NYT Hunts for Contractors

Already one of the leading newspapers critical of Blackwater, the New York Times has extended its front to other contractors in Iraq. An incident last Thursday near Kirkuk that implicated security guards for British company Erinys International highlighted this.

The last statement in an interview with one of the three Iraqis injured by Erinys, emphasized (in a lone paragraph) that the guards involved are “savages and criminals and killers.” Paraphrasing the interview, the NYT reported that the “guards then drove away without offering medical help…”

With such biased language against security contractors, one cannot help but notice the empathy card that the NYT is trying to put on the Iraqis involved. This goes against the fact that their car approached “at a high rate of speed” and failed to respond to warnings from contractors, thus prompting engagement.

As a side note, the other half of the (rather large) Friday article continues not on contractors, but on Kurdish responses to Turkey and Iraqi reservations about executing former officials of Saddam’s government. At first glance, the article’s length implies a rather extensive expose on security contractors, but instead detours to other matters.