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Blackwater Unplugged

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from: Bonnie Goldstein

Posted Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2007, at 2:17 PM ET

Blackwater USA provides "defensive security functions" for the State Department in Iraq. The private security company protects U.S. embassy employees as well as high-level visitors to the war zone, including members of Congress. On Sept. 16, 2007, while escorting diplomats from a Baghdad meeting that had been evacuated abruptly, Blackwater guards participated in a shooting incident in the city's Nisour Square. Dozens of Iraqi civilians were killed or wounded; the most recent fatality count is 17. According to the New York Times, "Blackwater guards unleashed an overwhelming barrage of gunfire even as Iraqis were turning their cars around and attempting to flee."

Private security firms in Iraq enjoy immunity from the Iraqi legal process under an order still on the books from Coalition Provisional Authority, the now-defunct U.S. occupation government. During the past year, firms operating under the Defense Department were required to obtain operating licenses from Iraq's Interior Ministry, but the State Department imposed no such requirement on Blackwater. The Nisour Square incident, and the security company's history of other civilian fatalities, so angered the Interior Ministry that the contractor was briefly banned from Iraq. The Iraqi government backed down, however, and allowed Blackwater to continue operations after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ordered a review of security contractors there.

Blackwater has been involved in 195 shooting incidents in Iraq since 2005, according to a House oversight committee report released before an Oct. 2 hearing (excerpts below and on the following nine pages). In 80 percent of these cases, Blackwater shot first. "In the vast majority of instances," according to the report, "Blackwater is firing from a moving vehicle and does not remain at the scene" (Page 2).

"The State Department is acting as Blackwater's enabler," House committee chairman Henry Waxman, D., Calif., thundered at the hearing. The report says there is "no evidence … that the State Department sought to restrain Blackwater's actions" (Page 2). The Nisour Square incident "rekindled complaints by Iraqi officials" (Page 7) about a shooting highlighted in the report that occurred last Christmas Eve. In that instance a drunk "Blackwater contractor, carrying a Glock 9 mm pistol, passed through a gate near the Iraqi Prime Minister's compound and was confronted by the Iraqi guard. ... The Blackwater contractor fired multiple shots, three of which struck the guard, then fled the scene. The victim was … pronounced dead shortly before midnight" (Page 8). The day after that shooting, Blackwater "terminated" the shooter and, with the State Department's consent, "arranged to have the contractor flown out of lraq." The State Department asked Blackwater to "send a letter of condolence to the victim's family along with a cash payment" of $15,000 (Page 9). Despite Blackwater's nearly-$600 million contract with the State Department (Page 3), it appears from this e-mail regarding a separate Blackwater shooting in 2005 (Page 6) that in the past Foggy Bottom has itself routinely made payments to Blackwater's innocent victims: "[T]he Department needs to promptly approve and fund an expedited means of handling these situations."

Erik Prince, Blackwater's politically well-connected CEO, testified that he objects to the term "mercenaries" regarding his men and regards his employees as "loyal Americans" doing a difficult job in a hostile environment. For the State Department's part, Ambassador David Satterfield strongly defended the "vital security that private security firms provide" in Iraq and told the committee he has "personally benefited" from Blackwater's services.

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from: Bonnie Goldstein

Posted Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2007, at 2:17 PM ET
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Bonnie Goldstein is a former special investigator to the U.S. Senate and investigative producer for ABC News.
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