IHT : U.S. renews Blackwater contract in Iraq

U.S. renews Blackwater contract in Iraq

The Associated Press | April 5, 2008

WASHINGTON: The U.S. State Department said it will renew Blackwater USA's license to protect diplomats in Baghdad for one year, but a final decision is pending whether the private security company will keep the job.

A top State department official said Friday that because the FBI is investigating last year's fatal shooting of Baghdad civilians, there is no justification now to pull the contract when it comes due in May. Blackwater has a five-year deal to provide personal protection for diplomats, which is reauthorized each year.

The State Department uses Blackwater to guard diplomats in Baghdad, where the sprawling U.S. Embassy is headquartered. The private guards act as bodyguards and armed drivers, escorting government officials when they go outside the fortified Green Zone.

Iraqis were outraged over a Sept. 16 shooting in which 17 Iraqi civilians were killed in a Baghdad square. Blackwater said its guards were protecting diplomats under attack when they opened fire. Iraqi investigators concluded the shooting was unprovoked.

An FBI probe began in November. Prosecutors want to know whether Blackwater contractors used excessive force or violated any laws during the shooting.
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Prosecutors have questioned more than 30 witnesses here and in Iraq, but have announced no conclusions. One possibility is that individual contractors could be indicted; another is that the company could be indicted; or the FBI could conclude that no crime was committed.

The company also is the target of an unrelated investigation into whether its contractors smuggled weapons into Iraq. And lawmakers have asked for an investigation into whether Blackwater violated tax laws by classifying employees as independent contractors. The company says the claim is groundless.

The State Department's top security officer, Greg Starr, told reporters that Blackwater's contract eventually could be pulled, depending on what the FBI and an internal State Department inquiry conclude. He would not predict whether that is likely and said he has no information about when the FBI might end its investigation.

Starr's predecessor, Richard Griffin, resigned just one day after a State Department study found serious lapses in the department's oversight of private guards.

The department's decision announced Friday extends Blackwater's contract for the third year in the multiyear deal.

After the September deaths, U.S. commanders in Iraq complained that they often do not know security firms are moving through their areas of responsibility until after some hostile incident has taken place.

In a meeting at the end of October, Defense Secretary Robert Gates met with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and reached a general understanding that more military control was needed over security firms operating in the war zone.

In December, the Pentagon and the State Department completed a new agreement giving the military in Iraq more control over Blackwater Worldwide and other private security contractors.

The agreement spells out rules, standards and guidelines for the use of private security contractors and says contractors will be accountable for criminal acts under U.S. law. That partly clarifies what happens if a contractor breaks the law, but leaves details to be worked out with Congress.

The State Department also installed new safeguards after the September shooting, including a requirement for additional monitoring of Blackwater convoys.

Democratic Rep. David Price, author of a bill passed by the House of Representatives that would subject all contractors to criminal liability, called Wednesday's agreement "an important step toward improving transparency, management and accountability in security contracting. There is no question that it comes in response to significant congressional pressure ..., but the agencies deserve credit for reading the writing on the wall and taking substantive steps to deal with a clear and critical problem."

Associated Press writer Matt Apuzzo contributed to this report.

WaPo : How Blackwater Sniper Fire Felled 3 Iraqi Guards

How Blackwater Sniper Fire Felled 3 Iraqi Guards

Witnesses Call Shooting From Justice Ministry Unprovoked, But State Dept. Cleared Its Security Team After a Brief Probe

By Steve Fainaru | Washington Post Foreign Service | November 8, 2007

BAGHDAD -- Last Feb. 7, a sniper employed by Blackwater USA, the private security company, opened fire from the roof of the Iraqi Justice Ministry. The bullet tore through the head of a 23-year-old guard for the state-funded Iraqi Media Network, who was standing on a balcony across an open traffic circle. Another guard rushed to his colleague's side and was fatally shot in the neck. A third guard was found dead more than an hour later on the same balcony.

Eight people who responded to the shootings -- including media network and Justice Ministry guards and an Iraqi army commander -- and five network officials in the compound said none of the slain guards had fired on the Justice Ministry, where a U.S. diplomat was in a meeting. An Iraqi police report described the shootings as "an act of terrorism" and said Blackwater "caused the incident." The media network concluded that the guards were killed "without any provocation."

The U.S. government reached a different conclusion. Based on information from the Blackwater guards, who said they were fired upon, the State Department determined that the security team's actions "fell within approved rules governing the use of force," according to an official from the department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security. Neither U.S. Embassy officials nor Blackwater representatives interviewed witnesses or returned to the network, less than a quarter-mile from Baghdad's Green Zone, to investigate.

The incident shows how American officials responsible for overseeing the security company conducted only a cursory investigation when Blackwater guards opened fire. The shooting occurred more than seven months before the Sept. 16 incident in which Blackwater guards killed 17 civilians at another Baghdad traffic circle.

The Feb. 7 shootings convulsed the Iraqi Media Network, one of the prominent symbols of the new Iraq, in anger and recrimination.

U.S. officials and the security company, now known as Blackwater Worldwide, offered no compensation or apology to the victims' families, according to relatives of the guards and officials of the network, whose programming reaches 22 million Iraqis.

"It's really surprising that Blackwater is still out there killing people," Mohammed Jasim, the Iraqi Media Network's deputy director, said in an interview. "This company came to Iraq and was supposed to provide security. They didn't learn from their mistakes. They continued and continued. They continued killing."

A Blackwater spokeswoman, Anne E. Tyrrell, said the company's guards came under "precision small-arms fire" and fired back with "well-aimed shots." The company was unable to comment further because of operational security and contractual obligations, she said. "This was absolutely a provoked incident," Tyrrell said.

U.S. officials were "overwhelmingly convinced" that the Blackwater guards acted appropriately, based on information they had provided, according to the diplomatic security official. He spoke on condition of anonymity because a joint U.S.-Iraqi commission is investigating private security matters, including previous Blackwater shootings. Shortly after the Feb. 7 incident, the official said, the U.S. Embassy briefed an Iraqi government official and invited him to discuss the matter further, but the embassy never heard from him again.

Under State Department rules for the use of force, security contractors are authorized to use deadly force only if there is no safe alternative and the guards or the people they are protecting face "imminent and grave danger." The Blackwater guards said they came under fire from the building and responded, the security official said.

"The embassy conducted a review of the circumstances surrounding the whole shooting incident and essentially what happened is, after going over all the reports, interviewing all the personnel that were involved in it, talking with people that were coming back in the motorcade, they concluded that the actions of the security team fell within the approved rules," the official said.

"To say Blackwater was the only source of information for this investigation is completely false," the security official added. U.S. officials declined to say who else was contacted as part of the probe or to provide any details about the assertions of Blackwater guards that they came under fire.

The Iraqi Interior Ministry has forwarded information about the Feb. 7 incident and five other fatal shootings involving Blackwater to the U.S. Embassy, which never responded, it said.

The Iraqi Media Network sought to sue Blackwater in an Iraqi court, according to Faisal Rahdi, the network's legal adviser. A judge rejected the petition, he said, citing a 2004 law signed by L. Paul Bremer, the administrator for the now-defunct U.S. occupation authority. That law, which the Iraqi government has moved to overturn, granted contractors immunity from the Iraqi legal process.

An internal review of the State Department's handling of private security recently found serious deficiencies in the agency's supervision of contractors, including Blackwater. The State Department's security chief, Richard J. Griffin, was forced to resign last month after the report was released.

The Feb. 7 incident was one of at least 10 fatal shootings involving Blackwater since June 2005, including three that led to confrontations between the security company and the Iraqi government in the months before the pivotal Sept. 16 incident at Nisoor Square.

Blackwater provides security for State Department employees traveling in Iraq. The company has received more than $1 billion in U.S. government contracts since 2001, including $832 million for security services in Iraq over the past two years. Blackwater employs 861 guards in Baghdad, according to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

The Iraqi Media Network shootings were particularly sensitive because Blackwater fired from one Iraqi government compound into another. The network is a state-funded corporation modeled after the BBC and launched by the U.S. government. After the March 2003 invasion, the network replaced the state-run television system that once dispensed propaganda for the government of then-President Saddam Hussein. The Iraqi Media Network operates several newspapers, radio stations and a flagship TV network, al-Iraqiya.

"What really shocked us is that our colleagues were killed inside their workplace, in a place that was supposed to be secure," said Abbas A. Salim, the network's news director. "The IMN, its main job is to explain democracy to the people and support the new Iraq."

News of the shootings was broadcast on al-Iraqiya, which reaches about 85 percent of Iraq's population.
'Nabras Is Hit!'

On the morning of the incident, a convoy of four armored SUVs pulled up at a traffic circle that separates the Justice Ministry from the back of the Iraqi Media Network's sprawling compound. About 20 Blackwater guards got out of the vehicles, according to witnesses.

"Before they went inside, they asked me what this other building was," said Nadim Salim, a bodyguard at the Justice Ministry. "I told them, 'That's the Iraqiya network.' "

Blackwater snipers set up on the Justice Ministry roof, taking cover behind concrete walls that crown the seven-story building. Blackwater "had full control over the guys at Iraqiya because they were higher than them," Salim said.

Across the circle, Nabras Mohammed Hadi manned his guard position. He sat on a chair on the third-floor balcony of an abandoned building looking out on the Justice Ministry and King Faisal Circle, near the rear gate of the Iraqi Media Network compound. The traffic circle, which features a statue of the king on horseback, connects to Haifa Street, a notoriously dangerous central Baghdad thoroughfare.

Hadi had been living inside the Iraqi Media Network complex because insurgents had threatened to kill him unless he left his state-supported job, according to Mohammed Adel Ali, a friend and fellow guard.

