Blackwater Guards Given Immunity from Prosecution

by emptywheel

I pointed out the other day that several of the Blackwater guards involved in the September 16 shooting have left Iraq. Now bmaz points to this AP story revealing that all the guards have been given immunity from prosecution.

The State Department promised Blackwater USA bodyguards immunity from prosecution in its investigation of last month's deadly shooting of 17 Iraqi civilians, The Associated Press has learned.

[snip]

Three senior law enforcement officials said all the Blackwater bodyguards involved _ both in the vehicle convoy and in at least two helicopters above _ were given the legal protections as investigators from the Bureau of Diplomatic Security sought to find out what happened. The bureau is an arm of the State Department.

[snip]

An initial incident report by U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in Iraq, also indicated "no enemy activity involved" in the Sept. 16 incident. The report says Blackwater guards were traveling against the flow of traffic through a traffic circle when they "engaged five civilian vehicles with small arms fire" at a distance of 50 meters.

The FBI took over the case early this month, officials said, after prosecutors in the Justice Department's criminal division realized it could not bring charges against Blackwater guards based on their statements to the Diplomatic Security investigators.

And here's today's candidate for credulous reporting award:

Garrity protections generally are given to police or other public law enforcement officers, and were extended to the Blackwater guards because they were working on behalf of the U.S. government, one official said. Experts said it's rare for them to be given to all or even most witnesses _ particularly before a suspect is identified.

[snip]

It's not clear why the Diplomatic Security investigators agreed to give immunity to the bodyguards, or who authorized doing so.

Gosh, I couldn't imagine why the State Department would immediately immunize all the guards in this investigation, can you?

Anyway don't you think that's something Condi should have told Waxman's committee the other day ... that these guys had already been given immunity from prosecution and that, therefore, the FBI investigation is likely to end up--like all other investigations of Blackwater--holding no one responsible?

Comments

[Mad Dogs]

In case he/she/it didn't remember, I thought I'd bring back our serial doubter lil' joe's comments about our saintly DoS:

"some of these comments are carried away jus a lil too much.

for instance: there's no U.S. authority checking who's flying in and out of BIAP (Baghdad Int'l Airport). and there's no charges filed in this incident. so what's legally preventing the BW guys from going home? nothing. they don't need Condi's help. please.

spare us the dumb conspiracy theories. this is serious and getting seriouser by the day. whack theories about DoS "helping" cover it up just obscure the gravity of all of it.

Posted by: lil' joe | October 25, 2007 at 15:20"

My bold. As I said then, Pfui!

[...]

immunity for libby. immunity for blackwaters mistakes. but lets hold those suspected terrorists accountable by murdering them first and asking questions later... makes a lot of sense when you think backwards and upside down...

[radiofreewill]

You were right again - they won't testify.

No civilian massacre here, folks, just move along. Everyone had immunity, the killings don't count. Just one foot in front of the other...that's it...Let's keep that numb shuffle going now...Look! Over there!...

[Jodi]

There is important work to be done in Iraq. Yes, you can complain about the chain of events that led us there, but still we are there, and Blackwater is essential to the work which is in a WAR ZONE.

In a War zone bad things happen by definition, and the one way to stay alive is to be ever alert and ready to shoot.

[emptywheel]

rfw

There's a hint that some of them might do so. From today's article:

A second official, however, said that not all the guards have cited their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination _ leaving open the possibility for future charges. The official declined to elaborate.

There were enough quoted in the NYT article of the other day to at least support some liability. Hard to bring charges, though, when someone has already gotten immunity--Just ask Lawrence Walsh.

[Mad Dogs]

For the legal eagles here, does anyone know how it is that a non-law enforcement agency (DoS) can provide legal immunity from prosecution?

Anybody know when the Department of State became an arm of the Department of Justice? Mebbe Junya did a recess appointment of Condi as the acting AG? If so, I must've missed it.

[Mad Dogs]

Since the Blackwater folks were purported to be ex-Marines, I can see where Jodi is comin' from. Jodi is enthralled with the Marines credo: "Shoot 'em all and let God sort it out."

[cboldt]

Bureau of Diplomatic Security chief Richard Griffin last week announced his resignation, effective Thursday. Senior State Department officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, have said his departure was directly related to his oversight of Blackwater contractors.

On the question of "who has the power to immunize," it seems the answer is "quite a few entities have that power."

Congress has been known to grant immunity in exchange for testimony, and in this case, DoS's Bureau of Diplomatic Security was granting immunity, also ostensibly for purposes of obtaining a complete investigation. I think, OTOH, part of the reason from granting immunity was to remove some actors from the risk of exposure to criminal sanction. Griffin's impending resignation is a great opportunity -- in trouble for weak oversight? Ready to be fired anyway? You're the man who can grant broad immunity! They can't fire you twice.

