Blackwater Guards Offered Immunity

Officials Say Security Company's Guards Given Legal Protection After Iraqi Civilian Shootings

(CBS/AP)  The State Department promised Blackwater USA bodyguards immunity from prosecution in its investigation of last month's deadly shooting of 17 Iraqi civilians, CBS News has learned.

Law enforcement officials say the State Department granted them immunity from prosecution before taking their statements. They can still be prosecuted, but former prosecutor David Laufman said it will be harder to make a case, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reported.

"It requires the FBI and the department of justice to ensure that any evidence the FBI develops is disconnected from any information that the State Department developed," Laufman said.

The FBI can still interview the guards, but Laufman doubts they will cooperate.

“It is almost certain that they or their attorneys will seek immunity from the Department of Justice before talking to the FBI or appearing before a Grand Jury,” he said.

The immunity deal has delayed a criminal inquiry into the Sept. 16 killings and could undermine any effort to prosecute security contractors for their role in the incident that has infuriated the Iraqi government.

"Once you give immunity, you can't take it away," said a senior law enforcement official familiar with the investigation.

State Department officials declined to confirm or deny that immunity had been granted. One official - who refused to be quoted by name- said: "If, in fact, such a decision was made, it was done without any input or authorization from any senior State Department official in Washington."

Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd and FBI spokesman Rich Kolko declined comment.

FBI agents were returning to Washington late Monday from Baghdad, where they have been trying to collect evidence in the Sept. 16 embassy convoy shooting without using statements from employees of North Carolina-based Blackwater who were given immunity.

Three senior law enforcement officials said all the Blackwater bodyguards involved - both in the vehicle convoy and in at least two helicopters above - were given the legal protection as investigators from the Bureau of Diplomatic Security sought to find out what happened. The bureau is an arm of the State Department.

The law enforcement and State Department officials agreed to speak only if they could remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the inquiry into the incident.

The investigative misstep comes in the wake of already-strained relations between the United States and Iraq, which is demanding the right to launch its own prosecution of the Blackwater bodyguards.

[kaelinda]

Iraq should not have to "demand the right" to prosecute these murderers - Iraq should have the right just because it is a sovereign nation and the murders occurred there. The FBI has no authority over murders committed in France, England, or Italy, so why should it have any authority over murders committed in Iraq?

[mh4cbs]

Lets give OUR Blackwater terrorists IMMUNITY when they BRUTALLY MURDER CIVILIANS in cold blood.

After all we ARE a terrorist nation. Invading Iraq, based on LIES, with a ''shock and awe'' bombing campaign, killing civilians daily with air strikes, IS TERROR.

It is BUSH and CHENEY TERROR.

JAIL these MURDEROUS THUGS! That they are still in power is an absolute disgrace and is a stain upon our nation.

[flappyfolley]

'' ... eternity consists of infinitely recurring events, each of which is forever infinitely distant in the future ... ''

[flappyfolley]

'' .. a big man said he''d feed the world for her for but quality small time business plans, and the little girl scoffed at caring and swore by daring and so taxed the world what would have been fed for her .. and when she reached into grass and dirt and pulled out bottled eternity, she scoffed at the man and caring and swore by little girl daring and pledged to tax all forever .. the big man laughed: silly, which came first?: eternity or earth? feed eternity and yours is fed; but, tax it, then it''s taxed .. still it only feeds you forever .. ''

'' .. i ran wild cramming trillions dollars pills down throats, waving trillions dollars guns in faces, preaching: be good or else .. ''

'' .. moses went to pharoah to say: you preached feed the world and don''t kill, yet taxed the world and starved, raped, tortured, and slayed trillions dollars of babies, the rest know not what they do, but you, for fear of moses unseen, who screams at your face day after day: you''re doing it wrong, you taxed the world and starved, raped, tortured, and slayed trillions dollars of babies; yet, you preached feed the world and don''t kill .. ''

