Security guards from a private US military contractor involved
in a shooting incident in Iraq have been granted immunity by State
Department investigators, a news report said Monday.
According to the report by the New York Times' online
edition, the guards employed by the Blackwater Company to protect
State Department officials in Iraq gained the limited-use immunity
during an inquiry by the department's investigative arm, the Bureau
of Diplomatic Security (BDS).
Citing unidentified officials close to the investigation, the
report said that prosecutors at the Justice Department, instead of
BDS investigators, have authority to grant such immunity, but they
had no advance knowledge of the BDS arrangement.
Limited-use immunity, as officials explained to the newspaper,
means that security guards were promised they would not be
prosecuted for anything they said in their interviews with the
authorities as long as their statements were true.
The State Department and the Justice Department both did not
comment on the matter, while the company's spokeswoman Anne E.
Tyrell told the newspaper "it would be inappropriate for me to
comment on the investigation."
The Federal Bureau of Investigation took over the case from the
State Department on Oct. 3 and has since then begun to re-interview
Blackwater employees without granting any immunity to assemble
independent evidence of possible wrongdoing.
The Justice Department is currently considering whether any
prosecutions could take place involving US civilians in Iraq
following the Blackwater shooting incident, the report said.
Blackwater is a major military contractor providing security
services to the US government in Iraq. Its guards opened fire in a
crowded Baghdad square when protecting a State Department convoy,
killing as many as 17 Iraqi civilians on September 16.
Some government officials told the newspaper that granting
immunity was a potentially serious investigative misstep that could
complicate efforts to prosecute the company's employees involved in
the incident.
Blackwater employees and other civilian contractors can not be
tried in US military courts or in Iraq courts and it is unclear
what US criminal laws might cover criminal acts committed in a war
zone, the report said.
According to the Coalition Provision Authority (CPA), a law
issued by a former US administrator in Iraq Paul Bremer, the
"multinational forces, foreign liaison missions, their personnel,
property, funds and all international consultants shall be immune
from the Iraqi legal process."
However, the enraged Iraqi government said Tuesday it would
revoke the immunity of foreign security firms from being prosecuted
granted by the CPA.
Earlier this month, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly
passed a bill that would make contractors like Blackwater liable
under a law known as the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction
Act.
(Xinhua News Agency October 30, 2007)
