Contracts Blackwater Worldwide played a substantial role during the
Iraq War as a contractor for the United States government. In 2003, Blackwater attained its first high-profile contract when it received a $21 million
no-bid contract for guarding the head of the
Coalition Provisional Authority,
L. Paul Bremer. Since June 2004, Blackwater has been paid more than $320 million out of a $1 billion, five-year State Department budget for the Worldwide Personal Protective Service, which protects U.S. officials and some foreign officials in conflict zones. Of the State Department's dependence on private contractors like Blackwater for security purposes,
U.S. ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker told the U.S. Senate: "There is simply no way at all that the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security could ever have enough full-time personnel to staff the security function in Iraq. There is no alternative except through contracts." For work in Iraq, the company has drawn contractors from their international pool of professionals, a database containing "21,000 former Special Forces operatives, soldiers, and retired law enforcement agents," overall. For instance, Gary Jackson, the firm's president, has confirmed that Bosnians, Filipinos, and Chileans "have been hired for tasks ranging from airport security to protecting Paul Bremer, the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority." Between 2005 and September 2007, Blackwater security staff were involved in 195 shooting incidents; in 163 of those cases, Blackwater personnel fired first. According to former CIA director Michael Hayden, Blackwater, among other security contractors, were allowed to perform
waterboarding on suspects. Leaks in 2009 suggest CIA - Blackwater contracts to assassinate al-Qaeda leaders.
Fallujah and Najaf aids in securing the site of a car bomb explosion in
Baghdad, in December 2004, during the
Iraq War. On March 31, 2004,
Iraqi insurgents in
Fallujah ambushed two SUVs, killing the four armed Blackwater contractors inside. Local residents hung the charred bodies above a bridge across the Euphrates. In response, U.S. Marines attacked the city in
Operation Vigilant Resolve, which became the
first Battle of Fallujah. In the fall of 2007, a congressional report by the
House Oversight Committee found that Blackwater intentionally "delayed and impeded" investigations into the contractors' deaths. The report also acknowledges that members of the now-defunct Iraqi Civil Defense Corps "led the team into the ambush, facilitated blocking positions to prevent the team's escape, and then disappeared." Intelligence reports concluded that
Ahmad Hashim Abd al-Isawi was the mastermind behind the attack, and he was captured after a Navy SEAL special operation in 2009. al-Isawi was ultimately handed over to Iraqi authorities for trial and
executed by
hanging some time before November 2013. In April 2004, at the U.S. government's headquarters in
Najaf, hundreds of Shiite militia forces barraged Blackwater contractors, four MPs and a Marine gunner with rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47 fire for hours before U.S. Special Forces troops arrived. As supplies and ammunition ran low, a team of Blackwater contractors away flew to the compound to resupply and bring an injured U.S. Marine back to safety outside of the city.
Nisour Square Massacre The Iraqi Government revoked Blackwater's license to operate in Iraq on September 17, 2007, after
a massacre in Nisour Square, Baghdad in which Blackwater contractors were later convicted of killing 17 Iraqi civilians. The deaths occurred while a Blackwater
Private Security Detail (PSD) was escorting a convoy of U.S. State Department vehicles en route to a meeting in western
Baghdad with
United States Agency for International Development officials. The license was reinstated by the American government in April 2008, but in early 2009 the Iraqis announced that they had refused to extend that license. In 2009, FBI investigators were unable to match the bullets from the shooting to those guns carried by Blackwater contractors, leaving open the possibility that insurgents also fired at the victims. In a 2010 interview, Erik Prince, the company's founder, said the government is looking for dirt to support what he dismissed as "baseless" accusations that run the gamut from negligence, racial discrimination, prostitution, wrongful death, murder, and the smuggling of weapons into Iraq in dog-food containers. He pointed out that current and former executives have been regularly deposed by federal agencies.
