CBS: Three weeks after Blackwater shooting, FBI ignores key evidence David Edwards and Muriel Kane

Published: Wednesday October 10, 2007



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Print This Email This CBS News reported on Tuesday that the FBI's investigation of last month's Blackwater shooting incident in Baghdad appears to be ignoring evidence that might support the Iraqi government's version of events and hold Blackwater at fault. "The FBI investigation is supposed to wrap up in days, not weeks, but there's still a lot of work to do," reports CBS. "Our investigation turned up many witnesses who haven't yet been interviewed, not to mention vehicles that are key evidence still driving around the streets of Baghdad." According to the CBS reconstruction of events, based on "remarkably consistent" eyewitness accounts, the September 16 incident began when a four-vehicle Blackwater convoy heading around a traffic circle found its way blocked by a barrier protecting a maintenance crew. The convoy tried to warn nearby cars to stop but also opened fire on one car that continued to inch forward, instantly killing the driver. The Blackwater vehicles then pushed the barrier aside and moved ahead, firing on other cars and a city bus as they went. CBS found that not only is the bus, on which at least one woman was killed, continuing to follow its regular route -- with a driver who is happy to show off the bullet-holes and smashed-out windows -- but "astonishingly, that car [that was first to be shot at], full of forensic clues, is still sitting by the side of the road three weeks later." Military analyst Col. (ret.) Steve Lyons told CBS that with relations between the United States and the Iraqi government in a delicate state, much hinges on a successful resolution of the incident. However, he indicated the best hope was for the US to "show that there was either an anomaly, in that it was an accident that shouldn't have happened, or that perhaps the evidence does show that they were defensive in nature and that there was more firepower that was at that location." Lyons said there is little chance the US government will meet Iraqi demands either by severing all ties with Blackwater, which is by far the largest and most competent of the many security contractors in Iraq, or by turning over the gunmen responsible for the shooting. Even the Iraqi demand of $8 million in compensation for each of the victims is uncertain. "These contractors are long gone," Lyons stated. "They're back in the United States. They've scattered, really, to the four winds. ... They're not going to get any money from those individuals." Lyons explained that Blackwater employees in Iraq are protected from arrest or demands for restitution by an order known as CPA 17 -- put in place by the Coalition Provisional Authority just days before its authority expired in June 2004 -- which exempts US solders, consultants, and contractors from all Iraqi legal processes. He said the order crucially lacks a "flip side," which is common in such arrangements, whereby Americans who commit crimes in Iraq could be subject to prosecution under US law. The House of Representatives has now approved a bill that would do just that, but it would not apply retroactively. Lyon's statements suggest that the US is hoping for a positive, or at least inconclusive, outcome to the FBI investigations. "A lot of that evidence has been destroyed," he noted. "It's been on the ground for a few days, so from a forensic perspective, they won't be able to really go back and recreate certain things. ... It's going to be difficult for them to be exact with enough evidence to prove that either we did something wrong or not." When the FBI team set off for Baghdad last week, Senator Patrick Leahy made a special request that they not be guarded by Blackwater, writing to Secretary of State Rice, This step would help alleviate the appearance of a conflict of interest and hopefully contribute to the credibility of this investigation in the eyes of the people of Iraq." The following video is from CBS News Up to the Minute, broadcast on October 9, 2007.