'' .. as long as the home of the richest cannot be bought by poorest neighbor, economy is crashed and half world goes without toilets, lightbulbs, lunches; and, as long as home of richest cannot be bought by richest neighbor, economy is crashed and half world goes without toilets, lightbulbs, lunches .. ''

[greybeardvet]

The young muscle men that join Blackwater are moral imbeciles, but no more so than their less endowed peers who enlist in the Army and Marines; all are cannon fodder. The true criminals are the mid and upper level apparatchiks in the military-industrial complex who egg these kids on. The State Dept''s granting of immunity to these young killers is a crime itself, and those responsible should be arrested and tried as accomplices to murder. All of these *** are enemies of the American people and it all starts at the top with Bush & Cheney.

[logicanada]

speakinup. . . if they do eat them I anticipate they will tenderize them first. They have not forgotten Abu Ghraib

[speakinup]

"I pity any soldiers, civilians or contractors taken hostage now. Posted by logicanada

Why - because in addition to killing the hostage they are going to eat them too ?

[logicanada]

By granting immunity for Blackwater Bush has told the Middle East that there is no justice anymore. I pity any soldiers, civilians or contractors taken hostage now.

[usaprophet]

I support Ron Paul and his non-interventionist foreign policy. Hitlery wants to continue our illegal police action in Iraq until at least 2013, and she does not rule out a preemptive (nuclear) first strike against Iran. Ron Paul voted against the the (undeclared) war in Iraq, which was sold to us with lies. The area is more dangerous now than when we entered it. We destroyed a regime hated by our direct enemies--the jihadists, and created thousands of new recruits for them. This war has cost more than 3,000 American lives and almost a trillion dollars. We must have new leadership in the White House to ensure this never happens again. Both Jefferson and Washington warned us about entangling ourselves in the affairs of other nations. Today, we have 750 foreign bases and troops in 130 countries. We are spread so thin that we have too few troops defending America. And now, there are new calls for a draft of our young men and women. We can continue to fund and fight no-win police actions around the globe, or we can refocus on securing our borders against illegal immigrants and bring the troops home. No war should ever be fought without a declaration of war voted upon by the Congress, as required by the Constitution. Under no circumstances should the U.S. again go to war as the result of a resolution that comes from an unelected, foreign body, such as the United Nations. Too often, we give foreign aid and intervene on behalf of governments that are despised. Then, we become despised.

[forthepeopl1]

The State Department promised Blackwater USA bodyguards immunity from prosecution in its investigation of last month''s deadly shooting of 17 Iraqi civilians, CBS News has learned.

Law enforcement officials say the State Department granted them immunity from prosecution before taking their statements. They can still be prosecuted, but former prosecutor David Laufman said it will be harder to make a case, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reported.

"It requires the FBI and the department of justice to ensure that any evidence the FBI develops is disconnected from any information that the State Department developed," Laufman said.

The FBI can still interview the guards, but Laufman doubts they will cooperate.

%u201CIt is almost certain that they or their attorneys will seek immunity from the Department of Justice before talking to the FBI or appearing before a Grand Jury,%u201D he said.

The immunity deal has delayed a criminal inquiry "Once you give immunity, you can''t take it away," said a senior law enforcement official familiar with the investigation.

State Department officials declined to confirm or deny that immunity had been granted. One official - who refused to be quoted by name- said: "If, in fact, such a decision was made, it was done without any input or authorization from any senior State Department official in Washington."

