With Congress poised to expand laws overseeing private security contractors in Iraq, the State Department announced a new set of procedures Friday that will allow for closer monitoring of Blackwater USA security guards assigned to escort U.S. diplomats in Baghdad.
Under the new procedures, the State Department said it would place its own agents in Blackwater convoys, mount video cameras in security vehicles and record and archive radio transmissions from the company’s hired guns while they are in the field.
The stepped-up monitoring rules, issued at the behest of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, will apply only to Blackwater, the North Carolina-based company that has come under intense scrutiny since a Sept. 16 incident in Baghdad in which its employees are accused of an unprovoked killing of at least 11 civilians. The company has said its employees were shot at first.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the new procedures are being implemented “to make sure that the management, reporting and accountability function works as best as it possibly can,” and in no way amounts to an indictment of Blackwater. The FBI is investigating the Sept. 16 incident.
Blackwater has routinely declined media requests for comments about its operations.
The announcement came the day after the House voted overwhelmingly in favor of legislation that would make all private contractors working in Iraq and in other combat zones subject to prosecution in U.S. courts for any criminal acts. The Senate is expected to vote on similar legislation as early as next week.
But the White House has expressed opposition to the House measure on the grounds that it could have unforeseen consequences for military and intelligence operations.
Rep. David Price (D-N.C.), who sponsored the legislation in the House, applauded Rice for calling for closer monitoring. But Price said the administration is still falling short of addressing his concerns that some contractors are able to commit criminal acts with little fear of penalty.
“The secretary still needs to address the essential question of accountability: How will rogue individuals who commit criminal acts be brought to justice? The answer is that they cannot be held accountable without a change in U.S. law,” Price said.
A senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he did not have permission to speak publicly on the subject, said the Justice Department is working on a compromise bill. He added that administration officials are concerned that the House bill’s current language is too broad.
“You need contractors to be able to operate, not just become a political pawn,” the senior administration official said.
Iraqi government officials immediately condemned the Sept. 16 incident and called for banishing Blackwater from Iraq. The U.S. mission in Iraq relies on Blackwater to provide security for diplomats and other VIPs and has been trying to assuage Iraqi concerns since the shootings.
Speaking Friday during a visit to Washington, Iraqi National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie took a softer tone. Al-Rubaie conceded that the Blackwater contractors are immune from prosecution in Iraqi courts as a result of a provision instituted on behalf of American citizens and others working for the U.S.
However, he said Rice assured him that the immunity provision will be reviewed and “radically revised” soon.
“I don’t want to politicize it, and I don’t want to make this issue a point of friction between the government of Iraq and the government of the United States,” al-Rubaie said of the Sept. 16 incident. “Of course, what they have done is appalling … but I have to wait for the outcome of the investigation.”
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