State to Blackwater: Nothing You Say Can and Will Be Used Against You in a Court of Law
Apparently there is one set of rights for Blackwater mercenaries and another for the rest of us. Normally when a group of people alleged to have gunned down 17 civilians in a lawless shooting spree are questioned, investigators will tell them something along the lines of: “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.” But that is not what the Blackwater operatives involved in the September 16 Nisour Square shooting in Iraq were told. Most of the Blackwater shooters were questioned by State Department Diplomatic Security investigators with the understanding that their statements and information gleaned from them could not be used to bring criminal charges against them, nor could they be introduced as evidence. In other words, “Anything you say can’t and won’t be used against you in a court of law.”
ABC News obtained copies of sworn statements given by Blackwater guards in the immediate aftermath of the shootings, all of which begin, “I understand this statement is being given in furtherance of an official administrative inquiry,” and that, “I further understand that neither my statements nor any information or evidence gained by reason of my statements can be used against me in a criminal proceeding.” Constitutional law expert Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, says the offering of so-called “use immunity” agreements by the State Department is “very irregular,” adding he could not recall a precedent for it. In normal circumstances, Ratner said, such immunity is only granted after a Grand Jury or Congressional committee has been convened and the party has invoked their 5th Amendment rights against self-incrimination. It would then be authorized by either a judge or the committee.
Military law expert Scott Horton of Human Rights First says, “What the State Department has done in this case is inconsistent with proper law enforcement standards. It is likely to undermine an ultimate prosecution, if not make it impossible. In this sense, the objective of the State Department in doing this is exposed to question. It seems less to be to collect the facts than to immunize Blackwater and its employees. By purporting to grant immunity, the State Department draws itself more deeply into the wrongdoing and adopts a posture vis-a-vis Blackwater that appears downright conspiratorial. This will make the fruits of its investigation a tough sell.”
Ratner says that while what was offered the Blackwater operatives is not immunity from prosecution, prosecutors would need to prove they did not use the sworn statements as part of their investigation. “Even though the person can be prosecuted if independent evidence is relied upon, often this is hard to demonstrate,” he says. As an example of the problems such immunity can pose, Ratner points to the case of Oliver North. “He had been granted ‘use immunity’ and was then prosecuted, supposedly on the basis of independent evidence,” Ratner says. “However, his conviction was reversed in the court of appeals because it could not be demonstrated that all of the evidence against him had an independent source outside of his own testimony.”
Aside from the fundamental problem that there is quite possibly no legal framework for charging the Blackwater shooters under any legal system–US civilian law, military law or Iraqi law–legal analysts and a former federal prosecutor say the State Department has already tainted the Nisour Square criminal investigation in several ways. The FBI was not dispatched to investigate the case until two weeks after the shootings occurred, meaning that the initial investigation was in the hands of a non-law enforcement agency that just happens to be Blackwater’s employer. By the time actual law enforcement, the FBI, was sent to Baghdad, the crime scene had been tainted and some of the perpetrators questioned with the alleged immunity provision. “To rely on non-law enforcement to conduct sensitive law enforcement activities makes no sense if you want impartial justice,” says Melanie Sloan, a former federal prosecutor who currently serves as Executive Director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. “This investigation has already taken so long and it looks like the State Department has impeded the possibility of a successful criminal investigation.” The Washington Post reported that “Some of the Blackwater guards have subsequently refused to be interviewed by the FBI, citing promises of immunity from State.”
This is hardly the first indication that the government’s investigation of the Nisour Square shootings was lacking in integrity and impartiality. The State Department’s initial report on the shooting was drafted by a Blackwater contractor on official US government stationary. The FBI team initially dispatched to Baghdad to investigate Blackwater was to be guarded by Blackwater until Sen. Patrick Leahy raised questions about the arrangement forcing the Bureau to announce it would be guarded by official personnel and not personnel from the same company it was investigating.
Perhaps the most disturbing part of this story (aside from the loss of Iraqi civilian life) is that even if Blackwater was not so politically connected to the White House and even if there was a truly independent US Justice Department and even if immunity had not been offered and even if there was an aggressive investigation, it may all be totally irrelevant. When Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice recently dispatched a team to Baghdad led by veteran diplomat Patrick Kennedy to review the department’s private security force, the team returned with the conclusion that it “is unaware of any basis for holding non-Department of Defense contractors accountable under US law.”
