NYT : Iraqi Cabinet Votes to End Security Firms’ Immunity

Iraqi Cabinet Votes to End Security Firms’ Immunity

By ALISSA J. RUBIN | October 31, 2007

BAGHDAD, Oct. 30 — Draft legislation that lifts immunity for foreign private security companies gained the consent of the Iraqi cabinet on Tuesday and sent to Parliament for approval, a government spokesman said.

The measure would end a provision that protects the security companies from prosecution, which has been in effect since 2004, when the Americans handed sovereignty back to Iraq.

The provision has long rankled Iraqis, who say the private guards have used excessive force on a number of occasions, wounding or killing civilians. It became a major point of contention between the American and Iraqi governments after a Sept. 16 shooting by guards working for Blackwater that Iraqi investigators have said left 17 Iraqis dead and at least 24 wounded.

The Iraqi government’s decision followed reports that the State Department had promised Blackwater guards immunity from prosecution in its investigation of the shootings. On Tuesday, the State Department confirmed that some Blackwater employees questioned in connection with the shootings had been granted a form of immunity in exchange for their statements.

The draft law canceling the private security firms’ immunity was written by the legal adviser to Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki. It would overturn a measure known as Order 17, dating from the administration of L. Paul Bremer III.

Under the version approved by the cabinet, foreign security companies would have to meet several criteria, including a requirement that all their weapons be licensed by the Iraqi Interior Ministry. Their equipment, including helicopters and armored vehicles, would have to be registered with the appropriate Iraqi agencies and all foreign employees would have to obtain visas from the Iraqi Foreign Ministry.

Currently, many contractors in Iraq, including those who work for security firms, enter the country without regular visas because they have badges that say they work with the Defense Department or another agency either of the United States or of a country in the American-led coalition. The Iraqi government previously accepted the badges rather than requiring visas.

“This decision does not just cover Blackwater; it will cover all the foreign security firms operating in Iraq,” said Thamir Ghadban, the chairman of Mr. Maliki’s council of advisers. “This law will protect Iraqis and Iraq’s sovereignty.”

Although the Iraqi government now appears to be serious about changing the law, it remains unclear why it took so long, given the public anger over the contractors’ status. Mr. Bremer’s order states that Iraqi law is paramount, meaning that the government may change a law whenever it chooses.

A spokeswoman for the American Embassy, Mirembe Nantongo, said diplomats had just received the draft law and were reviewing it.

The cabinet’s approval is the first step in the legislative process. Parliament is likely to amend the measure, but, according to a Shiite member of Parliament, only to make it tougher and more restrictive.

“The Iraqi Parliament is enthusiastic about controlling these companies and will not allow them to have a free hand, especially after the massacre of Nisour Square,” said Jalaluddin al-Sagheer, the member of Parliament who is from the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, one of the country’s most influential Shiite parties. He was referring to the square in Baghdad where the Sept. 16 shootings took place.

“Order 17 gave complete immunity and we can no longer deal with the security firms in this way,” he added. “The cabinet’s version is just the first step in the discussion of how the law should be written, and the security and defense committee of the Parliament will decide which provisions should be added and which ones removed.”

Three American soldiers were killed Tuesday when their patrol hit a roadside bomb southeast of Baghdad, the military said. Their deaths brought the number of American troops killed in October to 36, the second lowest number of deaths in a month since October 2005, according to icasualties.org, a Web site that tracks American deaths in Iraq.

Because there is one more day in the month it is possible that the number will rise, though it is still likely to be among the lowest in the last two years.

In Samarra, a city about 90 miles north of Baghdad in the largely Sunni Arab province of Salahuddin, militants attacked a building used by Iraqi and American security forces. The American military brought in air support in response to the attack, according to a member of the Salahuddin police.

Later Tuesday, a car bomb exploded at a joint Iraqi Army and police checkpoint west of Samarra, killing four policemen and wounding eight.

An Iraqi employee of The New York Times contributed reporting from Salahuddin Province.

NYT : U.S. Military Will Oversee Contractors

U.S. Military Will Oversee Contractors

By JOHN M. BRODER and DAVID JOHNSTON | October 31, 2007

WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 — All State Department security convoys in Iraq will now fall under military control, the latest step taken by government officials to bring Blackwater Worldwide and other armed contractors under tighter supervision.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates agreed to the measure at a lunch on Tuesday after weeks of tension between their departments over coordination of thousands of gun-carrying contractors operating in the chaos of Iraq.

