Blackwater: Breakaway in Troubled Waters

The decision of Federal Judge Ricardo Urbina is not about to restore America’s reputation in Iraq. The judgment he rendered on Thursday puts an end to the claims made by the Ministry of Justice against employees of the private security company Blackwater. The five agents accused of having opened fire on Iraqi civilians in 2007 and killing 14 people while working for the State Department will not be condemned. In his written opinion, the judge rejected all of the accusations, finding that the prosecutors had presented evidence that they were not entitled to use, thus violating the constitutional rights of the accused.

Blackmail. That evidence is referring to the “confessions” the agents made just after the shooting, which were obtained through blackmail. The investigators threatened them with termination if they did not speak, promising them that none of their declarations would be held against them in the event of a trial. The five men, aged 24 to 29, ended up pleading not guilty at the beginning of the year to the 35 counts against them. In December 2008, a sixth agent, in turn, plead guilty of attempted homicide.

Baghdad let it be known that it was going to “take all necessary measures to pursue justice” for the American company. The September 16, 2007 incident is one of the most controversial involving foreign security agents in Iraq. The Iraqi investigation found Blackwater liable and established that 17 civilians had been killed. Witnesses asserted that the security agents, who were escorting a diplomatic convoy, had opened fire on civilians without provocation. Blackwater, which was renamed Xe Services this year, maintains that its guards acted in self-defense. The American administration did not comment on the judge’s decision yesterday. In 2007, Obama criticized the practices of these mercenaries, “who act as if they were above the law.”

Today, the United States resorts to private security firms on all fronts – Iraq, Colombia, Afghanistan and Iraq – which thus become the government’s sub-contractors. Blackwater, with 90 percent of its revenues coming from government contracts, is the most important of these firms. According to the New York Times, the company, which was founded in 1997 by a former Navy Seal, led clandestine operations with the CIA against insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan between 2004 and 2006. According to CNN, two of the seven agents killed in Afghanistan on Wednesday were, in fact, Xe Services men.

Black List. Yet, the company is officially on the White House’s black list and at the center of an inquiry by the House of Representatives’ Select Committee on Intelligence regarding its role in a program put in place to kill or capture members of Al Qaeda. The shooting had been a source of tension between Baghdad and Washington. The federal judge’s decision is unlikely to appease it.