Hadi was dressed in dark-green military camouflage and held an AK-47 assault rifle. On the same balcony, about 20 feet to his left, another network guard manned a belt-fed machine gun. Two guard towers overlooked the network's rear gate, one flying the Iraqi flag. Hadi was positioned below the snipers, who stood about 450 feet away, near a large Iraqi flag on top of the Justice Ministry.

Hadi stood up in response to a commotion that suddenly broke out in the circle, according to several of his fellow guards. The time was between 11 a.m. and noon. "The problem started because some people wanted to park their car there," said one guard, Adel Saadi. "Our guards didn't allow them, because we were worried about car bombs. But they kept insisting."

Hadi yelled at the civilians to move back, according to Ali, who was also nearby. "He was shouting: 'Move away from here. You can't stay here. This is a government building.' While he was shouting, he was holding his gun in a ready position. That's when the sniper shot him."

It remains unclear what precipitated the shooting. The Blackwater guards said they came under fire from the building and responded, the diplomatic security official and the Blackwater spokeswoman said. Hadi's colleagues said he never fired his weapon. Saadi said he heard one shot, looked up and saw Hadi falling.

Saadi and Ali raced up the stairs with several other guards, Ali yelling: "Nabras is hit! Nabras is hit!" The guards said they believed the compound was under attack from insurgents. "We never thought that people would be shooting at us from the Ministry of Justice," said Hussein Abdul Hassan, the guards' chief. "It's a government building. No one would expect it."

The guards crawled toward Hadi, shielded by a three-foot-high wall. The sniper was still firing, they said. "Anyone crawling or walking, he shot at them," Hassan said. At least three bullets lodged in the building's facade. The guards found Hadi in the corner with a bullet through his head.

As they tried to move him, another shot rang out. It struck Azhar Abdullah al-Maliki, 31, another guard. His colleagues said he had raised his head above the low wall and was shot.

The Blackwater guards said they believed they were again under immediate threat and responded with lethal force, the security official said.

Maliki's older brother, Zuhair, said Maliki had taken the job just six weeks earlier. He lived with 21 members of his family, including his wife and three children, in a tiny house in Sadr City, a Baghdad slum.

Maliki slumped to the ground next to Hadi. "People were yelling, 'Azhar, what's wrong?' " Hassan said. "When they went to move him, they saw the blood spurting from his neck."

The guards quickly withdrew, ceding authority to an Iraqi army company that controls the neighborhood, Salihiya. The company commander, Capt. Ahmed Thamir Abood, said he sent soldiers up to the balcony to recover the bodies. Hadi was dead. Maliki was evacuated to a nearby hospital but was pronounced dead of a gunshot wound to the neck at 2 p.m., according to his death certificate.

Abood, a short, stocky man who speaks halting English, said he learned from the Justice Ministry that snipers from a U.S. security company -- not insurgents -- had shot the guards. He drove in a Humvee with one of his lieutenants to the ministry. The Blackwater guards were gathered in the traffic circle, he said, preparing to leave. Most were stocky, with goatees and small communication devices in their ears.

"I told them, 'I want to speak with the guy who is in charge of this unit,' " he said.

The Blackwater guards started toying with him, Abood said.

"He's in charge," said one, pointing at one of his colleagues.

"No, he's in charge," said another.

"They didn't care what I was saying," Abood said.

Abood said he spotted an American who appeared to be the diplomat being escorted by Blackwater. The man was young, perhaps in his 30s, and wore a navy blue sport coat, a tie and a combat helmet, Abood said. He tried to approach the diplomat, but the Blackwater guards stood in his way, he said.

Abood said he spoke to another Blackwater guard. "I introduced myself in English, but he didn't even look at me," he said. "I told him there are two people dead up there. He told me, 'Wait by this guy.' Then that guy told me to wait by another guy."

Abood said he was still waiting when the Blackwater guards climbed inside their vehicles, set off smoke grenades in the circle and sped away in a green-and-orange cloud toward the Green Zone.

Security contractors are instructed to leave the scene of a shooting as quickly as possible to ensure the safety of the person under their protection, according to the diplomatic security official. The Blackwater team followed standard operating procedures, the official said.
'Abu Sajad Is Dead'

Pandemonium had broken out inside the media network compound. Hundreds of employees were locked down inside the buildings, afraid of more shooting. A leader of the guard team, Thair Salaam, tried to assemble his men. He noticed that one was missing: a 40-year-old armorer named Sabah Salman, also known as Abu Sajad.

"We couldn't find him, no one could find him," Salaam said. "Then suddenly we got a call: 'Abu Sajad is dead.' That was more than an hour after the first shooting."

Guards found Salman's body on the balcony. He had been shot in the side. Salaam said he believed Salman was shot by a sniper while trying to retrieve Hadi's weapon.

"He went up there without a gun," Salaam said. "I don't know why they shot him."

Salman, like the two other guards, was poor, his colleagues said. He had taken responsibility for a second family after his brother was killed during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. He helped support 17 children, including eight of his own. Salman was diabetic and often sick, according to fellow guard Mohammed Adel Ali.

He and the other guards earned 285,000 Iraqi dinars a month, about $231. That was less than half of what Blackwater security guards earn in a day.

Jasim, the Iraqi Media Network deputy director, said the company was uncertain where to turn.

The Justice Ministry, the Interior Ministry, the Iraq police and an Iraqi Media Network internal investigation identified Blackwater's involvement in the shootings.

"On Feb. 7, members of Blackwater opened fire from the roof of the Ministry of Justice building, intentionally and without any provocation, shooting three members of our security team which led to their deaths while they were on duty inside the network complex," the Iraqi Media Network report concluded.

A Salihiya police investigator, misspelling Blackwater, wrote: "By collecting information and questioning the Ministry of Justice guards, it became clear that the armed personnel, who came to the Ministry of Justice, who were using special security vehicles and caused the incident and killed guards of the Iraqi Media Network, they are working with the company of BlackRwatey for special security."

"But these people were not well known to us," Jasim said. "We don't know where they are located or who they report to. Are they at the Green Zone, at the airport? We don't know how to contact them."

Abbas, the news director, said he called a U.S. military official, who told him that the military had no information about the incident.

Follow-up investigations can be difficult in a war zone environment, the diplomatic security official said. "The State Department investigates security contractor incident scenes except when to do so would endanger the lives of the investigators," he said, adding that he was not specifically addressing the Feb. 7 incident.

The network gave the families of each of the victims 1 million dinars, or about $812, to assist with burial. The network then hired one member from each family to make up for the lost income.

The diplomatic security official said the U.S. government offered no compensation because the investigation concluded that the Blackwater guards fired in self-defense. "It is the State Department policy to offer ex gratia condolence payments when innocent civilians have been hurt," he said. "In this case, the investigation determined that the security detail had been fired upon, and therefore the issue of payments did not arise."

Rahdi, the legal adviser, said the company had hoped to recover more money for the families by suing Blackwater. But he said CPA Order 17, the law granting contractors immunity, made it impossible.

"I'm talking to you from my point of view as someone representing the law," Rahdi said. "Even if I go to the U.S. ambassador, even if I go to Bush, they go by the law. If there is no law to go after them -- what are they going to do?"

"America doesn't need more enemies in Iraq," he added. "When someone loses one of his relatives, or one of his friends who gets killed by an American and that American is protected -- untouchable -- because of a law that was set by an American, this definitely will create new enemies for the United States."

Jasim said he is still hopeful that Blackwater or the U.S. government will provide assistance.

"Those three people were killed in cold blood," he said. "They have families to support. They should at least forward a letter of apology so we can give that to their relatives. That would give them some relief."

Special correspondent Naseer Nouri in Baghdad and staff researcher Julie Tate in Washington contributed to this report.

WaPo : Senior Democrats Want Blackwater Case Details

Senior Democrats Want Blackwater Case Details

By Karen DeYoung | Washington Post Staff Writer | October 31, 2007

The State Department said yesterday that it had provided "limited protections" to Blackwater Worldwide security guards under investigation in the deaths of 17 Iraqi civilians but insisted that its actions would not preclude successful prosecution of the contractors.

Signed statements the guards provided to State's Bureau of Diplomatic Security in the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 16 shooting deaths included what law enforcement officials said was a standard disclaimer used in "official administrative inquiries" involving government employees. It said that the statements were being offered with the understanding that nothing in them could be used "in a criminal proceeding."

New details about the "protections" given Blackwater contractors allegedly involved in the shootings sparked outrage from congressional Democrats yesterday, along with a flood of letters to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice from committee chairmen demanding more information.

Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), who heads the Judiciary Committee as well as the appropriations subcommittee overseeing State's budget, called the contractor issue the latest example of the Bush administration's refusal to hold anyone from "their team" accountable for misconduct or incompetence. "If you get caught," Leahy said in a statement, "they will get you immunity. If you get convicted, they will commute your sentence."

Most of the questions centered on who had authorized what many critics interpreted as a form of immunity from prosecution and why such protections -- designed for government employees -- were extended to private contractors.

Meanwhile, Rice and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates have reached agreement that the U.S. military command in Iraq will exert tighter controls over security contractors in Iraq, Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said yesterday.

Preliminary guidelines established by a State-Defense working group include common training standards and rules for the use of force for contractors as well as coordination of all contractor "movements" with the U.S. military headquarters in Iraq. The new guidelines will be presented to the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David H. Petraeus, and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker for review before Gates and Rice make a final decision in the matter, Morrell said.
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Military officers have complained that contractors guarding U.S. diplomatic convoys interfere with military operations and that their aggressive behavior undermines efforts to win "hearts and minds" in Iraq.

