Blackwater to "protect" FBI while Investigating Blackwater

[LoungeMachine]

Blackwater to guard FBI team probing it

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BY JAMES GORDON MEEK
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU

Wednesday, October 3rd 2007, 4:00 AM



WASHINGTON - When a team of FBI agents lands in Baghdad this week to probe Blackwater security contractors for murder, it will be protected by bodyguards from the very same firm, the Daily News has learned.

Half a dozen FBI criminal investigators based in Washington are scheduled to travel to Iraq to gather evidence and interview witnesses about a Sept. 16 shooting spree that left at least 11 Iraqi civilians dead.

The agents plan to interview witnesses within the relative safety of the fortified Green Zone, but they will be transported outside the compound by Blackwater armored convoys, a source briefed on the FBI mission said.

"What happens when the FBI team decides to go visit the crime scene? Blackwater is going to have to take them there," the senior U.S. official told The News.

An FBI spokesman declined to comment on security measures taken by agents in Iraq.

"It makes absolutely no sense that the FBI will be protected by the very people they are investigating," said Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-Manhattan). "But given how the administration runs this war, it's hardly surprising."

In the past, FBI SWAT or hostage rescue team members protected other agents in the war zone. But the hostage rescue team force has been shrinking under the strain of bodyguard duty, leaving the FBI to rely increasingly on Blackwater when military escorts aren't available, sources said.

Besides the potential conflict of interest, it's unclear whether the FBI or Justice Department even has legal jurisdiction over Blackwater activities in Iraq.

"It is a question being examined now," the State Department's Iraq coordinator, David Satterfield, told lawmakers yesterday.

Some prosecutors believe they could slap murder charges on Blackwater, hired by the State Department to protect U.S. officials, under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act.

Sources said the FBI team was dispatched after FBI Director Robert Mueller met with President Bush and Secretary of State Rice and will help Diplomatic Security Service agents already investigating the shootout, which Blackwater claims was a defensive action against an ambush.

The House Oversight Committee conducted a hearing yesterday to question Blackwater Chairman Erik Prince - butwas asked by the Justice Department not to discuss the Sept. 16 killings in Baghdad.

Democrats were left to accuse Prince's men of being "reckless," which he calmly denied.

Asked about an operative who allegedly killed an Iraqi guard last year, Prince said he can only fire bad employees - "We can't flog him. We can't incarcerate him."

jmeek@nydailynews.com

[Nitro Express]

You would think the FBI would be able to protect themselves and didn't the Iraqi govt. oust Blackwater. Why isn't the Iraqi authorities deporting the Blackwater employees the FBI brought? Hell, why don't the Iraqi authorities provide protection or hell why is the FBI over there in the first place? I thought the CIA handled overseas investigations.

[MERRYKISSMASS2U]

It's all Opeth's fault.


Fuckin' Blackwater Park.....

[Nickdfresh]

Originally posted by Nitro Express
You would think the FBI would be able to protect themselves and didn't the Iraqi govt. oust Blackwater. Why isn't the Iraqi authorities deporting the Blackwater employees the FBI brought? Hell, why don't the Iraqi authorities provide protection or hell why is the FBI over there in the first place? I thought the CIA handled overseas investigations.

The CIA doesn't handle legal investigations though they can assist in certain probes...

The FBI actually has an overseas presence that would surprise most people. In fact, they were the US' main human intelligence gathering agency up until WWII...

[Nickdfresh]

The real sick thing here is that the US has essentially started to "privatize" the armed forces. The functions that Blackwater are in charge of is just mindbogglingly and disturbing. We're paying guys upwards of $200,000 a year to perform functions that could be handled by soldiers or marines for a fraction of that, with actual discipline and accountability...

[LoungeMachine]

It just begs the question....

WHY AREN'T THE FBI INVESTIGATORS BEING SECURED BY SOLDIERS OR MARINES?

Why are they being escorted by the very people they're investigating?

[Nitro Express]

Originally posted by Nickdfresh
The real sick thing here is that the US has essentially started to "privatize" the armed forces. The functions that Blackwater are in charge of is just mindbogglingly and disturbing. We're paying guys upwards of $200,000 a year to perform functions that could be handled by soldiers or marines for a fraction of that, with actual discipline and accountability...

Not to mention every one of those soldiers swears an oathe to be loyal to the US Constitution and the United States.

What scares me is if we gives these companies like Blackwater the authority to train soldiers and have military type weapons, what's to say they won't be a menace here in this country for the highest bidder? I don't like it. That kind of power needs to be under the control of the US Military and controlled by representative govt.

It's bad enough that govt. agencies don't have to answer to anybody and they all have their own black ninjas of terror but Blackwater is like a private infantry and special forces unit. That's shit.

[Nitro Express]

Originally posted by Nickdfresh
The real sick thing here is that the US has essentially started to "privatize" the armed forces. The functions that Blackwater are in charge of is just mindbogglingly and disturbing. We're paying guys upwards of $200,000 a year to perform functions that could be handled by soldiers or marines for a fraction of that, with actual discipline and accountability...

Let's not forget Haliburton. They are an oil drilling equipment company so tell me why the fuck they are doing stuff that the military should be doing themselves like sterylizing water. The military has people trained and the equipment to do it but nope, Haiburton gets the call.

Iraq is nothing by a big money maker for the Military Industrial Complex which now incluces Renta A Thug.

[Nickdfresh]

In the end, I read that Federal protective security personnel were used, not homicidal merc's...

[Blackflag]

It's against federal law for the U.S. to hire mercenaries, since the 1890's.

It's up to the Congress to do something about it, but we're being sold out from both sides.

[LoungeMachine]

Originally posted by Blackflag
It's against federal law for the U.S. to hire mercenaries, since the 1890's.

It's up to the Congress to do something about it, but we're being sold out from both sides.

If you're referring to posse comitatus, BushCO repealed it.

Threw it out along with habeus corpus.

[Blackflag]

No, posse comitatus was around the civil war. There was another act later that said that there could be no private actors performing quasi-military functions.

They're skirting around it today by saying these guys only do "security" work, which is defensive and not quasi-military.

Which is bullshit. But would require Congress to either a) challenge this interpretation in federal court or b) clarify the law to say that what Blackwater does is forbidden, as well.

But the onus, as more often than people realize, is with Congress. So Bush screwed us once, then Congress got sloppy seconds. I see no difference between Bush and Congress at this point.

[Nickdfresh]

Originally posted by Blackflag
It's against federal law for the U.S. to hire mercenaries, since the 1890's.

It's up to the Congress to do something about it, but we're being sold out from both sides.

True.

In fact, I've read that US citizens serving as mercenaries, or combatants, in a foreign war can lose their citizenship...

Unless of course there in a "security company" that donates heavily to the GOP...

[FORD]

Originally posted by Nickdfresh
True.

In fact, I've read that US citizens serving as mercenaries, or combatants, in a foreign war can lose their citizenship...

That's probably why BlacKKKwater is now hiring Chilean commandos.