Posted by D. Cupples | Yesterday, the House Oversight Committee sent a letter to Blackwater CEO Erik Prince, asking for information about its government dealings and other things. (Washington Post) The letter also states:
"According to a military official who has contacted the Committee, in 2005 Blackwater attempted to transport at least two Iraqi military aircraft out of lraq. The official stated that the Iraqi Ministry of Defense attempted to reclaim the aircraft, but that Blackwater would not comply. Please provide the Committee with … All documents related to efforts by Blackwater to remove Iraqi aircraft from Iraq and the current whereabouts of such aircraft."
Did Blackwater contractors try to steal another nation's airplanes?
The letter mentioned that Prince had testified at the Committee's October 2 hearing that two of Blackwater's federal contracts -- worth a combined $600+ million -- were competitively bid. The Committee has since learned that they were sole-source contracts (i.e., not competitively bid).
Unfortunately, there's more....
At the October 2 hearing, Prince testified that Blackwater had fired and fined Andrew Moonen, the Blackwater contractor who had shot and killed the Iraqi vice president's bodyguard during a Christmas Eve party in 2006.
The Oversight Committee has since learned that Blackwater didn't actually fine Moonen (instead it withheld his bonus) and that "the State Department and Blackwater kept the [guard killing] incident quiet and out of Moonen's personnel records." (See letter, page 3.) Moonen was able to get a job with a Defense Department contractor that likely would not have hired him if it had known of the "incident."
The House Oversight Committee also sent probing letters to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
Related BN-Politics Posts:
* Probe re: Embassy in Iraq & State Department Officials
* Blackwater Hearing: Poor Media Coverage
* State Dept.'s Odd & Untimely Reactions to Blackwater Scandals
* State Dept. Staff Threatened for Cooperating with Congress re: Blackwater
* Inspector General Blocked Investigations re: Waste and Fraud?
* Have U.S. Officials Protected Blackwater?
* Justice Dept. Official Turned Blind Eye to Contractor Fraud?
* Interior Dept. Officials Allowed Oil Companies to Underpay Royalties
* Embassy in Iraq: Waste, Bad Planning, and Contractor Fraud?
* Time for Pentagon to Get Serious About Contractor Fraud
* Billions over Baghdad: Poor Accounting Allowed Waste & Fraud
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