McClatchy: Congressman: State Dept., Blackwater cooperated to neutralize killings

[babylonsister]

Congressman: State Dept., Blackwater cooperated to neutralize killings
By Warren P. Strobel | McClatchy Newspapers

* Posted on Monday, October 1, 2007

WASHINGTON — State Department officials worked closely with the private security contractor Blackwater USA to neutralize incidents in which company operatives killed innocent Iraqis, according to Blackwater and State Department documents obtained by a congressional committee.

In one case, State Department officials allowed a contractor who killed the bodyguard of Iraq's vice president last Christmas Eve to leave the country quickly, the documents show.

Officials in Baghdad and Washington then conferred with Blackwater on how much compensation to pay the family of the guard, Raheem Khalif. An unnamed official in the State Department's Diplomatic Security service complained that a proposed figure of $250,000 was too much, because it might lead Iraqis to "try to get killed so as to set up their family financially," according to a State Department e-mail that the committee obtained.

In another instance, the killing of an Iraqi in Hillah in June 2005, the State Department asked Blackwater to pay $5,000 in compensation. "(W)e are all better off getting this case — and any similar cases — behind us quickly," a department official wrote.

The disclosures appear to contradict claims by State Department officials that wrongdoing by Blackwater is investigated aggressively. The company has received $835 million in contracts to guard U.S. civilians in Iraq.

more...

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/20127.html

[spanone]

1. this is why they're trying to move back Waxman investigation

this goes deep imo

[babylonsister]

3. It's getting ugly, and they're dragging other agencies into it, all to

mix up what's going on imo. It will take years, or long enough, to untangle what happened.

[spanone]

2. link to another one of your great posts

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1953730

[enough]

4. k&r