State to Blackwater: You Don't Say Nothin' to No One, See?

[babylonsister]

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004291.php

State to Blackwater: You Don't Say Nothin' to No One, See?
By Spencer Ackerman - September 25, 2007, 5:05PM

Now this augurs well for a thorough inquiry into Blackwater's recent behavior in Iraq. Just three days after Rep. Henry Waxman announced his House Oversight and Government Reform Committee would hold hearings into the deaths of 11 Iraqi civilians, a State Department contracting official wrote to Blackwater with a simple message: you don't say anything we don't tell you to.

We've added the letter to our Document Collection. You can read it here:
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/docs/blackwater-state/?resultpage=1&

The State Department official, Kiazan Moneypenny, wrote Blackwater VP Fred Roitz to "advise" him of Blackwater's obligations under the terms of State's contract. Among them: "all documents and records (including photographs) generated during the performance of work under this contract shall be for the sole use of and become the exclusive property of the U.S. government." These obligations, according to the contract, exist in perpetuity -- not just until the contract expires. As a result, Moneypenny told Roitz to make "no disclosure of documents or information generated under unless such disclosure has been authorized in writing by the Contract Officer."

In a letter today to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Waxman pointed out that State has no authority to compel Blackwater to obstruct a congressional investigation -- unless President Bush is prepared to say that the terms of Blackwater's contracts or its operational doctrine is covered under executive privilege. A State Department congressional liaison will "attempt to reverse" the department's position, but Waxman seems unconvinced.

A final curiosity: Moneypenny's letter indicates that State officials had already called Blackwater twice on September 19 and 20 to deliver the same message. Was Blackwater more willing to disclose information to the House oversight committee than the State Department?

[bobthedrummer]

1. Remember when Dennis Kucinich requested to John Conyers that Blackwater

officials remarks made before a Committee be considered as coming from possible accessories to murder?

IMPEACH CHENEY FIRST

[AuntPatsy]

2. Why isn't it possible to impeach them all?

[babylonsister]

4. There's enough evidence. Our 'critters are keeping their powder dry

for a Dem in 08. Meanwhile, they are being totally disrespected and people are dying. I guess they made their choice.

[Trillo]

3. Pretty soon it will be Executive Branch policy that

all business everywhere is conducted under the the Executive Branch's executive privilege, and the only things not requiring Executive Branch approval are advertisements geared towards selling Executive Branch Friendly™ products and purchases by citizens of Executive Branch Friendly™ products.

[Turn CO Blue]

5. TODAY Waxman has written to Condi "You are wrong" ZING!

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) points out that State has no authority to compel Blackwater to obstruct a congressional investigation. Waxman calls State's position "absurd" and "ludicrous."

In a new letter to Condi today here the Committee writes:

I urge you to reconsider the unusual positions you are taking. Congress has a constitutional prerogative to examine the impacts that corruption within the Iraqi ministries and the activities of Blackwater may have on the prospects for political reconciliation in lraq. You are wrong to interfere with the Committee's inquiry.

-----
bolding mine

[Karenina]

7. And STILL...

NOTHING HAPPENS to cut the robber barons off at the knees. Waxman surely has enough. It must be catapaulted into the American consciousness and conscience BEFORE the buttons are pushed. Afterwards it don't make no never mind. WHAT'S THE DEAL?

[bobthedrummer]

8. I was wrong in post #1, DK read into the record of Henry Waxman's

House Committee (not John Conyers) that the Blackwater executives were accessories to murder.

Then we have Richard Cheney meeting up with the secretive Council for National Policy in Utah on Friday. Tim LaHaye formed this "secret" organization in 1981.

Council for National Policy profile from Source Watch.org
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Council_for_National_Policy

What kind of "policies" can be expected from such a group, a "secret" one-more BFEE "enabling laws" and eugenics, perhaps?

I wonder if Mitt Romney's J. Cofer Black ("former" CIA and Blackwater operative) will be there with all those FASCISTS and modern Pharisees. It is the kind of group the Roves and Rumsfelds and other war criminals would be right at home with too.

IMPEACH CHENEY FIRST

[bobthedrummer]

6. "Security Company Death Squads Timeline by Dirk Adriaensens and Sarah Meyer"

Blackwater and 19 other mercenaries discussed-lots of links (started 9-25-2007)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x309935

Erik Prince links

"The Far Right in West Michigan: Erik Prince" (from Media Mouse.org)
http://www.mediamouse.org/resources/right.php?personId=8

Source Watch.org profile
"Erik Prince"
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Erik_Prince

IMPEACH CHENEY FIRST