Other incidents On February 16, 2005, four Blackwater guards escorting a U.S. State Department convoy in Iraq fired 70 rounds into a car. The guards stated that they felt threatened when the driver ignored orders to stop as he approached the convoy. The fate of the car's driver was unknown because the convoy did not stop after the shooting. An investigation by the State Department's Diplomatic Security Service concluded that the shooting was not justified and that the Blackwater employees provided false statements to investigators. The statements claimed that one of the Blackwater vehicles had been hit by insurgent gunfire, but the investigation concluded that one of the Blackwater guards had actually fired into his own vehicle by accident. John Frese, the U.S. embassy in Iraq's top security official, declined to punish Blackwater or the security guards because he believed any disciplinary actions would lower the morale of the Blackwater contractors. On February 6, 2006, a sniper employed by Blackwater Worldwide opened fire from the roof of the Iraqi Justice Ministry, killing three guards working for the state-funded
Iraqi Media Network. Many Iraqis at the scene said that the guards had not fired on the Justice Ministry. The U.S. State Department said, however, that their actions "fell within approved rules governing the use of force" based on information obtained from Blackwater guards. On April 21, 2005, six Blackwater USA independent contractors were killed in Iraq when their
Mil Mi-8 Hip helicopter was shot down. Also killed were three
Bulgarian crewmembers and two
Fijian gunners. Initial reports indicated that the helicopter was shot down by
rocket propelled grenades or missile fire. In 2006, a car accident occurred in the Baghdad Green Zone when an SUV driven by Blackwater USA contractors crashed into a U.S. Army Humvee. "The colonel ... said the Blackwater guards disarmed the soldiers and forced them to lie on the ground at gunpoint until they could disentangle their vehicles." On December 24, 2006, a security guard of the Iraqi vice president,
Adel Abdul Mahdi, was shot and killed while on duty outside the Iraqi prime minister's compound. The Iraqi government has accused
Andrew J. Moonen, a Blackwater employee at the time, of killing him while drunk. Moonen was subsequently fired by Blackwater for "violating alcohol and firearm policy", and travelled from Iraq to the United States days after the incident. The DOJ investigated and announced in 2010 that they were declining to prosecute Moonen, citing a likely affirmative defense of self-defense and high standards for initiating such a prosecution. The
United States State Department and Blackwater USA had attempted to keep his identity secret for security reasons. In 2007, the U.S. government investigated whether Blackwater employees smuggled weapons into Iraq. No charges were filed. Five Blackwater contractors were killed on January 23, 2007, in Iraq when their
Hughes H-6 helicopter was shot down on Baghdad's Haifa Street. The crash site was secured by a
personal security detail, callsign "Jester" from 1/26 Infantry, 1st Infantry Division. Three insurgents claimed to be responsible for shooting down the helicopter, although this has not been confirmed by the United States. A U.S. defense official has confirmed that four of the five killed were shot execution style in the back of the head, but did not know whether the four had survived the crash. In late May 2007, Blackwater contractors opened fire on the streets of Baghdad twice in two days, one of the incidents provoking a standoff between the security contractors and Iraqi Interior Ministry commandos, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials. The first incident occurred when a Blackwater-protected convoy was ambushed in downtown Baghdad. The following incident occurred when an Iraqi vehicle drove too close to a convoy. However, according to incident testimony, the Blackwater guards tried to wave off the driver, shouted, fired a warning shot into the car's radiator, finally shooting into the car's windshield. Following the incident, the Iraqi government allowed Blackwater to provide security by operating within the streets of Iraq. On August 21, 2007, Blackwater Manager Daniel Carroll threatened to kill Jean Richter, a U.S. State Department Investigator, in Iraq. In June 2014, a New York Times investigation reported that it had secured an internal State Department memo stating this. Richter later returned from Iraq to the U.S. and wrote a scathing review of the lax standards to which Blackwater was held accountable, only two weeks before a serious Blackwater incident in which 17 Iraqi civilians were shot and killed by Blackwater employees under questionable circumstances. The death threat incident was confirmed by a second investigator, a Mr. Thomas, who was also present at the meeting. The shooting incident that followed has been described by some as a "watershed" moment, and a factor which contributed to Iraq's later decision to refuse to allow U.S. troops to stay beyond 2011. Documents obtained from the
Iraq War documents leak of 2010 argue that Blackwater employees committed serious abuses in Iraq, including killing civilians.
