[Dialogue] State Dept. Intercedes in Blackwater Probe

[Harry Wainwright]

Published on Wednesday, September 26, 2007 by the Los Angeles Times
<http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-blackwater26sep26,1,303
1108.story?coll=la-headlines-world>  

State Dept. Intercedes in Blackwater Probe
A House panel reveals a letter telling the firm not to disclose information
about its Iraq operations without the administration's OK.

by Peter Spiegel

WASHINGTON - The State Department has interceded in a congressional
investigation of Blackwater USA, the private security firm accused of
killing Iraqi civilians last week, ordering the company not to disclose
information about its Iraq operations without approval from the Bush
administration, according to documents revealed Tuesday.
<http://www.commondreams.org/archive/wp-content/photos/0926_01.jpg> 

In a letter sent to a senior Blackwater executive Thursday, a State
Department contracting official ordered the company "to make no disclosure
of the documents or information" about its work in Iraq without permission.

The letter and other documents were released Tuesday by Rep. Henry A. Waxman
(D-Los Angeles), whose House committee has launched wide-ranging
investigations into contractor abuses and corruption in Iraq.

The State Department order and other steps it has taken to limit
congressional access to information have set up a confrontation between
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Waxman, who has repeatedly accused
the State Department of impeding his inquiries.

In his own letter to Rice on Tuesday, Waxman called her department's latest
efforts to withhold information from the committee "extraordinary" and
"unusual."

"Congress has the constitutional prerogative to examine the impacts of
corruption within the Iraqi ministries and the activities of Blackwater,"
Waxman wrote. "You are wrong to interfere with the committee's inquiry."

In response to Waxman's letter, Kiazan Moneypenny, a senior contracting
officer in the State Department's office of acquisition management, appeared
to soften the department's stand, saying later Tuesday that it would allow
Blackwater to hand over unclassified documents.

Classified documents still would be subject to State Department review. The
committee has accused the administration of using secrecy designations to
keep bad news about Iraq out of the hands of Congress.

The firm's contract The State Department's order to Blackwater last week
cited a provision in the North Carolina security firm's contract that makes
all records produced by the company in Iraq property of the U.S. government,
and prohibits the company from releasing documents without State Department
approval.

Waxman had sought information about Blackwater's contract with the State
Department, under which it provides nearly 1,000 armed guards to protect
U.S. diplomats when they travel outside Baghdad's Green Zone.

The request was part of a probe into a Sept. 16 incident in which at least
11 Iraqis were killed after Blackwater employees protecting a U.S. Embassy
convoy opened fire.

The incident enraged the Iraqi government, which accused the firm of
routinely shooting civilians with impunity.

L. Paul Bremer III, the former U.S. administrator for Iraq, granted
contractors immunity from prosecution in an order he signed the day before
handing over sovereignty in June 2004.

A preliminary Iraqi investigation said the shootings occurred without
provocation; Blackwater and the State Department said the convoy was
ambushed and the guards opened fire after being attacked.

Hearing scheduled Waxman has scheduled a Blackwater hearing for next
Tuesday, but Blackwater's attorneys warned the committee that the State
Department's letter may complicate company executives' testimony.

"In the fluid setting of a congressional hearing it may become difficult, if
not impossible, for Blackwater personnel to meet the terms of" the State
Department finding, wrote Stephen M. Ryan, an attorney advising Blackwater
in the congressional investigation.

"This contractual direction from the [State Department] is unambiguous."

A company spokeswoman said Tuesday that Blackwater interpreted the State
Department's apparent shift Tuesday as permission to release documents
sought by Waxman.

The State Department has repeatedly defended Blackwater in the aftermath of
the Sept. 16 incident. After a brief ban on diplomatic travel outside the
Green Zone, department officials have resumed trips under Blackwater guard
and have said that the company's status has not changed.

In his letter to Rice, Waxman also objected to a move by the department to
bar its officials from speaking with committee investigators about
corruption inside the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki.

An e-mail received by the committee Monday night indicated that the State
Department was treating information about corruption as classified,
suggesting it might undermine bilateral relations.

"The scope of this prohibition is breathtaking," Waxman wrote. "On its face,
it means that unless the committee agrees to keep the information secret
from the public . . . the committee cannot obtain information about whether
Mr. Maliki himself has been involved in corruption or has intervened to
block corruption investigations."

Waxman said that previous official reports of corruption within Iraqi
ministries were treated as "sensitive but unclassified." The State
Department retroactively classified the reports after his committee
requested them, Waxman said.

C 2007 Los Angeles Times

Article printed from www.CommonDreams.org 

URL to article: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/09/26/4100/

 

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