One major concern for Gates involves keeping the military abreast of the movement of contractors through the combat zone, Morrell said. "If it is unsafe or deemed not advisable to go there, someone is going to have the control to say: 'No, not at this time.' It would be MNF-I [Multi-National Force-Iraq] that would have that authority. Ultimately, the military has to sign off, in the battle zone, of movements into particularly dangerous areas." The decision to offer Blackwater guards protection from any use of their statements was made by State Department personnel in Baghdad without approval from Washington, sources said. Department lawyers subsequently determined that decades-old federal court rulings required such guarantees against self-incrimination for all government employees during internal investigations; the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1973 that the protections also applied to federal contractors.

But the inability of State's own law enforcement branch to pursue a possible criminal case based on the Blackwater statements, as well growing controversy over the Sept. 16 shootings here and in Baghdad, led Rice early this month to ask the FBI to take over the investigation.

To avoid compromising their own investigation, a team of FBI agents sent to Baghdad was not allowed to speak to the original investigators about the case or see the statements. Some of the dozen or so Blackwater personnel involved, at least two of whom have returned to the United States, declined FBI interviews.

In a statement yesterday, the Justice Department confirmed that no broad immunity from prosecution had been granted. But in a reflection of law enforcement dismay over what are considered impediments to a criminal case, Justice added that it would proceed "knowing that this investigation involves a number of complex issues."

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said yesterday that State has no power to immunize anyone from federal criminal prosecution. "We would not have asked the FBI and the Department of Justice to get involved in a case that we did not think that they could potentially prosecute."

But several law enforcement officials, none of whom would speak on the record about an ongoing investigation, said it remained uncertain -- even without the protections -- whether the contractors could be prosecuted under U.S. law.

Staff writers Ann Scott Tyson and Dan Eggen contributed to this report.

LAT : Iraqi witnesses discuss Blackwater shooting

Iraqi witnesses discuss Blackwater shooting

Some of those interviewed in an FBI inquiry reveal details of the incident and say the agents are focused on whether the security guards were fired upon first.

By Christian Berthelsen and Raheem Salman, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers | October 31, 2007

BAGHDAD -- FBI agents investigating the September shooting incident involving security contractor Blackwater USA in which 17 people died appear focused on whether anyone fired first on the American convoy and have been aggressively gathering ballistic evidence, according to witnesses interviewed by the agents.

In Washington, State and Justice Department officials said the investigation would not be derailed by a reported offer of immunity to the guards. But it remained unclear whether they could be prosecuted under U.S. law for the shooting.

And as anger continued to simmer in Iraq, the government introduced legislation Tuesday stripping American contractors of the immunity from Iraqi law they were granted in 2004 by the U.S.-led authority set up to govern Iraq shortly after the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.

The FBI team dispatched from Washington this month specializes in investigations outside the United Statessuch as the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing, which targeted U.S. military housing in Saudi Arabia, killing 19 American servicemen and one Saudi.

When its investigation is complete, the FBI will submit evidence to Justice Department officials, who will determine whether to prosecute, said a U.S. official familiar with the investigation.

Whether the convoy was fired upon or threatened in some way before the guards hired to protect it began shooting in west Baghdad's Nisoor Square on Sept. 16 is likely to be key to that decision, said Scott Silliman, a former military lawyer who is executive director of the Center on Law, Ethics and National Security at Duke University.

"I think what they're trying to do is build a case showing the use of force by Blackwater was not justified, and they can do that through witness statements to show that Blackwater and the convoy were not fired upon," Silliman said.

A U.S. source said the FBI team left Baghdad on Sunday after conducting dozens of interviews with witnesses. The FBI declined to comment on the case, as did a spokeswoman for Blackwater. The North Carolina-based security company has said previously that the guards were responding to what they believed to be enemy fire.

The shooting has prompted an intense debate about the role that foreign private armed security contractors have played in the Iraq war and the ambiguous legal environment in which they operate.

If the Justice Department decides to prosecute, experts say it would face serious legal hurdles. The Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act permits contractors to be prosecuted for actions in foreign lands if they are working in support of a Defense Department mission.

But prosecutors would have to convince a judge that the act also applies to contractors working for the civilian-led State Department.

Since the shooting, Congress has passed legislation that would clearly make all security contractors accountable in American courts, and the State Department has issued new restrictions that will subject their operations to more oversight.

The FBI investigation, undertaken at the request of the State Department, is one of four underway into the shooting, which also wounded 24 people.

Iraqi police, the Pentagon and a joint panel of the U.S. Embassy and the Iraqi government have also undertaken inquiries. In a preliminary report, the Iraqi government concluded that the Blackwater guardsbegan firing when a vehicle they believed to be attempting a suicide bombing advanced on the convoy.

Three witnesses who spoke with The Times after their debriefings with the FBI said the investigators emphasized the importance of whether the security team was fired upon first.

Witnesses said the interviews lasted about two hours. Agents referred them to a large aerial image of Nisoor Square, and asked them to explain how they arrived at the scene, what their vantage point was when the shooting occurred, their detailed recollection of events, and what the shooters looked like.

"They were focusing mainly on one thing," said Mohammed Hafidh Abdul-Razzaq, 37, whose 10-year-old son, Ali, was shot and killed as he sat in the back seat of their car. "They asked me several times in each interview whether [the guards] were shot at or not."

Baraa Sadoon Ismail, 29, who still has two bullets and 60 bullet fragments in his abdomen from the shooting, agreed that the agents focused on whether the Blackwater guards shot first.

All the witnesses interviewed by The Times said they told investigators they did not see anyone fire on the security guards.

"They asked me whether they were exposed to fire," said Hassan Jabbar Salman, a lawyer who said he was about 20 yards from the guards and was shot four times. "I replied to them that they were never exposed to any kind of fire."

Investigators have taken possession of at least three cars to gather ammunition rounds, the witnesses said. Ismail said investigators also took three bullet fragments that had been removed from his body.

Collection of the ballistic evidence, legal experts said, was another way to determine whether Blackwater guards were responding to a threat.

"If the only shell casings found anywhere in the square were those of weapons used by Blackwater, that would tend to support the finding that there was no use of force against the convoy before Blackwater opened fire," Silliman said.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters that although State Department investigators could offer witnesses limited protection, they "cannot immunize an individual from federal criminal prosecution."

"We would not have asked the FBI and the Department of Justice to get involved in a case that we did not think that they could potentially prosecute," he said.

A Justice Department spokesman, Dean Boyd, concurred. "Any suggestion that the Blackwater employees in question have been given immunity from federal criminal prosecution is inaccurate," he said.

The interviews have also produced some of the most detailed witness accounts to date.

Trapped on all sides by stopped cars, Abdul-Razzaq said he was helpless as gunfire peppered his car. When the security guards left the scene, he said, he ran to another car to check on a shooting victim, only to have his nephew, who had been riding in his car, run up and tell him Ali had been killed.

Abdul-Razzaq ran back. He said he had glimpsed his son earlier through the rear-view mirror, slumped against the door in the back seat, and assumed he must have fainted. But when he opened the door, blood and brain tissue poured from his son's head. He slammed the door shut in disbelief. Then he jumped into the car, feeling his 10-year-old son's chest to see whether his heart was still beating. The race to the hospital was futile.

Salman and Abdul-Razzaq said they told the FBI they saw victims shot as they tried to turn their cars around and drive away or even after they had jumped out and run.

The American investigators bore the brunt of Iraqi rage, and the Iraqis said the agents apologized for the shooting.

"My sister gave them a piece of advice," said Abdul-Razzaq, whose sister was in the car with him and also gave an interview to the FBI agents. "She said that it would be better for them to bomb Iraq with an atomic bomb rather than kill one or two people on a daily basis. 'Kill us all in a matter of seconds so that we may be free of this torment.' "

Witnesses said they found the agents professional and considerate, and that they seemed determined to get to the bottom of what happened.

"To tell you the truth, I felt they were truly sorry," Abdul-Razzaq said.

Still, he added: "I told them that if the investigation was not fair, this incident will . . . put a brand of shame on the forehead of Americans."

christian.berthelsen @latimes.com

Times staff writers Paul Richter and Peter Spiegel in Washington contributed to this report.

NYT : Immunity Deals Offered to Blackwater Guards

Immunity Deals Offered to Blackwater Guards

By DAVID JOHNSTON | Published: October 29, 2007

WASHINGTON, Oct. 29 — State Department investigators offered Blackwater security guards immunity during an inquiry into last month’s deadly shooting of 17 Iraqi civilians, government officials said today, calling it a potentially serious investigative misstep that could complicate efforts to prosecute the company’s employees involved in the episode.

The State Department investigators from the agency’s investigative arm, the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, offered the immunity grants even though they did not have the authority to do so, the said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. Prosecutors at the Justice Department, who do have such authority, had no advance knowledge of the arrangement, they added.

Most of the guards who took part in the episode were offered what officials described as limited-use immunity, which means that they were promised they would not be prosecuted for anything they said in their interviews with the authorities as long as their statements were true.

The immunity offers were first reported today by the Associated Press.

State and Justice Department spokesmen would not comment on the matter. “If there’s any truth to this story, then the decision was made without consultation with senior officials in Washington,” one State Department official said.

A spokeswoman for Blackwater, Anne E. Tyrell, said: “It would be inappropriate for me to comment on the investigation.”

The immunity deals came as an unwelcome surprise at the Justice Department, which was already grappling with the fundamental legal question of whether any prosecutions could take place involving American civilians in Iraq.