Prosecution U.S. Congress On October 2, 2007, Erik Prince attended a
congressional hearing conducted by the
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform following the controversy related to Blackwater's conduct in Iraq and Afghanistan. Blackwater hired the public relations firm
BKSH & Associates Worldwide, a subsidiary of
Burson-Marsteller, to help Prince prepare for his testimony at the hearing. Robert Tappan, a former U.S. State Department official who worked for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad, was one of the
executives handling the account. Burson-Marsteller was brought aboard by
McDermott Will & Emery and
Crowell & Moring, the Washington law firms representing Blackwater. In his testimony before Congress, Prince said his company has a lack of remedies to deal with employee misdeeds. When asked why
Andrew Moonen had been "whisked out of the country" after the shooting death of the vice-presidential guard, he replied, "We can't flog him, we can't incarcerate him." When asked by a member of Congress for financial information about his company, Prince declined to provide documentation, saying "we're a private company, and there's a key word there – private." Later he stated that the company could provide it at a future date if questions were submitted in writing. When the term "mercenaries" was used to describe Blackwater employees, Prince objected, characterizing them as "loyal Americans." A staff report compiled by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on behalf of Representative
Henry Waxman questioned the cost-effectiveness of using Blackwater forces instead of U.S. troops. Blackwater charges the government $1,222 per day per guard, "equivalent to $445,000 per year, or six times more than the cost of an equivalent U.S. soldier," the report alleged. During his testimony on Capitol Hill, Erik Prince disputed this figure, saying that it costs money for the government to train a soldier, to house and feed them, they don't just come prepared to fight. "That sergeant doesn't show up naked and untrained," Prince stated. Moreover, he pointed out that Blackwater's employees are trained in special operations and exceed the capabilities of the average soldier. In the wake of Prince's testimony before Congress, the
U.S. House amended the
Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act in October 2007. The new legislation, H.R.2740 - the MEJA Expansion and Enforcement Act of 2007, expanded the original scope to MEJA to encompass all security contractors working overseas, not only those working under the Department of Defense. This subsequently led to the prosecution by U.S. courts of some U.S. military contractors, but only for incidents involving attacks on U.S. nationals. The legal status of Blackwater and other security firms in Iraq was a subject of contention. Two days before he left Iraq, L. Paul Bremer signed "
Order 17" giving all Americans associated with the
CPA and the American government immunity from Iraqi law. A July 2007 report from the American
Congressional Research Service indicates that the Iraqi government still has no authority over private security firms contracted by the U.S. government. On October 5, 2007, the
State Department announced new rules for Blackwater's armed guards operating in Iraq. Under the new guidelines, State Department security agents will accompany all Blackwater units operating in and around Baghdad. The State Department will also install video surveillance equipment in all Blackwater armored vehicles, and will keep recordings of all radio communications between Blackwater convoys in Iraq and the military and civilian agencies that supervise their activities. In December 2008, a
U.S. State Department panel recommended that Xe should be dropped as the main private security contractor for U.S. diplomats in Iraq. On January 30, 2009, the State Department told Blackwater Worldwide that it will not renew its contract in Iraq. However, in 2010 it was awarded a $100 million contract from the CIA. In August 2010, the company agreed to pay a $42 million fine to settle allegations that it unlawfully provided armaments and military equipment overseas. However, the company is still allowed to accept government contracts. The settlement and fine conclude a U.S. State Department investigation that began in 2007.
Iraqi courts On September 23, 2007, the Iraqi government said that it expects to refer criminal charges to its courts in connection with the Blackwater shootings. However, on October 29, 2007, immunity from prosecution was granted by the U.S. State Department, delaying a criminal inquiry into the September 16 shootings of 17 Iraqi civilians. Immediately afterwards, the Iraqi government approved a draft law to end any and all immunity for foreign military contractors in Iraq, to overturn Order 17. The U.S. Department of Justice also said any immunity deals offered to Blackwater employees were invalid, as the department that issued them had no authority to do so. It is unclear what legal status Blackwater Worldwide operates under in the U.S. and other countries, or what protection the U.S. extends to Blackwater Worldwide's operations globally. A number of Iraqi families took Blackwater to court over alleged "random killings committed by private Blackwater guards". Legal specialists say that the U.S. government is unlikely to allow a trial in the Iraqi courts, because there is little confidence that trials would be fair. Contractors accused of crimes abroad could be tried in the United States under either military or civilian law; however, the applicable military law, the Uniform Code of Military Justice, was changed in 2006, and appears to now exempt State Department contractors that provide security escorts for a civilian agency. Prosecution under civilian law would be through the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, which allows the extension of federal law to civilians supporting military operations; however, according to the deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department's criminal division, Robert Litt, trying a criminal case in federal court would require a secure chain of evidence, with police securing the crime scene immediately, while evidence gathered by Iraqi investigators would be regarded as suspect. On January 31, 2009, the U.S. State Department notified Blackwater that the agency would not renew its security contract with the company.
