It's a measure of how bad it's gotten. Iraq is a land of corruption, lawlessness, and human rights abuses. Armed gangs wander the streets, terrorizing the populace. The rule of law doesn't reach these gangs and the military either can't or won't do anything to stop them. The whole thing is rapidly spinning out of control and the Bush administration seems uninterested in doing anything about it. They are Iraq's untouchables.They aren't insurgents or terrorists, they're american contractors. Private security forces or, as they were once known in more honest times, mercenaries or brigands. They're the 'other' face of the US presence in Iraq, undermining our legitimacy. And they've cost at least one officer his life.
Greg Mitchell, Editor & Publisher:
Col. Ted Westhusing, a West Point scholar, put a bullet in his head in Iraq after reporting widespread corruption. His suicide note -- complaining about human rights abuses and other crimes -- was addressed to his two commanders, including Gen. David Petraeus, now leader of the U.S. "surge" effort in Iraq. It urged them to "Reevaluate yourselves....You are not what you think you are and I know it."
"A few weeks before he died, Westhusing received an anonymous complaint that a private security company he oversaw had cheated the U.S. government and committed human rights violations," Mitchell tells us. Westhusing finally chose death before dishonor. He was found dead in his trailer in Camp Dublin, Baghdad. The army investigation determined that his death, at the age of 44, was caused by a "perforating gunshot wound of the head and Manner of Death was suicide."...
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