Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

Penn State community discusses Blackwater
By Katharine Lackey
Daily Collegian (Penn State)
10/15/2007

(U-WIRE) UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Ron Linn, a Pennsylvania State University alumnus and retired U.S. Army colonel, describes the attitude of Blackwater USA, a private security firm currently taking heat for its operations in Iraq, as unappealing in comparison to other firms he has had contact with.

Linn, Class of 1974, is currently working in Afghanistan for the U.S. Department of State, but fought during the Gulf War in Iraq and Saudi Arabia and has had a few opportunities to meet and deal with Blackwater associates, he wrote in an e-mail message.

"Even though most of the personnel are prior military, there seems to be an attitude that is displayed by the individuals that I had contact with that was not appealing," Linn wrote.

"I have had the opportunity to work with quite a few police trainers from another contractor here in Afghanistan, and they are not quite as abrasive."

Last week, the Iraqi government demanded the removal of Blackwater within six months. However, some students who have spent time in Iraq since the war began don't think the company should be cast out of the country.

John Hench (sophomore-aerospace engineering) said he flew drone planes as a civilian from 2004 to 2006 and crossed paths with Blackwater, but nothing stands out from those encounters.

"If Blackwater is ousted, you have to fill that void and then the question is, 'who fills it?' " Hench said. "Right now, the military says it's stretched as it is ... so they're probably just going to pick up a new contractor. They will wind up with the same people with a different corporate name doing the same thing."

Blackwater has said its personnel were under attack by "armed enemies" but Iraqi witnesses and the Iraqi government have repeatedly called the shootings "unprovoked."

Eric Barzydlo (freshman-political science) fought with the U.S. Army in Iraq during his 12-month deployment from 2004 to 2005 and said he questions whether the incident was unprovoked.

"If they say they were shot at, they probably were," he said. "There's no reason those guys would just run around and shoot civilians."

Scott Bennett, a political science professor, said Blackwater has a history of being involved in similar incidents.

"What I've seen is that Blackwater is among the worst offenders in terms of basically killing people in Iraq," he said. "They've been involved in a lot more of this type of incident than a lot of other contractors."

Families of Iraqi civilians who were killed in the Sept. 16 shooting sued Blackwater last Thursday, Oct. 11 for violating U.S. law and fostering a culture of lawlessness among its employees.

Federal and congressional investigations are underway to determine what happened in Baghdad, but Bennett said the results of those inquiries could take a long time.

"We've only recently seen trials of soldiers for things that happened a year or two ago," Bennett said. — The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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