U.S. Examines Whether Blackwater Tried Bribery

[spanone]

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is investigating whether officials of Blackwater Worldwide tried to bribe Iraqi government officials in hopes of retaining the firm’s security work in Iraq after a deadly shooting episode in 2007, according to current and former government officials.

The officials said that the Justice Department’s fraud section opened the inquiry late last year to determine whether Blackwater employees violated a federal law banning American corporations from paying bribes to foreign officials.

The inquiry is the latest fallout from the shooting in Nisour Square in Baghdad, which left 17 Iraqis dead and stoked bitter resentment against the United States.

A federal judge in December dismissed criminal charges against five former Blackwater guards implicated in the episode, but Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. recently announced that the Obama administration would appeal that decision.

The investigation, which was confirmed by three current and former officials speaking on condition of anonymity, follows a report in The New York Times in November that top executives at Blackwater had authorized secret payments of about $1 million to Iraqi officials to buy their support after the shooting. The newspaper account said it could not determine whether any bribes were actually paid or identify Iraqi officials who might have received the money.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/01/world/middleeast/01blackwater.html?ref=global-home&pagewanted=print

[shraby]

1. Sounds good to me.

[Foo Fighter]

2. In other news, scientists are looking into whether or not water is actually wet.

I'm shocked, shocked I tell you, that they would even remotely consider investigating such a fine, upstanding company like Blackwater. I mean, even the name denotes, er...sludge, dirge, bottom-of-the-barrel-scrapings. OK, maybe that wasn't such a good example.

Yeah, they changed it to Xe but they will always be Blackwater to me.

[LiberalFighter]

3. I want Erik Prince prosecuted, convicted and sentenced to prison.

Preferably in Iraq.

[47of74]

4. On top of that I want...

On top of that I want it so that Blackwater, or Xe, or whatever they call themselves now or in the future is barred from doing any business in any form whatsoever with the United States government for at least 1,000 years.

[Matariki]

5. +1 100,000

dead Americans & Iraqis

[EFerrari]

6. This is so bizarre. Prince is publicly known to be a CIA asset.

So, is Black Water now being hung out to dry to cover CIA @ss?

You betcha.