Feds Sought to Cover Up '05 Blackwater Killing

'We can't win this one,' wrote one official
By Lucas Laursen,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 26, 2007 11:04 AM CDT
Feds Sought to Cover Up '05 Blackwater Killing
A Blackwater security contractor. (AP Photo/Jacob Silberberg)   (Associated Press)

State Department officials sought to conceal evidence of a 2005 Blackwater killing from an LA Times reporter, according to emails obtained by ABC News. Referring to a shooting that killed one Iraqi and led to two Blackwater dismissals, one official instructed another to give the Times "what we can and dump the rest on Blackwater," the paper reports.

Only an administrative investigation took place, the Times reports. A State official wrote that the jurisdiction around private security contractors is “hazy” and that the only recourse for negligence is dismissal. In another email, one official complained that Iraqis seeking justice were stymied by Blackwater’s murky legal status. "In the worst-case scenario, some might seek revenge." (More Blackwater stories.)

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