Mr. Gates appears to have won the bureaucratic tug-of-war, which accelerated after a Sept. 16 shooting in central Baghdad involving guards in a Blackwater convoy who Iraqi investigators say killed 17 Iraqis. Military coordination of contractor convoys will include operations of not only Blackwater, formerly known as Blackwater USA, but also those of dozens of other private firms that guard American diplomats, aid workers and reconstruction crews.

In Iraq, the government approved a draft law to overturn an order imposed by the American occupation authority in 2004 granting the employees of foreign contractors immunity from Iraqi law. Also on Tuesday, the State Department confirmed that some Blackwater employees questioned in connection with the Sept. 16 shooting had been granted a form of immunity in exchange for their statements. However, officials insisted that the immunity was limited and that it did not foreclose the possibility of prosecutions.

Democrats in Congress complained that the State Department appeared to have bungled the Blackwater investigation and said they feared that no one would be held accountable for the Iraqi deaths. “It feels like they’re protecting Blackwater,” said Representative Jan Schakowsky, an Illinois Democrat.

At the Pentagon, Geoff Morrell, the chief spokesman, said the military would assert greater control over contractor training, rules for the use of force, employment standards and movements around Iraq.

He said Mr. Gates and military officers in Iraq insisted on the new measures “so they aren’t blindsided by contractors running in and out of their battle space and potentially causing problems.”

Mr. Morrell and his State Department counterpart, Sean McCormack, said that the details of the new arrangement had not been worked out but that the process was on a fast track and that both agencies hoped to have all issues resolved by Thanksgiving.

The top American commander in Iraq, Gen. David H. Petraeus, will have to approve the arrangement, but he is likely to accept new rules that give his officers greater control over the numerous armed entities operating in his theater.

The State Department has had repeated problems trying to rein in the nearly 845 Blackwater guards in Iraq, who have fired their weapons in 195 incidents since 2005, according to Blackwater’s count, leaving an undetermined number of Iraqis dead. Blackwater and two other security companies, DynCorp International and Triple Canopy, share a multibillion-dollar contract to guard American diplomats and other civilians in Iraq.

But the Defense Department has had its own difficulties controlling its nearly 130,000 contractors, who handle a variety of jobs including interrogations of prisoners and transportation of fuel and ammunition. Auditors have uncovered numerous instances of cost overruns, sloppy work, theft and corruption in the tens of billions of dollars in logistics and reconstruction contracts in Iraq.

But for now, the focus is on a series of measures to bring greater accountability to private security contractors. The State Department has announced several such steps already, including the assignment of agents of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security to accompany all Blackwater convoys, the installation of video cameras in all Blackwater vehicles and the establishment of a multiagency review board to examine all cases involving the use of force.

Ms. Rice and Mr. Gates agreed to tighten the rules for the use of force by armed contractors. Although current rules are quite restrictive and allow force to be used only defensively, the standards have not been enforced and Blackwater guards, in particular, earned a reputation for being quick on the trigger.

Mr. Morrell said the new, more stringent rules would be likely to put the Blackwater guards, and perhaps the people they are responsible for protecting, in greater danger.

“We want everybody operating for the sake of the same mission, O.K., which means, as the secretary has talked about before, invariably State Department contractors are going to have to assume greater risk because we have to operate with the overall mission in mind,” Mr. Morrell said. “And that is winning the hearts and minds, the trust and confidence, of the Iraqi people.”

Congressional Democrats criticized the administration over the immunity issue, saying it underscored the government’s inability to hold contractors accountable. Senator Patrick J. Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who sits on two committees that oversee the State and Justice Departments, said: “In this administration, accountability goes by the boards. That goes equally for misconduct and for incompetence. If you get caught, they will get you immunity. If you get convicted, they will commute your sentence.”

At the State Department, Mr. McCormack said that any lawbreakers “must be held to account” as a result of the inquiry into the Sept. 16 shootings, which has since been taken over by the Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation. He said that if immunity were granted, it would not preclude a criminal prosecution.

Of Ms. Rice, he said, “Her attitude has been since the very beginning that we need to determine the facts and if the facts lead us to the conclusion that there are those who broke rules, laws or regulations, they must be held to account.”

A Justice Department spokesman, Dean Boyd, said in a statement that Blackwater employees could be prosecuted despite the immunity deals, which were not authorized by federal prosecutors. He said that neither the Justice Department nor the F.B.I. could discuss the case, but said “any suggestion that the Blackwater employees in question have been given immunity from federal criminal prosecution is inaccurate.”