[bmaz]

"And here's today's candidate for credulous reporting award:" Damn EW, that is just as much an understatement as the stinking WaPo piece! This is freaking unheard of in law enforcement and criminal justice. NEVER have I heard of anything remotely like this. The ONLY explanation is that it was a concerted effort to shut the coming investigation down; there really is no other possibility I can reckon.

Mad Dogs - You are out of the doghouse so soon? Heh heh. I was aware that State had a Diplomatic Security Bureau or detail, and also utilized Marines at embassies; but I am shocked that they have the power to grant immunity or were conducting anything more than a cursory initial information gathering. The FBI is usually involved immediately in these type of issues in foreign locations. This is absolutely insane; if you grant immunity to everybody involved, what are you investigating? Answer: nothing, you are covering. Another scandal for Hugh's list. Can we please impeach someone, anyone, in this Administration already?

[Mad Dogs]

More DoS Blackwater cover-up? From ABC News - The Blotter on 10/25/07 at http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/10/exclusive-state.html:

"Internal State Department e-mails, obtained by the Blotter on ABCNews.com, show top officials were extensively briefed about repeated incidents of Blackwater security guards killing innocent civilians more than two years ago.

It was only in the last month that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice took action to review the activities of Blackwater and other private security companies in Iraq."

A PDF of the email listing a number of pending claims for Blackwater acts is at: http://abcnews.go.com/images/Blotter/Blackwater_emailA.pdf

[radiofreewill]

EW - Thanks for the clarification that future charges are still possible, but I wonder if a 'semantics' fast one isn't being slipped by US here.

I mean, if you 'give' all the Contractors Immunity so they can waive their 5th Amendment Rights against self-incrimination, but only some of them take the Immunity and some of them don't - wouldn't you conclude that, effectively, the Shooters were the ones given Immunity?

But it was disengenuously proffered as 'But, Everyone got [the offer of] Immunity!'

This incident has War Crime written all over it - a mass killing of innocent Civilians. Hmmmmm...seems to me there's a precedent in Iraq for handling this kind of thing...

Condi's been on the run from the misdeeds of her Lack of Integrity for years now.

Who would doubt that she will do everything she can to smother any incriminating evidence that would put her in the docket on another charge?

[bmaz]

Rice should be drawn and quartered for this. Inexcusable.

[bmaz]

RFW - That bit about some of them not invoking the 5th will end the second they get decent lawyers; secondly, I think it still presents admissibility problems in light of the blanket immunity agreements because almost any information gleaned would be covered to some extent in the Garrity agreement letters. This pooch is totally screwed.

[emptywheel]

RFW and bmaz

Here's my understanding of what happened:

1) The incident happened and State, believing it was business as usual with Blackwater, promptly gave them immunity and whisked the guilty ones out of the country (time to fix that shrapnel wound, don'tcha know?)

2) Then it became clear that it is no longer business as usual for Blackwater, not here and not in Iraq.

3) Since State had already given the immunity, they pawned it off on FBI. FBI didn't grant them immunity, so any evidence FBI can collect (as the article reports, the crime was weeks earlier), it can use to prosecute these guys.

I think, given this story and the NYT story, that there are actually some members of the patrol who thought the shooting was crazy, and they'd like to get it off their chest. Plus, they're not at personal risk.

So if the FBI can get enough Blackwater guards to violate the Omerta, then they've got a case. Maybe. Normally, I'd say it wouldn't happen, but there were a whole lot of chatters to the NYT the other day.

[elephty]

Another diplomatic action designed to win the hearts and minds of Iraqis who do(did?) not hate the U.S. Who are the geniuses behind Condi? My mistake, none exist.

Strike another blow for democracy and the rule of law in Iraq. The U.S. keeps proving that our system of governance and justice is superior to whatever it was they had.

I wonder what would have happened to Iraqi soldiers if they drove into a traffic circle, and on suspicion alone lit up
seventeen Iraqi civilians. I don't think they would have needed immunity or have taken the time to prepare for court. They would have been executed. Wasn't Saddam Hussein executed for doing something similar to this? The difference was that someone tried to assassinate Hussein. Were the Blackwater goons fired upon? I can't wait until the U.S. has a parade welcoming the Blackwater people as heroes. It wasn't as if they killed innocent civilians; after all, they were only Iraqis.

[randiego]

Hey - was it here that I was reading that Blackwater was hoping to get some CBP contracts?

