Still no White House response on the Blackwater issue, but plenty of news to report in the last 24 hours on the PMC on everyone’s front page. All of it’s bad news for Blackwater.
First, a new Pentagon contract worth $92 million has gone to Blackwater.
“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.
The initial report by the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security on the incident was put together by the U.S. embassy in Baghdad and details of the event where a car bomb exploded near a meeting attended by officials from the U.S. Agency for International Development. Some of the Blackwater team hired as security for the officials was involved in the shootout while apparently trying to clear an evacuation path.
Certainly looks like quid pro quo here. Looks even more like hush money. And speaking of that “initial report by the State Department” it turns out it was actually written by Blackwater itself.
A Blackwater contractor wrote an initial U.S. government report about how his colleagues killed Iraqi civilians in a September shooting that strained U.S.-Iraqi relations, government and industry sources told CNN.
The Iraqi government claims private contractors with Blackwater USA, who were guarding a U.S. diplomatic convoy, killed as many as 20 civilians on September 16 in western Baghdad’s Nasoor Square.
The 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.
Blackwater — which provides security to U.S. diplomats — says its employees responded properly to an insurgent attack on a convoy, and the State Department initial “spot report” written by the Blackwater contractor underscores that scenario and doesn’t mention civilian casualties.
However, that account is 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 and wounding several civilians.
The Blackwater contractor, Darren Hanner, drafted a two-page “spot report” on the letterhead of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security for the embassy’s Tactical Operations Center, said a source involved in diplomatic security at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.
The TOC — 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.
No wonder the State Department wasn’t standing by the initial report. It was Blackwater’s version of the story literally passed off as the government’s. Again, this looks terrible for the company — is the government employing Blackwater or is Blackwater employing the government?
And just who does Blackwater employ itself?
WASHINGTON — Private security contractor Blackwater USA has had to fire 122 people over the past three years for problems ranging from misusing weapons, alcohol and drug violations, inappropriate conduct, and violent behavior, according to a report released today by a congressional committee.
That total is roughly one-seventh of the work force that Blackwater has in Iraq, a ratio that raises questions about the quality of the people working for the company.
The report, prepared by the majority staff of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, also says Blackwater has been involved in 195 shooting incidents since 2005, or roughly 1.4 per week.
In more than 80 percent of the incidents, called “escalation of force,” Blackwater’s guards fired the first shots even though the company’s contract with the State Department calls for it to use defensive force only, it said.
“In the vast majority of instances in which Blackwater fired shots, Blackwater is firing from a moving vehicle and does not remain at the scene to determine if the shots resulted in casualties,” according to the report.
The staff report paints Blackwater as a company that’s made huge sums of money despite its questionable performance in Iraq, where Blackwater guards provide protective services for U.S. diplomatic personnel.
Blackwater has earned more than $1 billion from federal contracts since 2001, when it had less than $1 million in government work. Overall, the State Department paid Blackwater more than $832 million between 2004 and 2006 for security work, according to the report.
Blackwater, founded in 1997 and headquartered in Moyock, N.C., is the biggest of the State Department’s three private security contractors. The others are Dyncorp and Triple Canopy, both based in Washington’s northern Virginia suburbs.
According to the 15-page report, Blackwater has had more shooting incidents than the other two companies combined.
And of course all this comes on the eve of tomorrow’s testimony in front of Congress about Blackwater. Despite the GOP’s efforts to stonewall the testimony, it seems Blackwater founder Erik Prince will indeed testify.
The report was distributed to committee members on the eve of a hearing on private security contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Blackwater’s founder and chairman, Erik Prince, will be one of the witnesses.
Blackwater spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell had no comment on the specifics in the report.
“We look forward to setting the record straight on this issue and others tomorrow when Erik Prince testifies before the committee,” she said.
On Friday seven of the oversight committee’s 18 Republican members called on Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., the panel’s chairman, to postpone the hearing until more is known about a recent incident in Iraq involving Blackwater guards.
On Sept. 16, 2007, 11 Iraqis were killed in a shoot-out involving Blackwater guards protecting a U.S. diplomatic convoy in Baghdad. Blackwater says its guards acted in self-defense after the convoy came under attack. Iraqi witnesses have said the shooting was unprovoked.
Several investigations are under way, including one by the State Department and another by a U.S.-Iraqi commission that is also examining the broader issue of how private security contractors in Iraq operate.
In a Sept. 28 letter, Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., and six other Republicans said the committee should wait until these investigations are complete.
“We feel it would be irresponsible for the committee to rush to judgment until all the facts are considered,” the letter states.
Rep. Tom Davis or Virginia, the committee’s top Republican, did not sign the letter.
Spokesman Brian McNicoll said Davis has no objection to the hearing taking place because several State Department representatives are scheduled to testify.
In addition to Prince, the witnesses include: David Satterfield, the department’s Iraq coordinator, Richard Griffin, assistant secretary for diplomatic security, and William H. Moser, deputy assistant secretary for logistics management.
Tomorrow’s testimony may be very enlightening…or very infuriating. Will Erik Prince testify before Congress? He’s refused to do so before, so is he really trying to set the record straight out of pride in his company or is he being led to the gallows in order to spare the President from those baying for Bush and Cheney’s blood?
Something tells me it’s a combination of both.