(Congressional) Report: State Dept., Blackwater cooperated to neutralize (innocent Iraqis) killings

[sabra]

Source: McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — State Department officials worked closely with the private security contractor Blackwater USA to play down incidents in which company operatives killed innocent Iraqis, according to Blackwater and State Department documents obtained by a congressional committee.

When a drunken Blackwater contractor killed a bodyguard of Iraq's vice president last Christmas Eve, the State Department helped spirit the contractor out of the country within 36 hours, according to the report, released Monday by Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Officials in Baghdad and Washington then dickered with Blackwater on the compensation for the family of the guard, Raheem Khalif. An unnamed official in the State Department's Diplomatic Security service complained that the $250,000 payment proposed by the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad was too much, because it might lead Iraqis to "try to get killed so as to set up their family financially," according to a State Department e-mail obtained by the committee.

When a Blackwater contract employee killed an Iraqi in Hillah in June 2005, the State Department asked the firm to pay $5,000 in compensation. "(W)e are all better off getting this case — and any similar cases — behind us quickly," a department official wrote.

The disclosures appear to contradict past claims by State Department officials that they aggressively investigated wrongdoing by Blackwater. The company has received $835 million in contracts to guard U.S. civilians in Iraq.

Read more: http://www.bnd.com/news/state/story/540853.html

[RaleighNCDUer]

1. Conflict of interest?

Blackwater was supposed to be investigated by the State Department. Blackwater was contracted by the government to protect US civilian in Iraq - which would, of course, include those same State Department investigators.

How seriously would you investigate the people who are charged with keeping you safe?

[pattmarty]

2. What in the holy fuck is "neutralize"????? This kind of shit..........

...........is what makes me want to live somewhere else other than "here".

[denverbill]

3. I know it won't happen, but I sure wish Democrats would terminate private armies like Blackwater.

I really fear them becoming America's version of the right-wing death squads in South/Central America.

[Beausoleil]

4. For the most part

the existance right-wing death squads in South/Central America IS America's version. Most were trained at Ft. Benning.