Blackwater Founder Implicated in Murder

[Jan Klimkowski]

Manchurian Global, eh? I'm not holding my breath that these Bush regime dogs of war will ever meet justice.

State Department investigators of the September 16h Blackwater Nisour Square shooting have granted limited immunity to Blackwater operators who were present at the incident, according to the Associated Press. But the press reports missed a key fact: The State Department’s investigators are from the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, the very bureau of the State Department that contracts with Blackwater for the services in question and that is responsible for operational control of those missions. Can you say conflict of interest?

This is a milestone in government outsourcing. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time a contracting agency has ever granted legal immunity to a contractor or contractors’ employees faced with potential criminal penalties.

As their contract monitors, the Bureau of Diplomatic Security would have known if the Blackwater operators were doing their jobs as prescribed by their Bureau contract. They would have known whether the contractors were working under a very aggressive Mission Fire Plan, which allowed point-and-spray marksmanship. My suspicion is that Diplomatic Security knew that Blackwater — er, I mean, "The BW Group" — operators were working within established State guidelines, even though this resulted in significant loss of life. Regardless, it should raise red flags for everyone concerned with government accountability in in the new age of national security outsourcing.

– R.J. Hillhouse, cross-posted at The Spy Who Billed Me

UPDATE: "The State Department investigators from the agency’s investigative arm, the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, offered the immunity grants even though they did not have the authority to do so," the Times is reporting. "The immunity deals came as an unwelcome surprise at the Justice Department, which was already grappling with the fundamental legal question of whether any prosecutions could take place involving American civilians in Iraq."

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2007/10/...ater-immu/

While the indictments in the Nisour Square case are significant and historic, there will be substantial legal hurdles for prosecutors, not the least of which is the State Department's move in the immediate aftermath of the shootings to immunize the shooters from prosecution. The Bush administration left the initial investigation to Blackwater's employer, the State Department. Investigators from the department's Diplomatic Security Division offered the Blackwater shooters "limited-use immunity" before questioning them, meaning that their statements and information gleaned from them could neither be used to bring criminal charges against them nor even be introduced as evidence. When the FBI eventually arrived in Baghdad, some of the Blackwater guards involved in the shooting refused to be interviewed, citing promises of immunity from the State Department. The agency also discovered that the crime scene had been severely compromised.

The Blackwater guards will be at the center of a precedent-setting battle over what legal experts call a "grey zone" in US law under which private forces operate in Iraq. The men are being charged under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act. Passed in 2000, the law provides for prosecuting contractors working for or alongside the US military. Blackwater works for the State Department, and lawyers for the company's five accused operatives will certainly challenge the law's application to their clients. They also intend to use Blackwater's longstanding argument that the shootings were the result of an armed attack against the men. "We think it's pure and simple a case of self-defense," said Paul Cassell, a Utah attorney on the defense team. "Tragically, people did die."

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081222/sc...l=hp_picks