Founder defends Blackwater firm

WASHINGTON — Blackwater founder Erik Prince defended his company Tuesday from House Democrats, who portrayed the defense contractor as an overpaid private army harming U.S. interests in the Middle East.

Prince, whose company has secured more than $1 billion in federal contracts, said Blackwater guards operated properly in a Sept. 16 battle in Baghdad that left up to 11 Iraqi civilians dead and ignited an uproar over the use of private contractors.

"Based on everything we currently know, the Blackwater team acted appropriately while operating in a very complex war zone on September 16," Prince, 38, a former Navy SEAL, told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. "There has been a rush to judgment."

Iraqi officials say Blackwater guards fired unprovoked on Iraqi vehicles that day, killing, among others, a baby and a mother of eight.

Prince said the man had been fired and fined. But an internal Blackwater e-mail released at the hearing showed he merely forfeited bonuses and a return air ticket worth $14,697.

Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., chastised Prince for Blackwater's response to an incident on Christmas Eve 2006 in which a drunken employee killed a bodyguard to Iraq's vice president and was whisked out of Iraq with the State Department's knowledge.

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"We fired him. We fined him. ... We can't flog him. We can't incarcerate him," Prince said in response to questions by Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., about the same incident.

The committee did not discuss the incident at the request of the Justice Department, after the announcement Monday that the FBI was joining a State Department investigation.

Administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the incident had been referred to federal prosecutors in Seattle, where the former Blackwater employee now lives, but there has been no public announcement of any charges.

The FBI and U.S. Attorney's offices in Seattle said they could not confirm or deny the existence of the investigation.

Blackwater, under contract to protect U.S. diplomats and other civilians in Iraq, has been involved in numerous other incidents in which apparently innocent Iraqis were killed, according to a report released Monday by Chairman Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif. It disclosed that company security specialists were involved in nearly 200 "escalation of force" incidents involving shooting since 2005.

An investigation released last week by the Oversight Committee found that Blackwater did not adequately prepare the guards for their mission.

Questions have also arisen over the State Department's oversight of Blackwater and two other private military contractors working in Iraq, DynCorp and Triple Canopy.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last week ordered an urgent review of department security operations and sent a team to Baghdad over the weekend.

No private military contractor has been criminally prosecuted for alleged wrongdoing in Iraq.

Many of the committee's Republicans complained the hearing was a partisan attempt to smear a firm with strong ties to the GOP. Prince's sister, Betsy DeVos, is a former chairwoman of the Michigan Republican Party and her family has made large contributions to the GOP.

Republicans also repeated Blackwater's argument that the company is supporting the U.S. mission in Iraq and that no diplomats or lawmakers visiting Baghdad have been killed or seriously wounded while under Blackwater's protection.

"That should account for something," said Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind.

Material from Seattle Times staff and The Associated Press is included.