Boston Herald April 01, 2004
Experts: Gruesome attack calculated to horrify
By Jules Crittenden
The murder, mutilation and ghoulish lynching of four civilian American security contractors by a mob of laughing young men in Fallujah yesterday was probably a calculated effort to derail the rebuilding of Iraq, experts say.
Comparisons to the gruesome display of dead American GIs in Somalia in 1993 are spot-on, said John Pike of GlobalSecurity.org, an intelligence analysis firm. Mogadishu probably was an inspiration for the ambush of two civilian SUVs in the heart of Fallujah, home to thousands of young men who hate Americans.
``They knew how to stage that. They are trying to frighten Americans. They want to frighten us out of Iraq,'' Pike said. ``It was premeditated, planned, skillfully staged terrorism. They know the degree of dread it will inflict in American family members.''
The cost of rebuilding Iraq may go up if contractors have to pay employees more and hire more security officers, he said.
The four men were employees of Blackwater Security of North Carolina, providing security for food shipments. They are among thousands of ex-military men acting as hired guns - for up to $250,000 a year - for civilian engineers and advisers in U.S.-occupied but largely lawless Iraq.
Neil Doig, a Cape-Cod based security contractor and former Green Beret, spent four months in Iraq and knows Blackwater men there, but didn't know yesterday if they are among the dead.
``That's the risk you take working over there,'' Doig said. ``It's just the profession we're in.''
Nothing he heard about the attack in Fallujah, a place he knows well, surprised him, Doig said.
The killers probably scoped out the vehicles, he said. Knowing the Americans drive in pairs, they were ready to attack both at once, so one vehicle couldn't come to the other's defense. They relied on the anti-American rage of Fallujah's young men to fuel a spectacle.
``They turn like a snap when the violence happens,'' said Doig, who is negotiating a deal to go back.
Pike said it is important for U.S. officials to identify men involved in the gruesome lynching - bringing them to justice but avoiding retaliatory attacks that would only inflame the situation.
``They want to provoke official repression,'' he said. ``Even though that might feel good, it would hurt more than it would help.''
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