MURDER FOR ANYONE THAT WORKS FOR THE STATE DEPT IS SAFE..EXECUTIVE PRILIGIVES

[usaprophet]

I don''t know about you, but I''m sick of no-win pseudo-wars, like The War on Drugs and The War on Terrorism. I''m sick of undeclared wars like The War in Iraq and unnecessary and protracted police actions like the one in Korea. I''m sick of income taxes, which are unconstitutional because they are are a direct tax and are not equally apportioned as the Constitution requires. I''m sick of back door national ID cards like The Real ID Act. I''m sick of warrantless domestic spying by the Department of Homeland Insecurity and the loss of my civil liberties as a result of Draconian, fear-based Laws with oxymoronic names like The Patrot Act. I''m sick of secret offshore prisons like the one in Guantanamo, where our government tortures prisoners, who have no right to redress of grievance, or to writ of habeus corpus. I''m also sick of the Federal Reserve (a secret group of private banks) manipulation of our worthless, fiat currency. Do yourself a favor. Support the 2008 candidacy of Dr. Ron Paul for President of The United States. I believe he''s our only hope to restore peace, prosperity and freedom in this country. Presidential candidates with the integrity and bearing the positive message of Dr. Paul only come around only once in a lifetime, if we''re lucky. The cause of freedom is too important to let anything stand in the way of our participation in this 21st Century political revolution.

[drummer94]

Lou always did have a way with words!!!

[radiob-2009]

I was up in the morning with the TV blarin''
brush my teeth sittin'' watchin'' the news
All the beaches were closed the ocean was a Red Sea
but there was no one there to part in two
There was no fresh salad because there''s hypos in the cabbage
Staten Island disappeared at noon
And they say the midwest is in great distress
and NASA blew up the moon

The ozone layer has no ozone anymore
and you''re gonna leave me for the guy next door
I''m Sick of You, I''m Sick of You

They arrested the Mayor for an illegal favor
sold the Empire State to Japan
And Oliver North married William Secord
and gave birth to a little Teheran
And the Ayatollah bought a nuclear warship
if he dies he wants to go out in style
And there''s nothing to eat that don''t carry the stink
of some human waste dumped in the Nile

We one thing is certainly true
no one here knows what to do
I''m Sick of You, I''m Sick of You

They say the President''s dead but no one can find his head
It''s been missing now for weeks
But no one noticed it he had seemed so fit
and I''m Sick of it


Courtesy of Lou Reed.

[phil-in-fin]

From the news story:

"Law enforcement officials say the State Department granted them immunity from prosecution before taking their statements. They can still be prosecuted, but former prosecutor David Laufman said it will be harder to make a case ..."

Just to open their mouths, they were offered immunity?

Why not torture them, since torture is America''s best interrogation technique in Iraq?

That would have made them talk without offering some "cut me some slack" mamby-pamby immunity ...

[neoconrcrazy]

Funny, in America the right-wing death squads are all private enterprise.

Posted by Nancy_Naive


Or "freedom fighters", like the ones we trained and financed in Central America (under John Negroponte) and then let loose on the local populations killing hundreds of thousands, using torture, mass murder to intimidate....

[missingamerica]

Credit where credit is due:

In the entire history of the United States, there has never been a threat - whether from an attack by an external power or from internal strife - that has jeopardized the future existance of the United States to the extent that this Administration''s successful attempts to turn words like "the Constitution", "law", "international diplomacy", and "democracy" into so much second-hand toilet paper has.

[radiob-2009]

Yes, now close your eyes and imagine Britney Spears as President... Open your eyes and see what we have."

Britney Spears would do a good job.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by okinup

Is she not running under the pseudonym Hillaryous Clinton?

[realpatriot1]

The Iraqis are learning a great deal about our democracy and you can bet that Iraqi-style democracy will not be Bush-style.

[brianbwb-2009]

SO WHAT. The Iraq''''s are giving immunity to Muqtada al Sadr and his Mahdi Army that are killing Americans every day. Some Americans need to Get their priorities straight.
Posted by nexgen99

Muqtada al Sadr? Do you mean the one to whom the US military gave Saddam, so he could by lynched before he could say how he got the gas for the Kurds, THAT Muqtada al Sadr? The one whose name was chanted by Saddams executioners as they strung him up, THAT Muqtada al Sadr?

Americans who need their priorities straight are the ones who forget so quickly.

[okinup]

"Yes, now close your eyes and imagine Britney Spears as President... Open your eyes and see what we have."

Britney Spears would do a good job.