Three law enforcement officials confirmed Tuesday that State Department investigators did take statements from Blackwater employees after offering them immunity, though they had no authority to do so.

Immunity is intended to preserve the constitutional right against self-incrimination while still giving investigators the ability to gather evidence. Witnesses granted immunity have no right to remain silent but nothing they say can be used against them.

Law enforcement officials said the Blackwater employees were given a Garrity warning, named after a Supreme Court case, Garrity v. New Jersey. This form of limited immunity does not bar a criminal prosecution but is seldom granted in a case in which a criminal prosecution is likely. It is almost never granted without the approval of federal prosecutors.

LAT : State Dept. revises security firm regulations

State Dept. revises security firm regulations

The changes are to help control overseas contractors, who are now beyond U.S. laws, and speed up use-of-force investigations.

By Paul Richter, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer | October 24, 2007

WASHINGTON -- The State Department on Tuesday ordered additional revisions to the way it regulates its security contractors abroad after an expert panel issued a blistering report suggesting the current system was flawed and dangerous.

The changes are expected to be the basis for legislation governing overseas contractors, who are now beyond the reach of U.S. statutes, and will bring the contractors' looser rules on use of force into line with those of the military. The department will also speed up and improve investigations of incidents involving the use of force and will take steps to make the system for compensating victims more just.

The four-member panel's recommendations include cultural-sensitivity training for contractors and an effort by the State Department to boost the number of Arabic-speaking contractors in Middle Eastern countries.

The report also calls for the Iraqi government to improve the system for licensing contractors.

The recommendations stemmed from the involvement of guards from Blackwater USA, a private security firm that protects State Department personnel in Iraq, in the Sept. 16 shooting deaths of 17 Iraqis. The incident provoked an international outcry and generated huge pressure for change.

On Oct. 4, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ordered changes in the way contractors do business, including the installation of vehicle cameras to ensure that incidents are recorded to aid investigations.

The State Department initially rebuffed criticism of the contractor system that the Sept. 16 incident elicited. But with the report's findings, its leadership acknowledges that the major criticisms have merit.

"Prompt measures should be taken to strengthen the coordination, oversight and accountability aspects of the State Department's security practices in Iraq in order to reduce the likelihood that future incidents will occur," the report says.

paul.richter@latimes.com

BBC : Official quits over Iraq security

Official quits over Iraq security

October 24, 2007

The man in charge of security for US diplomats in Iraq has resigned after heavy criticism of how foreign private security firms in Iraq are supervised.

US state department official Richard Griffin did not mention the issue in his resignation letter.

But he left just a day after the department moved to strengthen government oversight of the firms.

The changes were prompted by the deaths of Iraqi civilians in an incident involving the Blackwater company.

At present, foreign private security contractors have immunity from prosecution under Iraqi law but the Iraqi government is reportedly preparing a bill to make them accountable locally.

Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told Reuters news agency that the bill was being discussed in the cabinet and would be submitted to parliament "soon".

'Serious lapses'

Mr Griffin supervised the diplomatic security bureau at the state department in Washington.

On Tuesday his boss, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, accepted the terms of an internal report which identified an urgent need for tougher oversight of the private firms which currently protect State Department and some other US employees in Iraq.

The biggest and best-known of the companies is Blackwater.

The Iraqi government accuses Blackwater of killing 17 innocent civilians in Baghdad last month and says it wants the firm out of the country.

The head of Blackwater denies the killings were unprovoked, insisting his men had been fired upon.

Since the incident five weeks ago the extensive use in Iraq of private security has become highly controversial in America, the BBC's Vincent Dowd reports from Washington.

This week's state department report said there have been serious lapses in how the firms are supervised.

It is clear it was September's incident in particular, and the questions it raised in Iraq and the US, which led to Mr Griffin's sudden departure after 36 years in government service, our correspondent says.

For its part, the state department will hope a change at the top will start to restore confidence in the way America carries out and supervises diplomatic protection in Iraq, he adds.

AP : Security Chief's Resignation Letter

Security Chief's Resignation Letter

By The Associated Press | October 24, 2007

Text from the resignation letter of Richard Griffin, assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, sent to President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and dated Oct. 24, 2007, as provided by the State Department:

This month I completed my 36th year of service to our country. I have had the opportunity over these many years to witness uncommon dedication, sacrifice, and valor. I am grateful that I had the opportunity to serve as the assistant secretary for the Bureau of Diplomatic Security whose brave men and women serve on the front lines of the global war on terror. Without their courage and commitment, the State Department could not possibly carry out its foreign policy mission.

