Following up on my recent stories about the private military security company Blackwater, it seemed worth mentioning that the State Department has issued a directive to Blackwater to not speak to either the press or to Congress without State's authorization. This followed in the wake of Rep Henry Waxman (D-CA) announcement last week that his committee will hold hearings on the recent shooting incident involving Blackwater that left up to 20 Iraqi civilians dead. There are many problems with State's move, but perhaps the largest is that this arm of the executive branch has no authority to order a private entity to stonewall a Congressional investigation. State uses Blackwater to protect its people in Iraq, something that should be handled by US military forces directly. There are also deep ties between Blackwater and both the Bush Administration specifically and the Republican party generally. Ah, all signs point to another cover-up.
25 September 2007
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