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Blackwater Won't
Allow Arrests
By Sharon Behn -
10/17/07 "Washington
Times" -- -- -A defiant Blackwater Chairman
Erik Prince said yesterday he will not allow Iraqi authorities
to arrest his contractors and try them in Iraq's faulty justice
system.
"We will not let our people be taken by the Iraqis," Mr. Prince
told editors and reporters at The Washington Times. At least 17
of 20 Blackwater guards being investigated for their roles in a
Sept. 16 shooting incident are still in a secure compound in
Baghdad's Green Zone and carrying out limited duties.
Two or three others have been allowed by the State Department to
leave the country as part of their scheduled rotation out of
Iraq and are expected to return.
"In an ideal sense, if there was wrongdoing, there could be a
trial brought in the Iraqi court system. But that would imply
that there is a valid Iraqi court system where Westerners could
get a fair trial. That is not the case right now," said Mr.
Prince.
Mr. Prince also expressed his disappointment that the State
Department has not come to the company's defense, even though it
has never lost a State Department client in years of protecting
them.
"For the last week and a half, we have heard nothing from the
State Department," said Mr. Prince. "From their senior levels,
their PR folks, we've heard nothing — radio silence.
"It is disappointing for us. We have performed to the line,
letter and verse of their 1,000-page contract," he said. "Our
guys take significant risk for them. They've taken a pounding
these last three years."
A number of Blackwater contractors, most of whom come from
military and law-enforcement backgrounds, have been killed in
action or grievously wounded in Iraq while running more than
16,500 security missions in the past three years.
Iraq's government, outraged by the Sept. 16 incident in which up
to 17 Iraqis were killed as Blackwater staff tried to clear a
crowded traffic circle, has accused the U.S. firm of unprovoked
and random killings. Blackwater says its men were defending
themselves after coming under fire.
The State Department has since ordered that cameras be placed in
Blackwater security vehicles and that Diplomatic Security agents
accompany Blackwater staff on missions. Mr. Prince said his
company had recommended both those steps in 2005 and that the
proposals were "buried" by the department.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki demanded yesterday that
Blackwater leave Iraq and pay $8 million to the family of each
of the 17 victims. Iraqi Human Rights Minister Wijdan Salim said
the American guards responsible should stand trial in Iraq, the
British Broadcasting Corp. reported.
Mr. Prince, a 38-year-old former Navy SEAL, said if there was
any evidence of wrongdoing, his employees could be tried in the
United States by a jury of their peers under the Uniform Code of
Military Justice.
He said the hostility toward Blackwater was partly driven by
partisan politics from the Democrat-led Congress and the news
media.
"The far left was unsuccessful in attacking [Army Gen. David H.]
Petraeus and defunding the war, forcing a pullback of the U.S.
troops," he said. "I think part of the strategy might be to
undermine some other part of the support infrastructure, and
that would be contractors that are an important part of the
supporting package there in Iraq."
He said the scrutiny by Congress, which Democrats say is aimed
at better oversight, may have backfired.
"What has happened in the last six to nine months is we've seen
the U.S. government, [Department of Defense] in particular,
awarding a lot more work to non-U.S. companies ... because it is
harder to drag those guys before Congress," Mr. Prince said.
"And there is less oversight, there is less accountability,
there is less visibility into those operations."
Mr. Prince has been caught in a partisan crossfire since shortly
after last year's election, when a trial lawyer targeting
Blackwater lobbied then-House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi,
California Democrat, for hearings on the "extremely Republican"
company.
Mr. Prince emphasized that his guards are proven professionals,
recruited on the basis of their prior military, special
operations and law-enforcement experiences.
"They go through extensive vetting, training, 160 plus hours of
security training, psychological evaluations, security
clearances, background checks" and cultural training, he said.
Iraqis and other expatriate security companies on the ground in
Iraq have complained that Blackwater guards have been overly and
unnecessarily aggressive in their attitudes.
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