Blackwater employees and other civilian contractors cannot be tried in military courts and it is unclear what American criminal laws might cover criminal acts committed in a war zone. Americans are immune from Iraqi law under a directive signed by the United States occupation authority in 2003 that has not been repealed by the Iraqi parliament.

A State Department review panel sent to investigate the shootings concluded that there is no basis for holding non-Defense Department contractors accountable under United States law and urged Congress and the administration to urgently address the problem.

Earlier this month, the House overwhelmingly passed a bill that would make such contractors liable under a law known as the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act; the Senate is considering a similar measure.

The government has transferred the investigation from the diplomatic service to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which has begun re-interviewing Blackwater employees without any grant of immunity in an effort to assemble independent evidence of possible wrongdoing.

Richard J. Griffin, the chief of Diplomatic Security Service resigned last week, in a departure that appeared to be related to problems with his supervision of Blackwater contractors.

In addition, the Justice Department reassigned the investigation from prosecutors in the criminal division who had read the State Department’s immunized statements to prosecutors in the national security division who had no knowledge of the statements.

Such a step is usually taken to preserve the government’s ability to argue later on in court that any case it has brought was made independently and made no use of information gathered under a promise that it would not be used in a criminal trial.

Immunity is intended to protect the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination while still giving investigators the ability to gather evidence. Usually people suspected of crimes are not given immunity and such grants are not given until after the probable defendants are identified. Even then, prosecutors often face serious obstacles in bringing a prosecution in cases in which defendants have been immunized.

The courts have made it all but impossible to prosecute defendants who have been granted immunity since the appellate court reversals of the Iran-contra affair convictions against John M. Poindexter, a former national security adviser, and Oliver L. North, a national security aide, who had each been immunized by Congress.

John M. Broder contributed reporting.

WaPo : On Hill, Rice Talks About Blackwater

On Hill, Rice Talks About Blackwater

Secretary Notes Regret but Defends Efforts

By Karen DeYoung | Washington Post Staff Writer | October 26, 2007

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed regret yesterday that the State Department had inadequately supervised private security contractors in Iraq, but she defended overall U.S. diplomatic efforts in that country under what she called "complex and difficult" circumstances.

During nearly three hours of contentious exchanges with Democrats on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Rice parried and often ducked questions on contractors, Iraqi government corruption and problems in the construction of a $600 million U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. She repeatedly said she needed to review matters more closely or could not answer in an open congressional session.

Several lawmakers questioned whether Rice was even aware of some of the most serious allegations. "You're the secretary of state!" Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) said incredulously after Rice responded to a specific charge against Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki by saying she is "not personally following every allegation of corruption in Iraq."

Rice's testimony was the culmination of a series of recent oversight hearings on U.S. diplomacy in Iraq. "For most of this year, Congress has focused its attention on assessing the military surge," Waxman said. But the "quality and effectiveness of [Rice's] actions in Iraq and the State Department's management are a matter of urgent national concern."

The Democratic outrage was countered by Republicans, who rushed to Rice's defense and accused the majority of seeking new ways to attack the Iraq war. "Everything this committee has done in this last year in particular has been to try and put out everything bad that is going on," fumed Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.).

"We should have no illusions about the subtext of these hearings," said Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (Va.), the committee's ranking Republican. Having failed to force a U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq, Davis said, "the Democratic strategy seems to be to drill enough small holes in the bottom of the boat to sink the entire Iraqi enterprise."

Rice said she launched a review of the State Department's private security contracts after Blackwater Worldwide guards allegedly shot and killed 17 Iraqi civilians last month because "I did not think personally that I could say that oversight and follow-up was appropriate." Despite numerous reports of Iraqi deaths over the past three years, she had not acted sooner because she did not want to "second-guess people on the ground" who had handled the shootings in Baghdad, Rice said.

Pressed to express regret for what Rep. John Sarbanes (D-Md.) called "the failures of your department, your failures," Rice said, "I certainly regret that we did not have the kind of oversight that I would have insisted upon." She has implemented changes recommended by the review, she said, and "we now will have that oversight."

Rice agreed that "there is a hole" in U.S. law that has prevented prosecution of contractors. Early this month, the House passed a bill that would place all contractors under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, and a similar measure is pending in the Senate. The White House opposes the bill on the grounds that it would have "unintended and intolerable consequences" for national security. But Rice seemed to support the concept, saying that it is under discussion in the Justice Department.

The FBI is investigating the Sept. 16 Blackwater shootings. An earlier shooting, in which a Blackwater guard allegedly killed the Iraqi vice president's bodyguard after a Green Zone party on Christmas Eve 2006, was referred to the Justice Department months ago, but a lack of evidence has hobbled that investigation, Rice said.

Lawmakers cited recent reports by the Government Accountability Office, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction and the State Department describing pervasive corruption in the Iraqi government. In previous hearings and closed-door depositions, the oversight panel heard similar reports from U.S. and Iraqi officials.

"This is not some pie in the sky," Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) said to Rice. "This is your own department."

Rice declined to discuss specific allegations in open session, saying it is "potentially damaging to relationships we are very dependent on." The American people should be assured, she said, that "if there is corruption, the United States is in fact dedicated to rooting it out." But, she added, "let's not take Iraq in isolation. . . . We need to understand that corruption is a pervasive issue" in many other developing and nondemocratic countries.

Democrats focused on an April 1 memo from Maliki's office forbidding investigation of anyone in the government or cabinet without the prime minister's approval. The memo was turned over to the committee by Judge Radhi Hamza al-Radhi, the former head of the Iraqi Commission on Public Integrity, who is seeking U.S. political asylum. Radhi testified to the committee early this month that his investigators had uncovered "rampant" corruption in Iraqi ministries and that nearly four dozen anti-corruption employees or members of their families had been murdered.

Although the memo has been widely publicized in U.S. and Iraqi news media, and a senior State Department official was questioned about it in the same Oct. 4 hearing as Radhi, Rice told the committee she will "have to get back to you. I don't know precisely what you are referring to.

"Our understanding," she said, "is that the Iraqi leadership is not in fact immune from investigation. . . . If, in fact, there is such an order . . . that would certainly be concerning."

Reuters : State Department security head quits after report

State Department security head quits after report

October 24, 2007

WASHINGTON, Oct 24 (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department's chief of diplomatic security quit on Wednesday after a critical report into oversight of security contractor Blackwater, which is under investigation for deadly shootings in Iraq.

Richard Griffin, who served as Assistant Secretary of State for diplomatic security, did not mention Blackwater in his resignation letter but his departure came a day after a State Department panel found there was poor oversight and coordination of private guards protecting diplomats in Iraq.

A State Department spokesman declined comment on the reason for Griffin's departure but said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was grateful for his 36 years of government work, which began with the Secret Service.

"He led the safe conduct of diplomacy around the world in exceptional circumstances," said the spokesman of Griffin.

Tuesday's report criticized State Department supervision of Blackwater, whose guards are accused of killing 17 Iraqis on Sept. 16 while protecting a diplomatic convoy in Baghdad. The incident enraged the Iraqi government.

"Improvements are necessary to address shortcomings in coordination and oversight that have undermined confidence in the operation of the security program," said the report.

Griffin will be replaced by his deputy, Gregory Starr, who will assume his duties from Nov. 1, the spokesman said.

© Reuters 2007 All rights reserved

LAT : State Dept. revises security firm regulations

State Dept. revises security firm regulations

The changes are to help control overseas contractors, who are now beyond U.S. laws, and speed up use-of-force investigations.

By Paul Richter, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer | October 24, 2007

WASHINGTON -- The State Department on Tuesday ordered additional revisions to the way it regulates its security contractors abroad after an expert panel issued a blistering report suggesting the current system was flawed and dangerous.

The changes are expected to be the basis for legislation governing overseas contractors, who are now beyond the reach of U.S. statutes, and will bring the contractors' looser rules on use of force into line with those of the military. The department will also speed up and improve investigations of incidents involving the use of force and will take steps to make the system for compensating victims more just.

The four-member panel's recommendations include cultural-sensitivity training for contractors and an effort by the State Department to boost the number of Arabic-speaking contractors in Middle Eastern countries.

The report also calls for the Iraqi government to improve the system for licensing contractors.

The recommendations stemmed from the involvement of guards from Blackwater USA, a private security firm that protects State Department personnel in Iraq, in the Sept. 16 shooting deaths of 17 Iraqis. The incident provoked an international outcry and generated huge pressure for change.

On Oct. 4, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ordered changes in the way contractors do business, including the installation of vehicle cameras to ensure that incidents are recorded to aid investigations.

The State Department initially rebuffed criticism of the contractor system that the Sept. 16 incident elicited. But with the report's findings, its leadership acknowledges that the major criticisms have merit.

"Prompt measures should be taken to strengthen the coordination, oversight and accountability aspects of the State Department's security practices in Iraq in order to reduce the likelihood that future incidents will occur," the report says.

paul.richter@latimes.com

BBC : Official quits over Iraq security

Official quits over Iraq security

October 24, 2007

The man in charge of security for US diplomats in Iraq has resigned after heavy criticism of how foreign private security firms in Iraq are supervised.

US state department official Richard Griffin did not mention the issue in his resignation letter.

But he left just a day after the department moved to strengthen government oversight of the firms.

The changes were prompted by the deaths of Iraqi civilians in an incident involving the Blackwater company.

At present, foreign private security contractors have immunity from prosecution under Iraqi law but the Iraqi government is reportedly preparing a bill to make them accountable locally.

Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told Reuters news agency that the bill was being discussed in the cabinet and would be submitted to parliament "soon".

'Serious lapses'

Mr Griffin supervised the diplomatic security bureau at the state department in Washington.

