NYT Complaint: Blackwater Mercenaries Shot Our Dog!

Pathetic.

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.

...

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

I'm glad we're using our resources wisely.

Thanks to CJ, I think, as well as Demure Thoughts.

[UPDATE - PA]
Looks like the NYT's "nice doggie" had a long history of biting people...one of them happened to be the (in)famous Eason Jordan himself who recounts his biting incident and others in this Huffington Post piece. Sounds like the Blackwater guy was on pretty solid ground blasting this critter.

Jordan also says the NYT was considering euthanizing the dog because of previous attacks but he talked them out of doing it.

Given that the NYT apparently knew the dog was vicious - indeed had even considered euthanizing it because of this, their swipes at Blackwater for simply doing what they had intended to do in the first place, seem very hollow indeed. Actually, one might be inclined to question their journalistic integrity given the way the story was presented. The term "dishonest scumbags" leaps to mind.

posted by Ace at 03:32 PM

| Access Comments