Posted by The Crux | As it prepared for today's hearing (10 am) about contractor abuses, the House Oversight Committee released a 14-page memo containing evidence that government officials were protective of Blackwater USA, a company that received $1+ billion in contracts and has been involved in questionable killing and billing.
According to The Hill, Republican committee members wanted to delay the hearing. (Photo by Adam Henning.)
New evidence indicates that after a drunk Blackwater employee shot and killed the Iraqi Vice President's guard in 2006, U.S. officials responded as follows:
"Within 36 hours after the shooting, the State Department had allowed Blackwater to transport the Blackwater contractor out of Iraq. The State Department Charge d'Affaires recommended that Blackwater make a 'sizeable payment' and an 'apology to avoid this whole thing becoming even worse.' The Charge d'Affaires suggested a $250,000 payment to the guard's family, but the Department's Diplomatic Security Service said this was too much and could cause Iraqis to 'try to get killed.' In the end, the State Department and Blackwater agreed on a $15,000 payment." (memo, page 2)
It gets worse....
According to the Committee's memo, the State Department took a similar approach after receiving reports that Blackwater shooters killed an innocent Iraqi: in this case, the State Dept. requested only a $5,000 payment to "put this unfortunate matter behind us quickly." (Page 2)
This is not the first time government officials' handling of contractors (and contracts) has been highly questionable. See posts linked below.
* State Dept. Staff Threatened for Cooperating with Congress re: Blackwater
* Have U.S. Officials Protected Blackwater?
* State Dept. Inspector Blocked Investigations?
* Justice Dept. Official Turned Blind Eye to Contractor Fraud?
* Interior Dept. Officials Allowed Oil Companies to Underpay Royalties
* Time for Pentagon to Get Serious About Contractor Fraud
* Contractor UNISYS in Trouble Again
* Billions
over Baghdad: Poor Accounting Allowed Waste & Fraud
* Defense
Dept. Rewarding Bad Contractor Performance?
* How
the Defense Dept. Flushes Dollars Down Latrine
* Gov.
Contractors: Driving up War's Costs
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