While there are currently moves afoot in the US Congress to adjust language in the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act to allow for prosecutions of State Department contractor crimes in US civilian courts and although there is a debate over whether the court martial system could be applied, the reality is that the political will to prosecute contractors has been totally absent since day one of the Iraq occupation. Not a single armed contractor has ever been prosecuted for crimes committed in Iraq–not under US civilian law, not under military law and certainly not in Iraqi courts, which have been banned by the US occupation authorities from going after private contractors.
What is so often lost in this new debate on accountability and oversight is this fact: private contractors now outnumber regular soldiers on the Iraq battlefield. The military–with its massive bureaucracy–has been unable or unwilling to effectively monitor the actions of its soldiers and prosecute them for crimes. Who will effectively oversee the 180,000-strong shadow corporate army? Will FBI teams really be running around Iraq chasing allegations (ever increasing) of contractor crimes and misconduct? Who will guard the investigators? Who will interview Iraqi witnesses? Where will the funding come from? Who will arrest the heavily-armed mercenary alleged to have committed a crime, particularly when he was doing exactly what he was supposed to do in keeping VIP US officials alive in Iraq?
While there may be some token prosecutions that stem from the recent uptick in reporting on contractor crimes in Iraq, the reality is that without private forces from Blackwater and its ilk, the US occupation of Iraq would be untenable. Nothing will be done that would actually jeopardize the use of such forces in the war zone. While Blackwater’s conduct in Iraq is horrifying, it is important to remember that US ambassadors–all four who have served under the Iraq occupation–owe their lives to Blackwater’s shoot-first-and-never-ask-questions cowboy tactics. They are the reason the company can brag it has never lost an American life it was protecting. Blackwater does its job and while it is essential to prosecute its operatives for their crimes, the ultimately responsible party is the entity that hired them and deployed them armed and dangerous in Iraq.
Jeremy Scahill is the author of the New York Times bestseller Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army. He is currently a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellow at the Nation Institute.
Copyright © 2007 HuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
basically, the nazis won WWII; they just waited till they got ray-gun ( read ollie north & co )in power to start buggering us.
blackwater is just the concrete manifestation of that internal enemy. and they are the enemy of mankind.
This is what happens when voters elect AMORAL leaders for White House and Congress who in turn return the favor to their AMORAL cronies. Until we the people stand up for REAL MORALITY and not the fake rightwing “morality” bullshit which is inherently AMORAL to begin with, this country will continue to LOSE LOSE LOSE !
Back when immunity was first granted to Black Water who did it and by what authority (law)???
maxpayne, what makes you think the White House crew was elected? And, they are hardly leaders in any sense of that word!
annabelle, what is missing from all the reporting on this issue is that Paul Bremer decreed that the mercenaries had immunity!
How prophetic it all seems now. From a great old comic strip: “We have met the enemy and they are us”.
Killing as corporate sport! ROLLERBALL! We are here!
[quote]fredhb October 31st, 2007 12:45 pm — maxpayne, what makes you think the White House crew was elected?[/quote]
What makes you think that they weren’t? Are you under the strange impression that ‘freedom and democracy’ in the U.S. has something to do with the human populace. If you want truly to understand the system, you only need to substitute ‘corporate personhood’ for every mention of ‘the people’ in its political underpinnings.
Only paid sponsorship matters in the ‘greatest democracy on earth’, not audience participation by the sheeple under its control. And that applies regardless of whether you are a domestic subject or an international subject of the empire. The only difference is that some of those silly foreigners think they can resist the realities of the situation. Damned fools!
FIGHT OR FLIGHT - TO JOIN OR NOT PRIVATIZED SECURITY
Jeremy Scahill has noted elsewhere that military soldiers in Iraq tend either to despise Blackwater or in contrast, admire it, the latter reflecting a desire for the substantial promotion in pay and prestige.
This is largely why there are few persons close to the privatizated scandals who will speak out, no matter how rotten it is. They’re either employees or associated in ways for which any public criticism will cost them personally, even when they may have significant criticisms in a whistleblower sort of way.
Blackwater is adding to the Private Big Brother already there in terms of the vast surveillance, background investigation and drug war industry. The employees of these companies won’t dare speak up either, nor will the corresponding government employees with whom they are complicit.
