San Jose Mercury : Iraq: U.S. deaf to beefs about Blackwater acts

Iraq: U.S. deaf to beefs about Blackwater acts

U.N. CHIEF OFFERS MORE HELP TO BAGHDAD

By Sudarsan Raghavan and Steve Fainaru | Washington Post | September 23, 2007

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Senior Iraqi officials repeatedly complained to U.S. officials about Blackwater USA's alleged involvement in the deaths of numerous Iraqis, but the Americans took little action to regulate the private security firm until 11 Iraqis were shot dead last Sunday, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials.

Before that episode, U.S. officials were made aware in high-level meetings and formal memorandums of Blackwater's alleged transgressions. They included six violent incidents this year allegedly involving the North Carolina firm that left a total of 10 Iraqis dead, the officials said.

"There were no concrete results," Lt. Gen. Hussein Kamal, the deputy interior minister who oversees the private security industry on behalf of the Iraqi government, said in an interview Saturday.

The reported lack of a U.S. response underscores the powerlessness of Iraqi officials to control the tens of thousands of security contractors who operate under U.S.-drafted Iraqi regulations that shield them from Iraqi laws. It also raises questions about how seriously the United States will seek to regulate Blackwater, now the subject of at least three investigations by Iraqi and U.S. authorities. Blackwater, which operates under State Department authority, protects nearly all senior U.S. politicians and civilian officials here.

In the United States, Blackwater is facing a possible federal investigation over allegations that it illegally smuggled weapons into
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Iraq that later might have been sold on the black market. The accusation first appeared in the Raleigh (N.C.) News & Observer. The company on Saturday denied the allegations, calling them "baseless."

In its probe, Iraq's Interior Ministry concluded that Blackwater fired without provocation into cars about noon last Sunday in Nisoor Square in the Mansour neighborhood of western Baghdad, killing 11 and injuring 12. Blackwater has said that extremists ambushed guards protecting a State Department convoy and that they had to defend themselves.

Kamal indicated that Iraqi investigators had a videotape apparently showing Blackwater guards firing at civilians, but he declined to provide further details. On Friday, Brig. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, the chief Interior Ministry spokesman, said the ministry would refer its findings to a court for possible criminal prosecution.

At the United Nations, Secretary General Ban Ki Moon told a gathering of 19 foreign ministers and senior diplomats Saturday that peace in Iraq "will not be obtained through military means alone" and that Iraq's neighbors must do more to prevent extremists from crossing into the country.

"The U.N. stands ready to broaden its activity in support of the government and people of Iraq," Ban told the gathering. "I hope that the United Nations . . . can count on member states for their support."

The high-level meeting on Iraq, chaired by Ban and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, brought together U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, as well as representatives of China, Russia, Syria, Jordan, the World Bank and other key powers and organizations. It was organized to rally regional and international support for Iraq and to secure backing for a broader U.N. role in helping to mediate the country's bloody sectarian conflict.

Washington Post correspondent Colum Lynch at the United Nations contributed to this report.