What is it about Blackwater, that notorious private contractor and serial killer, that insulates it from justice? What is it inside the workings of the Justice Department -- no matter the leadership -- that appears to mandate a hands-off policy on this contractor?
The New York Times reports:
In the most recent and closely watched case, the Justice Department on Monday said that it would not seek murder charges against Andrew J. Moonen, a Blackwater armorer accused of killing a guard assigned to an Iraqi vice president on Dec. 24, 2006. Justice officials said that they were abandoning the case after an investigation that began in early 2007, and included trips to Baghdad by federal prosecutors and F.B.I. agents to interview Iraqi witnesses.
The government’s decision to drop the Moonen case follows a series of failures by prosecutors around the country in cases aimed at former personnel of Blackwater, which is now known as Xe Services.
Apparently, getting the goods on contractors working in Iraq and Afghanistan is too difficult for federal prosecutors. The Times cites "the difficulties of obtaining evidence in war zones, of gaining proper jurisdiction for prosecutions in American civilian courts, and of overcoming immunity deals given to defendants by American officials on the scene."
Remember the immunity deals? Blackwater was given plenty of insulation during the Bush administration. Even without other problems, the tendency would be to give them a pass. Blackwater leadership was, after all, a financial supporter of that administration.
But evidence gathered in a "war zone" and jurisdictional issues are very relevant, too.
In the case of Andrew Moonen, who killed a presidential guard in Iraq, it's self defense. The killers in the Nisour Square shootings have similar cover.
... While Mr. Moonen admitted in his statement to the embassy official that he did shoot the Iraqi guard, he asserted that he had done so in self-defense. The guards in the Virginia case also said that they shot in self-defense when they believed they were facing an attack from insurgents. In the Nisour Square case, the five Blackwater guards who were charged also claimed that they shot only after they believed they were under attack.
