Reports of Blackwater immunity deal embarrass Rice
Reports that State Department investigators offered an immunity deal to security guards accused of shooting dead 17 Iraqis dealt an embarrassing blow to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday.
According to the Washington Post, FBI agents now investigating the Baghdad shootings involving the Blackwater security firm are barred from using any of the information obtained during an earlier State Department probe.
One law enforcement official told the Post that some of the Blackwater guards had refused interviews with the Federal Bureau of Investigation which took over the investigation this month, citing the earlier immunity promises.
The move is set to reignite the controversy in the Iraqi capital over the September 16 shootings and the role of private security firms such as Blackwater USA in the war-torn country.
If confirmed, the deals could complicate efforts to prosecute the guards, especially as the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security did not have the authority to grant immunity, unnamed officials told The New York Times.
Most of the guards involved in the shooting were promised they would not be prosecuted for anything they said in interviews as long as their statements were truthful, the Times reported.
State Department official Sean McCormack refused to confirm the reports on Tuesday, saying only that "the Department of State cannot immunize an individual from federal criminal prosecution.
"The kinds of, quote, 'immunity' that I've seen reported in the press would not preclude a successful criminal prosecution," he added.
He also sought to distance Rice from the scandal highlighting that her "attitude is that if there are individuals who broke rules, laws or regulations, they must be held to account."
McCormack stressed it was Rice who had "asked the FBI to take the lead of the investigation."
Blackwater guards protecting a State Department convoy opened fire in a crowded Baghdad square on September 16, killing 17 civilians.
Blackwater boss Erik Prince has rejected an official Iraqi report that said the killings were unprovoked, insisting his men were fired upon. But the Iraqi government has called for Blackwater to be barred from operating in the country.
On Tuesday the Iraqi cabinet backed a law revoking immunity granted to private security firms operating in the country issued in 2004 by then US administrator for Iraq, Paul Bremer.
"The cabinet today approved a new draft law which puts all private security companies under the Iraqi law," government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told AFP. "These companies will not get immunity and will be subject to Iraqi law."
Blackwater, with about 1,000 employees, is one of the largest private security firms operating in Iraq, where an estimated 20,000 foreign security guards are employed.
The company is particularly charged with guarding American personnel and the embassy in Baghdad.
The US State Department needs to hire private security guards, as it has less than 1,500 of its own security agents around the world and the US military does not have enough trained personnel to provide diplomatic protection.
Rice met Tuesday with US Defense Secretary Robert Gates to discuss private contractors but failed to reach an agreement on whether to bring them under the sole command of the US military, Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said.
However, the US military would coordinate the movement of private security contractors in Iraq under a "common understanding" worked out with the State Department, he added.
Currently Blackwater guards cannot be tried in US military courts, and it is unclear if they can be tried in a US court for an alleged crime committed abroad.
The US Congress however is drawing up new legislation which would mean private security guards could be tried in US courts.
The families of the 17 Iraqis killed have also lodged a lawsuit against the United States calling for an explanation into the deaths and compensation.
"This immunity, what ever it turns out to mean, cannot stop the civil case we have filed against Blackwater," their lawyers said in a statement.
AFP
