State to Blackwater: You Don’t Say Nothin’ to No One, See?Now this augurs well for a thorough inquiry into Blackwater’s recent behavior in Iraq. Just three days after Rep. Henry Waxman announced his House Oversight and Government Reform Committee would hold hearings into the deaths of 11 Iraqi civilians, a State Department contracting official wrote to Blackwater with a simple message: you don’t say anything we don’t tell you to.
We’ve added the letter to our Document Collection. You can read it here.
The State Department official, Kiazan Moneypenny, wrote Blackwater VP Fred Roitz to “advise” him of Blackwater’s obligations under the terms of State’s contract. Among them: “all documents and records (including photographs) generated during the performance of work under this contract shall be for the sole use of and become the exclusive property of the U.S. government.” These obligations, according to the contract, exist in perpetuity — not just until the contract expires. As a result, Moneypenny told Roitz to make “no disclosure of documents or information generated under [the contract] unless such disclosure has been authorized in writing by the Contract Officer.”
In a letter today to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Waxman pointed out that State has no authority to compel Blackwater to obstruct a congressional investigation — unless President Bush is prepared to say that the terms of Blackwater’s contracts or its operational doctrine is covered under executive privilege. A State Department congressional liaison will “attempt to reverse” the department’s position, but Waxman seems unconvinced.
A final curiosity: Moneypenny’s letter indicates that State officials had already called Blackwater twice on September 19 and 20 to deliver the same message. Was Blackwater more willing to disclose information to the House oversight committee than the State Department?