Uh-oh. Bad move.

Evidently the State Department has offered immunity to Blackwater.  Other government officials are condemning this as a "bad move."

The State Department investigators from the agency’s investigative arm, the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, offered the immunity grants even though they did not have the authority to do so, the said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. Prosecutors at the Justice Department, who do have such authority, had no advance knowledge of the arrangement, they added.

Most of the guards who took part in the episode were offered what officials described as limited-use immunity, which means that they were promised they would not be prosecuted for anything they said in their interviews with the authorities as long as their statements were true.

Bad move.  There is no clear path to prosecution of Blackwater for killing Iraqi civilians  (in abundance) .  The immunity offer simply complicates the investigative process further. 

Who backed the immunity offer?  Sorry.  No answer.  Are we looking at a White House deal in which (for example) Rice is given a little more leeway in finding a diplomatic solution with Iran in return for immunizing a serious source of Republican funding?  Who knows? 

State and Justice Department spokesmen would not comment on the matter. “If there’s any truth to this story, then the decision was made without consultation with senior officials in Washington,” one State Department official said.

A spokeswoman for Blackwater, Anne E. Tyrell, said: “It would be inappropriate for me to comment on the investigation.”

The immunity deals came as an unwelcome surprise at the Justice Department, which was already grappling with the fundamental legal question of whether any prosecutions could take place involving American civilians in Iraq.

It all goes back to John Poindexter and co-malefactor, Oliver North.

The courts have made it all but impossible to prosecute defendants who have been granted immunity since the appellate court reversals of the Iran-contra affair convictions against John M. Poindexter, a former national security adviser, and Oliver L. North, a national security aide, who had each been immunized by Congress.

Wasn't that the time when a younger (but no less fervent) Dick Cheney was in Congress, serving as chair of the Republican Policy Committee and with, god knows, close ties with the White House? 

Whatever.  Just as long as Blackwater maintains its potentially useful campuses for domestic policing in the midwest and California and gets on with the business of serving the Republican agenda in war and peace.

And the Democratic agenda as well?  John Edwards exhibited a little righteous wrath today. 

''Senator Clinton's road to the middle class takes a major detour right through the deep canyon of corporate lobbyists and the hidden bidding of K Street in Washington,'' he said. ''And history tells us that when that bus stops there, it is the middle class that loses.''

Later, at a town-hall meeting in Exeter, N.H., Edwards blamed the Washington system for allowing the government to hire private security guards like those who work for Blackwater USA  Blackwater guards were involved in the killings of 17 Iraqi civilians in September in Baghdad.

''Right now, we've got men and women serving in uniform in Iraq while we've got a bunch of paid mercenaries roaming around the country lawless, the best I can tell, working for Blackwater and people like that,'' Edwards said.

Yup.