What does it take to get a Congressional investigation around here?

You've probably heard about the incident last week wherein mercenaries working for the security firm, Blackwater International, opened fire on unarmed civilians in Iraq, prompting the Iraqi government to suspend Blackwater's activities indefinitely and ask them to leave Iraq.

The State Department's inital report, detailed here in the Washington Post, describes a version of events that are considerably more favorable to Blackwater than initial reports from Iraqis at the scene.

That's probably not surprising. But yesterday, it was discovered that "The official [who wrote the State Department's official report], who declined to be identified because of the ongoing investigations into the shooting..." was an employee of... you guessed it... Blackwater International!

See if you can follow this: the Bureau of Diplomatic Security for the U.S. embassy in Iraq's Tactical Operations Center, has outsourced some of its responsibilities to outside agencies, including Blackwater. After the incident in which Blackwater killed eleven Iraqi civilians and wounded twelve, while sustaining no gunfire, injuries, or casualties, a Blackwater employee, Darren Hanner, was charged with writing the official initial account of the event. Curiously, the document makes no mention of civilian casualties, and sites extenuating circumstances which precipitated the massacre, which can't be corroborated by eye-witnesses.

So, is it by design, or by incredible oversight, that a Blackwater Employee was put in charge of initial investigations into atrocities committed by his own company? It seems right in line with the sort of media manipulation perpetrated by this Administration. Hmm.

Read the story on CNN here.

This news is likely to make the Congressional hearings on Blackwater all the more interesting. Blackwater has (finally) come under Congressional scrutiny for several reasons: 1) Blackwater employees aren't subject to any law. They can't be court marshalled by the military, or tried in American or Iraqi courts. While the latest incident is the most heinous, Blackwater employees have committed many acts, which, had they been committed by American soldiers, would have resulted in a court's marshall. 2) The company is owned by Erik Prince, who was an intern under George H.W Bush, and continues to be a major financial supporter of Republican candidates, including Bush Jr. Notably, he is Vice President of the Elsa and Edgar Prince Foundation, whose sole purpose is to fund right-wing Christian fundamentalist groups, such as Dobson's Focus on the Family. Blackwater has been the recipient of no-bid contracts for security contracts in Iraq, leading many to question why a for-profit private company is hiring mercenaries, at around $100,000 per year, for security purposes in Iraq, all on the tax payer dime, when the U.S. military is much better suited for the task. Hmm.

Listen to Daniel Schorr's always-insightful commentary on the matter here.