On Tuesday his boss, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, accepted the terms of an internal report which identified an urgent need for tougher oversight of the private firms which currently protect State Department and some other US employees in Iraq.

The biggest and best-known of the companies is Blackwater.

The Iraqi government accuses Blackwater of killing 17 innocent civilians in Baghdad last month and says it wants the firm out of the country.

The head of Blackwater denies the killings were unprovoked, insisting his men had been fired upon.

Since the incident five weeks ago the extensive use in Iraq of private security has become highly controversial in America, the BBC's Vincent Dowd reports from Washington.

This week's state department report said there have been serious lapses in how the firms are supervised.

It is clear it was September's incident in particular, and the questions it raised in Iraq and the US, which led to Mr Griffin's sudden departure after 36 years in government service, our correspondent says.

For its part, the state department will hope a change at the top will start to restore confidence in the way America carries out and supervises diplomatic protection in Iraq, he adds.

AP : Security Chief's Resignation Letter

Security Chief's Resignation Letter

By The Associated Press | October 24, 2007

Text from the resignation letter of Richard Griffin, assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, sent to President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and dated Oct. 24, 2007, as provided by the State Department:

This month I completed my 36th year of service to our country. I have had the opportunity over these many years to witness uncommon dedication, sacrifice, and valor. I am grateful that I had the opportunity to serve as the assistant secretary for the Bureau of Diplomatic Security whose brave men and women serve on the front lines of the global war on terror. Without their courage and commitment, the State Department could not possibly carry out its foreign policy mission.

As I submit my resignation and move on to new challenges, I do so with the realization that the senior management team that is in place in DS is extremely well qualified to confront the many challenges which lie ahead.

Sincerely,

Richard J. Griffin

NYT : Official Overseeing Security Contractors Resigns

Official Overseeing Security Contractors Resigns

By JOHN M. BRODER | October 24, 2007

WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 — The State Department official responsible for overseeing Blackwater USA and other private security contractors in Iraq resigned abruptly today.

Richard J. Griffin, who has been the director of the department’s diplomatic security bureau since June 2005, faced stiff criticism from Congress over his handling of a Sept. 16 shooting episode involving Blackwater that left 17 Iraqis dead and other acts of violence by the State Department’s security guards.

A special panel appointed to investigate the handling of diplomatic security in Iraq found a glaring lack of oversight and accountability that was hindering the American diplomatic and military mission there. The F.B.I. and a joint American-Iraqi board are also investigating the Sept. 16 shooting and the operations of armed private guards in Iraq.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice quickly accepted Mr. Griffin’s resignation, which is effective Nov. 1. “Secretary Rice is grateful to Ambassador Griffin for his record of long exemplary service to the nation,” said Sean McCormack, the State Department spokesman.

Ms. Rice is scheduled to appear on Thursday before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which has been investigating problems with Blackwater and other security contractors in Iraq.

The committee’s chairman, Representative Henry A. Waxman, Democrat of California, said Wednesday, “Mr. Griffin’s resignation is another indication that State Department’s efforts in Iraq are in disarray.”

In his two-paragraph letter of resignation to President Bush, Mr. Griffin cited his 36 years in government service, which has included senior posts in the Secret Service and the Department of Veterans Affairs. He did not mention Blackwater or Iraq, nor cite a specific reason for leaving. He wrote only he was moving on to “new challenges.”

Mr. Griffin did not respond to requests for comment. Mr. McCormack said he would not elaborate on the reasons for or the timing of his departure. Gregory Starr, a deputy in the diplomatic security bureau, will take over as acting director, Mr. McCormack said.

Mr. Griffin directed a little-known State Department bureau responsible for protection of American facilities and diplomats overseas. It employs 1,450 special agents who serve as bodyguards for ambassadors and other dignitaries abroad, but found itself unable to handle the security demands brought on by the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. It turned to private American security companies like Blackwater and DynCorp International, which handle the bulk of guard work for American civilians in those two countries.

The contracts, worth billions of dollars, presented management challenges that the bureau found itself struggling to handle. Military officials in Iraq and some diplomats there complained that Blackwater guards, in particular, were undermining the American effort by being quick to use their weapons and running Iraqi civilians off the roads.

The State Department review panel, headed by a veteran diplomat Ambassador Patrick F. Kennedy, found an urgent need to address these problems and to write new laws, if necessary, to make private security contractors subject to American law when they use excessive force.

USA Today : House panel raises new allegation in letter to Blackwater CEO

House panel raises new allegation in letter to Blackwater CEO

The House Government Reform Committee continues to conduct an intensive investigation into Blackwater USA, the security company whose guards have been implicated by the Iraqi government in a Sept. 16 shooting incident that left a number of civilians dead in Baghdad.

The latest letter from Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., to CEO Erik Prince asks about a heretofore unknown aspect of the Democrat's expansive probe: According to a military official who has contacted the Committee, in 2005 Blackwater attempted to transport at least two Iraqi military aircraft out of lraq. The official stated that the Iraqi Ministry of Defense attempted to reclaim the aircraft, but that Blackwater would not comply. Please provide the Committee with the following information: ... All documents related to efforts by Blackwater to remove Iraqi aircraft from Iraq and the current whereabouts of such aircraft.

We asked Anne Tyrrell, Prince's spokeswoman, to respond to this part of the letter. We'll update this posting if she responds to our e-mail.

We also left a message for Karen Lightfoot, the committee's press secretary, and will update this posting if she provides any additional information about the "military aircraft" referred to in the letter.

Update at 6:58 p.m. ET: Tyrrell, the Blackwater spokeswoman, says she can't comment because the questions involve information requested by the oversight committee.

WaPo : Iraq Demands Expulsion Of Contractor Blackwater, Compensation for Killings

Iraq Demands Expulsion Of Contractor Blackwater, Compensation for Killings

By Amit R. Paley | Washington Post Foreign Service | October 15, 2007

BAGHDAD, Oct. 14 -- The Iraqi government has demanded that Blackwater Worldwide, the private security firm that guards top U.S. diplomats in Iraq, be expelled from the country within six months and pay $8 million in compensation to the family of every civilian its employees are accused of killing last month, Iraqi officials said.

The demands were contained in a report prepared by Iraqi investigators probing the shooting in downtown Baghdad, in which they said 17 Iraqis were killed after Blackwater guards opened fire without provocation. The findings were described by Iraqi officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because the report has not been made public.

The Sept. 16 incident sparked widespread outrage across Iraq and prompted heightened scrutiny here and in the United States of shootings by foreign security firms that have left scores of Iraqis dead.

Anne E. Tyrrell, a spokeswoman for Blackwater, said she had not seen the report and hoped no decisions would be made until an investigation by the FBI has been completed. The company has said its guards opened fire after they came under attack.

When asked what Blackwater would do if the U.S. Embassy asked it to comply with the Iraqi demands, Tyrrell said: "I'm not going to answer hypotheticals, but yes, we would do anything the U.S. government asked us to do. We're not going to stay behind if we were asked to leave."

The spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy could not be reached by telephone or e-mail late Sunday night.

Violence continued across Iraq on Sunday as Muslims celebrated Eid al-Fitr, the three-day festival marking the end of Ramadan, the holy month of fasting. In Baghdad, a car bomb killed at least nine worshipers headed to a Shiite mosque, and a roadside bomb killed a U.S. soldier, the Associated Press reported.

Correspondents Sudarsan Raghavan and Joshua Partlow and special correspondent Zaid Sabah contributed to this report.

Reuters : Blackwater says lawsuit "politically motivated"

Blackwater says lawsuit "politically motivated"

By Andrea Shalal-Esa | October 15, 2007

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Blackwater USA founder Erik Prince on Sunday dismissed as "politically motivated" a lawsuit filed against his security company by a wounded survivor and relatives of three Iraqis killed in Baghdad on September 16.

In an interview with CNN's "Late Edition," Prince defended the work of the private company which has faced intense scrutiny after 17 people were killed when Blackwater employees opened fire on civilians.

The incident has created friction between Iraq and United States and prompted calls for tighter controls on private contractors working for the United States, who are immune from prosecution in Iraq.

U.S. military reports from the scene of the shooting indicated Blackwater guards opened fire without provocation and used excessive force. The Iraqi government has accused Blackwater of deliberately killing the 17, and wants Blackwater to pay $8 million in compensation to each victim's family.

The lawsuit, filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights, charged that Blackwater violated U.S. law by committing "extrajudicial killings and war crimes."

The legal advocacy group charges that Blackwater "created and fostered a culture of lawlessness amongst its employees," and seeks unspecified compensatory damages for death, physical, mental and economic injuries, and punitive damages.

Prince said Blackwater guards responded lawfully after a State Department convoy they were protecting came under small arms fire and there was no "deliberate murder."

"The lawyers, the trial lawyers that filed this lawsuit are the same guys that defended the World Trade Center bombings in 1993, the blind sheikh, and defended a bunch of killers of FBI agents and other cops," Prince told CNN. "So this is very much a politically motivated lawsuit, for media attention."

Vincent Warren, executive director of Center for Constitutional Rights, said Prince was trying to divert attention from the killings.

"This reckless mercenary corporation has run amok in Iraq, further destroying our reputation in the world, further destabilizing the area, and making it less safe for U.S. soldiers and Iraqi civilians alike," he told Reuters. "The time for Blackwater's accountability has come."

Warren said the center did not defend Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, convicted in 1995 of conspiring to attack U.S. targets in a plot that prosecutors said included the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. It was not immediately clear if lawyers working on the lawsuit were involved in the earlier case.

