Washington – Blackwater security contractors in Iraq have been involved in at least 195 “escalation of force” incidents since early 2005, including several previously unreported killings of Iraqi civilians, according to a new congressional account of State Department and company documents.
In one of the killings, according to a State Department document, Blackwater personnel tried to cover up what had occurred and provided a false report. In another case, involving a Blackwater convoy’s collision with 18 civilian vehicles, the firm accused its own personnel of lying about the event.
The State Department made little effort to hold Blackwater personnel accountable beyond pressing the company to pay financial compensation to the families of the dead, the documents indicate. In a case involving a drunken Blackwater employee who killed a security guard to Iraq’s vice president on Christmas Eve, U.S. government personnel helped negotiate a financial settlement and allowed the employee to leave Iraq.
Details of these and other incidents were released Monday by the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., after the committee’s staff examined hundreds of internal Blackwater and State Department documents.
Blackwater chairman Erik Prince and David Satterfield, the State Department’s Iraq coordinator, are scheduled to testify today before the committee.
The FBI said it is sending a team to assist the State Department in investigating the alleged killing of at least 11 Iraqi civilians by Blackwater personnel Sept. 16.
That incident sparked controversy in Washington and caused the Iraqi Interior Ministry to demand that Blackwater cease operations and turn over those responsible for trial. The ministry was overruled by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who accepted a joint U.S.-Iraqi government investigation. The FBI is to participate in a separate inquiry.
Waxman and other critics have said the State Department, which has paid Blackwater nearly $1 billion for security work in Iraq, allowed the company to operate with impunity.
“There is no evidence in the documents that the Committee has reviewed,” a memorandum released by Democrats said, “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.”
In total, the documents indicate, Blackwater has terminated 122 employees under its State Department contract. According to Prince, the company currently has about 1,000 employees in Iraq.
Based on more than 437 Blackwater documents and “a limited number of incident reports and documents from the State Department,” the Democratic staff memo said, Blackwater personnel participated in 195 incidents in which they discharged firearms, with Blackwater firing first in more than 80 percent of them. At least 16 Iraqi casualties resulted.