I was thinking about that, and then - duh! - it hit me. No wonder they want that compound/shooting gallery/training camp in Potrero. It's right smack dab in the middle of the backcountry where migrants are forced to cross. (Like the 4 they found burned in a canyon very close to Potrero last week).

[Mad Dogs]

Let's posit that the Department of State has no statutory authority to grant immunity from prosecution (as no one has yet identified that they do), and further that as I remember, the Supreme Court ruled that lying by law enforcement types during interrogations is not illegal, could these "immunized" Blackwater folks still be prosecuted on the basis of the statements they gave to DoS investigators?

[Hmmm.]

Thanks EW for this. But despite the claims to the contrary, I still don't understand how anybody in DoS would have actually had the legal authority to make the offer of immunity in the first place. So (1) Does anybody here have knowledge of how that works, could work, or (preferred answer:) could never work?; and (2) If there were no such legitimate authority, then who's in a position to pierce the veil of the ill-given immunity?

Hmmm.

[bmaz]

EW - I agree with your sequencing; but from everything I have read and seen, I don't think that they saw this as business as usual for Blackwater. Maybe they thought that for the first day or so, when they actually had Blackwater write the reports, but it very quickly got away from that. It is my bet that the immunity across the board was given after that point, when it was starting to explode, and they actively wanted to preclude investigation and prosecution. It may well be possible to prosecute these chaps on "independent" evidence; however, it may be more difficult than you think. Most "independent" evidence is going to be in Iraq, and be founded upon Iraqi witnesses. Getting all that acquired, and over here in a courtroom, sufficient to convict without any statements from the involved Blackwater people, will not be easy. How much a couple of rogue guys willing to talk helps the effort will depend entirely on which guys they are in the scheme of things, and how much they are willing to truthfully say. I'll tell you this much, if one of these guys came to me, I would tell him not to even think about opening his mouth. There is no other advice you could even contemplate giving. Interesting question is whether or not DOJ will now try splitting off the want to be talkers by giving them full transactional immunity. there are a lot of issues here and State drove a very big stake in the heart of the ability to prosecute; maybe not fatal, but certainly life threatening.

[cboldt]

Digging for the power and jurisdiction of the "Diplomatic Security" force (from whence their power to immunize might become more clear), I found this unrelated Bureau of Diplomatic Security Press Release of June 22, 2007. It's ironic, a police force that touts itself as having superior efficacy at apprehending international fugitives, is also good at "laundering" offenses.

Protecting their own, more like it.

[sailmaker]

Cue Seymour Hersh with Condi in the Colin Powell role. Mai Lai was different in that most of the perps left the military before the crime was prosecuted, and so, IIRC, could not be prosecuted.

If Blackwater comes home, can any part of the government prosecute them? I believe that several have returned, but have yet to find a source.

[radiofreewill]

I'm fairly certain there are videos of the incident, taken by people in the crowd, that show at least one Contractor propped-up, like he's not concerned about return fire, on the roof of a vehicle firing away.

If videos do surface, then there are going to be many, many authentically identifiable people who can tell the tale of that incident from the victims' side.

I think we can expect 3 or 4 One-Way-or-the-Other-Immunized Contractors to have one story that includes the Convoy 'being fired upon', and the other Contractors plus the Victims will tell a different story of an un-provoked attack on innocent Iraqi civilians.

If the past is any indication, by then, the 3 or 4 Shooters will be working for Dyncorp.

[Dismayed]

These guys probably will never be procecuted in the US, and I'm not fully sure they should be. Members of the command and control structure should, but once firing starts it's hard to know who fired first and a defensive reaction kicks in. There are probably a number of the guys who fired, but didn't know they hadn't been fired upon.

Each of these guys days of travelling outside the US is probably over. They could be served with papers and hauled before a foreign court - and they ain't big enough fish to expect uncle to bail them out. They need to know they are being protected for now, but if they think they are anything but expendible in the eyes of this rouge government we've got, they are in for a rude shock.

At the end of the day these guys are the syptom, not the disease. And remember not a single officer or Intel agent has been procecuted for Abu-Graib. Yeah, a bunch of privates and corporals went rouge. Welcome to the most dangerous country in the world.

[freepatriot]

there's a clause in the ICC laws that states if a country is unable to enforce the laws of humanity, it becomes the duty of every other member nation to enforce the laws of humanity

since the United States is unable to enforce the laws of humanity in this case, due to the incompetence and malfeasance of the condiliar, any other nation can detain these war criminals and turn them over to the ICC

let's put these assholes in a sack and drop em of in Tijuana

Mexico can extradite them to Iraq, and as an added bonus, we get to watch presnit george have a hissy fit (cheney might even shoot somebody again)

[masaccio]

What do we know about emigrating to France?