Prince said his company and its employees were cooperating with the FBI.

"We support accountability," he said, stressing that Blackwater was simply doing what the U.S. government ordered. "They dictate the missions, they dictate the vehicles, they provide the weapons, they tell us where to go and what to do."

Blackwater has about 1,000 employees in Iraq to protect U.S. missions and diplomats. It has won U.S. government contracts worth more than $1 billion since 2001.

© Reuters 2007 All rights reserved

WSJ : Blackwater Vies for Jobs Beyond Guard Duty

Blackwater Vies for Jobs Beyond Guard Duty

By AUGUST COLE | October 15, 2007

MOYOCK, N.C. -- Even as Blackwater USA seeks to extricate itself from a firestorm over the conduct of its private-security forces in Iraq, company founder Erik Prince is laying plans for an expansion that would put his for-hire forces in hot spots around the world doing far more than guard duty.

Blackwater faces criticism in the wake of a Sept. 16 shooting by the company's guards that the Iraqi government says killed 17 civilians, a crisis that appears to threaten the company's livelihood. Yet at Blackwater's headquarters here, where the sound of gunfire and explosions is testament to the daily training of hundreds of law-enforcement and military personnel, Mr. Prince's ambition is on display.

Mr. Prince wants to vault Blackwater into the major leagues of U.S. military contracting, taking advantage of the movement to privatize all kinds of government security. The company wants to be a one-stop shop for the U.S. government on missions to which it won't commit American forces. This is a niche with few established competitors, but it is drawing more and more interest from big military firms.

Already, the 10-year-old company -- which went from renting out shooting ranges for thousands of dollars in its early years to revenue of almost a half-billion dollars last year -- is bidding on military work against industry giants such as Lockheed Martin Corp. and Northrop Grumman Corp. Mr. Prince says he is planning to build Blackwater's expertise in training, transportation and military support while expanding into making everything from remotely piloted blimps to an armored truck called the Grizzly that is tough enough to compete for the Army's latest armored-vehicle contract.

"We see the security market diminishing," Mr. Prince said. He added that the company's focus "is going to be more of a full spectrum," ranging from delivering humanitarian aid to responding to natural disasters to handling the behind-the-lines logistics of moving heavy equipment and supplies.

A continued increase in the outsourcing of national-security work isn't assured. "There's certainly a lot of questions [about privatization] that need to be asked," said Rep. David Price (D., N.C.), who has introduced legislation to broaden the jurisdiction of U.S. criminal law to cover battlefield contractors. "I think this isn't just about one company. This is about governmental practice that has gone quite far without oversight and accountability."

Still, the Defense Department recently tapped Blackwater to compete for parts of a five-year, $15 billion budget to fight terrorists with drug-trade ties. The U.S. government wants to use contractors to help its allies thwart drug trafficking and provide equipment, training and people. Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon Co. are among those also in the running for the contracts.

To make good on Blackwater's expansion plans, Mr. Prince must first extinguish the crisis raging over Blackwater employees' conduct as a private security force for the State Department in Iraq. Critics say Blackwater's aggressive tactics, while effective, have unnecessarily led to civilian deaths and complicated already tense relations between the U.S. and the Iraqi government.

Investigators for the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee found that there have been 195 reported shooting incidents and 16 Iraqi casualties involving Blackwater's guards in Iraq since 2005. The company has said it has done 16,000 missions for the State Department since June 2005, using its weapons just 1% of the time.

The Bush administration, which has counted heavily on contractors to help the U.S. military in Iraq and elsewhere, has done little to directly help Blackwater in the current controversy. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has ordered a review of how security firms are used in Iraq. And the State Department has distanced itself, requiring that all private-security convoys include a State Department monitor to oversee their actions.

Also last week, Blackwater withdrew from an industry association of defense-services firms as the group began looking into whether Blackwater was following the association's ethical and operational guidelines.

Rather than hunker down, Mr. Prince has abandoned the low profile under which he has operated -- in part because of language in his contract with the State Department -- and mounted a public-relations campaign. Mr. Prince says he stands behind his people who are putting their lives on the line in one of the most dangerous cities in the world. He adds that he has confidence that the Federal Bureau of Investigation and State Department will determine what actually happened during the Sept. 16 shooting.

For Blackwater, the stakes are high because there is a steady stream of cash from the security work. "We're a lot smaller than you think," Mr. Prince said. According to State Department testimony before Congress, Blackwater's share of the department's world-wide spending on security, mainly focused on Iraq, costs the government $360 million a year for guard work and another $113 million for aircraft.

Just six years ago, Blackwater didn't even register a blip on the defense industry's radar screen. When he founded Blackwater in 1997, Mr. Prince wasn't yet 30 years old and had just helped sell his family's auto-parts business for $1.35 billion. Betting that he could capitalize on his experience as a former Navy SEAL, he established a compound in North Carolina to train elite forces in conditions as close to combat as possible.

There are signs everywhere at Blackwater's Moyock compound that Mr. Prince is serious about making Blackwater more indispensable to the government.

The company has a fleet of 40 aircraft, including small turboprop cargo planes that can land on runways too small or rough for the Air Force. The company's aviation unit has done repeat business with the Defense Department in Central Asia, flying small loads of cargo between bases.

Also in the North Carolina compound: an armored-car production line that Mr. Prince says will be able to build 1,000 of the brutish-looking Grizzly vehicles a year. The project arose out of a need for Blackwater to protect its security convoys in Iraq. Drawing on Mr. Prince's family history in the automotive industry, Blackwater made sure that the vehicles are legal to drive on U.S. highways.

Mr. Prince bought a 183-foot civilian vessel that Blackwater has modified for potential paramilitary use. Mr. Prince sees the ship as a possible step into worlds such as search-and-rescue, peacekeeping and maritime training.

Betting big on future work doesn't come cheap, however, and Mr. Prince said that he has spent millions of dollars on research and development to come up with better airships and armored cars.

Some observers say Blackwater is positioned to land more military work, despite the controversy over its operations in Iraq.

"We learned in the last round of big Army contracts, Congress can beat up on Blackwater all they want without regulating them, but it just ends up giving jobs to the Brits and other foreign firms," said Steve Schooner, a professor at the George Washington University law school and a contracting expert. "Blackwater is going to grow, and if they don't, one of their competitors is going to."

Write to August Cole at august.cole@dowjones.com

CNN : Iraq contractors make billions on the front line

Iraq contractors make billions on the front line

'Our job is to be a bullet sponge'

From Nic Robertson | CNN | June 13, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Private military contractors are earning billions of dollars in Iraq -- much of it from U.S. taxpayers.

Business is booming for those willing to tackle one of the most dangerous jobs on Earth. Lucrative U.S. government contracts go to firms called on to provide security for projects and personnel -- jobs that in previous conflicts have been done by the military.

A single contract awarded to Britain's AEGIS Specialist Risk Management company by the Pentagon was worth $293 million, and while the government says it cannot provide a total amount for the contracts -- many of which are secret -- industry experts estimate Iraq's security business costs tens of billions of dollars.

These contractors have not been without controversy. Late last year, AEGIS launched an investigation into whether its employees produced video clips that showed up on the Internet in which it appeared civilian vehicles were being shot at. AEGIS has not released the results of its investigation, but a U.S. Army investigation found no probable cause that a crime occurred.

The market for private contractors is there thanks to an unprecedented "outsourcing" of conflict, according to Amy Clark, who led the Baghdad end of a small private security contractor.

"Where you've got a military where the assets and the personnel are strained, then private contractors have had to step in and fill the void," she told CNN, agreeing to be interviewed if her company's name was not revealed.

But where there is money, there is also danger. No official totals exist of how many private contractors have been killed in Iraq. But Clark believes the death rate among the 25,000 or so contractors is higher than among U.S. military forces.

Going where the military won't

The danger does not bring glamour. Clark's outfit shepherds convoys along supply lines strewn with roadside bombs targeting U.S. and Iraqi forces and those who support them. Missions have included guarding trucks carrying gravel for military bases.

"Military doesn't even like to go where we are going, and most of the companies that do this don't want to go where we are going ... and that's why we're going," explained one of Clark's men, nicknamed "Mr. GQ."

His colleague, Gonzo, gives a graphic description of what their team faces: "If we get ambushed and cut off, then yes, we are going to fight back and push through. That's what we get paid to do -- protect the clients, protect the asset -- that's our job.

"It sounds crude, but basically our job is to be a bullet sponge."

There is debate about how far these private contractors should go, what authority they have and who should police them, and no hard and fast answers. In the meantime, the contractors continue to face danger.

On one day recently, two roadside bombs went off simultaneously near one of Clark's security trucks, and the convoy was then attacked with heavy small-arms fire from nearby rooftops.

"The blood in the back seat of the truck, all the bone fragments and flesh pretty much told the tale -- they got hit pretty bad," Gonzo said.

That same night, three roadside bombs were detonated beside the same convoy. Two of Clark's men were killed and five wounded.

A year's pay in 3 months

There is plenty of money and plenty of work to go around, much of it taken by Blackwater -- one of the larger companies and perhaps the best known, because tragedy befell its employees in Falluja March 31, 2004. Four employees were killed -- two of their bodies hung from a bridge.

Blackwater was founded in 1997, and business boomed after 9/11. Wartime demands are allowing it to expand even further, and it recently opened new headquarters in North Carolina, where it can train people from the military and law enforcement.

Blackwater also looks for opportunities beyond war zones to disaster areas, such as the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina, or places where peacekeepers could be stationed, like the crisis-hit region of Darfur in Sudan.

Cofer Black, a former head of the CIA Counterterrorism Center and now vice-chairman of Blackwater, said the company is ready to tackle more hot spots.

