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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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October 2nd,
2007 - Blackwater Chairman Defends his Company |
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Blackwater Chairman Defends
his Company By Richard Lardner Associated Press October 2, 2007 Washington - Blackwater
chairman Erik Prince vigorously defended his private security company on
Tuesday, rejecting charges that his staff acted like a bunch of cowboys
immune to legal prosecution while protecting State Department personnel in
Iraq and Afghanistan. "I believe we acted
appropriately at all times," Prince, a 38-year-old former Navy seal,
told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. His testimony came as the
FBI is investigating Blackwater personnel for their role in a Sept. 16
shootout that left 11 Iraqis dead. The incident and others, including a
shooting by a drunk Blackwater employee after a 2006 Christmas party, has
raised pointed questions by lawmakers about whether the government is relying
too heavily on private contractors who fall outside the scope of the military
courts martial system. "Privatizing is working
exceptionally well for Blackwater," said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif.,
committee chairman. "The question for this hearing is whether outsourcing
to Blackwater is a good deal to the American taxpayer, whether it's a good
deal for the military and whether it's serving our national interest in
Iraq." Waxman said he agreed not to
probe for specifics of the Sept. 16 incident during Tuesday's hearing, upon
request by the Justice Department that Congress wait until the FBI concludes
its investigation. But Waxman said it was still appropriate to probe
Blackwater's company policies, and whether the State Department helped
Blackwater cover up Iraqi deaths. State Department officials
said the U.S. and Iraqi ministry established a commission to examine use of
contractors in Iraq. A separate U.S.-led panel, staffed with several
independent adivsers, is reviewing the security practices of diplomats. "The secretary of state
has made clear that she wishes to have a probing, comprehensive unvarnished
examination of the overall issue of security contractors working for her
department in Iraq," testified David Satterfield, the State Department's
senior coordinator for Iraq. Waxman said he was
particularly concerned to learn the State Department advised the company on
how much to pay the family of an Iraqi security guard shot by a drunken
Blackwater employee in 2006. Internal e-mails later revealed a debate within
the State Department on the size of the payment, Waxman said. "It's hard to read
these e-mails and not come to the conclusion that the State Department is
acting as Blackwater's enabler," Waxman said. Administration officials,
speaking on condition of anonymity to describe an ongoing investigation, said
the incident had been referred to federal prosecutors in Seattle, where the
former Blackwater employee now lives, but there has been no public
announcement of any charges. Questions surrounding the
prosecution of contractors should be left up to the Justice Department, said
Richard Griffin, assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security. "They're the
prosecutors. The State Department isn't the prosecutors for the U.S.
government," Griffin told the House panel. Prince said the individual
involved in the Christmas eve shooting was immediately fired and fined. "But we as a private
organization can't do anything more. We can't flog him, we can't incarcerate
him," said Prince, adding that he would be "happy to see"
further investigation by law enforcement. The Blackwater chairman said
he also supports legislation that would guarantee Blackwater employees and
other private security companies working for the State Department are subject
to prosecution in U.S. courts. The House was expected to pass such a bill,
sponsored by Rep. David Price, D-N.C., on Wednesday. Waxman also cited a November
2004 crash in Afghanistan of a plane piloted by Blackwater pilots as an
example of what he said is the company's cavalier attitude about how it
operates. The crash of flight
"Blackwater 61" killed the Blackwater crew and three U.S. military
personnel who were passengers. According to information gathered by Waxman's
staff, the Blackwater pilots lacked experience flying in Afghanistan, yet
they were joy riding through a valley before crashing into a canyon wall. Prince acknowledged pilot
error led to the crash, but also said his company's aviators often fly
missions in difficult conditions. He said the military violated its own rules
by loading people and explosives on Blackwater 61. But Blackwater flew the
mission anyway because that's what its government customer wanted. "There is no FAA in
Afghanistan," he said. Throughout the hearing,
Prince defended his staff as courageously defending U.S. diplomats overseas.
He said 30 Blackwater contractors have been killed in action and no Americans
have died while in its protection. "We're the targets of
the same ruthless enemies that have killed more than 3,800 American military
personnel and thousands of innocent Iraqis," he said, sitting alone at
the witness table. Directly behind Prince sat
Stephen Ryan, an attorney with the law firm McDermott Will & Emery. Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., the
committee's top Republican, said the State Department is "trying to get
it right," but its oversight of security contractors "seems to have
some blind spots as well," according to his opening statement. There's little data on
contractor performance, Davis said, "so it's impossible to know if one
company's rate of weapons related incidents is the product of a dangerous
'cowboy' culture or the predictable result of conducting higher-risk
missions." Davis said concentrating
only on Blackwater won't answer the complex questions surrounding the use of
security contractors. "Nor are we likely to
learn much by focusing on one sensational incident still under
investigation," Davis said. Prince rejected a claim in a
congressional report released Monday, saying Blackwater does not engage in
"offensive or military missions, but performs only defensive security
functions." He also disputed the math
that concludes security contractors cost far more than American forces to
protect U.S. diplomatic personnel. In its report, Waxman's committee said
Blackwater charges the government $1,222 each day for a single security
contractor, which works out to $445,000 on an annual basis. That's six times the
cost of a U.S. soldier, the report said. Prince said there's a large
amount of expensive training for military personnel that the government pays
for, but is not calculated in these unflattering estimates of what his
company charges. "That sergeant doesn't
show up naked and untrained," Prince said. Blackwater, founded in 1997
by Prince and headquartered in Moyock, N.C., is the largest of the State
Department's three private security contractors with nearly 1,000 personnel
working in Iraq. The others are Dyncorp and Triple Canopy, both based in
Washington's northern Virginia suburbs. Blackwater has had more
shooting incidents than the other two companies combined, according to
Waxman's report. Among the Monday report's
most serious charges was that Blackwater contractors sought to cover up a
June 2005 shooting of an Iraqi man and the company paid - with State
Department approval - the families of others inadvertently killed by its
guards. Associated Press writers
Anne Flaherty and Anne Gearan contributed to this story. © 2007 The Associated Press External link: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/business/5182164.html |