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October 30th,
2007 - Iraq Bill Would Lift Contractor Immunity News article by the Associated
Press |
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Iraq Bill Would Lift
Contractor Immunity By Steven R. Hurst Associated Press October 30, 2007 Baghdad - The Iraqi
government approved a draft law Tuesday to lift immunity for foreign security
companies including Blackwater USA, a bid to overturn a decree imposed more
than three years ago by the U.S. official who ran the country after the
American-led invasion. The legislation could have a
chilling effect on security companies operating in Iraq, though the vast sums
they and their guards are paid are likely to weigh more heavily than the
possibility of legal jeopardy. The draft law, expected to
be passed overwhelmingly by parliament, is also certain to deepen tensions
between the Bush administration and the Iraqi government. Prime Minister Nouri
al-Maliki has promised to push through the legislation amid public outrage
over Blackwater's seemingly unprovoked killing of 17 Iraqis last month as
well as a series of other Iraqi civilian deaths allegedly at the hands of
foreign contractors. The U.S. and Iraq were
already at loggerheads over Blackwater, which guards American diplomats in
Iraq. The problem was compounded by reports that the State Department's
Bureau of Diplomatic Security granted limited immunity to the Blackwater guards
involved in the Sept. 16 shooting in west Baghdad's Nisoor Square. Because the Iraqi draft law
would not be retroactive, any punishment for those shootings would be left to
the United States, said Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh. It is
unclear what U.S. criminal laws might cover acts in a war zone; civilian
contractors cannot be tried in military courts. A Pentagon official said
Tuesday that Defense and State department officials had reached a
"general understanding" that the American military command in
Baghdad should have more oversight of the U.S. government's private security
contractors in Iraq. "We need to be more
clear" on rules for the use of force and coordination of the movement of
the contractors, whether they work for the State Department or the Defense
Department, Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said. On Capitol Hill, Democrats
criticized the Bush administration for giving immunity to the bodyguards,
calling the move a failure to hold the security contractors responsible for
the shooting deaths. Senate Judiciary Chairman
Patrick Leahy, who sits on two Senate panels that oversee the State
Department and the Justice Department, called the deal an example of
"the amnesty administration." Sen. Barack Obama, the
Illinois Democrat running for president, demanded to know whether Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice was aware of the immunity offers and agreed with
it. In a letter to Rice Tuesday, Obama asked whether the FBI and Justice
Department were consulted before limited immunity was offered. The White House had little
to say about the matter Tuesday. President Bush ignored a question on the
arrangement shouted after his meeting with the president of Uganda. And his
spokeswoman dodged most questions about it at her daily briefing for
reporters, referring them to the State Department. "It is under
review," White House press secretary Dana Perino said. "Anyone who
has engaged in criminal behavior will be prosecuted." The State Department, whose
investigators initially promised to shield the bodyguards' statements in the
criminal inquiry, maintained that any lawbreakers "must be held to
account" as a result of the inquiry that has since been taken over by
the Justice Department and FBI. The offer for limited
immunity has delayed the government's criminal inquiry of the shootings and
threatens to derail prosecution as investigators seek other evidence from the
crime scene now six weeks cold. The deal would not prevent
the Blackwater guards from being prosecuted in U.S. courts. However,
prosecutors would have to prove they did not use information gleaned from the
bodyguards' statements - or anything related to them - when seeking criminal
charges. Investigators would have to find other credible witnesses or
evidence to make their case. Al-Maliki has demanded that
the United States end its relationship with Blackwater within six months and
that $8 million in compensation be paid for each victim. Blackwater is the
largest private security firm protecting U.S. diplomats in Iraq. U.S. officials in both
Baghdad and Washington have said nothing publicly about al-Maliki's demands,
which he issued on the recommendation of an Iraqi investigative committee
that studied the Sept. 16 incident. The committee found the
Blackwater guards opened fire without provocation. The company has said its
guards came under fire before using their weapons. No witnesses, however,
have been found to corroborate that claim. An initial incident report
by U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in Iraq, also
indicated "no enemy activity involved." The report says Blackwater
guards were traveling against the flow of traffic through a traffic circle
when they "engaged five civilian vehicles with small arms fire" at
a distance of 50 yards. Blackwater spokeswoman Anne
Tyrrell declined comment Tuesday on the Iraqi draft law. The legislation would
overturn an immunity order known as Decree 17 that was issued by L. Paul
Bremer, who ran the American occupation government until June 2004,
al-Dabbagh said. "It will be sent to the
parliament within the coming days to be ratified," he told The
Associated Press. Al-Dabbagh did not single
out Blackwater but said: "According to this law, all security companies
will subjected to the Iraqi criminal law and must obey all the country's
legal regulations such as: registration, customs, visas, etc." Associated Press writers