"My company could deploy a reasonable small force under guidance or leadership of any national authority and do a terrific job of protecting, you know, innocent women from being raped, young kids from having their arms hacked off with machetes."

Like most contractors, Gonzo is ex-military and has specific personal reasons for being in Iraq and facing the danger.

A veteran of the first Gulf War, he says he can earn in three months what it would take him a year to get in the United States. "My wife and I are pretty frugal. My goal is pretty simple -- I just want to be able to pay off a house and some property."

He holds up a picture of his three children. "We all have to be over here for a reason. Mine's so that I can provide a better life for my wife and kids."

NYT : Blackwater Shooting Scene Was Chaotic

Blackwater Shooting Scene Was Chaotic

By JAMES GLANZ and SABRINA TAVERNISE | September 28, 2007

BAGHDAD, Sept. 27 — Participants in a contentious Baghdad security operation this month have told American investigators that during the operation at least one guard continued firing on civilians while colleagues urgently called for a cease-fire. At least one guard apparently also drew a weapon on a fellow guard who did not stop shooting, an American official said.

The operation, by the private firm Blackwater USA, began as a mission to evacuate senior American officials after an explosion near where they were meeting, several officials said. Some officials have questioned the wisdom of evacuating the Americans from a secure compound, saying the area should instead have been locked down.

These new details of the episode on Sept. 16, in which at least eight Iraqis were killed, including a woman and an infant, were provided by an American official who was briefed on the American investigation by someone who helped conduct it, and by Americans who had spoken directly with two guards involved in the episode. Their accounts were broadly consistent.

A spokeswoman for Blackwater, Anne E. Tyrrell, said she could not confirm any of the details provided by the Americans.

The accounts provided the first glimpse into the official American investigation of the shooting, which has angered Iraqi officials and prompted calls by the Iraqi government to ban Blackwater from working in Iraq, and brought new scrutiny of the widespread use of private security contractors here.

The American official said that by Wednesday morning, American investigators still had not responded to multiple requests for information by Iraqi officials investigating the episode. The official also said that Blackwater had been conducting its own investigation but had been ordered by the United States to stop that work. Ms. Tyrrell confirmed that the company had done an investigation of its own, but said, “No government entity has discouraged us from doing so.”

An Iraqi investigation had concluded that the guards shot without provocation. But the official said that the guards told American investigators that they believed that they fired in response to enemy gunfire.

The Blackwater compound, rimmed by concrete blast walls and concertina wire in the Green Zone in central Baghdad, has been under tight control. Participants in the Sept. 16 security operation have been ordered not to speak about the episode. But word of the disagreement on the street has slowly made its way through the community of private security contractors.

The episode began around 11:50 a.m. on Sunday, Sept. 16. Diplomats with the United States Agency for International Development were meeting in a guarded compound about a mile northwest of Nisour Square, where the shooting would later take place.

A bomb exploded on the median of a road a few hundred yards away from the meeting, causing no injuries to the Americans, but prompting a fateful decision to evacuate. One American official who knew about the meeting cast doubt on the decision to move the diplomats out of a secure compound.

“It raises the first question of why didn’t they just stay in place, since they are safe in the compound,” the official said. “Usually the concept would be, if an I.E.D. detonates in the street, you would wait 15 to 30 minutes, until things calmed down,” he said, using the abbreviation for improvised explosive device.

But instead of waiting, a Blackwater convoy began carrying the diplomats south, toward the Green Zone. Because their route would pass through Nisour Square, another convoy drove there to block traffic and ensure that the diplomats would be able to pass.

At least four sport utility vehicles stopped in lanes of traffic that were entering the square from the south and west. Some of the guards got out of their vehicles and took positions on the street, according to the official familiar with the report on the American investigation.

At 12:08 p.m., at least one guard began to fire in the direction of a car, killing its driver. A traffic policeman said he walked toward the car, but more shots were fired, killing a woman holding an infant sitting in the passenger seat.

There are three versions of why the shooting started. The Blackwater guards have told investigators that they believed that they were being fired on, the official familiar with the report said. A preliminary Iraqi investigation has concluded that there was no enemy fire, but some Iraqi witnesses have said that Iraqi commandos in nearby guard towers may have been shooting as well, possibly leading Blackwater guards to believe that militants were firing at them.

After the family was shot, a type of grenade or flare was fired into the car, setting it ablaze, according to some accounts. Other Iraqis were also killed as the shooting continued. Iraqi officials have given several death counts, ranging from 8 to 20, with perhaps several dozen wounded. American officials have said that no Americans were hurt.

At some point during the shooting, one or more Blackwater guards called for a cease-fire, according to the American official.

The word cease-fire “was supposedly called out several times,” the official said. “They had an on-site difference of opinion,” he said.

In the end, a Blackwater guard “got on another one about the situation and supposedly pointed a weapon,” the official said.

“That’s what prompted this internal altercation,” the official said.

The official added that in the urgent moment of a shooting events could often become confused, and cautioned against leaping to hasty conclusions about who was to blame.

Philly dot com : Pieces Emerge in Blackwater Shooting

Pieces Emerge in Blackwater Shooting

STEVEN R. HURST and QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA | The Associated Press | October 8, 2007

BAGHDAD - Three black GMC Suburbans , each fitted with armored plates and bulletproof windows , made up the heart of the convoy. The front and rear were protected by Blackwater USA gun trucks, known as Mambas, each mounted with two 7.62 mm machine guns.

The vehicles snaked through the checkpoints and blast walls of the Green Zone on another scorching morning. The temperature that day , Sept. 16 , would rise again above 100 degrees.

Kerry Pelzman, a USAID specialist on helping rebuild Iraqi businesses, schools and other infrastructure, rode in one of the Suburbans. Her appointment was about two miles from the nearest Green Zone entrance in a neighborhood of opulent homes once occupied by members of the Saddam Hussein regime.

Within a few minutes, Pelzman was again in a secure compound for a planning session on Izdihar , a U.S.-Iraqi joint venture company that was working to rebuild Iraq's badly damaged services and funded by USAID on a three-year contract.

At about noon, a car bomb exploded about 200 yards away. Blackwater guards hustled Pelzman back into the vehicles, worried the bomb was the beginning of a larger attack. The convoy raced back toward the Green Zone.

Attempts by investigators to piece together what happened over the next hour have been like gathering the remnants of broken glass, spent bullet casings and blood-soaked clothes scattered around Nisoor Square. Each bit represents a part of the story , a version, a perspective , but together they have not yet yielded a full and mutually agreed rendering of what caused Blackwater guards to open fire.

An Iraqi government report , examined by The Associated Press , is the latest probe in a wave of inquests from Baghdad to Washington. It comes down hard on Blackwater, demanding it leave Iraq within six month and blames it for killing 17 civilians on Sept. 16. The previous death toll was at least 11.

The Iraq report , as well as witness accounts and statements from Iraqi officials to the AP , put forward new details on the deadly chain of events. Iraqi officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared possible retribution or were not authorized to provide details of what happened.

Blackwater and U.S. officials have refused to comment on the events. Blackwater has said in the United States that its convoy in Nisoor Square opened fire only after coming under attack. No Iraqi witness has been found to corroborate that claim.

As Pelzman's convoy was preparing to move toward the Nisoor Square traffic circle , just on the edge of the Green Zone , her Blackwater detail radioed for backup, fearing the explosion might be a diversion for a kidnapping operation against her and others in the compound.

At about 12:15 p.m., four additional Mambas arrived at the traffic circle. Their plan was to watch over the traffic choke-point until the convoy passed.

What should have been a relatively routine mission went terribly wrong when one of the Blackwater gunners , in the last Mamba that arrived in Nisoor Square , opened fire on an approaching white car driven by Ahmed Haithem Ahmed, a 20-year-old third-year medical student.

He was shot through the forehead and apparently died instantly. The car , with the automatic transmission still in gear , continued moving slowly forward. His mother, Mahasin Khazim, a 46-year-old allergist, was in the passenger seat and reached over to cradle her son's body.

"At first, there were five shots and after that I heard a woman screaming, 'My son, My son. Help,'" said Sarhan Thiab, a traffic policeman who was on duty in the square.

"I ran with another policeman toward the car and we tried to pull the woman out. She was holding her son. His head was blown apart. We tried to stop the car which was still moving slowly because the son's foot was on the accelerator."

Thiab said the Blackwater guards started firing at the car again.

"I tried to use hand signals to make the Blackwater people understand that the car was moving on its own and we were trying to stop it. We were trying to get the woman out but had to run for cover," Thiab said.

Continued heavy shooting set the car on fire, burning the corpses of the mother and son.

Hiathem Ahmed, a 46-year-old pathologist, was the father and husband of those first two victims of the shooting that day.

"My son and wife had dropped me near my hospital and went off to run errands when they were stopped in the square. I waited for them all afternoon, kept calling their cell phones. At 5 p.m., I called a relative who lives near the square.

"He told me that there was an incident and many people were killed or wounded. I went with him to the hospital morgue. All the bodies were recognizable except for two burned bodies.

"I was able to identify my son's body through a piece of his shoe. I could tell the other was my wife because of a dental bridge."

Ahmed said he would not remove his destroyed car from where it still sits near the square.

"I want it to be a memorial to the painful event caused by people who, supposedly, came to protect us."

"My wife was a distinguished woman, a talented doctor. My son was a gentle and cooperative person. He was on his way to becoming a doctor. They died while they were fasting in the holy month of Ramadan. They died as innocent people. I ask God's mercy on them."

