US:Blackwater USA, the private security company involved in a Baghdad shootout last weekend, operated under US state department authority that exempted the company from US military regulations governing other security firms, according to US and Iraqi officials and industry representatives.
In recent months, the state department's oversight of Blackwater became a central issue, as Iraqi authorities repeatedly clashed with the company over its aggressive street tactics. Many US and Iraqi officials and industry representatives said they came to see Blackwater as untouchable, protected by state department officials who defended the company at every turn. Blackwater employees protect the US ambassador and other diplomats in Iraq.
Blackwater "has a client who will support them no matter what they do", said HC Lawrence Smith, deputy director of the Private Security Company Association of Iraq, an advocacy organisation in Baghdad that is funded by security firms, including Blackwater.
The state department allowed Blackwater's heavily-armed teams to operate without an interior ministry licence, even after the requirement became standard language in defence department security contracts.
The company was not subject to the military's restrictions on the use of offensive weapons, its procedures for reporting shooting incidents or a central tracking system that allows commanders to monitor the movements of security companies in the battlefield.
"The Iraqis despised them, because they were untouchable," said Matthew Degn, who recently returned from Baghdad after serving as senior American adviser to the interior ministry. "They were above the law." Degn said Blackwater's armed Little Bird helicopters often buzzed the interior ministry's roof, "almost like they were saying, 'look, we can fly anywhere we want'."
A Blackwater spokeswoman referred questions about how the company is regulated to the state department.
Richard Griffin, assistant secretary for diplomatic security, said in a statement that state department security contractors are routinely briefed on rules for the use of force. When a shooting incident occurs, he said, it is reviewed by the US embassy's regional security office. "Anyone who fails to live up to our standards will be removed from the contract," Griffin said.
On Wednesday, the state department announced that it will form a joint commission with the Iraqi government to examine issues related to private security.
In Baghdad, prime minister Nouri al-Maliki promised that Blackwater guards would be held accountable for what he called "a big crime" in the weekend violence. Iraqi officials have threatened to expel Blackwater from Iraq over the incident, in which at least nine Iraqis were killed. "We will not allow Iraqis to be killed in cold blood," Mr al-Maliki said.
The confrontation between the Iraqi government and Blackwater, headquartered in Moyock, North Carolina, has illuminated the uneven and largely dysfunctional regulatory system intended to govern tens of thousands of hired guns operating in Iraq.
A one-paragraph subsection to a 2004 edict issued by the Coalition Provisional Authority, the now-defunct US occupation government, granted contractors immunity from the Iraqi legal process. This edict is still in effect. Congress has moved to establish guidelines for prosecuting contractors under US law or the Uniform Code of Military Justice, but the issue remains unresolved.
"It's a lot of people with guns who are under no real law, and that's very troublesome," said Democrat senator James Webb, who has advocated greater oversight of private security companies. "Ninety-five per cent of the people who are doing this are honest, ethical and moral, but the fringe that isn't, it's very difficult to see the legal construct that will hold them accountable."
Blackwater's conduct at times inflamed tensions inside the ministry, Degn said. On May 24th, Degn was evacuated from the building after an armed standoff between interior ministry commandos and Blackwater guards, who had shot and killed an Iraqi driver outside the gates. US and Iraqi officials feared the incident might lead to retaliatory attacks against Americans.
"Blackwater has no respect for the Iraqi people," said the interior ministry official. "They consider Iraqis like animals, although actually I think they may have more respect for animals. We have seen what they do in the streets. When they're not shooting, they're throwing water bottles at people and calling them names.
"If you are terrifying a child, or an elderly woman, or you are killing an innocent civilian who is riding in his car, isn't that terrorism?"
On March 31st, 2004, four Blackwater employees were ambushed while escorting kitchen equipment through Fallujah. A mob shot and burned them, then hung two corpses from a bridge over the Euphrates River. To date, at least 25 Blackwater employees have been killed in Iraq.
The Fallujah attack, a turning point in the war, also led to fundamental changes in the private security industry. The military, which had been unaware that Blackwater was operating in Fallujah, created the Reconstruction Operations Centre to track thousands of armed civilians on the battlefield.
The use of private security skyrocketed in Iraq after the invasion because of troop shortages and growing violence. US authorities have no idea how many hired guns operate in the country; estimates range from 20,000 to 50,000 or higher. Military and private security officials described the operations centre as a success, with one omission: Blackwater, which played a role in its creation, does not participate.
Blackwater has said that it uses its own internal tracking system that is visible to both the military and the state department.