Iraqi Police Have Video Evidence That Blackwater Guards Fired Unprovoked

[Gold9472]

Rice accused of interfering in Iraq corruption inquiry
Lawmaker says US treating corruption in Iraq as ‘state secret’

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default...7-9-2007_pg4_6

9/27/2007

WASHINGTON: A leading Democratic lawmaker on Tuesday accused Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice of interfering in congressional inquiries into corruption in Iraq’s government and the activities of US security firm Blackwater.

Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman said State Department officials had told the Oversight and Government Reform Committee he chairs they could not provide details of corruption in Iraq’s government unless the information was treated as a “state secret” and not revealed to the public.

“You are wrong to interfere with the committee’s inquiry,” Waxman said in a letter to Rice. “The State Department’s position on this matter is ludicrous,” added Waxman, a vocal opponent of the Bush administration’s Iraq policies.

But State Department spokesman Tom Casey said there seemed to have been a “misunderstanding” over the issue and all the information requested by Congress had either been provided or was in the process of being provided.

Waxman said security contractor Blackwater, which was involved in an incident in which Iraqi civilians were killed last week, said they could not hand over documents relevant to an investigation without State Department approval.

But Casey said later Blackwater had been informed the State Department had no objection to it providing information to Waxman’s committee.

Blackwater provides security for the US Embassy in Baghdad and has a contract with the State Department.

Waxman, who has called a hearing on Blackwater for Oct. 2, released a letter his staff received from the security contractor’s attorneys dated Sept. 24.

“It the State Department directs Blackwater USA not to disclose any information concerning the contract without DOS (Department of State) preauthorisation in writing.”

Blackwater also urged the committee not to ask questions at the hearing that could reveal sensitive information “that could be utilised by our country’s implacable enemies in Iraq.”

Such information included the size of their security staff in Baghdad, weaponry and the operation of convoys. Waxman also released a letter signed by State Department contracting officer Kiazan Moneypenny to Blackwater.

[AuGmENTor]

That kinda about figures...

[dMole]

More good Blackwater news:

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/09/29/4206/

Published on Saturday, September 29, 2007 by Inter Press Service Pentagon Gives Blackwater New Contract

by Ali Gharib

WASHINGTON - A U.S.-based private security firm received a contract worth up to 92 million dollars from the Department of Defence amid hard questions about its involvement in two separate violent incidents in Iraq. “Blackwater has been a contractor in the past with the department and could certainly be in the future,” said the U.S.’s top-ranking military officer, General Peter Pace, at an afternoon press conference here.

The future arrived just two hours later when the Pentagon released a new list of contracts — Presidential Airways, the aviation unit of parent company Blackwater, was awarded the contract to fly Department of Defence passengers and cargo between locations around central Asia.

The announcement comes as a cloud of suspicion is gathering around the “professional military” firm for its actions as a State Department security contractor in Iraq in which at least eight Iraqis and possibly as many as 28 were killed, including a woman and child.

Last week, the Iraqi government announced that it had revoked Blackwater’s license to operate in the country....

[SNIP]

[dMole]

from:
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsO...39989220071002
Blackwater involved in 195 Iraq shootings

Tue Oct 2, 2007 4:45am EDT
By Sue Pleming

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Security contractor Blackwater was involved in at least 195 shooting incidents in Iraq since 2005, said a congressional report on Monday that also panned the State Department's oversight of the company.

State Department contractor Blackwater, under investigation for the shooting deaths of 11 Iraqis on September 16, will answer questions about that incident and others at what is expected to be a testy congressional hearing on Tuesday.

Senior State Department officials will also be grilled by the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform examining whether the growing use of military contractors undermines U.S. efforts in Iraq.

In another development, the FBI said it had been asked by the State Department to send a team of investigators to Iraq to look into the September 16 shootings. No criminal charges have been filed yet against Blackwater over that incident.

A report prepared by the staff of committee chair Rep. Henry Waxman, released details from Blackwater's own reports of multiple incidents involving Iraqi casualties and said in most instances Blackwater fired first.

The memorandum also slammed the State Department's oversight of Blackwater and said it was often more interested in getting the company to pay off victims' families and "put the matter behind us" than in investigating what happened.

It listed 195 shooting incidents from the start of 2005 until September 12 of this year, an average of 1.4 per week. Of those, there were 16 Iraqi casualties and 162 cases with property damage, the California Democrat said. He did not specify if there were fatalities.

