US:Democrats in Congress have sharply criticised the state department for offering immunity to employees of the Blackwater private security firm under investigation for killing 17 Iraqis in an incident in Baghdad last month.
US officials have confirmed the immunity offer could complicate any prosecutions over the incident, in which the Iraqi government says Blackwater staff guarding a US diplomatic convoy "deliberately killed" innocent bystanders.
Officials said prosecutors would have to show any evidence they use was not gleaned from statements made to state department investigators before the FBI took charge of the investigation earlier this month.
"They have to reconstruct the case around the statements," one official said.
A number of US news outlets reported yesterday that Blackwater employees interviewed by the state department after the shooting incident were given a waiver saying their statements could not be used in court.
Democrats demanded to know when secretary of state Condoleezza Rice knew about the offer of immunity and why the justice department had not been told.
Senate judiciary committee chairman Patrick Leahy said the immunity deal reflected a culture of unaccountability at the heart of the Bush administration.
"That seems to be a central tenet in the Bush administration - that no one from their team should be held accountable. If you get caught, they will get you immunity. If you get convicted, they will commute your sentence. They are the amnesty administration," he said.
The September shootings outraged the Iraqi government, which has now decided to rescind a decree issued by the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in 2004 which granted foreign contractors immunity from prosecution in Iraq.
Blackwater has said its staff "acted lawfully and appropriately in response to a hostile attack", opening fire only after they were shot at. However, eyewitnesses claimed the contractors fired indiscriminately into a crowd of innocent bystanders and a US military investigation found no evidence of an attack on the convoy.
A state department review panel reported last week there was no basis for holding Blackwater staff accountable under US law and urged Congress and the administration to address the problem. The house overwhelmingly passed a Bill this month that would make such contractors liable under a law known as the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act.
The Centre for Constitutional Rights, which is taking a civil action against Blackwater on behalf of an injured survivor and three families of men killed in the incident, said the state department's immunity deal would not stop its lawsuit.
"The state department cannot immunise Blackwater and its employees from the damage action brought on behalf of the victims of the September 16th Nisoor Square shooting. The state department's action is outrageous and demonstrates the importance of civil damages cases like ours for seeking justice when the government is protecting corporate interests. Blackwater cannot be allowed to continue operating extra-legally, providing mercenaries who flout all kinds of law," said the centre.