Mr. Death Squad in Charge of Blackwater Oversight

The sheer bonk-on-the-head idiocy of leaks put out by the Bush Administration are occassionally useful for the White House, in that they get the reporter and the reader to miss the one really salient fact being conveyed.

For example, in the midst of all of the mind-numbingly stupid leaks put out by the State Department over the past few days about Blackwater, no one seems to have noticed that State has put John D. (“The ‘D’ stands for ‘Death Squad'”) Negroponte in charge of Blackwater oversight. 

New York Times Sept. 29:

— big snip —

The Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, has asked Mr Negroponte to oversee the department’s response to problems with security contractors.

— big snip —

As the Blackwater story unfolds, the State Department has been leaking the most outlandish tales.  It is not conceivable that these leaks are meant to do more than distract the reporter for as long as it takes for the State official to high-tail it to the nearest Cadillac and speed off.

State is surprised . . .

New York Times, Sept 29:

Reports on Thursday showed that Blackwater’s rate of shootings was at least twice as high as those for other companies providing similar services to the State Department.

The Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, has asked Mr Negroponte to oversee the department’s response to problems with security contractors. A government official who was briefed on an hour-long meeting involving State Department officials said Dr Rice seemed surprised by the report.

“She needs to be convinced that Blackwater’s hands are clean,” the government official said. Dr Rice was also reportedly taken aback by pressure from Henry Waxman, the chairman of the House of Representatives oversight committee, who wrote an angry letter this week complaining about the State Department’s efforts to block his panel’s investigation into Blackwater.

State is petulant . . .

Washington Post, Sept 28:

A State Department official asked why the military is shifting the question to State “since the DOD has more Blackwater contractors than we do, including people doing PSD [personal security detail] for them. . . . They’ve [Blackwater] basically got contracts with DOD that are larger than the contracts with State.”

According to federal spending data compiled by the independent Web site FedSpending.org, however, the State Department’s Blackwater contracts vastly exceed those of the Pentagon. Since 2004, State has paid Blackwater $833,673,316, compared with Defense Department contracts of $101,219,261.

State is incoherent . . .

Washington Post, Sept 29:

Both the State Department and the Defense Department have maintained they have no choice but to contract out security and other functions in an era of downsized government and increased international danger.

(We can’t afford our own security details because we’ve slashed our own budget and so we have to shell out $833,673,316 to Blackwater.)

None of this can possibly be meant seriously.  It’s just meant to distract, to obfuscate; it’s even okay if it’s laughed at.  Just so long as no one pays much attention to that other little thing that got mentioned.

The Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, has asked Mr Negroponte to oversee the department’s response to problems with security contractors.

John D. Negroponte.  You know, this guy:

Substantial evidence subsequently emerged to support the contention that Negroponte was aware that serious violations of human rights were carried out by the Honduran government, but despite this did not recommend ending U.S. military aid to the country. Senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, on September 14, 2001, as reported in the Congressional Record, aired his suspicions on the occasion of Negroponte’s nomination to the position of UN ambassador:

Based upon the Committee’s review of State Department and CIA documents, it would seem that Ambassador Negroponte knew far more about government perpetrated human rights abuses than he chose to share with the committee in 1989 or in Embassy contributions at the time to annual State Department Human Rights reports.

This ought to be enough, all by itself, to make one wonder exactly what Blackwater is doing in Iraq.  It can’t be the cost-effective, reliable, security-with-a-smile services they offer.  Maybe it’s something else.

Ahram Weekly via BooMan Tribune:

“Most of the laws passed by Paul Bremer, the civilian administrator of Iraq under US occupation, remain in force. Some of these laws violate Iraqi sovereignty, including a law that prevents Iraqis from prosecuting any American or any individual who cooperates with America or the coalition authorities, whether civilian or military,” Abu Abdullah, an Iraqi lawyer, told Al-Ahram Weekly.

Following the recent incident in Baghdad, Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki threatened to revoke Blackwater’s licence. What he later discovered was that the company was working in Iraq without a licence. The Americans weren’t impressed by Al-Maliki’s uncharacteristic boldness. “We’ll revoke Al-Maliki’s licence before he revokes Blackwater’s licence,” a US official quipped.

We need some real investigative reporting on this.  We can’t let Rice’s clowning distract from the fact that a man with a history of suborning death squads is now overseeing Blackwater — an organization with a history of, well, making people dead.

What is Blackwater really doing in Iraq?