"In 32 of those incidents, Blackwater were returning fire after an attack while on 163 occasions (84 percent of the shooting incidents), Blackwater personnel were the first to fire," Waxman, a vocal critic of the Iraq war, said.

State Department rules say Blackwater's actions should be defensive rather than offensive.

Blackwater, which has been paid a little over $1 billion by the U.S. government since 2001, declined comment.

"We look forward to setting the record straight on this and other issues" when Erik Prince, Blackwater's chief, testifies before the committee, spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell said.

DISMISSALS

The report said Blackwater had fired 122 of its staff in Iraq over the past three years for a number of infractions, including 28 weapons-related incidents and 25 cases involving drugs and alcohol violations.

Waxman criticized the State Department's handling of several incidents involving Blackwater.

"It appears that the State Department's primary response was to ask Blackwater to make monetary payments to put the 'matter behind us' rather than to insist upon accountability or to investigate Blackwater personnel for potential criminal liability," said the memorandum.

State Department spokesman Tom Casey declined to comment on specifics listed by Waxman but said the department was "scrupulous" in its oversight of all contractors.

"These are tough jobs and these people often perform heroically in very difficult circumstances," Casey said. "But at the same time they have to be held accountable for their actions."

In a shooting incident on December 24, 2006, a security guard for Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdul-Mahdi was killed by an allegedly drunken Blackwater contractor, who was then flown out of the country and faced no charges, the memorandum said.

E-mail traffic from the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad back to Washington described Iraq concerns over the incident.

"Iraqis would not understand how a foreigner could kill an Iraqi and return a free man to his own country," it said.

The State Department's charge d'affaires recommended Blackwater pay $250,000 and give an "apology." Waxman noted the State Department's diplomatic security said that was too much and would cause Iraqis to "try to get killed." Eventually Blackwater agreed on a $15,000 payment.

In another incident where Blackwater shooters killed an "innocent Iraqi," Waxman said the State Department requested only a $5,000 payment to "put this unfortunate matter behind us quickly."

(Additional reporting by Randall Mikkelsen)

[AuGmENTor]

Wow, a billion since 2001? Seems like I should start a business. Oh wait, I don't know any neocons I can kick back to to make sure I get the contracts.

[dMole]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/10/02/blackwater.afghan.crash/index.html

Pilot said 'this is fun' before fatal Blackwater crash

• Story Highlights
• Pilots took dangerous run through canyon, according to testimony
• Account heard in hearing on Blackwater's performance in Iraq, Afghanistan
• Waxman:"It's more than pilot error. There ought to be corporate responsibility"
• Plane crashed in November 2004, killing all six on board

[dMole]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/...ort/index.html

Blackwater contractor wrote government report on incident

• Story Highlights
• Blackwater under scrutiny, accused of killing Iraqi civilians in clash
• "Spot" report for State Department was penned by Blackwater contractor
• Iraqis say spot report is at odds with what civilians are saying

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The State Department's initial report of last month's incident in which Blackwater guards were accused of killing Iraqi civilians was written by a Blackwater contractor working in the embassy security detail, according to government and industry sources.

A source involved in diplomatic security at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad said a Blackwater contractor, Darren Hanner, drafted the two-page "spot report" on the letterhead of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security for the embassy's Tactical Operations Center.

That office -- which tracks and monitors all incidents and movements involving diplomatic security missions -- has outsourced positions to Blackwater and another private firm, the embassy source said.

A highly placed industry source said that Hanner, who was listed on the report as the TOC watch officer, was working for Blackwater at the time the report was written, just after the September 16 incident occurred. He was to rotate out of Iraq this past week, the source said.

The man who approved the report was Ricardo Colon, whom the embassy source identified as the embassy's deputy regional security officer. A State Department source confirmed a Ricardo Colon Cifredo works for the State Department in Iraq.

The deadly incident produced an outcry in Iraq and raised questions about the accountability of foreign security contractors in Iraq, who, under an order laid down by the U.S.-led occupation government, are not subject to Iraqi law for actions taken within their contracts.

Anne Tyrrell, a spokeswoman for Blackwater, emphasized that the State Department is doing its own investigation into the incident.

The FBI is sending a team of agents to assist the U.S. investigation at the State Department's request, FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said Monday.

