How did federal authorities learn about the two Blackwater employees who ultimately pled guilty to stealing guns in Iraq?
Readers wouldn't know from most of the press coverage. AP's September 21st article about a Joseph Neff Raleigh News & Observer/McClatchy story omits a major detail: Blackwater USA discovered the crime, fired the employees, and alerted federal authorities who made the arrests.
The next day, on September 22, the AP's David Scott reported a very different version: "Blackwater said Saturday the company immediately fired the men after learning they were stealing from the company and invited the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to investigate. The company pointed to news coverage from 2005, in which a spokesman for the ATF's Charlotte office confirmed the company came forward to authorities and asked for help."
Again we see a bias in the headline-writers. Rather than say that Blackwater alerted ATF in 2005, the Associated Press editors chose inflammatory and guilty-sounding language in the headline: "Blackwater Denies Smuggling Allegations."
