Condi Rice

17 October 2007 -- The New York Times says U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is pressing for private security firms working for the U.S. government in Iraq to fall under a single authority, most likely that of the U.S. military.

A story published in Wednesday's edition of the newspaper says the idea is facing resistance from the State Department, which uses about 2,500 private security guards to protect American diplomats in Baghdad. About 800 of them are employed by Blackwater USA, which was involved in a deadly shooting in the Iraqi capital last month.    » read more »

October 16, 2007 -- "If the government in Iraq is so corrupt that our State Department won’t even tell us about it…if it’s so corrupt that it is undermining any chance of political progress, then how can we ask our brave men and women to risk their lives there? We are putting them in an impossible situation."

Today the House overwhelming passed the Iraq corruption resolution, H.Res. 734, which condemns the State Department for withholding information about Iraqi corruption from the Congress and the American people. The strongly worded rebuke passed by a vote of 395-21.    » read more »

Calls on Prince to testify, Release details of Iraq contract

October 15, 2007 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) called on Chairman Joseph Lieberman and Ranking Member Susan Collins of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to ask Erik Prince, the head of Blackwater, to testify before the Committee and provide details of the company’s contract in Iraq.    » read more »

October 12, 2007 -- H.Res. 734 expresses the sense of the House that the State Department has abused its classification authority by withholding from Congress and the American people information about the extent of corruption in the Maliki government.    » read more »

October 12, 2007 -- House Chairmen Waxman, Lantos, Skelton, and Obey write the Secretary of State to express their concern about endemic corruption in Iraq and the refusal of State Department officials to answer basic questions about the impact of corruption within the Maliki government on the chances of success in Iraq.

Letter to Secretary Rice (pdf file)

Source: House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

14 October 2007 -- The chairman of the American security company Blackwater USA is defending his company's guards, who are under investigation over a September shooting incident in which 17 Iraqis were killed.

The Iraqi government accuses Blackwater guards of a deliberate, unprovoked shooting spree that killed 17 people in Baghdad on September 16.

But Blackwater chairman Erik Prince says, according to incident reports he has seen, the guards were responding to small arms fire while escorting a diplomatic convoy.    » read more »

MOSCOW, Oct. 11, 2007 – Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates arrived in Moscow tonight to join Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in meetings with top Russian leaders.

Gates left Washington yesterday evening, stopping first in London for several hours to meet with British Prime Gordon Brown and Secretary of State for Defense Desmond Brown. The U.S. and British leaders primarily addressed ongoing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.    » read more »

October 11, 2007 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) today wrote to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressing his concerns about the growing number of systematic sexual assaults against women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) since armed conflicts erupted again there six weeks ago. Obama asked Secretary Rice to answer a series of questions about the situation in the DRC and what the United States government is doing to help curb this violence against women.    » read more »

11 October 2007 -- A U.S. rights group is suing the private security firm, Blackwater, on behalf of victims of a deadly shooting last month in Baghdad.

The Center for Constitutional Rights said Thursday it is filing the suit in a U.S. court for one survivor and the families of three of those who died. The suit accuses Blackwater of murder and war crimes, and it seeks unspecified damages.

Blackwater has not commented on the lawsuit. It has said in the past that its guards were lawfully responding to an attack on a U.S. diplomatic convey they were escorting in the Iraqi capital.    » read more »

11 October 2007 -- The United Nations is urging the United States to ensure that American private contractors who commit offenses in Iraq are prosecuted.

The U.N. Assistance Mission to Iraq is making the call in its new report on the human rights situation in that country Thursday. The mission noted several fatal incidents involving private security firms in the period between April and June of this year.

The report calls on the U.S. to establish mechanisms to hold contractors accountable when such incidents do not appear to be justified.    » read more »

October 09, 2007 -- Documents obtained by the Oversight Committee depict widespread defects in fire detection systems, fire service mains, fire sprinklers, fire-proof construction materials, and electrical wiring throughout the Iraq Embassy complex.

Other documents implicate the Managing Partner of First Kuwaiti, the prime contractor, in an illegal kickback scheme to obtain subcontracts under the Army’s multi-billion logistical support contract.

Letter to Secretary Rice (pdf)    » read more »

09 October 2007 -- Iraq's government is asking American security firm Blackwater USA to pay $136 million to the families of Iraqis killed in a recent shooting.

The demand is included in a report of an Iraqi government investigation into the September 16 incident in a western Baghdad square. It charges that Blackwater security guards deliberately killed 17 people in the shooting.    » read more »

October 05, 2007 -- Today Chairman Waxman wrote to Secretary Rice following reports that a Blackwater contractor, who was fired after he shot and killed an Iraq security guard, was hired by Combat Support Associates, another private contractor, to work in the region two months later.

A letter was also sent to the President of Combat Support Associates requesting information about the former Blackwater contractor.

Read: Letter to Secretary Rice (pdf file)

Source: Administration Oversight, Defense and Security

October 5, 2007 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) today sent the following letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, asking her to further clarify the new guidelines she proposed for contractors operating in Iraq and Afghanistan. Obama called on Rice to clarify the legal framework the State Department intends to use to hold contractors accountable for their actions in Iraq and Afghanistan, and to provide more information on the rules of engagement contractors will employ.    » read more »

04 October 2007 -- A key Democratic lawmaker says the State Department risks an escalating confrontation with his committee over the issue of U.S. government assessments of Iraqi anti-corruption efforts. The warning came during a hearing in which a former anti-corruption judge said rampant corruption is blocking progress in Iraq.

In his first appearance before U.S. lawmakers, Judge Radhi Hamza al-Radhi described corruption as rampant, affecting virtually every government ministry, and involving some of the most powerful officials in Iraq.    » read more »