Horror in Baghdad: Blackwater Shoots a Dog

Not just any old dog, but one claimed by the New York Times.

Question: Will this merit more front pages than Abu Ghraib?

The U.S. embassy in Iraq is investigating another deadly shooting incident involving its Blackwater bodyguards -- this time of the New York Times's dog.

Staff at the newspaper's Baghdad bureau said Blackwater bodyguards shot Hentish dead last week before a visit by a U.S. diplomat to the Times compound.

Blackwater spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell said the dog had attacked one of Blackwater's bomb-sniffer dogs while a security team was sweeping the compound for explosives.

"The K-9 handler made several unsuccessful attempts to get the dog to retreat, including placing himself between the dogs. When those efforts failed, the K-9 handler unfortunately was forced to use a pistol to protect the company's K-9 and himself," she said in an e-mail to Reuters.

The U.S. embassy employs about 1,000 armed Blackwater staff to protect American diplomats in Baghdad.

Will there be Congressional hearings over such brutal use of force?

Remarkably, the State Department is taking this seriously.

State Department investigators have made two follow-up visits to the Times compound to investigate the shooting of Hentish, correspondent Alissa Rubin said.

"They were very solicitous and I thought took the incident very seriously," Rubin said. "It's not a dog that everyone's close to in the compound.

"But it's a dog that's been around a long time. It lived its whole life there."

UPDATE: The Kos Kidz are taking this very seriously.

Whether it's a jaywalker, a random carload of people driving too slowly or too close, or man's best friend, Blackwater will shoot anything that moves in Iraq.

UPDATE II: Sweetness & Light has an interesting look at things. Meanwhile, it's getting ugly in the leftwing fever swamps.

Sometimes, gang-raping and civilian killing just isn’t enough to get the message across, I guess.

Comment by tombaker — December 18, 2007 @ 2:48 pm

Speaks volumes for the climate …. Gang rapes, murder, thievery,… now the slaughter of dogs? Do we want this crowd helping Americans in time of disaster? And I agree with the above posts… that middle finger in the emblem says it all.

Comment by had enough — December 18, 2007 @ 3:23 pm

Repubs just love dogs.
Mitt-Flop Romney chains them to the roof of his car for ten hour rides.
Rudy’s mistress/wife sells them for cruel lab experiments.
Huckabee’s kids use them as Pinatas.
The Repub party is the party of Jeffrey Dahmers.

Comment by OxyCon — December 18, 2007 @ 3:30 pm

BTW, isn’t Blackwater a militia?
And aren’t militias illegal?
By having the Blackwater militia competing with out armed forces, we are weakening our country and sliding down a slippery slope where a fascist right wing dictator can arise and use Blackwater to gain power.
What does Blackwater do exactly which hasn’t been done by our military for the past 225 years? Why are they even necessary?
Outsourcing our military to overpaid mercenary militias is extemely dangerous, extravagantly expensive and should be immediately outlawed.

Comment by OxyCon — December 18, 2007 @ 3:37 pm