Sinan Salaheddin in Baghdad and Lara Jakes Jordan in Washington contributed
to this report. Copyright © 2007 The
Associated Press. External link: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gkx-3oYeFwuWKCusr2jrojs98w8wD8SJPA780 Immunity Jeopardizes Iraq
Probe Guards’ Statements Cannot Be Used in Blackwater Case By Karen DeYoung Washington Post October 30, 2007 Potential prosecution of
Blackwater guards allegedly involved in the shooting deaths of 17 Iraqi
civilians last month may have been compromised because the guards received
immunity for statements they made to State Department officials investigating
the incident, federal law enforcement officials said yesterday. FBI agents called in to take
over the State Department's investigation two weeks after the Sept. 16
shootings cannot use any information gleaned during questioning of the guards
by the department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security, which is charged with
supervising security contractors. Some of the Blackwater
guards have subsequently refused to be interviewed by the FBI, citing
promises of immunity from State, one law enforcement official said. The
restrictions on the FBI's use of their initial statements do not preclude
prosecution by the Justice Department using other evidence, the official
said, but "they make things a lot more complicated and difficult." Under State Department
contractor rules, Diplomatic Security agents are charged with investigating
and reporting on all "use of force" incidents. Although there have
been previous Blackwater shootings over the past three years - none of which
resulted in prosecutions - the Sept. 16 incident was by far the most serious.
The Bureau of Diplomatic Security was under pressure to quickly determine
what had happened in what soon became a major controversy in Baghdad and
Washington. It is unclear when or by
whom the grant of immunity was explained to the guards. Under federal case
law applying to government workers, only voluntary answers to questions posed
by the employing agency can be used against them in a criminal prosecution. If
an employee is ordered to answer under threat of disciplinary action, the
resulting statements cannot be used. "You can't use the
fruits of that statement," another law enforcement official said.
"It doesn't prevent them from talking [to the FBI], but ... why run the
risk? I think any lawyer would advise against it. " Diplomatic Security
spokesman Brian Leventhal declined to comment on the situation, first
reported yesterday by the Associated Press. Anne Tyrrell, a spokeswoman for
North Carolina-based Blackwater Worldwide, also declined to comment. State Department spokesman
Sean McCormack referred all questions to the Justice Department. "But if
anyone has broken the rules or applicable laws, they should be held to
account," McCormack said. Blackwater chief executive
Erik Prince has said the personal security guards, contracted by the State
Department from his company to protect U.S. diplomats in Iraq, came under
fire in a Baghdad traffic circle and shot only in self-defense. But the Iraqi
government, which has conducted its own investigation, concluded that the
Blackwater guards fired the only shots in the incident and were completely at
fault. A U.S. military investigation also concluded that the shootings were
unprovoked. Amid growing diplomatic tension
and congressional criticism, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice asked the
FBI to take over the case to avoid an appearance of a conflict of interest
between the department's Diplomatic Security agents in Baghdad and the
Blackwater personnel they supervise. Although the FBI maintains
an office at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, a team of Washington-based agents
was dispatched as additional insurance against what one administration
official called a possible "taint" on the investigation's
objectivity. To ensure a firewall, FBI investigators were barred from reading
interviews and reports on the incident gathered by Diplomatic Security
agents. Several of the Blackwater
personnel, however, asserted that they had already told their stories, under
immunity grants from the State Department, and declined FBI interviews that
could be used against them, law enforcement officials said. The immunity claim rests on
what are called "Garrity warnings" and "Kalkines
warnings," both named after federal court cases from the 1960s and '70s
that recognized the special circumstances of government employees in criminal
cases involving their jobs. "The government wears two hats" when it
launches internal criminal investigations, one law enforcement official said.
The rulings were intended to protect the rights of government employees. The FBI investigators sent
to Baghdad are due to return to Washington early this week and will then turn
the information they gathered over to the Justice Department, which will
decide whether prosecution is warranted. An earlier case, involving the
shooting of a bodyguard of an Iraqi vice president by a Blackwater contractor
last Christmas Eve, was referred to Justice months ago, but there has been no
prosecution. Law enforcement officials
have said it is unclear whether the contractors, who are immune from Iraqi
law under an order promulgated by the U.S. occupation government in 2004, are
liable under any U.S. law. The administration has said it opposes a bill
passed by the House last month that would place State Department contractors
under laws that currently apply only to Pentagon contractors. Administration officials
have said that the Christmas Eve case has languished because of the legal
uncertainties. But in congressional
testimony last week, Rice said that the holdup was "not the absence of
law ... it's a question of evidence." Staff writer Dan Eggen
contributed to this report. External link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/29/AR2007102901266.html |