As I submit my resignation and move on to new challenges, I do so with the realization that the senior management team that is in place in DS is extremely well qualified to confront the many challenges which lie ahead.

Sincerely,

Richard J. Griffin

NYT : Official Overseeing Security Contractors Resigns

Official Overseeing Security Contractors Resigns

By JOHN M. BRODER | October 24, 2007

WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 — The State Department official responsible for overseeing Blackwater USA and other private security contractors in Iraq resigned abruptly today.

Richard J. Griffin, who has been the director of the department’s diplomatic security bureau since June 2005, faced stiff criticism from Congress over his handling of a Sept. 16 shooting episode involving Blackwater that left 17 Iraqis dead and other acts of violence by the State Department’s security guards.

A special panel appointed to investigate the handling of diplomatic security in Iraq found a glaring lack of oversight and accountability that was hindering the American diplomatic and military mission there. The F.B.I. and a joint American-Iraqi board are also investigating the Sept. 16 shooting and the operations of armed private guards in Iraq.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice quickly accepted Mr. Griffin’s resignation, which is effective Nov. 1. “Secretary Rice is grateful to Ambassador Griffin for his record of long exemplary service to the nation,” said Sean McCormack, the State Department spokesman.

Ms. Rice is scheduled to appear on Thursday before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which has been investigating problems with Blackwater and other security contractors in Iraq.

The committee’s chairman, Representative Henry A. Waxman, Democrat of California, said Wednesday, “Mr. Griffin’s resignation is another indication that State Department’s efforts in Iraq are in disarray.”

In his two-paragraph letter of resignation to President Bush, Mr. Griffin cited his 36 years in government service, which has included senior posts in the Secret Service and the Department of Veterans Affairs. He did not mention Blackwater or Iraq, nor cite a specific reason for leaving. He wrote only he was moving on to “new challenges.”

Mr. Griffin did not respond to requests for comment. Mr. McCormack said he would not elaborate on the reasons for or the timing of his departure. Gregory Starr, a deputy in the diplomatic security bureau, will take over as acting director, Mr. McCormack said.

Mr. Griffin directed a little-known State Department bureau responsible for protection of American facilities and diplomats overseas. It employs 1,450 special agents who serve as bodyguards for ambassadors and other dignitaries abroad, but found itself unable to handle the security demands brought on by the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. It turned to private American security companies like Blackwater and DynCorp International, which handle the bulk of guard work for American civilians in those two countries.

The contracts, worth billions of dollars, presented management challenges that the bureau found itself struggling to handle. Military officials in Iraq and some diplomats there complained that Blackwater guards, in particular, were undermining the American effort by being quick to use their weapons and running Iraqi civilians off the roads.

The State Department review panel, headed by a veteran diplomat Ambassador Patrick F. Kennedy, found an urgent need to address these problems and to write new laws, if necessary, to make private security contractors subject to American law when they use excessive force.

LAT : State Dept. revises security firm regulations

State Dept. revises security firm regulations

The changes are to help control overseas contractors, who are now beyond U.S. laws, and speed up use-of-force investigations.

By Paul Richter, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer | October 24, 2007

WASHINGTON -- The State Department on Tuesday ordered additional revisions to the way it regulates its security contractors abroad after an expert panel issued a blistering report suggesting the current system was flawed and dangerous.

The changes are expected to be the basis for legislation governing overseas contractors, who are now beyond the reach of U.S. statutes, and will bring the contractors' looser rules on use of force into line with those of the military. The department will also speed up and improve investigations of incidents involving the use of force and will take steps to make the system for compensating victims more just.

The four-member panel's recommendations include cultural-sensitivity training for contractors and an effort by the State Department to boost the number of Arabic-speaking contractors in Middle Eastern countries.

The report also calls for the Iraqi government to improve the system for licensing contractors.

The recommendations stemmed from the involvement of guards from Blackwater USA, a private security firm that protects State Department personnel in Iraq, in the Sept. 16 shooting deaths of 17 Iraqis. The incident provoked an international outcry and generated huge pressure for change.

On Oct. 4, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ordered changes in the way contractors do business, including the installation of vehicle cameras to ensure that incidents are recorded to aid investigations.

The State Department initially rebuffed criticism of the contractor system that the Sept. 16 incident elicited. But with the report's findings, its leadership acknowledges that the major criticisms have merit.

