At the House hearing, Blackwater USA founder and CEO Erik Prince defended his employees' actions.
BAGHDAD—An 8½-by-11-inch photograph tacked up in a U.S. military cubicle here shows a Blackwater USA security contractor cradling an assault rifle, wearing mirrored sunglasses, and looking tough and cool. Below it, someone has posted a gently mocking caption: "I cannot hear you over the sound of my awesomeness."
But, on Capitol Hill, more disturbing descriptions are being pinned on Blackwater personnel, such as "aggressive," "reckless," and "not accountable" to the Iraqi or U.S. government. A House committee last week was looking into allegations of serious abuses by Blackwater, which provides security for U.S. diplomats in Iraq. The committee, headed by Rep. Henry Waxman, released a Democratic staff report based on Blackwater's own documents showing that its employees were involved in at least 195 "escalation of force" incidents since early 2005—and that they fired the first shots in 80 percent of those cases.
The controversy overshadowed other news last week on the Iraq front that buoyed the Bush administration: the substantial September drop in both Iraqi and U.S. military deaths from August levels. In addition, the Senate's Democratic leaders seemed reluctant to face another run-in with the White House by taking up legislation, passed by the House 377 to 46, that would give the Bush administration two months to submit a general Iraq withdrawal plan without a timetable.
As the Waxman hearing was playing out in Washington, military officers in Baghdad offered their own long-standing complaints about Blackwater and other private security operations. While acknowledging that the private security personnel have an important job to do, some American soldiers tell U.S. News that they have witnessed aggressive behavior by Blackwater contractors that runs the spectrum from reckless driving that "runs cars off the road for no good reason" to one particular shootout with an American military convoy that resulted in the deaths of two Iraqis and one American contractor. At the U.S. military hospital where both parties took their wounded after that shooting, military officials in the convoy and Blackwater contractors "nearly came to blows," an officer present at the incident tells U.S. News.
Heavy-handed. Blackwater, which has been paid more than $1 billion for its security work in Iraq, boasts that no American official under its protection has been killed. And just last week, a Blackwater team was called into action after a bombing assassination attempt on the Polish ambassador in Baghdad. Blackwater personnel evacuated the wounded diplomat and his Polish security detail by helicopter to a U.S. combat hospital.
Still, U.S. officials say that Blackwater's manner of operation can conflict with military objectives. "They are heavy-handed," complains one senior U.S. military official. "And we've paid the price." That price includes facing resentment and anger from the very Iraqi civilians that U.S. soldiers are trying to win over. Few Iraqis differentiate between the U.S. military and the "Blackwater guys who drive around in their black Suburbans," says the senior officer. As a result, adds another U.S. military official here, actions by Blackwater "can turn an entire district against us."
The latest congressional scrutiny of Blackwater follows a September 16 shootout in Baghdad that left at least 11 Iraqis dead. While there are conflicting accounts of the cause, a graphic video of the aftermath shows bloodied windshields of bullet-riddled cars, one of which contains the charred remains of two bodies that appear to be huddled together for cover. The cars are stopped dead in their tracks, hoods smoking, on a street scattered with shoes and bullet shells.
Such incidents, says the senior U.S. officer, create a no-win situation with the Iraqis. "They still blame us—they look at us like, 'Why can't you stop this from happening?'" Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki echoed these sentiments, saying that "there is a sense of tension and anger among all Iraqis, including the government, over this crime."
In light of Iraqi government complaints (and just before the hearing), the FBI sent a team to investigate the incident. Ironically, the group had to bring its own protective detail after the New York Daily News reported that it would be guarded by Blackwater, the same company whose actions it was to investigate.
In testimony to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Blackwater Chairman and CEO Erik Prince defended his company's conduct during more than 16,000 missions in Iraq since 2005. "If there is any sort of discipline problem, whether it's bad attitude, a dirty weapon, riding someone's bike that's not his, we fire them. We hold ourselves internally accountable," said Prince. "We fire them; we can fine them. But we can't do anything else."
Who's in charge? Indeed, Waxman and other committee members reserved some of their harshest criticism for the State Department for failing to properly oversee its own contractors, who are exempt from Iraqi law under an order issued during U.S. occupation in 2004. Waxman highlighted the case of a drunken Blackwater guard who allegedly killed an Iraqi vice president's bodyguard last Christmas Eve. The American was quickly flown back to the United States, and State Department officials helped Blackwater negotiate a financial settlement with the dead Iraqi's family. "I don't see scrupulous oversight and scrutiny," Waxman told senior State Department officials. "I see an effort to sweep the whole incident under the rug."
Concerns about the actions of private security contractors, which date back to the first months of the U.S. occupation of Iraq, are not limited to Blackwater. There are currently some 20,000 private security guards in Iraq, according to Pentagon estimates. Others put the number as high as 50,000. An integral part of U.S. operations, contractors perform essential duties that would otherwise require an even larger military deployment. But even though the contractors frequently perform missions that are military in nature, the U.S. military does not directly control or monitor the bulk of their activity. "They need to be brought under control," says an official here, "and to answer to somebody."
The House last week passed legislation 389 to 30 to bring all private contractors in Iraq and other combat zones under U.S. criminal law (except any involved in intelligence operations). But Senate Republicans may block further action given White House objections that the bill's language would have "unintended and intolerable consequences" for national security activities.
On Friday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ordered new procedures for closer supervision of State Department security contractors. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is also acting to strengthen contractor oversight. The Pentagon has issued recommendations that include providing investigators and lawyers to help military commanders look into incidents and bringing all contractors under a common set of laws. Currently, Defense Department contractors may be prosecuted under the Uniform Code of Military Justice—laws not now applied to those working for the State Department.
