State Dept. cover-up of Blackwater revealed

[babylonsister]

Officials Balked on '05 Blackwater Inquiry
By T. Christian Miller
The Los Angeles Times

Friday 26 October 2007

State Department e-mails obtained by ABC News discuss how to deflect a Times reporter's questions about a civilian shooting death.


Even as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice defended her department's oversight of private security contractors, new evidence surfaced Thursday that the US sought to conceal details of Blackwater shootings of Iraqi civilians more than two years ago.


Emails obtained by ABC news.

In one instance, internal e-mails show that State Department officials tried to deflect a 2005 Los Angeles Times inquiry into an alleged killing of an Iraqi civilian by Blackwater guards.

"Give what we can and then dump the rest on Blackwater," one State Department official wrote to another in the e-mails, which were obtained by ABC News. "We can't win this one."

One department official taking part in a chain of e-mails noted that the "findings of the investigation are to remain off-limits to the reporter." Another recommended that there be no mention of the existence of a criminal investigation since such a reference would "raise questions and issues."

In the May 2005 incident, a Blackwater convoy was transporting a senior U.S. diplomat down a Baghdad thoroughfare when guards opened fire on an approaching taxi.

The taxi driver, Mohammed Nouri Hattab, told The Times that he was slowing to a stop when a burst of machine-gun fire cut into his taxi, wounding him and killing a passenger, 19-year-old newlywed Yas Ali Mohammed Yassiri.

The Times began making inquiries after receiving a tip in August 2005.

Peter Mitchell, then a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Iraq, told superiors that he planned to tell a reporter that the State Department had "thoroughly investigated" the incident and that "no criminal act occurred."

The e-mails indicate, however, that the only investigation done was "administrative." Two Blackwater employees were fired and sent back to the U.S. after they were found to have violated operating procedures. Blackwater has declined to comment on the incident.

more...

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/102607B.shtml

[DemoTex]

1. Yet another cover-up. My head is about to explode.

Where will this shit end?

:kick:

[derby378]

2. "We can't win this one" - WTF?!?

K&R!!

:mad:

[gateley]

3. TASS in the U.S. nt

[Cooley Hurd]

4. Who was running the State Dept in 2005?

hmm...


Nope. Hmm...


Nope, not Cy, either. Hmm...

http://www.havelshouseofhistory.com/Hull,%20C%20Photo.jpg
Oh, c'mon! You're just being silly now...


BinGO!

[EST]

5. GAAAAAHHH!@!ZZ+^#

(Hic) burble...stplat" !! Gulp.

Breathe...I will happily buy myself (pant--pant) a new keyboard. Ya' shudda warned me! But I don't know how you could have.

Watta knee-slappin, gallus snappin' nail it to the barn door hoot!

:rofl: :applause:

[ChairmanAgnostic]

6. how does one pronounce that?

I gots to know.

[EST]

9. Transliterate or translate freely.

I forgot to turn the recornder on!

[EST]

10. O K I have thought about it...

I think it would be sort of the sound you would make after you accidently stuck your head in a commode and coughed!
Or maybe something really awful, even--
:toast:

[ChairmanAgnostic]

11. ever read the google definition of Santorum? is that close?

LOL!
or is it sanitorium? (who I heard discussed today as a potential VP for whoever wins the GOP nod.)

[EST]

12. No more thread hi-jacking, please.

This is serious crap!:spank: :hide:

[Cooley Hurd]

7. I forgot John Hay!

Aw crap - I always forget John Hay!:D

[seemslikeadream]

8. WHERE WERE THEY BEFORE SHE TESSIFIED????

WILL SHE BE CALLED BACK AND WILL SHE SHOW UP???

[halobeam]

13. Was she questioned under oath about this?

[ChairmanAgnostic]

14. I watched as much as I could stand, and i did not hear that covered.

then again, she did her best not to give a single substantive answer.

[babylonsister]

15. I don't know when the e-mails were released; after her testimony?

And if so, that makes me wonder why.