IHT : Blackwater security firm assailed for Iraq killings

Blackwater security firm assailed for Iraq killings

By David Stout and John M. Broder | October 1, 2007

WASHINGTON: Guards working in Iraq for Blackwater USA have shot Iraqi civilians and have sought to cover up the incidents, sometimes with the help of the State Department, according to a report that was released Monday to a congressional committee.

The report, based largely on internal Blackwater e-mail messages and State Department documents, depicts the private security contractor as being staffed with reckless, shoot-first guards who were not always sober and did not always stop to see who or what they hit with their bullets.

In one incident, the State Department and Blackwater agreed to pay $15,000 to the family of a man killed by "a drunken Blackwater contractor," the report says. As a State Department official writes, "We would like to help them resolve this so we can continue with our protective mission."

The report was compiled by the Democratic majority staff of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which is scheduled to hold a hearing on Blackwater activities on Tuesday. That hearing is sure to be contentious now that the chairman, Representative Henry Waxman, Democrat of California, and other members have the staff's findings to study.

A spokeswoman for Blackwater, Anne Tyrrell, had no immediate comment. "We look forward to setting the record straight," she told The Associated Press. Erik Prince, Blackwater's founder and chairman, is to testify before Waxman's panel. The State Department said several of its senior officials would address the issues in the report at the hearing Tuesday.

The report will probably raise questions not only about the wisdom of employing private security forces in Iraq, but also about the basic American mission in the country.

Blackwater guards have engaged in nearly 200 incidents of gunfire in Iraq since 2005. In the vast majority of cases they fired weapons from moving vehicles without stopping to count the dead or help the wounded, the report says.

The shootings logged by Blackwater were more than those by the other two private military contractors in Iraq combined, the report says. Blackwater has more than twice the number of contractors than the other two combined. Those two are DynCorp International and Triple Canopy.

"Blackwater also has the highest incidence of shooting first, although all three companies shoot first in more than half of all escalation-of-forces incidents," the staff report says.

And the State Department's own documents "raise serious questions" about how its officials responded to reports that Blackwater employees killed Iraqis, the report says. "There is no evidence in the documents that the committee has reviewed that the State Department sought to restrain Blackwater's actions, raised concerns about the number of shooting incidents involving Blackwater or the company's high rate of shooting first, or detained Blackwater contractors for investigation," the committee staff writes.

Moreover, contrary to the terms of its contract, Blackwater sometimes engaged in offensive operations with the American military, instead of confining itself to its protective mission, the report says.

The report raises questions about the cost-effectiveness of using Blackwater forces instead of U.S. troops. Blackwater charges the government $1,222 a day per guard, "equivalent to $445,000 per year, or six times more than the cost of an equivalent U.S. soldier," the report says.

The incident involving "a drunken Blackwater contractor" arose when the employee killed a bodyguard for the Iraqi vice president, Adil Abd-al-Mahdi, in December 2006. State Department officials allowed Blackwater to take the shooter out of Iraq less than 36 hours later.

The State Department charge d'affaires then recommended that Blackwater make "a sizable payment" and an "apology" in an effort to "avoid this whole thing becoming even worse," the report goes on. The State Department official suggested a $250,000 payment to the guard's family, but the department's Diplomatic Security Service said that was too much and could cause Iraqis to "try to get killed." In the end, $15,000 was agreed upon.

The report adds credence to complaints from Iraqi officials, American military officers and Blackwater's competitors that its guards have adopted an aggressive, trigger-happy approach and displayed disregard for Iraqi life.

In March 2004, four Americans working for Blackwater were ambushed and killed, and an enraged mob then jubilantly dragged the burned bodies through the streets of central Falluja, hanging at least two corpses from a bridge over the Euphrates River.

The congressional report, based on 437 internal Blackwater incident reports as well as internal State Department correspondence, says that Blackwater's use of force "is frequent and extensive, resulting in significant casualties and property damage."

It notes that Blackwater's contract authorizes its employees to use lethal force only to prevent "imminent and grave danger" to themselves or the people they are paid to protect.

"In practice, however," the report says, "the vast majority of Blackwater weapons discharges are preemptive, with Blackwater forces firing first at a vehicle or suspicious individual prior to receiving any fire."