'Blackwater guards offered immunity deals'
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
US State Department investigators offered immunity deals to the Blackwater security guards accused of shooting dead 17 Iraqis in Baghdad, US media reported yesterday.
The move could reignite the controversy over the shootings in the Iraqi capital on September 16 and the role of private security firms such as Blackwater USA in the war-torn country.
If confirmed, it could complicate efforts to prosecute the guards especially since the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security did not have the authority to grant immunity, unnamed government officials told The New York Times.
Most of the guards involved in the shooting were promised they would not be prosecuted for anything said in their interviews with investigators as long as their statements were truthful, the Times reported.
US Justice Department prosecutors who do have the authority to grant immunity had no advance knowledge of the arrangement, the officials told the Times.
Asked to comment on the report, a State Department official told AFP on condition of anonymity: "It's an ongoing investigation, and we don't comment on ongoing investigations."
The Washington Post reported that FBI agents who took charge of the investigation in October could not use any of the information obtained from questions by the 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 (FBI), citing the earlier immunity promises.
The deals "make things a lot more complicated and difficult," the official told the Post.
"You can't use the fruits of that statement," another law enforcement official told the Post. "It doesn't prevent them from talking (to the FBI), but ... why run the risk? I think any lawyer would advise against it."
Blackwater guards protecting a State Department convoy opened fire in a crowded Baghdad square on September 16. Seventeen civilians were killed in the shootout.
The Iraqi government later demanded that Blackwater be barred from operating in the country.
Blackwater boss Erik Prince has rejected an official Iraqi report that said the killings were unprovoked, insisting his men were fired upon.
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.
In Baghdad, Iraq's cabinet yesterday approved a draft law that would end the immunity from prosecution of foreign security contractors by scrapping a decree that Iraqis have complained amounts to a "licence to kill".
The bill, which has to be approved by parliament, follows the September 16 shooting incident involving Blackwater.
"The cabinet has approved a law that will put non-Iraqi firms and those they employ under Iraqi law," government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told Reuters after a cabinet meeting.
Iraq says there are more than 180 mainly US and European security companies in Iraq, with estimates of the number of private contractors ranging from 25,000 to 48,000.
Dabbagh said the bill proposed cancelling Order 17, a controversial decree that prevents foreign contractors from being prosecuted in local courts. Iraqi efforts to revoke it had gone nowhere until the Blackwater shooting.
The decree has been a source of friction between Washington and Baghdad.
AFP
The move could reignite the controversy over the shootings in the Iraqi capital on September 16 and the role of private security firms such as Blackwater USA in the war-torn country.
If confirmed, it could complicate efforts to prosecute the guards especially since the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security did not have the authority to grant immunity, unnamed government officials told The New York Times.
Most of the guards involved in the shooting were promised they would not be prosecuted for anything said in their interviews with investigators as long as their statements were truthful, the Times reported.
US Justice Department prosecutors who do have the authority to grant immunity had no advance knowledge of the arrangement, the officials told the Times.
Asked to comment on the report, a State Department official told AFP on condition of anonymity: "It's an ongoing investigation, and we don't comment on ongoing investigations."
The Washington Post reported that FBI agents who took charge of the investigation in October could not use any of the information obtained from questions by the 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 (FBI), citing the earlier immunity promises.
The deals "make things a lot more complicated and difficult," the official told the Post.
"You can't use the fruits of that statement," another law enforcement official told the Post. "It doesn't prevent them from talking (to the FBI), but ... why run the risk? I think any lawyer would advise against it."
Blackwater guards protecting a State Department convoy opened fire in a crowded Baghdad square on September 16. Seventeen civilians were killed in the shootout.
The Iraqi government later demanded that Blackwater be barred from operating in the country.
Blackwater boss Erik Prince has rejected an official Iraqi report that said the killings were unprovoked, insisting his men were fired upon.
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.
In Baghdad, Iraq's cabinet yesterday approved a draft law that would end the immunity from prosecution of foreign security contractors by scrapping a decree that Iraqis have complained amounts to a "licence to kill".
The bill, which has to be approved by parliament, follows the September 16 shooting incident involving Blackwater.
"The cabinet has approved a law that will put non-Iraqi firms and those they employ under Iraqi law," government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told Reuters after a cabinet meeting.
Iraq says there are more than 180 mainly US and European security companies in Iraq, with estimates of the number of private contractors ranging from 25,000 to 48,000.
Dabbagh said the bill proposed cancelling Order 17, a controversial decree that prevents foreign contractors from being prosecuted in local courts. Iraqi efforts to revoke it had gone nowhere until the Blackwater shooting.
The decree has been a source of friction between Washington and Baghdad.
AFP
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