Blackwater investigation expands

BAGHDAD — Iraq's probe into a deadly shooting by Blackwater USA in Baghdad last weekend has expanded to include allegations about the security firm's involvement in six other violent episodes this year that left at least 10 Iraqis dead.

Iraqi officials say these violent encounters have made them increasingly frustrated with Blackwater's conduct in Iraq, but the government backed away Friday from its attempt to expel the company. Blackwater has said its guards acted appropriately in the weekend incident, but it did not respond to requests for comment Friday on the other episodes.

Brig. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, chief spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said the ministry's findings would be referred to court for possible criminal prosecution.

On Friday, Blackwater-protected convoys resumed leaving the Green Zone, three days after the U.S. Embassy froze such travel amid Iraqi declarations that the company would be expelled. Mirembe Nantongo, a U.S. Embassy spokeswoman, said the convoys had resumed "on a limited basis" after "consultation with Iraqi authorities."

The North Carolina-based company, with an estimated 1,000 employees in Iraq, protects virtually every senior American diplomat and civilian official here.

Meanwhile, federal prosecutors are investigating whether Blackwater employees illegally smuggled weapons into Iraq that may have been sold on the black market and ended up in the hands of the PKK, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization fighting on the Turkish-Iraqi border for an independent Kurdistan, officials said Friday.

In today's editions, The News & Observer of Raleigh reported that two former Blackwater employees — Kenneth Wayne Cashwell, of Virginia Beach, Va.; and William Ellsworth "Max" Grumiaux, of Clemmons, N.C. — are cooperating with federal investigators.

It was not clear if Blackwater employees suspected of selling to the black market knew the weapons they allegedly sold to middlemen might wind up with the PKK.

Bassam Ridha, a senior adviser to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, conceded that the Iraqi government, at least for now, cannot follow through on a ban on Blackwater, even though the firm has been operating without a license for more than a year.

The U.S and Iraqi governments have been in consultation since Sunday, when a Blackwater security detail killed 11 people in the traffic circle at Nisoor Square in western Baghdad's Mansour district.

A preliminary Iraqi government investigation, carried out by the interior ministry, found that the armed guards fired unprovoked on Iraqi civilians. In turn, Blackwater and the State Deparment have said that their security detail had been hit by bullets.

But Iraqi officials have retreated after declaring they would take away security contractors' immunity. Instead, the prime minister agreed Wednesday that a joint Iraqi-U.S. commission will review the status of security contactors and also receive the results of an Iraqi and U.S. military investigation.

The investigation into what happened Sunday has been complicated by the involvement of the embassy's own diplomatic security agents, who work with and supervise Blackwater. The embassy's security department has been accused by some diplomats of having failed to challenge Blackwater in the past over questionable episodes.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday that she had ordered a "full and complete" review of the department's handling of security contractors in Iraq.

Rice also had supportive words for Blackwater. "We have needed and received the protection of Blackwater for a number of years now, and they have lost their own people in protecting our own people — and that needs to be said," she said.

To bolster their case against Blackwater, Interior Ministry officials cited six other incidents in their preliminary report, including:

• The killing of five people and wounding of 10 by Blackwater guards near the Baghdad municipality building on Sept. 9.

• A Sept. 13 incident in which Blackwater guards shot out storefronts at the busy al Khilani intersection near the Green Zone, apparently in response to what they thought might have been a sniper in a nearby building.

• The wounding of five people in Palestine Street on Sept. 12.

• The shooting death on May 24 of a taxi driver who was caught off guard and didn't stop immediately when a Blackwater convoy drove into oncoming traffic.

• The shooting of three Iraqi guards at the Iraqiya State Television station on Feb. 7 by a Blackwater sniper in the building across the street.

• The Feb. 2 death of a female Iraqiya reporter who was shot near the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Khalaf said the Interior Ministry has drafted legislation that would place strict controls on foreign security firms. Those that commit crimes "will be punished according to Iraqi law," he added.

Hamid Rashia Mualla, a Shiite legislator, predicted that Iraq's parliament would unite behind such legislation.

Contractors such as Blackwater have damaged the U.S.-led effort to woo Iraqis away from Sunni and Shiite extremists, said Peter Singer, a Brookings Institution expert on security contractors.

The animosity was evident at Friday prayers in the Shiite shrine city of Najaf, where a senior cleric railed against Blackwater.

"It is important that these companies be regulated by the law, and therefore an apology from Rice is not enough. Thousands of Iraqi children, women and elderly have been killed — as the Americans put it — by accident," said cleric Sadruddin Qubanchi.

Civilian contractors were doubtful that Blackwater would face any repercussions. "We think it's hard to give Blackwater the benefit of the doubt," one contractor said on condition of anonymity. "Even among their peer group, we are also tired of having guns pulled on us and being generally abused."

Compiled from The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, McClatchy Newspapers and The Associated Press.