Why should they? After a few years with Blackwater, they’re financially secure for life. Living behind a public relations shield designed to portray welfare gluttons as patriotic warriors in the war on (fill in convenient war here), it makes the rest of the otherwise qualified employees look like losers in the “free market”.
Just think of it, the next Ken Burns War series about the valiant, selfless patriotism that rose up spontaneously against evil by the Privatized Warriors of Blackwater et al in WWIII.
The “problem” with Blackwater and other contractors overwhelming the will and sense of American citizens will continue unabated as long as we elect a Republican administration. If we replace with a Democratic administration, the “problem” will diminish somewhat but not be completely eliminated. This is gonna be an either “win a little” or “lose altogether” thing for the rest of our lives. Corporations are powerful, and not the least intimidated by aspiring politicians who finger their schemes but never attain office. If this weren’t true, Ralph Nader’s writings would have already fixed the corporate over-reach problems right after we first got seat belts put in new cars.
What is the difference between Blackwater and the German SS? Apparently not much according to Secretary Rice. This is just great news for all of us who can see that Blackwater will be working at home here in the US in the near future. Here come the brownshirts and the doorbells ringing at 2am.
[quote]Daniel David October 31st, 2007 2:00 pm — This is gonna be an either “win a little” or “lose altogether” thing for the rest of our lives.[/quote]
I will add only that inducing a sense of helpless resignation and acceptance amongst the ‘consumer base’ is a much favored tool throughout the corporate world. Beyond that, I’ll let others draw their own conclusions.
Yes, we all understand that the corporate entity is at the bottom of all these problems. So why even consider politicians? They represent the corporations, period. This is not cynical slander. This is a fact of life in our time. All the railing against politicians we hear only makes CEOs smile. When we blame the politicians, we aren’t touching the real criminals.
So, it’s time to bypass the politicians as irrelevant. When they speak, ignore them. Simply say, ‘We want to speak to your boss,’ and NOTHING more. Then protest, boycott and protest again. Refuse their consumer offerings. Bring them to heel. Divest them of their incredible power which only the public can bestow upon them. Go after the corporations with all the rage you have for the destruction they are causing!
support our legitimate armed forces or pay the consequences!it is likely civilians arent the only ones to be mowed down by blackwater,just ask tillman,mora and gray,etc………,support the u.s. military and accuse the subhuman scum that is blackwater and all killers for hire(that by itself used to be illegal)
But, but, but I read that some American diplomats don’t really want to go on Blackwater safaris to Baghdad. How un-patriotic is that? Wasn’t Chevronleezza planning to cover the walls of the State Department with trophy heads of Arab men, women and children?
L. Paul Bremmer should be tried fro crimes against humanity. His magic our problem! dlz
I think Malfoyd is definitely presenting the real picture. And since they ( huge corporations) own our politicians, and since those very “owned entities” are not about to bite the hand that feeds them, the chance of passing genuine electoral reforms and total public financing of elections, is not likely to happen. So lets go right to the source of our problems–boycott, stop buying their products. Stop consuming consuming consuming to fill the void inside due to our feelings of powerlessness. We do still have the power of the purse folks. Let’s use it!!!
Thanks starofthesea.
You are right that there will be no improvement until we take total action against corporations. And you can be sure that soon as any real concerted consumer/voter action is taken, you will see lots of meaningless concessions from both politicians and corporations. Just enough to break our stride, and then back to business as usual.
We should accept no less than the dismantling of the construct of the corporation as a legal entity. Any entity with the sole mandate of enriching its shareholders is by denifintion anti-social. That mandate must be abolished and a new legal definition created where the primary mandate for the means of production is pursuit of the public interest.
What really scares me about this is the fact that we have a huge mercinary army being controlled by who? Who is in charge of Blackwater? Who’s to say that if King George doesn’t want to leave office at the end of his term, he won’t just use these mercinaries as his private army in a coup? With our military so spread out around the globe, we have more of these mercinaries than real soldiers at home. If we send what little military strength we have to Iran, who is going to defend our country? The National Guard is supposed to do so, but they will probably get sent to fight in WWIII. “Politicians love unarmed peasants.”
Bill Moyers interviewed Jeremy Scahill on Front Line. I am truly frightened of the Blackwater group.
