Posted by The Crux | Military reports about the recent shooting of Iraqi civilians by guards working for Blackwater USA indicate that they "opened fire without provocation and used excessive force." The U.S. State Department:
"responded yesterday to escalating criticism of Blackwater security guards in Iraq, announcing new measures to more closely monitor their operations as a new Pentagon report depicted a troubling lack of coordination between private security contractors and the U.S. military." (WaPo)
Shouldn't the State Department have started closely monitoring Blackwater a while ago? Iraqi officials repeatedly complained about Blackwater's questionable violence for some time, yet State Department officials did not respond (BN-Politics-1). That and Blackwater has contracts worth many millions of tax dollars.
Will the State Department objectively monitor Blackwater? Two weeks ago, evidence surfaced indicating that...
inspector general Howard Krongard may have blocked investigations into fraud and abuse by contractors including Blackwater (see congressional committee letter). Last Friday, major media ran stories about State Department whistleblowers who'd been threatened over their plans to cooperate with congressional investigators re: Blackwater. (BN-Politics-2)
Bureaucratic woes aside, I hope the media will remember that questionable violence is only one category of problems casting shadows over Blackwater....
In December 2006, for example, a congressional committee began investigating overcharging by contractors, including Blackwater (BN-Politics-3).
Last month, federal prosecutors began investigating whether Blackwater contractors illegally smuggled weapons into Iraq that may have ended up in enemy hands via the black market. (BN-Politics-4)
Another thing for the media to remember: Blackwater is one among many contractors with which our government has had trouble. For other examples, see the posts linked below:
* Contractor Fraud: Driving Up Healthcare Costs?
* Time for Pentagon to Get Serious about Contractor Fraud
* How the Energy Dept. Incinerated Tax Dollars
* New Orleans Still Suffering after 2 Years and Billions of Tax Dollars
* Billions over Baghdad: Poor Accounting Allowed Waste & Fraud
* Officials Allowed Oil Companies to Underpay Royalties
* 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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