional account of military and intelligence mercenaries in Iraq called Outsourced. This debut novel introduces Hillhouse as the Tom Clancy of the corporate military and intelligence age. In Outsourced, Hillhouse presents the contractors mostly as well-meaning patriots, though they are corruptible.

...

Like Clancy did with the military, Hillhouse has researched her subject well. Anonymous sources within the intelligence field have helped her along the way. Her nonfiction work about the CIA and the Pentagon has appeared in The Washington Post and The New York Times. There's some implication that what Hillhouse has revealed in Outsourced are truths that she couldn't talk about in plain nonfiction.

The story is key here, though. Any lover of thrillers and suspense novels will enjoy Outsourced. Camille Black is a former CIA counterterrorism officer who has gone into private practice as the CEO of Black Management. She's in Iraq, taking covert assignments for the U.S. government. Hillhouse finds plenty of comic moments as Black flexes her (ample) muscles in the man's world of covert operations and mercenaries. With a sharp tongue, a sharper knife and some obvious martial talents, Black is like a cross between Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Jack Ryan.

Black finds herself with a CIA contract to eliminate her ex-fiancé, Hunter Stone. Stone is working undercover for the Pentagon, and it's unclear at the beginning of the book if he betrayed Black because of his job or to protect his own nefarious, potentially anti-American activities, including selling captured weapons to Iraqi insurgents and Al-Qaeda terrorists. Another military contractor, called Rubicon, is Black's competition. What follows is a romp through the Iraq war along with several turns and revelations that shouldn't be detailed in a review.

Hillhouse finds her subjects in the headlines out of Iraq. She imagines insurgents building car bombs and kidnapped Americans who nobody seems to be looking for. Hillhouse's prose is unadorned to say the least, but anything more fanciful would detract from the action. The book moves quickly from point to point and there's an action-film sensibility throughout. It's also fun, and perhaps illustrative, to wonder how much of this is from Hillhouse's imagination and how much is the result of stories that we haven't been told yet.

Outsourced is the first novel of its kind, because the military and intelligence agencies of the United States have, for the first time in history, given in entirely to the corporate-outsourcing trend. Hillhouse has given us the first word in a conversation that will surely outlast both the Iraq war and the War on Terror.

Read the full review here and, if you haven't already, order your copy of OUTSOURCED here.  And those who've read it, I'm happy to discuss any non-spoilers in the comments section.