The Washington Times reported on March 17, 2009, that the U.S. State Department had extended its Iraq security contract with Blackwater's air operations arm,
Presidential Airways, to September 3, 2009, for a cost of $22.2 million. On January 31, 2010, three current and former U.S. government officials confirmed the Justice Department is investigating whether officials of Blackwater Worldwide tried to bribe Iraqi government officials in hopes of retaining the firm's security work in Iraq after the
shooting in Nisour Square in Baghdad, which left 17 Iraqis dead and stoked bitter resentment against the United States. The officials said that the Justice Department's fraud section opened the inquiry late in 2009 to determine whether Blackwater employees violated a federal law banning American corporations from paying bribes to foreign officials. In 2012 the Department of Justice closed the investigation without filing any charges.
Lawsuits In the March 2004 court case
Helvenston et al. v. Blackwater Security, Blackwater was sued by the families of four contractors killed in
Fallujah. The families said they were suing not for financial damages, but for the details of their sons' and husbands' deaths, saying that Blackwater had refused to supply these details, and that in its "zeal to exploit this unexpected market for private security men," the company "showed a callous disregard for the safety of its employees." In January 2011, U.S. district judge James C. Fox dismissed the suit. On November 27, 2004, an aircraft operated by Presidential Airways and owned by its sister company, Blackwater AWS, crashed in
Afghanistan; it had been a contract flight for the
United States Air Force en route from
Bagram to
Farah. Three soldiers and three civilian crew members aboard the plane were killed. Several relatives of the victims filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Presidential in October 2005. On October 11, 2007, the
Center for Constitutional Rights filed suit against Blackwater under the
Alien Tort Claims Act on behalf of an injured Iraqi and the families of three of the 17 Iraqis killed by Blackwater employees during the September 16, 2007,
Blackwater Baghdad shootings. The suit,
Abtan v. Blackwater, alleged that Blackwater had engaged in war crimes, created a "culture of lawlessness", and routinely deployed employees who used steroids and other psychoactive drugs. In June 2009, an amended lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, alleging that Blackwater employees shot and killed three members of an Iraqi family, including a nine-year-old boy, who were traveling from the Baghdad airport to Baghdad on July 1, 2007. The suit further accused Blackwater employees of murder, weapons smuggling, money laundering, tax evasion, and child prostitution. Two affidavits filed as part of the suit by former employees accuse Blackwater of encouraging the murder of Iraqi civilians, and of murdering or having murdered employees who intended to testify against the company. The lawsuit was ultimately settled confidentially in 2010, with plaintiffs accepting cash payments from the company.
Federal prosecution In August 2012, the company agreed to pay $7.5 million in fines, without admitting guilt, to the U.S. government to settle various charges involving pre-Academi personnel. February 2013, the majority of the remaining charges were dropped when it was shown that, in many cases, the Blackwater employees had been acting under the orders of the U.S. government. Once the court decision had been finalized, Academi pointed out that "[t]he court decision involves former Blackwater executives, none of whom have ever worked for ACADEMI or the current ownership." After the
Nisour Square killings of 17 Iraqi civilians and the injury of 20 more by Blackwater convoy guards in a Baghdad traffic circle in September 2007, charges were brought against five guards. One pleaded guilty to a lesser offense in exchange for his testimony for the prosecution. Three were eventually convicted in October 2014 of 14 manslaughter charges and in April 2015 sentenced to 30 years plus one day in prison. These sentences were deemed unfair upon appeal and these three await resentencing. Another was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison; however, this verdict was overturned in August 2017. On December 22, 2020, U.S. President
Donald Trump pardoned four former Blackwater contractors serving long prison terms: Nicholas Slatten, Paul Slough, Evan Liberty and Dustin Heard. The pardons do not establish innocence; however, they were criticised, both in the U.S. and in Iraq, as condoning killing of innocent civilians. ==See also==