Washington Post Misconstrues Grand Jury

Not surprisingly, the Washington Post is twisting the truth again. Never mind that they reported Blackwater as being headquartered in Virgina - operations are actually run out of Moyock, North Carolina; their reporting of a grand jury investigating the events of 16 September in Nissor Square last year show a clear bias.

"At least three Iraqis appeared yesterday before a federal grand jury hearing evidence in the September shootings in Baghdad by Blackwater Worldwide security guards that left 17 Iraqis dead," writes the Post in its opening line. Five paragraphs later they finally get around to admitting that the grand jury is a little more balanced than the post: "The grand jury has also heard testimony from Blackwater personnel and U.S. officials."

Moreover, what the Post never comes out at admits is what is implicit in the holding of a grand jury: the truth about the events of 16 September remain unclear. If everything were as obvious as the Post makes it out to be, we wouldn't be holding a grand jury.

In addition, the Post claims that after last September's firefight "Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice imposed new rules on the contractors after the incident, placing video cameras in their vehicles and ordering that State Department Diplomatic Security Service agents accompany all contractor security convoys." As this blog has vigorously pointed out, the "new rules" were not so novel and the cameras were something Blackwater had asked for years before.