Politics As Usual
Shining a Light on Power and Policy
Tom Shine covers congressional politics for ABC News.
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IT COULD CAUSE IRAQIS to "TRY AND GET KILLED"
October 01, 2007 1:32 PM
"In December of 2006 a drunken blackwater contactor killed the guard of Iraqi Vice President Adil Abd-al-Mahdi. Within 36 hours after the shooting, the State department allowed Blackwater to transport the Blackwater contractor out of Iraq. The State Department CHARGE D' AFFAIRES recommended that Blackwater make a SIZEABLE PAYMENT and an APOLOGY to avoid this whole thing from becoming worse. The State Department CHARGE D' AFFAIRES suggested a $250,000 payment to the guard's family but the DEPARTMENT'S Diplomatic Security Service said this was TOO MUCH and could cause the IRAQIS TO TRY TO GET KILLED. In the end, the STATE DEPARTMENT and BLACKWATER agreed on a $15,000 PAYMENT. One state department official wrote: "WE WOULD LIKE TO HELP THEM RESOLVE THIS SO WE CAN CONTINUE WITH OUR PROTECTIVE MISSION."
That from a very detailed 15-page BRIEFING MEMO just put out by the staff working for Democrat Henry Waxman who will hold an oversight hearing Tuesday featuring ERIK PRINCE, the OWNER OF BLACKWATER and several state department officials including Ambassador David Satterfield, the special adviser, coordinator for Iraq.
The briefing memo includes the information that BLACKWATER FEDERAL CONTRACTS have gone from $736,906 in 2001 to $593,601,952 in 2006.
October 1, 2007 in Iraq | Permalink | User Comments (1)
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I don't think that any amount of monetary reparations would entice Iraqis to "try to get killed." To suggest that there is the incentive to put oneself into harm's way and be killed so their family can get paid some sum of money is ludicrous. It sounds to me as though the State Department just didn’t want to dole out the $250,000 and came up with such a silly excuse to avoid doing so.
Posted by: Michael Shor | Oct 1, 2007 5:24:01 PM
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