"Prompt measures should be taken to strengthen the coordination, oversight and accountability aspects of the State Department's security practices in Iraq in order to reduce the likelihood that future incidents will occur," the report says.

paul.richter@latimes.com

CNN : Iraq contractors make billions on the front line

Iraq contractors make billions on the front line

'Our job is to be a bullet sponge'

From Nic Robertson | CNN | June 13, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Private military contractors are earning billions of dollars in Iraq -- much of it from U.S. taxpayers.

Business is booming for those willing to tackle one of the most dangerous jobs on Earth. Lucrative U.S. government contracts go to firms called on to provide security for projects and personnel -- jobs that in previous conflicts have been done by the military.

A single contract awarded to Britain's AEGIS Specialist Risk Management company by the Pentagon was worth $293 million, and while the government says it cannot provide a total amount for the contracts -- many of which are secret -- industry experts estimate Iraq's security business costs tens of billions of dollars.

These contractors have not been without controversy. Late last year, AEGIS launched an investigation into whether its employees produced video clips that showed up on the Internet in which it appeared civilian vehicles were being shot at. AEGIS has not released the results of its investigation, but a U.S. Army investigation found no probable cause that a crime occurred.

The market for private contractors is there thanks to an unprecedented "outsourcing" of conflict, according to Amy Clark, who led the Baghdad end of a small private security contractor.

"Where you've got a military where the assets and the personnel are strained, then private contractors have had to step in and fill the void," she told CNN, agreeing to be interviewed if her company's name was not revealed.

But where there is money, there is also danger. No official totals exist of how many private contractors have been killed in Iraq. But Clark believes the death rate among the 25,000 or so contractors is higher than among U.S. military forces.

Going where the military won't

The danger does not bring glamour. Clark's outfit shepherds convoys along supply lines strewn with roadside bombs targeting U.S. and Iraqi forces and those who support them. Missions have included guarding trucks carrying gravel for military bases.

"Military doesn't even like to go where we are going, and most of the companies that do this don't want to go where we are going ... and that's why we're going," explained one of Clark's men, nicknamed "Mr. GQ."

His colleague, Gonzo, gives a graphic description of what their team faces: "If we get ambushed and cut off, then yes, we are going to fight back and push through. That's what we get paid to do -- protect the clients, protect the asset -- that's our job.

"It sounds crude, but basically our job is to be a bullet sponge."

There is debate about how far these private contractors should go, what authority they have and who should police them, and no hard and fast answers. In the meantime, the contractors continue to face danger.

On one day recently, two roadside bombs went off simultaneously near one of Clark's security trucks, and the convoy was then attacked with heavy small-arms fire from nearby rooftops.

"The blood in the back seat of the truck, all the bone fragments and flesh pretty much told the tale -- they got hit pretty bad," Gonzo said.

That same night, three roadside bombs were detonated beside the same convoy. Two of Clark's men were killed and five wounded.

A year's pay in 3 months

There is plenty of money and plenty of work to go around, much of it taken by Blackwater -- one of the larger companies and perhaps the best known, because tragedy befell its employees in Falluja March 31, 2004. Four employees were killed -- two of their bodies hung from a bridge.

Blackwater was founded in 1997, and business boomed after 9/11. Wartime demands are allowing it to expand even further, and it recently opened new headquarters in North Carolina, where it can train people from the military and law enforcement.

Blackwater also looks for opportunities beyond war zones to disaster areas, such as the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina, or places where peacekeepers could be stationed, like the crisis-hit region of Darfur in Sudan.

Cofer Black, a former head of the CIA Counterterrorism Center and now vice-chairman of Blackwater, said the company is ready to tackle more hot spots.

"My company could deploy a reasonable small force under guidance or leadership of any national authority and do a terrific job of protecting, you know, innocent women from being raped, young kids from having their arms hacked off with machetes."

Like most contractors, Gonzo is ex-military and has specific personal reasons for being in Iraq and facing the danger.

A veteran of the first Gulf War, he says he can earn in three months what it would take him a year to get in the United States. "My wife and I are pretty frugal. My goal is pretty simple -- I just want to be able to pay off a house and some property."

He holds up a picture of his three children. "We all have to be over here for a reason. Mine's so that I can provide a better life for my wife and kids."

MilitarySpot.com : Security Contractors

Security Contractors

MilitarySpot.com salutes the fine men and women who are employed by private security companies. These men and women are serving their country proudly in the private sector, often utilizing skills learned in the military. We regard them and their companies as ultra-patriotic, doing the work of the United States in important tasks around the globe.