lily
09-22-2007, 04:44 AM
Doesn't surprise me in the least (http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/09/21/blackwater.probe.ap/index.html?eref=rss_topstories)
Feds probe whether Blackwater smuggled weapons into Iraq
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal prosecutors are investigating whether employees
of the private security firm Blackwater USA illegally smuggled weapons into
Iraq that may have been sold on the black market and ended up in the hands
of a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, officials said Friday.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Raleigh, North Carolina, is handling the
investigation with help from Pentagon and State Department auditors, who
have concluded there is enough evidence to file charges, the officials told
The Associated Press.
Blackwater is based in Moyock, North Carolina.
The U.S. attorney for the eastern district of North Carolina, George
Holding, and a spokeswoman for Blackwater did not return calls seeking
comment Friday. Pentagon and State Department spokesmen declined to comment.
Officials with knowledge of the case said it is active, although at an early
stage. They spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the
matter, which has heightened since 11 Iraqis were killed Sunday in a
shooting involving Blackwater contractors protecting a U.S. diplomatic
convoy in Baghdad.
The officials could not say whether the investigation would result in
indictments, how many Blackwater employees are involved or if the company
itself, which has won hundreds of millions of dollars in government security
contracts since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, is under scrutiny.
Cashwell and Grumiaux pleaded guilty in early 2007 to possession of stolen
firearms that had been shipped in interstate or foreign commerce, and aided
and abetted another in doing so, according to court papers viewed by The
Associated Press.
In their plea agreements, which call for a maximum sentence of 10 years in
prison and a $250,000 fine, the men agreed to testify in any future
proceedings.
Calls to defense attorneys were not immediately returned Friday evening, and
calls to the telephone listings for both men also were not returned.
The News & Observer, citing unidentified sources, reported that the probe
was looking at whether Blackwater had shipped unlicensed automatic weapons
and military goods to Iraq without a license.
The paper's report that the company itself was under investigation could not
be confirmed by the AP.
According to officials in Washington, the investigation grew from internal
Pentagon and State Department inquiries into U.S. weapons that had gone
missing in Iraq.
It gained steam after Turkish authorities protested to the U.S. in July that
they had seized American arms from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, or
PKK, rebels.
The Turks provided serial numbers of the weapons to U.S. investigators, said
a Turkish official.
The Pentagon said in late July it was looking into the Turkish complaints
and a U.S. official said FBI agents had traveled to Turkey in recent months
to look into cases of missing U.S. weapons in Iraq.
Investigators are determining whether the alleged Blackwater weapons match
those taken from the PKK.
It was not clear if Blackwater employees suspected of selling to the black
market knew the weapons they allegedly sold to middlemen might wind up with
the PKK. If they did, possible charges against them could be more serious
than theft or illegal weapons sales, officials said.
The PKK, which is fighting for an independent Kurdistan, is banned in
Turkey, which has a restive Kurdish population and is considered a "foreign
terrorist organization" by the State Department. That designation bars U.S.
citizens or those in U.S. jurisdictions from supporting the group in any
way.
The North Carolina investigation was first brought to light by State
Department Inspector General Howard Krongard, who mentioned it, perhaps
inadvertently, this week while denying he had improperly blocked fraud and
corruption probes in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Krongard was accused in a letter by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-California,
chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, of
politically motivated malfeasance, including refusing to cooperate with an
investigation into alleged weapons smuggling by a large, unidentified State
Department contractor.
In response, Krongard said in a written statement that he "made one of my
best investigators available to help Assistant U.S. Attorneys in North
Carolina in their investigation into alleged smuggling of weapons into Iraq
by a contractor."
His statement went further than Waxman's letter because it identified the
state in which the investigation was taking place. Blackwater is the biggest
of the State Department's three private security contractors.
The other two, Dyncorp and Triple Canopy, are based in Washington's northern
suburbs, outside the jurisdiction of the North Carolina attorneys.
Feds probe whether Blackwater smuggled weapons into Iraq
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal prosecutors are investigating whether employees
of the private security firm Blackwater USA illegally smuggled weapons into
Iraq that may have been sold on the black market and ended up in the hands
of a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, officials said Friday.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Raleigh, North Carolina, is handling the
investigation with help from Pentagon and State Department auditors, who
have concluded there is enough evidence to file charges, the officials told
The Associated Press.
Blackwater is based in Moyock, North Carolina.
The U.S. attorney for the eastern district of North Carolina, George
Holding, and a spokeswoman for Blackwater did not return calls seeking
comment Friday. Pentagon and State Department spokesmen declined to comment.
Officials with knowledge of the case said it is active, although at an early
stage. They spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the
matter, which has heightened since 11 Iraqis were killed Sunday in a
shooting involving Blackwater contractors protecting a U.S. diplomatic
convoy in Baghdad.
The officials could not say whether the investigation would result in
indictments, how many Blackwater employees are involved or if the company
itself, which has won hundreds of millions of dollars in government security
contracts since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, is under scrutiny.
Cashwell and Grumiaux pleaded guilty in early 2007 to possession of stolen
firearms that had been shipped in interstate or foreign commerce, and aided
and abetted another in doing so, according to court papers viewed by The
Associated Press.
In their plea agreements, which call for a maximum sentence of 10 years in
prison and a $250,000 fine, the men agreed to testify in any future
proceedings.
Calls to defense attorneys were not immediately returned Friday evening, and
calls to the telephone listings for both men also were not returned.
The News & Observer, citing unidentified sources, reported that the probe
was looking at whether Blackwater had shipped unlicensed automatic weapons
and military goods to Iraq without a license.
The paper's report that the company itself was under investigation could not
be confirmed by the AP.
According to officials in Washington, the investigation grew from internal
Pentagon and State Department inquiries into U.S. weapons that had gone
missing in Iraq.
It gained steam after Turkish authorities protested to the U.S. in July that
they had seized American arms from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, or
PKK, rebels.
The Turks provided serial numbers of the weapons to U.S. investigators, said
a Turkish official.
The Pentagon said in late July it was looking into the Turkish complaints
and a U.S. official said FBI agents had traveled to Turkey in recent months
to look into cases of missing U.S. weapons in Iraq.
Investigators are determining whether the alleged Blackwater weapons match
those taken from the PKK.
It was not clear if Blackwater employees suspected of selling to the black
market knew the weapons they allegedly sold to middlemen might wind up with
the PKK. If they did, possible charges against them could be more serious
than theft or illegal weapons sales, officials said.
The PKK, which is fighting for an independent Kurdistan, is banned in
Turkey, which has a restive Kurdish population and is considered a "foreign
terrorist organization" by the State Department. That designation bars U.S.
citizens or those in U.S. jurisdictions from supporting the group in any
way.
The North Carolina investigation was first brought to light by State
Department Inspector General Howard Krongard, who mentioned it, perhaps
inadvertently, this week while denying he had improperly blocked fraud and
corruption probes in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Krongard was accused in a letter by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-California,
chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, of
politically motivated malfeasance, including refusing to cooperate with an
investigation into alleged weapons smuggling by a large, unidentified State
Department contractor.
In response, Krongard said in a written statement that he "made one of my
best investigators available to help Assistant U.S. Attorneys in North
Carolina in their investigation into alleged smuggling of weapons into Iraq
by a contractor."
His statement went further than Waxman's letter because it identified the
state in which the investigation was taking place. Blackwater is the biggest
of the State Department's three private security contractors.
The other two, Dyncorp and Triple Canopy, are based in Washington's northern
suburbs, outside the jurisdiction of the North Carolina attorneys.