[NYTr] Bush Regime Moves to Protect Blackwater from Investigation

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Los Angeles Times - Sep 25, 2007 8:47 pm PDT


State Dept. intercedes in Blackwater probe

A House panel reveals a letter telling the firm not to disclose
information about its Iraq operations without the administration's OK.

By Peter Spiegel

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. State Department last week interceded in a
congressional investigation of Blackwater USA, the private security
group accused of killing Iraqi civilians last week, ordering the
company not to disclose information about its Iraq operations without
approval from the Bush administration.

In a letter sent to a senior Blackwater executive Thursday, a State
Department contracting official ordered the company "to make no disclosure of the documents or information" about its work in Iraq without permission. The letter to Blackwater and other documents were released Tuesday by Rep. Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif ., whose House committee has launched investigations into contractor abuses and corruption in Iraq.
 
The State Department order and other steps it has taken to limit
congressional access to information set up a confrontation between
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Waxman, who repeatedly has
accused the State Department of impeding his inquiries.

In his own letter to Rice on Tuesday, Waxman called the latest efforts
to withhold information from the committee "extraordinary" and
"unusual."

"Congress has the constitutional prerogative to examine the impacts of
corruption within the Iraqi ministries and the activities of
Blackwater," Waxman wrote. "You are wrong to interfere with the
committee's inquiry."

In response to Waxman's letter, Kiazan Moneypenny , a senior
contracting officer in the State Department's office of acquisition
management, appeared to soften the department's stand, saying later
Tuesday that it would allow Blackwater to hand over unclassified
documents.

Classified documents still would be subject to State Department review.
The committee has accused the administration of using secrecy
designations to keep bad news about Iraq out of the hands of Congress.

The State Department's order to Blackwater last week cited a provision
in the North Carolina security company's contract that makes all
records produced by the company in Iraq property of the U.S. government
and prohibits the company from releasing documents without State
Department approval.

Waxman had sought information about Blackwater's contract with the
State Department, under which it provides nearly 1,000 armed guards to
protect U.S. diplomats when traveling outside of Baghdad's Green Zone.
The request was part of a probe into a Sept. 16 incident in which at
least 11 Iraqis were killed after Blackwater guards protecting an
embassy convoy opened fire.

The incident enraged the Iraqi government, which accused the company of
routinely shooting civilians with impunity. Former U.S. administrator
for Iraq L. Paul Bremer III granted contractors immunity from
prosecution in an order he signed the day before handing over
sovereignty in June 2004.

A preliminary Iraqi investigation said the shootings occurred without
provocation; Blackwater and the State Department said the convoy was
ambushed and the guards opened fire after being attacked.

Waxman has scheduled a hearing on Blackwater for next week , but
Blackwater's lawyers warned the committee that the State Department's
letter might complicate testimony by company executives.

"In the fluid setting of a congressional hearing it may become
difficult, if not impossible, for Blackwater personnel to meet the
terms of" the State Department finding, wrote Stephen M. Ryan, an
attorney who is advising Blackwater in the congressional investigation.
"This contractual direction from the (State Department) is unambiguous."

A company spokeswoman said Tuesday that Blackwater interpreted the
State Department's apparent shift Tuesday as permission to release
documents sought by Waxman.

The State Department repeatedly has defended Blackwater in the
aftermath of the Sept. 16 incident. After a brief ban on diplomatic
travel outside the Green Zone, department officials have resumed trips
using under Blackwater guard and have said that the company's status
has not changed.

In his letter to Rice, Waxman objected also to a move by the department
to bar its officials from speaking with committee investigators about
corruption inside the Iraqi government.

An e-mail received by the committee Monday night indicated that the
State Department was treating information about corruption as
classified, suggesting it might undermine bilateral relations.

"The scope of this prohibition is breathtaking," Waxman wrote.

Waxman said official reports of corruption within Iraqi ministries were
treated previously as "sensitive but unclassified." The State
Department retroactively classified the reports after his committee
requested them, Waxman said.