[NYTr] Iraqi Authorities Seek Blackwater Ouster

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

AP - Oct 9, 2007
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAQ_BLACKWATER_REPORT?SITE=MOSPL&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Iraqi Authorities Seek Blackwater Ouster

By STEVEN R. HURST and QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA
Associated Press Writers

BAGHDAD (AP) -- Iraqi authorities want the U.S. government to sever
all contracts in Iraq with Blackwater USA within six months. They also
want the firm to pay $8 million in compensation to families of each of
the 17 people killed when its guards sprayed a traffic circle with
heavy machine gun fire last month.

The demands - part of an Iraqi government report examined by The
Associated Press - also called on U.S. authorities to hand over the
Blackwater security agents involved in the Sept. 16 shootings to face
possible trial in Iraqi courts.

The tone of the Iraqi report appears to signal further strains between
the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the White House
over the deaths in Nisoor Square - which have prompted a series of U.S.
and Iraqi probes and raised questions over the use of private security
contractors to guard U.S. diplomats and other officials.

Al-Maliki ordered the investigation by his defense minister and other
top security and police officials on Sept. 22. The findings - which
were translated from Arabic by AP - mark the most definitive Iraqi
positions and contentions about the shootings last month.

The report also highlights the differences in death tolls and accounts
that have complicated efforts to piece together the chain of events as
one Blackwater-protected convoy raced back toward Baghdad's Green Zone
after a nearby bombing, while a second backup team in four gun trucks
sped into the square as a backup team.

The Iraqi investigation - first outlined Thursday by The Associated
Press - charges the four Blackwater vehicles called to the square began
shooting without provocation. Blackwater contends its employees came
under fire first.

The government, at the conclusion of its investigation, said 17 Iraqis
died. Initial reports put the toll at 11.

It said the compensation - totaling $136 million - was so high "because
Blackwater uses employees who disrespect the rights of Iraqi citizens
even though they are guests in this country."

The U.S. military pays compensation money to the families of civilians
killed in battles or to cover property damage, but at far lower amounts.

The United States has not made conclusive findings about the shooting,
though there are multiple investigations under way and Congress has
opened inquiries into the role of private security contractors. Last
week, the FBI took over a State Department investigation, raising the
prospect that it could be referred to the Justice Department for
prosecution.

The Iraqi government report said its courts were to proper venue in
which to bring charges.

It said Blackwater's license to operate in Iraq expired on June 2,
2006, meaning it had no immunity from prosecution under Iraqi laws set
down after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

The government report also challenged the claim that a decree in June
2004 by then-Iraqi administrator L. Paul Bremer granted Blackwater
immunity from legal action in incidents such as the one in Nisoor
Square. The report said the Blackwater guards could be charged under a
criminal code from 1969.

U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo said the diplomatic mission
would have no comment on the report. Iraq's Interior Ministry
spokesman, Abdul-Karim Khalaf, said the document was in American hands.

The report found that Blackwater guards also had killed 21 Iraqi
civilians and wounded 27 in previous shootings since it took over
security for U.S. diplomats in Baghdad after the U.S. invasion. The
Iraqi government did not say whether it would try to prosecute in those
cases.

The State Department has counted 56 shooting incidents involving
Blackwater guards in Iraq this year. All were being reviewed as part of
the comprehensive inquiry ordered by Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice.

© 2007 The Associated Press.