Please look at:
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/10192007/profile.html
Keep it up Jeremy, and watch your back.
Blackwater = Bushco’s Einsatzgrupe.
Even prosecution under US laws won’t stop these war profiteers, although it is necessary. They’ll just set up offshore corporations and hire non-US nationals, probably from poor countries (they work cheap and nobody cares what they do or if they die) and keep gorging at the bountiful federal anti-terror trough.
This is just another fine example of having a “born again Christian” president in control. Giving hired killers immunity from prosecution fits in nicely with so many other lawbreakers in this administration that have walked out with no problems for their misdeeds. Just don`t carry an antiwar sign around, you may find out what jail is like for your serious crime and do not expect immunity either.
Remember Whitewater? Now there was a really big deal of Clinton`s that needed to be investigated for several years to place guilt and punishment. Now Blackwater, on the other hand, can be swept under the rug and just forgotten. That is the way the “Rule of Law” Repugs figure. Very impressive!
Whitewater Clinton was nearly impeached over a blowjob. Blackwater Bush is immune to impeachment fom blowback.
Seriously screwed up set of priorities. Death, pain, and suffering are okay, encouraged even, but basic human sexuality is criminalised.
Seriously, seriously screwed up.
The question of who controls these mercenaries is very important. The Chief Operations Officer of the Prince Group, parent corporation of Blackwater, is Joseph Schmitz, who is married to the sister of Jeb Bush’s wife. But our Congress authorizes the payments. They stop doing that, it would have a significant impact. How significant depends on whether the Bushes and their Have More partners in crime want to pony up the payroll themselves.
Now that they have been created these military corporations and mercenaries who have a license to kill and immunity. When do they end? With Iraq? Say there was peace there, what happens to say 50,000 heavily armed combatants not subject to our military orders? They will still exist as private armies for use where and how? On whom? Yeah guess whom as well ala New Orleans
So besides say 50,000 of these guys with predator drone complexes in their basement or whatever…their ‘gear’…um…their work clothes living near you? Automatic weapons? Um…yes …hi neighbor! Where will this small army be used in the world and who could afford to pay them except huge corporate interests. Well the Hessians return Americans.
Why is the edict by Bremer given legitimacy under law? I fail to see how an individual or any government much less an occupying force with the intention to remain for years, has the right to say armed individuals are beyond iraqi, american and international law.
So assuming our state dept. has Bremer sign this authorization…so what? Where does this have validity under international law if nothing else?
So Bremer signed it. So? The American State Dept. allowed it. SO?
What validity has Bremer’s edict under international law? Other overnments can say their forces are working under full immunity say in the Congo or darfur etc. Burma.
If mercenaries are permitted to work outside of international law… put that genie back into the bottle … later?
Will international law apply to them later but not right now? Um…yeah. If it will be valid later why isn’t international law valid now despite Bremer’s order?
Why is that even legal?
OK, some attorney out there: Is this “TOO TV” or is it so:
If you are granted immunity, you cannot refuse to testify based on your 5th Amendment rights because you can no longer incriminate yourself.
Leaving aside the question whether the State Department has the authority to grant such immunity, if we just accept the concept, let’s get these guys in front of a Congressional hearing, insist they speak under oath and let’s find out what the hell is really going on in that company and over in Iraq.
If Bush is the best example of Christianity that Christian’s can come up with? The religion is in deep s…! He is the most immoral man on the planet. The list of his moral offenses is so long I can no longer relate it! In fact he makes Bill Clinton look like a saint! Christian’s need to wake up and get their heads back on straight and stop voting people into office who will do their bidding. It’s destroying this country!!!! Just because they say they are a Christian does not make them moral!!!!! They need to grow up and start looking past their religious bigotry’s to what is good for the country!
We have the numbers to change this.
Do we have the will?
What will give us the will to demand change?
What will wake us from our luxury induced sleep?
I am frightened by my own answers to these questions?
I think the American people deserve to lose their freedom if they choose not to fight for it.
Then and only then will we the people learn what Democracy, Freedom, Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness really means.
just wait until Blackwater’s troop size gets close to a million then they will take over the US ,the ‘children of satan’ will not rest until there is utter destruction.
You may elect them out of office but then afer a while still ANGRY!!
they wil come back with revenge.
we are basically DOOMED!so, enjoy your Freedom while you can.