In addition, the committee reported obtaining a Christmas Day e-mail by one of the most senior officials in the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad in which the official suggested "a sizeable compensation" to the family of the slain Iraqi guard to "avoid this whole thing becoming even worse." The official's initial proposal was $250,000, the Waxman memo said.
The e-mail, as quoted by the Waxman memo, said: "I think a prompt pledge and apology -- even if they want to claim it was accidental -- would be the best way to assure the Iraqis don't take steps, such as telling Blackwater that they are no longer able to work in Iraq."
The department's Diplomatic Security Service said the official's proposed sums were far too high, according to the memo, and the day after Christmas, State Department and Blackwater officials agreed the company would pay the family $15,000.
Today's committee hearing -- which will include State Department Iraq policy coordinator David M. Satterfield and several other senior State officials -- is also expected to question whether Blackwater has been awarded security contracts in part through political ties to the Bush administration.
According to the congressional investigators, Blackwater won more than $1 billion in contracts from 2001 through 2006, including $593.6 million in 2006 alone. The memo alleges that more than half of the total has been awarded "without full and open competition," and notes that relatives of Blackwater founder Prince have been major Republican contributors.
Prince's brother-in-law is Richard DeVos Jr., former chief executive of Amway Corp. A former Republican gubernatorial candidate in Michigan, DeVos has donated more than $160,000 to the Republican National Committee and Republican congressional committees.
Amway attracted widespread attention in 1993 when it paid President George H.W. Bush $100,000 for an address to the company's distributors. At the time, the speaking fee was one of the largest ever paid to a former government official.
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peter.spiegel@latimes.com
Times staff writer Julian E. Barnes contributed to this report.
