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The Daily Muck
Embattled military contractor Blackwater Worldwide received quite a blow today when U.S. officials said that the new Iraqi security agreement doesn't give retroactive immunity to military contractors. This means that Blackwater employees could now be tried for crimes in Iraq, such as the infamous shooting in September of last year when Blackwater guards opened fire and 17 civilians were killed in Baghdad. (McClatchy)
An internal CIA probe found that the CIA misled Congress and the Justice Department during their 2001 investigation into a shot-down Peruvian plane. The incident occurred in April 2001 when a Peruvian pilot working with the CIA mistakenly opened fire on a small plane suspected of carrying narcotics traffickers, which in reality was carrying U.S. missionaries. The inspector general found that the CIA often ignored rules of engagement in Peru and officials gave false statements to cover up their actions. The ranking Republican on the House intelligence committee, Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-MI), called Thursday for a new criminal inquiry. (Washington Post)
Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) left the Senate Thursday to tears, applause, and a standing ovation after giving a final floor speech. With staffers visibly weeping to his side, convicted felon Ted Stevens concluded his speech on a note that has both guided his career and often gotten him into pork related trouble: "To hell with politics. Just do what's right for Alaska." (Politico)
The Justice Department denied allegations Thursday that they prematurely shut down a criminal investigation into oil spills at a BP pipeline in Alaska in 2006. BP got off with a misdemeanor violation and a $20 million fine after the incident. A former EPA investigator who worked on the case has claimed that the Justice Department settled for less with BP than the case warranted. (Reuters)
Former Guantanamo detainee and Australian citizen David Hicks will have communication and movement restrictions lifted next month by the Australian government. Hicks received a nine month sentence in an Australian prison after accepting a plea deal admitting to providing material support to Al Qaeda. Hicks spent five and a half years at Guantanamo. (AP)
The head of Ohio's Department of Job and Family Services improperly ordered staff to use state computers to find personal information about the infamous "Joe the Plumber," according to an inspector general report. The searches were conducted after Joe Wurzelbacher emerged as a prominent spokesman for John McCain. The agency director, Helen Jones-Kelley, was recently placed on leave over allegations that she was using state resources to help fundraise for Barack Obama's campaign. (AP)
Josh
Zachary
Looks like the American Military threw Blackwater under the bus to get the SOFA agreed upon....Good for them.
November 21, 2008 10:33 AM | Reply | Permalink
They didn't just throw Blackwater under the bus. They left a nice little hand grenade for Obama waiting for him when he takes office. Basically they just left him the diplomatic mess of not just withdrawing from Iraq, but negotiating possible criminal charges for US contractors and potentially military. And the no retroactive immunity is crazy, because it means at some point in the very near future, the Iraqi government is going to come asking for the Obama administration to turn over American citizens for trial in Iraqi courts.
Now, I served in Iraq and Afghanistan, and I have no love for the contractors over there, but take my work for it, this will quickly become a mess. And a mess that'll insert itself into some tricky diplomatic negotiations. Obama is going to be faced with letting Iraqis prosecute Americans for events that occurred during a war (regardless of how you feel about that war), or break the treaty and sour the Iraqi's perception of Obama and his administration.
Bush just left Obama holding a huge bag of crap because he was so eager to make sure we had an agreement locked in place to stay regardless of the cost.
November 21, 2008 11:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
I hope Obama doesn't allow Balckwater and other scum like them off the hook. Those mercinaries cared little for the citizens of Iraq and should be punished! If this country's justice system refuses to do it.....hell, let the Iraqi form of justice take over. Killing for it's jollies shouldn't have been tolerated by Blackwater or out State Dept. Too bad we can't put the SD in with the contractors.....they are complicient!
November 21, 2008 12:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
There are legitimate reasons that the United States doesn't allow soldiers to be prosecuted in the line of duty by a foreign country. This was also a huge problem with rely as much as we did on contracted "mercenary" force. In his 8 years, Bush basically took a giant shit on many players on the world stage, and Obama is going to have to deal with that carefully. What we're learning about this treaty that they negotiated, they've just complicated that process in immeasurable ways.
There's no doubt that there were bad actors in the Blackwater mess. But take it from someone who's been there. That needs to be handled aggressively and transparently, but it needs to be handled in-house.
November 21, 2008 12:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
The key word here is "treaty". The Bush Administration maintains that the agreement is not a treaty in the formal sense and therefore can be signed and made binding without the consent of Congress.
If both Obama and the Congress make it clear (preferably right now) that they consider any agreement to be subject to ratificaton as a treaty, under the articles of the Constitution, then they can reject, ratify, renegotiate or just get the hell out of Iraq without an overarching agreement, however they wish. This would be an important first step of many required to free us from the abuses of power committed under the hubris of the "unitary executive", "war powers of the president" and other concoctions that must not be accepted as precedent.
November 21, 2008 3:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Don't be so quick to praise Bush. Reports I've heard say Bush caved on a lot of provisions of the SOFA just to get it done before he left office. Seems he simply could not tolerate Obama making the decisions about the future of Iraq. He wanted to do it all himself and tie the future President's hands.
So, far from being a realization that Blackwater should be held responsible for what it and its employees have done, Bush simply wanted to stick it to Obama.
Is anyone really surprised? Bush put his own ego ahead of what is best for our troops. Feh.
November 21, 2008 4:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
SOMEONE/ANYONE IN WASHINGTON that's got a pair: Please throw Dick Cheney under the bus..
November 21, 2008 11:33 AM | Reply | Permalink
"... Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-MI), called Thursday for a new criminal inquiry"
I would hop that when a Republican is attempting to do the RIGHT thing, the folks we elected to clean up Washington would cheer and follow through with actual criminal punishments... or at the least change the laws to prevent the corruption and completed disregard for our nation and heritage.
I doubt seriously, though, that this will occur since, now that this group is in power it may want to have the same privileges...
Such a tragedy... allowing the best country in the history of the world to decline without a fight...
I guess it's just human nature to pick a team and stand by it... we found this out with Germany... a couple of times...
November 21, 2008 12:27 PM | Reply | Permalink