The World - 'Wall of silence' protects security contractor in Iraq - Blackwater and the U.S. Embassy are very close, says an envoy, raising doubts about an inquiry.
BAGHDAD — Habib Sadr was sitting at his desk when the shots rang out. A sniper had just shot three security guards outside his office at the government-run Iraqi Media Network.
With the fatally wounded guards lying by their checkpoint, a security convoy rolled into the neighboring Justice Ministry compound. Sadr believed the sniper was with them. The incident, he said, was a brutal introduction into the world of private security contractors.
An internal investigation by Sadr's department found that Blackwater USA was responsible. But seven months after the Feb. 7 shootings no one has been charged.
"We discovered it was Blackwater who did this thing. They fired at our martyrs without any reason. They didn't do anything. They were just standing at their checkpoint. Everyone knows this is the site of the Iraqi Media Network," said Sadr, who is head of Iraqi state media.
"It's a strange thing. Animals get killed and gain more attention. Here we have human lives lost. We respect the laws, we filed the case, I was keen to take the thing through the official channels."
A U.S. diplomat confirmed that Blackwater guards carried out the shooting, but said he did not know the results of the State Department security office's inquiry. He raised concerns that the investigation into the North Carolina-based firm was being conducted in too secretive a manner.
"Because they are security, everything was a big secret," the official said, on condition of anonymity, referring to the relationship between the U.S. Embassy's security office and Blackwater. "They draw the wagon circle. They protect each other. They look out for each other. I don't know if that's a good thing, that wall of silence. When it protects the guilty, that is definitely not a good thing."
The death of the media network guards was one of several shootings that have damaged the contractor's reputation among Iraqis and some U.S. diplomats. The latest incident, Sunday's fatal shooting of 11 Iraqis by a Blackwater security detail in west Baghdad, has forced the U.S. Embassy to agree to an unprecedented review of private security companies and the embassy's oversight of such contractors.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki on Wednesday blamed Blackwater for six other shootings since the firm was hired in 2003, and demanded that the security firm be replaced. The U.S. Embassy has said it will await the outcome of an investigation.
