Blackwater in gray area again

By E.A. Torriero | Tribune staff reporter
September 19, 2007



Banned by the Iraqi government after a shooting in Baghdad that left at least eight Iraqis dead, the American security firm Blackwater USA is sure to draw more fire from opponents who see the North Carolina-based company as an unregulated army.

But for supporters, the incident only bolsters Blackwater. They hail the company's work as a heroic necessity and say the incident will enhance Blackwater as it expands its business of training law-enforcement officers domestically and abroad while seeking more lucrative government contracts for international work.

"It's going to be good for their business; they were doing their job this week and doing it well," said Gordon Hammers, chairman of a county land-use planning advisory group in eastern San Diego County who favors Blackwater's plan to open a giant training facility on a former chicken ranch there.

Bottom line

"No Americans were killed," said Hammers, who is facing a local recall election for his support of Blackwater. "That is the bottom line. It only shows Americans how valuable their expertise is in training our law enforcement. We need them."

The Iraqi government, however, is debating whether it wants Blackwater or any other foreign security company to remain as outrage over the incident mounted.

After ordering Blackwater to leave the country Monday, government officials said Tuesday that they will review the status of all security firms working there. More than 25,000 security contractors work in Iraq. Blackwater, which has at least 1,000 workers on the ground, is one of three companies contracted by the U.S. State Department to guard its employees in Iraq, and its expulsion could create huge problems.

The embassy on Tuesday suspended all ground travel for its diplomats across Iraq.

The most recent trouble began when Blackwater security guards protecting a U.S. motorcade in Baghdad on Sunday responded to what the company said was militant gunfire. Officials are investigating what happened, but Iraqi authorities accused the guards of firing on innocent civilians.

Iraqi officials appeared to be softening their stance against Blackwater on Tuesday amid back-door diplomacy by the Bush administration.

Some Iraqi leaders called for the Blackwater guards to be tried in Iraqi courts, but U.S. officials in 2004 granted its private security contractors legal protection from prosecution in Iraq and the United States.

Blackwater defended itself in a statement Tuesday.

"Blackwater regrets any loss of life, but this convoy was violently attacked by armed insurgents, not civilians, and our people did their job to defend human life," said Blackwater spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell.

The incident is the latest in a string of controversies involving Blackwater.

The company burst into the public eye in Iraq when four Blackwater guards were killed in 2004. Their bodies were burned, and the remains of two were strung from a bridge.
Blackwater has become a lightning rod for virulent anti-war passions and critics of the Bush administration's war policies, and the company has been in a protracted legal fight with families of the dead men, which are seeking compensation.

Blackwater's appearance in Illinois this year also has generated protests.

After the Tribune reported this summer about possible conflicts of interest in a business arrangement between the University of Illinois police training institute and Blackwater, the university severed its ties with the company. The university administrator who brokered the contract and then worked for Blackwater on his vacation training police forces in Afghanistan resigned this month.

Company undeterred

But Blackwater appears undeterred in its push to expand its business in the U.S. With a possible end to the U.S. mission in Iraq in the next few years, Blackwater has been shifting its emphasis to local and international law-enforcement training, analysts say.

Besides its sprawling training facility in Moyock, N.C., Blackwater opened a domestic law-enforcement training center in western Illinois in the spring that has trained hundreds of officers from as far away as New York, the company said.

Blackwater operates the facility privately and does not have state certification to train police in the state. Peace groups in Illinois have picketed the site and vow a protest march from Chicago this fall.

Sunday's incident "gives us real concern as to what they will be up to domestically," said Christian Stalberg, who is organizing an opposition group called Blackwater Watch near company headquarters in North Carolina. "Congress needs to act to put a brake on them because they are totally unregulated."

But so far, experts say, this week's incident will probably do no damage to the company's ability to gain lucrative contracts from the Bush administration, to which it has political connections.