Blackwater -- which provides security to U.S. diplomats -- says its employees responded properly to an insurgent attack on a convoy. The State Department "spot report" underscores that scenario and doesn't mention civilian casualties.

However, those accounts are at odds with what the Iraqis are saying.

A senior Iraqi National Police official participating in the Iraqi governmental probe of the shooting said the Blackwater gunfire was unprovoked and the guards fired randomly, killing several civilians and wounding others. Watch Iraqi police video of the incident aftermath »

Tom Casey, deputy State Department spokesman, noted that a spot report "is a first-blush account of those on the scene" and that the "report has no standing whatsoever."

"It was not intended to be used as an analysis, investigation, review or any detailed assessment of the situation," Casey said. "To assert that (it is) is untrue," Casey said.

The embassy source said after the spot report was completed and approved, a State Department agent took sworn statements from the participants in the shooting.

The senior Iraqi police officer said that Blackwater team members were questioned by Iraqi police immediately after the incident and initially said they opened fire in response to a mortar attack. However, he said, they then changed their story at least twice during the 90 minutes they were held.

Erik Prince, the CEO of Blackwater, was to testify Tuesday before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/...ort/index.html

[dMole]

from:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071009/...ckwater_report
Iraqi authorities seek Blackwater ouster

By STEVEN R. HURST and QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press Writers1 hour, 25 minutes ago


Iraqi authorities want the U.S. government to sever all contracts in Iraq with Blackwater USA within six months. They also want the firm to pay $8 million in compensation to families of each of the 17 people killed when its guards sprayed a traffic circle with heavy machine gun fire last month.

The demands — part of an Iraqi government report examined by The Associated Press — also called on U.S. authorities to hand over the Blackwater security agents involved in the Sept. 16 shootings to face possible trial in Iraqi courts.

The tone of the Iraqi report appears to signal further strains between the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the White House over the deaths in Nisoor Square — which have prompted a series of U.S. and Iraqi probes and raised questions over the use of private security contractors to guard U.S. diplomats and other officials.

Al-Maliki ordered the investigation by his defense minister and other top security and police officials on Sept. 22. The findings — which were translated from Arabic by AP — mark the most definitive Iraqi positions and contentions about the shootings last month.

The report also highlights the differences in death tolls and accounts that have complicated efforts to piece together the chain of events as one Blackwater-protected convoy raced back toward Baghdad's Green Zone after a nearby bombing, while a second backup team in four gun trucks sped into the square as a backup team.

The Iraqi investigation — first outlined Thursday by The Associated Press — charges the four Blackwater vehicles called to the square began shooting without provocation. Blackwater contends its employees came under fire first.

The government, at the conclusion of its investigation, said 17 Iraqis died. Initial reports put the toll at 11.

It said the compensation — totaling $136 million — was so high "because Blackwater uses employees who disrespect the rights of Iraqi citizens even though they are guests in this country."

The U.S. military pays compensation money to the families of civilians killed in battles or to cover property damage, but at far lower amounts.

The United States has not made conclusive findings about the shooting, though there are multiple investigations under way and Congress has opened inquiries into the role of private security contractors. Last week, the FBI took over a State Department investigation, raising the prospect that it could be referred to the Justice Department for prosecution.

The Iraqi government report said its courts were to proper venue in which to bring charges.

It said Blackwater's license to operate in Iraq expired on June 2, 2006, meaning it had no immunity from prosecution under Iraqi laws set down after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

The government report also challenged the claim that a decree in June 2004 by then-Iraqi administrator L. Paul Bremer granted Blackwater immunity from legal action in incidents such as the one in Nisoor Square. The report said the Blackwater guards could be charged under a criminal code from 1969.

U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo said the diplomatic mission would have no comment on the report. Iraq's Interior Ministry spokesman, Abdul-Karim Khalaf, said the document was in American hands.

The report found that Blackwater guards also had killed 21 Iraqi civilians and wounded 27 in previous shootings since it took over security for U.S. diplomats in Baghdad after the U.S. invasion. The Iraqi government did not say whether it would try to prosecute in those cases.

The State Department has counted 56 shooting incidents involving Blackwater guards in Iraq this year. All were being reviewed as part of the comprehensive inquiry ordered by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

[AuGmENTor]

Sounds like Iraq is a little pissed. Good! But who do they think they are? A real country with it's own government? Sheesh....