Man Bush chose to lead Pentagon contracting probes left under fire to become Blackwater COO
 The
private security firm Blackwater USA, which has faced mounting
criticism following an incident earlier this month in which armed
guards from the group purportedly killed 11 unarmed Iraqi civilians,
has numerous links to the White House as well as many current and
former Republicans.
The connections include the firm's chief operating officer Joseph
Schmitz, who was tapped by President Bush in 2002 to "oversee and
police the Pentagon's military contracts as the Defense Department's
Inspector General."
The relevation was first reported by Ben Van Heuvelen in Salon.
Serving until 2005, Schmitz went on to preside over "the largest
increase of military-contracting spending in history" and joined
Blackwater just a month after his departure from the Pentagon,
according to Van Heuvelen.
"The resignation comes after Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) sent
Schmitz several letters this summer informing him that he was the focus
of a congressional inquiry into whether he had blocked two criminal
investigations last year," according to a 2005 article in the LA Times.
Then-Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Grassley "accused
Schmitz of fabricating an official Pentagon news release, planning an
expensive junket to Germany and hiding information from Congress.
Schmitz is the senior Pentagon official charged with investigating
waste, fraud and abuse."
CEO testifies in Congress today
Blackwater CEO Erik Prince will testify today before the House
Oversight and Government Reform Committee in a hearing centered on the
use of private contractors in Iraq -- but the appearance was at first
contested by the State Department, who Van Heuvelen said "directed
Blackwater not to give any information or testimony without its
sign-off." Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice later agreed that Prince
could testify.
 "The
ties between State and Blackwater are only part of a web of
relationships that Blackwater has maintained with the Bush
administration and with prominent Republicans," the story continues.
"From 2001 to 2007," says Salon, "the firm has increased its
annual federal contracts from less than $1 million to more than $1
billion, all while employees passed through a turnstile between
Blackwater and the administration, several leaving important posts in
the Pentagon and the CIA to take jobs at the security company."
Von Heuvelen goes on to detail additional links between the firm's
"luminaries" and the Bush administration and Republican party,
including:
Erik Prince, Blackwater's founder, who has donated "roughly
$300,000 to Republican candidates and political action committees.
Through his Freiheit Foundation, he also gave $500,000 to Prison
Fellowship Ministries, run by former Nixon official Charles Colson, in
2000." J. Cofer Black, Blackwater Vice Chairman, a 28-year veteran of
the CIA Van Heuvelen describes as "one of the more prominent faces
associated with the Bush administration's interrogation and
extraordinary rendition policies." Black is also a senior adviser to
GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Rob Richer, Vice President for Intelligence, who is the former head of the CIA Near East Division. "In 2003," according to Salon
"he briefed President Bush on the nascent Iraqi insurgency. In late
2004, he became the associate deputy director in the CIA's Directorate
of Operations, making him the second-ranking official for clandestine
operations." Fred Fielding, a former outside counsel for the firm, who "has
had a long career as a lawyer to prominent Republicans. From 1970 to
1972, he was an associate White House counsel in the Nixon
administration; from 1972 to 1974, he was present for the denouement of
that administration as deputy White House counsel." Fielding is a
former counsel to President Reagan and current White House counsel to
President Bush. Ken Starr, another counsel to Blackwater, who was hired by the
firm in 2006, is best known "as the Independent Counsel who
investigated Bill Clinton. He revealed the intimate details of
Clinton's affair with intern Monica Lewinsky in the infamous Starr
Report and set in motion Clinton's impeachment by Congress."
Hired guards were involved in more than one shooting per week
Private guns-for-hire from Blackwater USA fired their weapons nearly
200 times while working in Iraq, and in four-of-five incidents the
security contractors fired the first shots, according to a new
Democratic-sponsored congressional report.
Blackwater is facing increased scrutiny since a Sept. 16 incident in
which the company's security personnel killed between 11 and 20 Iraqi
citizens during an incident in which Iraqi investigators say the
private contractors were unprovoked before opening fire on the crowd.
The Democratic staff of the House Oversight Committee released a 15-page report
Monday that examined Blackwater's actions in Iraq based on incident
reports compiled by the company and other government documents.
The report found that since 2005 Blackwater guards were involved in
195 "escalation of force" incidents in Iraq during which they fired
their weapons, an average of 1.4 per week. In more than 80 percent of
those cases Blackwater guards fired first, according to the report, in
an apparent violation of the company's mandate allowing only defensive
fire to prevent "imminent and grave danger."
"In practice, however, the vast majority of Blackwater weapons
discharges are preemptive, with Blackwater forces firing first at a
vehicle or suspicious individual prior to receiving any fire," the
report notes.
Blackwater has received more than $832 million in contracts from the
State Department to guard diplomats and embassy officials in Baghdad,
but the new report reveals that State has done little to reign in or
punish rogue contractors.
"There is no evidence in the documents that the committee has
reviewed that the State Department sought to restrain Blackwater's
actions, raised concerns about the number of shooting incidents
involving Blackwater or the company's high rate of shooting first, or
detained Blackwater contractors for investigation," the Democratic
staffers write.
At a hearing Tuesday, Blackwater owner Erick Prince will testify
along with several State Department officials at an Oversight Committee
hearing investigating the Sept. 16 shooting along with other incidents
unearthed by the committee. Several Republicans requested a delay in the hearings until internal State Department investigations conclude. The FBI says it is beginning its own investigation into the shooting as well.
The controversy apparently has not eliminated Blackwater's ability to secure government contracts. On Friday, the Pentagon announced
that a Blackwater subsidiary, Presidential Airways Inc., would receive
a $92 million contract for air transportation services in Afghanistan,
Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan.
Monday's report shows that the State Department not only didn't seek
criminal repercussions against rogue guards, in at least one instance
the US government acted in concert with Blackwater to help an employee
return stateside after he had killed an Iraqi guard.
"Even in cases involving the death of Iraqis, it appears that the
State Department's primary response was to ask Blackwater to make
monetary payments to 'put the matter behind us,'" the report says. "The
most serious consequence faced by Blackwater personnel for misconduct
appears to be termination of their employment."
During the company's time in Iraq, it has fired 122 contractors for
problems ranging from violent behavior, to alcohol abuse, to
inappropriate use of weapons, according to the report.
The Oversight report pointed to a shooting on Christmas Eve last
year in which an apparently drunk Blackwater contractor shot and killed
a security guard to Iraqi Vice President Adil Abd-al-Mahdi. Prime
Minister Nouri al-Maliki's top aide called the incident "murder," and
last month's shooting rekindled Iraqis' anger over the Dec. 24, 2006
event.
Blackwater fired the contractor and arranged to have him evacuated
from the country; two days later he flew from Baghdad to Jordan, where
he returned to the US with the "authority of the DOS [Department of
State] Regional Security Officer," according to the report. US Embassy
officials worked with Blackwater in arranging a $15,000 payment to the
family of the slain guard.
"According to the State Department, the incident is still under
investigation by the Justice Department," the report notes. "However,
given the passage of nine months with no charges filed, it is unclear
whether there is any serious effort to pursue a prosecution in this
matter."
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