WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ordered new measures Tuesday to improve government oversight of private guards who protect U.S. diplomats in Iraq, including tighter rules of engagement and a board to investigate future killings.
The steps, recommended by an independent review panel she created after last month’s deadly Baghdad shooting involving Blackwater USA, would also require contractors to undergo training intended to make them more sensitive to Iraqi culture and language.
The changes to rules of engagement would bring the State Department closer to military rules. The State Department’s rules for contractors’ use of force were more detailed in some respects, but the panel found that the Pentagon had clearer rules for the steps a guard must take after identifying a threat.
The moves will not have much visible effect on the way private guards operate in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq: They will still escort diplomats in highly armed convoys like the one involved in the Sept. 16 deaths of 17 Iraqis in a Baghdad square.
The State Department will set up panels that include security officials and others to look into each shooting or other use of deadly force by private guards and organize rapid response teams to investigate shooting incidents.
The department also will require contractors to have Arabic speakers on hand.
Rice also named a senior diplomat to oversee Iraq management issues. The official will report to Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte.
Rice was briefed Monday on the panel’s findings, and the State Department released the document Tuesday.
“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 said.
Patrick Kennedy, a State Department official who led the review, told reporters that the group focused on management and policy, not possible wrongdoing by Blackwater or others.
The new review board for deadly incidents would have the power to refer cases to the Justice Department, Kennedy said.
The report also identified a gap that left private guards for diplomats in Iraq outside the direct control of U.S. civilian or military law and outside Iraqi law.
“The legal framework for providing proper oversight of personal protective services contractors is inadequate,” the report said.
The panel made no specific recommendations about what should happen to Blackwater, whose guards were escorting an official from the U.S. Embassy when the shooting occurred. Iraqi authorities claim Blackwater guards fired unprovoked, but Blackwater’s founder has said his employees were fired on first.
The recommendations would apply to management of all private security contractors in Iraq, and recognize that it is impractical to eliminate such protection altogether.
The moves announced Tuesday are among those that Rice opted to make on her own, but further changes are likely after she meets this week with Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
