1115.org

Asked to comment on the videotape that apparently proves Blackwater USA’s version of the Mansour rampage to be a lie:

Blackwater spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell said Saturday that she knew nothing about the videotape and was contractually prohibited from discussing details of the shooting.

You better draw up a chair and sit down. This may take a while.

Bloomberg, September 17:

Anne Tyrrell, director of public affairs for Blackwater, said its personnel fired only in self-defense while protecting a motorcade of U.S. officials traveling through the Iraqi capital yesterday. The Moyock, North Carolina-based company provides security for U.S. State Department personnel in Iraq.

“We were responding to a threat,’” Tyrrell said in a telephone interview. “We were fired upon before we ever engaged. So we are confident that as soon as all investigations are complete, it will be determined that we did nothing wrong.’”

The NYT, September 18:

“The ‘civilians’ reportedly fired upon by Blackwater professionals were in fact armed enemies, and Blackwater personnel returned defensive fire,” said Anne Tyrrell, a company spokeswoman, in an e-mail message. “Blackwater professionals heroically defended American lives in a war zone.”

AP, September 18:

Anne Tyrrell said its personnel fired only in self-defense while protecting a motorcade of U.S. officials traveling through the Iraqi capital Sunday.

ABC News, September 19:

“The helicopters providing aerial support never fired weapons,” said Anne Tyrrell, spokeswoman for Blackwater USA, in a written statement provided to ABC News Tuesday.

AP, September 19:

Blackwater spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell said the guards acted “lawfully and appropriately” after being “violently attacked by armed insurgents.”

The turning of the tide seems to have come on Saturday morning, some time after Iraq’s Interior Ministry announced that it had expanded its investigation to include six other Blackwater shooting incidents over the past seven months, but before reports of the videotape surfaced:

Blackwater USA spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell had no comment when reached by phone Saturday morning.

The spokeswoman who had been singing like a songbird suddenly developed laryngitis. And now she has equally suddenly remembered the fine print in her contract.

I, for one, would very much like to see that contract. Don’t you just have to love the lawyers who — months or years ago — came up with: “You are contractually prohibited from discussing the details of any shooting incident in which Blackwater employees or independent contractors kill, rape or grievously mutilate unarmed civilians just because they can”? Or, wait. Maybe her contract reads: “You are contractually prohibited from repeating previous lies once evidence surfaces which unambiguously proves them to be a lie”?