Blackwater

30 October 2007 -- An Iraqi government spokesman says Iraq's Cabinet has approved draft legislation that lifts immunity from prosecution for private security firms in Iraq.

The spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, said on Tuesday the measure will subject all security companies to Iraqi law and revoke the immunity given to foreign security contractors by the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority in 2004.

He says the legislation will be sent to the parliament for ratification.    » read more »

30 October 2007 -- The State Department said Tuesday that U.S.-hired private security guards accused of killing Iraqi civilians in September may still be subject to prosecution, despite a promise of immunity given by investigators. The case, involving contractors from the U.S. security firm Blackwater USA, has become a major irritant in U.S.-Iraqi relations.    » read more »

30 October 2007 -- The U.S. Departments of State and Defense are moving toward a new system to control the activities of security contractors working for the two departments in Iraq. The department secretaries met Tuesday to review the issue, and are expected to make a final decision next month.    » read more »

Rather Than Hide Behind Bush Administration, Blackwater Should Come Clean on Taxes

10/26/2007 -- WASHINGTON—Today Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.), pressed for more information about Blackwater USA’s alleged tax evasion. The private security firm has been under fire for hiding behind a Bush Administration business size ruling that classified some of their workers as independent contractors rather than employees to avoid paying at least $31 million in taxes.    » read more »

October 30, 2007 -- WASHINGTON, DC – Today, United States Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) sent the following letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice demanding answers on reports that State Department officials offered Blackwater guards immunity from prosecution, which may hinder a criminal investigation into the September shooting that killed at least 17 Iraqis.    » read more »

Blackwater May Have Misclassified Workers; Cheated American Taxpayers

October 26, 2007 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Barack Obama (D-IL) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) today sent a letter to U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson asking for a full investigation and audit of how Blackwater USA classifies its workers.    » read more »

30 October 2007 -- U.S. officials say a State Department promise of immunity to Blackwater USA guards may have compromised the probe into last month's shooting deaths of 17 Iraqi citizens.

Blackwater guards are accused of deliberately killing the civilians in Baghdad on September 16. The security firm says the Iraqis were killed when guards responded lawfully to an attack on a U.S. diplomatic convoy.

FBI investigators say the investigation has been hampered because the State Department gave guards immunity for statements, although the State Department had no authority to do so.    » read more »

25 October 2007 -- U.S. lawmakers have sharply questioned Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice about allegations that the State Department withheld information of corruption in Iraq, and steps by the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to deal with it.

The appearance by Secretary of State Rice came after months of refusing to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee because of disagreements with the panel chairman, Democrat Henry Waxman.    » read more »

10/23/2007 -- WASHINGTON – In response to reports that Blackwater USA – the embattled private security firm providing protection for State Department officials in Iraq and Afghanistan – may have relied on information from the Bush Administration to evade payroll taxes, Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) called on the Small Business Administration (SBA) to explain its potential involvement.    » read more »

October 22, 2007 -- New documents suggest that Blackwater may have engaged in significant tax evasion, failing to withhold and pay millions of dollars in Social Security, Medicare, unemployment, and related taxes, and sought to conceal its conduct from Congress and law enforcement officials.

In a letter to Eric Prince, the Chairman of the Prince Group, which owns Blackwater, House Oversight Committee Chairman Waxman writes:    » read more »

17 October 2007 -- The New York Times says U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is pressing for private security firms working for the U.S. government in Iraq to fall under a single authority, most likely that of the U.S. military.

A story published in Wednesday's edition of the newspaper says the idea is facing resistance from the State Department, which uses about 2,500 private security guards to protect American diplomats in Baghdad. About 800 of them are employed by Blackwater USA, which was involved in a deadly shooting in the Iraqi capital last month.    » read more »

Calls on Prince to testify, Release details of Iraq contract

October 15, 2007 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) called on Chairman Joseph Lieberman and Ranking Member Susan Collins of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to ask Erik Prince, the head of Blackwater, to testify before the Committee and provide details of the company’s contract in Iraq.    » read more »

14 October 2007 -- The chairman of the American security company Blackwater USA is defending his company's guards, who are under investigation over a September shooting incident in which 17 Iraqis were killed.

The Iraqi government accuses Blackwater guards of a deliberate, unprovoked shooting spree that killed 17 people in Baghdad on September 16.

But Blackwater chairman Erik Prince says, according to incident reports he has seen, the guards were responding to small arms fire while escorting a diplomatic convoy.    » read more »

11 October 2007 -- A U.S. rights group is suing the private security firm, Blackwater, on behalf of victims of a deadly shooting last month in Baghdad.

The Center for Constitutional Rights said Thursday it is filing the suit in a U.S. court for one survivor and the families of three of those who died. The suit accuses Blackwater of murder and war crimes, and it seeks unspecified damages.

Blackwater has not commented on the lawsuit. It has said in the past that its guards were lawfully responding to an attack on a U.S. diplomatic convey they were escorting in the Iraqi capital.    » read more »

11 October 2007 -- The United Nations is urging the United States to ensure that American private contractors who commit offenses in Iraq are prosecuted.

The U.N. Assistance Mission to Iraq is making the call in its new report on the human rights situation in that country Thursday. The mission noted several fatal incidents involving private security firms in the period between April and June of this year.

The report calls on the U.S. to establish mechanisms to hold contractors accountable when such incidents do not appear to be justified.    » read more »