The New York Times has a new report on how the Iraqi ministry for national security will handle the Blackwater case. The minister has looked at the tape of the shootings: “The shots fired on the Iraqis were unjustifiable,” he said. “It was harsh and horrible.” Blackwater will now, according to the Iraqi government, be in the hands of the Iraqi justice system.
Iraqi government officials also indicated that they were weighing earlier incidents involving Blackwater in their consideration of what the practical consequences of the Nisour Square shooting should be. “The American Blackwater company has made for the seventh time the same mistake against the Iraqis and in different places in Baghdad,” according to a preliminary report from the Iraqi investigation obtained by The New York Times.
The Iraqi security minister, Shirwan al-Waili, is not commenting on whether murder charges are warranted in this case, though the internal report the New York Times has seen makes clear that the Iraqi government believes theyare.
The US can claim that, according to the infamous order signed by L. Paul Bremer, Blackwater is protected by diplomatic immunity. But "diplomatic immunity" is becoming an issue with wider implications.
More trouble in diplomacy came on Saturday, when President Jalal Talabani expressed his anger at the arrest of a man he said was an Iranian diplomat, Agai Mahummdi Firhadi, who was arrested by the American military on Sept. 20 in northern Iraq. A statement from the president’s office said Mr. Talabani had “sent a message of anger,” to the American ambassador, Ryan C. Crocker, and the American military commander, Gen. David H. Petraeus, because the Iranian had been on a diplomatic delegation.
Iraqis also charge that the US is slow to turn over information related to the Blackwater matter. Though the truth about these incidents is bound to be more complex, the last thing the US, its administration, its surge proponents, Congress, and a beleaguered Iraqi central government need at this point is more and worse "complexities" caused by hotdoggers, liars, and profiteers among private contractors and inept American agencies.
