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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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October 26th,
2007 - Rice Says ‘Hole’ in U.S. Law Shields Contractors in Iraq |
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Rice Says
‘Hole’ in U.S. Law Shields Contractors in Iraq By John M. Broder New York Times October 26, 2007 Washington, Oct. 25 -
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice conceded on Thursday that there was a
“hole” in United States law that had allowed Blackwater USA employees and
other armed contractors in Iraq to escape legal jeopardy for crimes possibly
committed there. In an appearance before the
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Ms. Rice said the administration
would support new laws that would apply to contractors but expressed
reservations about proposals to bring contractors under the military justice
system. She deferred a number of
other questions about problems with the supervision of the thousands of
private security guards in Iraq, saying she planned to meet with Robert M.
Gates, the secretary of defense, to try to come up with new rules to avoid
episodes like the shooting by Blackwater gunmen on Sept. 16 that Iraqi
investigators have said left 17 Iraqis dead. “Obviously we need a better
coordinated policy for all of them,” she said. Blackwater, meanwhile, under
continuing siege in the courts, the news media and Congress, stepped up its
public relations efforts this week with a mass e-mail message to its
employees, suppliers, fellow security contractors and political allies,
asking them to flood Congress with messages of support. The e-mail message noted
that the Blackwater “family” was working vigorously to defend American
interests. “In this tumultuous political climate,” Blackwater “has taken
center stage, our services and ethics aggressively challenged with
misinformation and fabrications,” the message said. “While we can’t ask that
each supporter do everything, Blackwater asks that everyone does something.
Contact your lawmakers and tell them to stand by the truth.” It then suggests some
talking points: Blackwater is saving taxpayers millions of dollars by
providing temporary workers to take the place of full-time government or
military employees; 30 Blackwater guards have been killed in Iraq and
Afghanistan but none of the American officials they guard have been killed or
seriously wounded; and Blackwater’s work force is mainly military veterans
and “mature law enforcement personnel.” “Expanding our
communications effort starts with you,” said the Blackwater message, which
was sent by Constant Contact, an e-mail marketing firm. “Pass the word - pass
the truth.” Blackwater’s spokeswoman,
Anne Tyrrell, did not respond to requests for comment. In response to questions,
Ms. Rice acknowledged that there was rampant corruption in the Iraqi
government, but said that the State Department was working to fix the
problem. “There’s a pervasive problem of corruption in Iraq,” she said.
“There is a problem in the ministries. There is a problem in the government.
There are problems with officials.” “It is our job to put in
place anticorruption efforts to help the Iraqis do so themselves, but I don’t
know how to be more candid,” she said. “I don’t know how to be less
flattering.” She said some of the money
stolen from the Iraqi government was financing insurgent militias,
particularly in the Shiite-dominated south. But she added that it would be
unfair to confront senior Iraqi leaders with unproven accusations of
wrongdoing. “To assault the prime
minister of Iraq or anyone else in Iraq with here-to-date unsubstantiated
allegations or lack of corroboration in a setting that it would simply fuel
those allegations, I think, would be deeply damaging, and frankly, I think it
would be wrong,” she said. A number of Democratic
members of the committee pressed the issue, saying they had heard from
American Embassy staff and Iraqis that American anticorruption efforts were
ineffective or nonexistent and that the problem threatened the mission in
Iraq. “Corruption funds terrorists
who attack our troops,” said Representative Elijah E. Cummings, Democrat of
Maryland. “Corruption fuels sectarian divisions. Corruption stymies
reconstruction efforts and certainly it erodes confidence in the Iraqi
government.” But Representative Tom Davis
of Virginia, the senior Republican on the committee, dismissed the three-hour
hearing as a partisan effort to undermine the war. “We should have no illusions
about the subtext of these hearings,” he said. “Unable to reverse course, the
Democratic strategy seems to be to drill enough small holes in the bottom of
the boat to sink the entire Iraqi enterprise, while still claiming undying
support for the crew about to drown.” Copyright 2007 The New York
Times Company External link: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/26/washington/26contractor.html |