Mohammed Hafiz, a 37-year-old who owns a car parts business, lost his 10-year old child, Ali Mohammed. They were in the car immediately behind the white car. He wept heavily as he told the story.

"We were six persons in the car , me, my son, my sister and her three sons. The four children were in the back seat. My car was hit by about 30 bullets, everything was damaged, the engine, the windshield the back windshield and the tires.

"When the shooting started, I told everybody to get their heads down. I could hear the children screaming in fear.

"When the shooting stopped, I raised my head and heard my nephew shouting at me 'Ali is dead, Ali is dead.' When I held him, his head was badly wounded, but his heart was still beating. I thought there was a chance and I rushed him to the hospital.

"The doctor told me that he was clinically dead and the chance of his survival was very slim. One hour later, Ali died."

He said children in his neighborhood, unaware Ali was killed, still show up at his house asking if Ali can come outside to play.

"I understand that it is God's will. But such people should not be allowed to work in Iraq," he said of Blackwater.

Hafiz said he was interviewed by three U.S. military officers Sept. 26 at the Iraqi National Police headquarters about 500 yards from Nisoor Square. He said he heard other witnesses telling the U.S. officers they had seen a Blackwater guard trying to stop the shooting. The witnesses said the guard even pulled his gun on the other shooters, who ignored the threat and continued firing.

At some point during the chaos in Nisoor Square, the Blackwater guards there must have radioed the Pelzman convoy to the north and warned it not to take its planned route back to the Green Zone. No witness ever saw it in the square.

Pelzman declined to comment to the AP. A U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo, said she could not give details of the convoy or its members "for reasons of security and privacy and to protect the integrity of the ongoing investigation."

Once shooting stopped in the square, the Blackwater guards moved the four gun trucks clockwise around the traffic circle , against the traffic flow , and headed north toward where the Pelzman convoy may have been rushing back to the Green Zone by a less direct and longer route.

"Even as they were withdrawing, they were shooting randomly to clear the traffic," said Ahmed Abdul-Timan, a 20-year-old who was standing in the middle of the traffic circle throughout the shooting. He works for the Baghdad city government as a guard at the traffic tunnel that runs under the square.

In addition, he said two helicopters were overhead and shooting into the melee in the square below. The government report reached a similar conclusion.

"They began shooting at the people. One man was shot in his shoulder from above. ... It wasn't heavy fire," Ahmed Abdul-Timan said.

Another witness in the square, traffic policeman Hussam Abdul-Rahman, who said his cousin was killed in the shooting, also told AP he saw helicopters over the square.

"I saw small helicopters flying overhead as well as two Apaches flying at a distance. Only the small helicopters started shooting," Abdul-Rahman said. Blackwater teams use small helicopters known as the AH-6 Little Birds.

Ali Khalaf, yet another traffic policemen in the square, also told of helicopters firing from above.

"The helicopters began shooting on the cars on the Harthiyah (north) side of the square," Khalaf said. The four gun trucks left the square in that direction through clouds of green smoke. The armored vehicles often use such smoke canisters as cover.

"The helicopters shot and killed the driver of a Volkswagen and wounded a passenger," Khalaf said. The wounded survivor escaped by "rolling out of the car into the street."

The government report said a second Blackwater convoy , apparently not Pelzman's , tried to move through the square shortly after the shooting.

Iraqi police used water trucks to block the GMCs from entering the square. It moved into an intense standoff , weapons pointed by both sides , between the Blackwater personnel in the vehicles and Iraqi police. The faceoff was defused when two U.S. military Humvees emerged from the nearby National Police Headquarters and persuaded the Blackwater drivers and guards to turn around and return to the Green Zone.

Associated Press reporters Sameer N. Yacoub and Bushra Juhi contributed to this report.

LAT : Blackwater gets a united defense

Blackwater gets a united defense

By Peter Spiegel | Los Angeles Times Staff Writer | October 3, 2007

WASHINGTON -- Top State Department officials and the head of their beleaguered private security firm, Blackwater USA, put forth a unified defense Tuesday against an onslaught of congressional criticism over the company's violent encounters with Iraqis.

The State Department and security officials attempted to portray Blackwater's armed guards as highly trained professionals who open fire in the streets of Baghdad only when the lives of the diplomats they are hired to protect are threatened.

At a daylong Capitol Hill hearing, Erik Prince -- the company's chairman and a former Navy SEAL -- responded to accusations of misconduct by defending his employees' performance and maintaining that the State Department was a meticulous overseer that held the contractors to exacting standards.

At the same time, the State Department's top Iraq coordinator, David M. Satterfield, praised Blackwater and said its guards had performed "exceedingly well." He denied that the department had improperly allowed contractors to evade prosecution for wrongdoing.

"We do believe that the overall mission of security contractors in Iraq is performed . . . with professionalism, with courage," Satterfield said.

The mutual defense, in back-to-back appearances before the House Oversight Committee, seemed to frustrate congressional Democrats. At one point, Rep. Jan Schakowsky of Illinois accused the State Department's top security official of parroting Blackwater's "talking points."

The lawmakers cited incidents involving Blackwater guards -- whom they accused of being "cowboys" -- and attempted to present a pattern of wrongdoing. For example, Democrats on the panel demanded explanations for how an intoxicated Blackwater contractor shot and killed a guard for Iraq's vice president on Christmas Eve, and why a company convoy had rammed 18 civilian vehicles in another incident.

But Prince, 38, who answered questions politely, sought to depict any wrongdoing as rare occurrences that his company dealt with promptly by firing the offenders.

"If there is any sort of discipline problem, whether it's bad attitude, a dirty weapon, riding someone's bike that's not his, we fire him," Prince said. "If they don't hold to the standard, they have one decision to make: window or aisle."

The high-profile inquiry, held in a packed hearing room in which spectators had waited hours to get seats, came in the aftermath of a Sept. 16 shooting involving Blackwater contractors who were protecting a U.S. diplomatic convoy. At least 11 Iraqis died. The incident enraged Iraqi officials, who accused the guards of firing without provocation. They attempted to strip the company of its right to operate inside the country. In recent weeks, Blackwater and the State Department have defended the guards, saying they had acted in response to an ambush.

But at Tuesday's hearing, committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-Beverly Hills) said he would not raise the Sept. 16 incident with Prince after the Justice Department warned that doing so could compromise a just-opened FBI investigation.

Instead, the hearing focused on the Christmas Eve shooting, in which the Blackwater guard was whisked out of Iraq less than 36 hours after the slaying of an Iraqi bodyguard. Pressed to explain Blackwater's decision not to punish the unidentified contractor more severely, Prince said the company had done all it legally could.

"Sir, we fired him. We fined him," Prince said. "But we, as a private organization, can't do anything more. We can't flog him. We can't incarcerate him. That's up to the Justice Department. We are not empowered to enforce U.S. law."

The Justice Department has said an investigation into the incident is ongoing. An e-mail obtained by the committee and made public Tuesday showed that Blackwater withheld $13,067 in bonuses from the contractor involved in the shooting and forced him to pay his airfare back to the U.S., valued at $1,630.

Committee members appeared most frustrated with answers from State Department officials, including Satterfield, who at times stepped around questions about specific incidents and U.S. laws.

Asked why the Blackwater guard involved in the Christmas Eve shooting was allowed to leave Iraq, Richard J. Griffin, assistant secretary for the State Department's Diplomatic Security Bureau, was curt: "At the time of the incident, after a number of interviews were conducted, there was no reason for him to stay in Baghdad."

The State Department officials also could not say with certainty whether any Blackwater guard could be prosecuted under U.S. law.

Under current Iraqi law -- a holdover from when the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority was in power -- American contractors are immune from prosecution by Baghdad authorities. The Pentagon maintains that private guards are subject to both U.S. military law and to more recent statutes governing the conduct of contractors who deploy with U.S. troops.

Legal questions pertaining to contractors are "very murky," Griffin testified, adding that confusion over which laws apply may have delayed Justice Department action in the Christmas Eve case.

Among lawmakers, the defense of Blackwater broke along partisan lines, with almost all Republicans on the panel praising the company's behavior and some suggesting Waxman was using the security firm as a proxy to criticize the Bush administration's conduct of the war in Iraq.

Republicans repeatedly pointed out that no U.S. official under Blackwater's protection has been killed or seriously wounded in Iraq -- a testament, they argued, to the company's proficiency.

"That's a perfect record, and you don't get any credit for it, for some reason," said Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.).

Prince sought to portray the 195 shooting incidents the company has been involved in since 2005 as rare occurrences. He said that so far this year, Blackwater has guarded 1,873 convoys, out of which there were 56 shootings, or less than 3% of all assignments. Last year, the company had 6,254 missions and 38 incidents.

Prince also said committee calculations that Blackwater guards had fired first in more than 80% of the shootings were misleading. Many of those involved suspected car bombs that were moving toward diplomatic convoys, he said.

Committee Democrats accused Blackwater of attempting to cover up misconduct by its guards, pointing to a June 2005 incident in Hillah in which a contractor failed to report an improper shooting and asked fellow guards not to discuss it.

Prince responded that the guards who hid evidence in the incident were fired and said the company then promptly reported the incident to the U.S. Embassy. "He was terminated, not for inappropriate shooting, but for not following reporting procedures," Prince said.

He said Blackwater had been unfairly accused of widespread misdeeds, arguing that because of the company's prominence, it gets blamed for incidents that involve rival security firms.

"There's 170-some security companies operating through Iraq. We get painted with a very broad brush on a lot of the stuff they do," he said, noting that the company routinely gets false reports of its guards being involved in attacks. "If a private security contractor did it, it often gets attributed to us."

peter.spiegel@latimes.com