Dems Bash Bush Over Blackwater Immunity

White House Says Matter Is "Under Review"

(CBS/AP)  Democrats criticized the Bush administration Tuesday for giving immunity to Blackwater USA bodyguards, calling the move a failure to hold the security contractors responsible for the shooting deaths of 17 Iraqi civilians.

The State Department, whose investigators initially promised to shield the bodyguards' statements in the criminal inquiry of the Sept. 16 shootings, maintained that any lawbreakers “must be held to account” as a result of the inquiry that has since been taken over by the Justice Department and FBI.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, who sits on two Senate panels that oversee the State Department and the Justice Department, called the immunity deal an example of “the amnesty administration.”

The offer for limited immunity has delayed the government's criminal inquiry of the shootings that enraged the Iraqi government, and threatens to derail prosecution as investigators seek other evidence from the crime scene now six weeks cold.

“In this administration, accountability goes by the boards,” said Leahy. “That goes equally for misconduct and for incompetence. If you get caught, they will get you immunity. If you get convicted, they will commute your sentence.”

Sen. Barack Obama, the Illinois Democrat running for president, demanded to know whether Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was aware of the immunity offers and agreed with it. In a letter to Rice Tuesday, Obama asked whether the FBI and Justice Department were consulted before limited immunity was offered.

The White House had little to say about the matter Tuesday. President Bush ignored a question on the arrangement shouted after his meeting with the president of Uganda. And his spokeswoman dodged most questions about it at her daily briefing with reporters, referring them to the State Department.

“It is under review,” White House press secretary Dana Perino said. “Anyone who has engaged in criminal behavior will be prosecuted.”

State Department Sean McCormack said Rice has steadfastly supported accountability for anyone involved in the Blackwater shootings found to have broken the law. Rice also asked that the FBI take over the investigation from her department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security, McCormack said.

“Her attitude has been since the very beginning that we need to determine the facts and if there facts lead us to the conclusion that there are those who broke rules laws or regulations, they must be held to account,” McCormack said. He declined further comment.

The immunity deal will not prevent the Blackwater guards from ever being 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.

That means investigators will have to find other credible witnesses or evidence to make their case.

The FBI has re-interviewed some of the Blackwater employees, and officials have said that at least several of them have refused to answer questions, citing their constitutional right to avoid self-incrimination.

One official, however, said that not all the guards have cited their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination - leaving open the possibility for future charges. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation, declined to elaborate.

A second senior U.S. official familiar with the investigation said Tuesday that the immunity deal stemmed from a waiver that Blackwater employees signed that banned their initial statements from being used in court. The official said it makes the job harder but does not make prosecution impossible.

It's not clear why the Diplomatic Security investigators agreed to give immunity to the bodyguards, or who authorized doing so.

The apparent 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. The Iraqi government on Tuesday approved draft legislation lifting immunity for foreign private security companies, sending the measure to parliament, a spokesman said.

Blackwater spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell declined comment about the U.S. investigation. Based in Moyock, N.C., Blackwater USA is the largest private security firm protecting U.S. diplomats in Iraq.

The company has said its Sept. 16 convoy was under attack before it opened fire in west Baghdad's Nisoor Square, killing 17 Iraqis. A follow-up investigation by the Iraqi government, however, concluded that Blackwater's men were unprovoked. No witnesses have been found to contradict that finding.

An initial incident report by U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in Iraq, also indicated “no enemy activity involved” in the Sept. 16 incident. The report says Blackwater guards were traveling against the flow of traffic through a traffic circle when they “engaged five civilian vehicles with small arms fire” at a distance of 50 meters.

The FBI took over the case early this month, officials said, after prosecutors in the Justice Department's criminal division realized it could not bring charges against Blackwater guards based on their statements to the Diplomatic Security investigators.

[bareemperor]

"If you''''re fed up write congress and bombard them with how disgusted you are....

http://www.congress.org/congr
essorg/home/
------------Posted by simonsez40"

You know - I have tried to bombard Congress with messages, but they have it all set up so I can only bombard MY congressman, and he already votes the way I want...
Seems the rubber-stampers cannot be reached by those outside their districts, and are blind to how the rest of America feels.
Oh well, we will just have to vote them out in 2008.

[hwy71so]

What a bunch of whiners and losers.

Why don''t they quit all this bickering and actually try to do their jobs?

Vote them ALL out.

[klingon69]

David Koresh s c r e w e d his congregation in every way and they still called him god.
Posted by jerr11 at 09:35 PM : Oct 30, 2007

Explain! How exactly did he s c r e w his congregation? What did he do so wrong?

[klingon69]

Which is the very reason I am an Independent and why I think most Independents have chosen to avoid both the Dems and the Repubs...
Posted by formrusmcsgt at 09:11 PM : Oct 30, 2007
Amen, neither of them are worth a cup full of warm spit.

[klingon69]

Gosh, will Bush jr , upon exiting office, pardon more folks than current pardon record holder Bill Clintoon?
Posted by badaxmofo at 05:40 PM : Oct 30, 2007

Might be the first one to pardon himself

[simonsez40]

If you''re fed up write congress and bombard them with how disgusted you are....

http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home/

[antoniof123]

I don''t think anyone except for the mentally challenged can still be thinking this administration is worth anything. They have attempted to destroy the country but what is happened is they are destroying the Republican party once and for all.

[fibonacci_]

Could you do a few more posts of your Ron Paul stuff, thefarrier?

[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.

[grazinggoat]

(CNN) %u2014 Strong words from Democratic presidential contender Dennis Kucinich may be nothing new, but his comments to a newspaper Tuesday questioning President Bush%u2019s mental health are raising a few eyebrows.

%u201CI seriously believe we have to start asking questions about his mental health," the Ohio congressman told the Philadelphia Inquirer. "There''s something wrong. He does not seem to understand his words have real impact."

-Nothing new KUCINICH, We knew that longtime ago. You are better start reading the comments we (sometime experts) show on this thread! And advice the Mental subject to read our blog comments regrding them!