(Contradicta Rice's State Department) Officials balked on '05 Blackwater inquiry

[Cirque du So-What]

Slightly too old for LBN, but newsworthy nonetheless.

Officials balked on '05 Blackwater inquiry

State Department e-mails obtained by ABC News discuss how to deflect a Times reporter's questions about a civilian shooting death.

By T. Christian Miller, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

October 26, 2007

Even as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice defended her department's oversight of private security contractors, new evidence surfaced Thursday that the U.S. sought to conceal details of Blackwater shootings of Iraqi civilians more than two years ago.

In one instance, internal e-mails show that State Department officials tried to deflect a 2005 Los Angeles Times inquiry into an alleged killing of an Iraqi civilian by Blackwater guards.

"Give what we can and then dump the rest on Blackwater," one State Department official wrote to another in the e-mails, which were obtained by ABC News. "We can't win this one."

One department official taking part in a chain of e-mails noted that the "findings of the investigation are to remain off-limits to the reporter." Another recommended that there be no mention of the existence of a criminal investigation since such a reference would "raise questions and issues."

more...

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-em...

Gawd forbid those pesky 'questions and issues' get in the way of Condi's diplomattin'. Does anyone know whether there's a possibility she's already perjured herself in testimony already given? Hard to believe she didn't know anything about events that occurred over two years ago. Even if she didn't know, her ignorance is proof of gross incompetence on her part.