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January 16th,
2008 - Justice Dept. Cites Obstacles in Blackwater Case |
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Justice Dept.
Cites Obstacles in Blackwater Case By James Risen & David Johnston New York Times January 16, 2008 Washington - Justice
Department officials have told Congress that they face serious legal
difficulties in pursuing criminal prosecutions of Blackwater security guards
involved in a September shooting that left at least 17 Iraqis dead. In a private briefing in
mid-December, officials from the Justice and State Departments met with aides
to the House Judiciary Committee and other Congressional staff members and
warned them that there were major legal obstacles that might prevent any
prosecution. Justice officials were careful not to say whether any decision
had been made in the matter, according to two of the Congressional staff
members who received the briefing. The staff members, who asked
not to be identified, disclosed details of the meeting in interviews this
week. The December briefing took
place after a federal grand jury had been convened in the case, suggesting
that prosecutors had decided to begin hearing testimony with potential
prosecution problems still unresolved. Justice Department officials
said Tuesday that the briefing had principally been held to answer questions
concerning those problems, one of which arose when State Department
investigators granted Blackwater employees a limited form of immunity for
what they disclosed. There are also questions about whether federal law
applies to the Blackwater contractors. Justice officials have
acknowledged the potential problems, but they have said they were not
insurmountable and reiterated that point on Tuesday. The September shooting, one
of the bloodiest involving private security guards in Iraq, set off furious
protests from the Iraqi government and has forced a major reassessment in
both the Bush administration and Congress over the role of private
contractors in the war zone. Justice Department officials
have not publicly discussed the difficulties they face in pursuing
prosecutions in the Blackwater case. But according to Congressional aides who
received the closed briefing, Justice officials told them they were concerned
about both the gaps in the law and the immunity deal. Those officials said in the
briefing that federal law that applied to civilians employed by or
accompanying the American military overseas might not apply to contractors in
Iraq working for the State Department. Blackwater is under contract to the
State Department to provide security for American diplomats in Baghdad. The officials from the
Justice and State Departments “didn’t say they weren’t going to prosecute,”
said one Congressional aide who attended the briefing. “They said there would
be a lot of difficulties.” The Justice officials also
said the immunity deals offered to the Blackwater guards by investigators
from the Diplomatic Security Service of the State Department might make it
difficult to prove that evidence gathered by federal prosecutors did not stem
from statements made by the guards after they were promised limited immunity.
Under those promises, the guards could not be prosecuted for anything they
said in their statements, as long as what they said was true. The Justice
Department had not been notified of the State Department’s plan to offer the
deals. A Justice Department
spokesman declined Tuesday to comment on the briefing. The signs that Justice
officials believe they face significant obstacles in prosecuting the
Blackwater guards come as an independent human rights group prepared to
criticize the Bush administration for failing to aggressively investigate
contractors accused of crimes in Iraq. In a report to be issued
Wednesday, the group, Human Rights First, argues that the laws are sufficient
to prosecute contractors, including those working for the State Department,
and that the Bush administration has failed to do so because of a lack of
political will. The report specifically criticizes the government’s response
to the September shooting in Baghdad. “The U.S. government’s
reaction to the shootings,” the report says, “has been characterized by
confusion, defensiveness, a multiplicity of uncoordinated ad hoc
investigations, and interagency finger-pointing. These failures underscored
the Justice Department’s unwillingness or inability to systematically
investigate and prosecute allegations of serious violent crimes.” Since the September
shooting, the State Department and the Pentagon have reached an agreement to
put private contractors under greater military control. Copyright 2008 The New York
Times Company External link: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/16/washington/16blackwater.html |