What could make this week worse for Blackwater? If shooting Iraqi civilians and facing deportation pressure from the Maliki government weren’t quite enough, there’s also the looming investigation into illicit arms smuggling.
Federal prosecutors are investigating allegations that employees of Blackwater — the security firm accused of shooting dead up to 20 Iraqi civilians — illegally smuggled weapons into Iraq, according to U.S. government sources. […]
One U.S. government official said the U.S. attorney’s office in Raleigh, North Carolina, is in the early stages of an investigation that so far focuses on individual Blackwater employees and not the company.
The AP report added that the alleged smuggled arms from Blackwater employees “may have been sold on the black market and ended up in the hands of a U.S.-designated terrorist organization.”
Blackwater’s other problems, meanwhile, continue to worsen.
Iraq’s Interior Ministry has expanded its investigation into incidents involving Blackwater USA security guards amid the furor following a shooting that claimed at least 11 lives, a ministry spokesman said Saturday.
Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf said the Moyock, N.C.-based company has been implicated in six other incidents over the past seven months, including a Feb. 7 shooting outside Iraqi state television in Baghdad in which three building guards were fatally shot.
One wonders where all of this could go, or whether it’s a moot point. After a few days of inactivity, Blackwater went back to work yesterday, and the “sovereign” Iraqi government grudgingly acknowledges that it can’t kick Blackwater out of the country.
And then, there’s the Mitt Romney angle.
In general, the Republican presidential candidates haven’t been too assertive in talking about the Blackwater controversies this week, but as Kenneth Vogel noted, Romney’s silence is particularly noteworthy.
Mitt Romney has remained mum on the alleged killing of 11 Iraqis by a company where one of his top advisers serves as vice chairman, even as the case has led to an uproar in Baghdad and Washington. Barack Obama, John McCain and other politicians have raised the possibility of tighter controls on the firm.
The top counterterrorism and national security adviser to Romney’s presidential campaign is Cofer Black, vice chairman of Blackwater USA. The Iraqis died after guards employed by the private security firm opened fire following an alleged attack on a State Department convoy under their protection. […]
It’s become de rigueur for campaigns to assemble teams of experts to advise candidates and bolster their bona fides, particularly on their weaker issues. In tapping Black as a senior adviser to the campaign, Romney said in an April statement: “Black’s experience at the forefront of our nation’s counterterrorism efforts will be a tremendous asset.” And three days before the Blackwater shootings, Romney announced Black would lead the campaign’s 10-member counterterrorism policy group.
Black served nearly 30 years in the CIA, eventually heading its counterterrorism efforts and later those of the State Department, before joining Blackwater in 2005 as vice chairman.
After the shooting, though, a Romney spokesman would not say whether Black has advised Romney on the use of security contractors in Iraq. Nor would he elaborate on Black’s role in the campaign or answer specific questions about whether the U.S.’s level of oversight over security contractors is adequate.
The spokesman directed questions to Blackwater, whose spokeswoman did not return telephone and e-mail messages.
As Blackwater’s work becomes more controversial, expect Romney to face more pressure to explain himself on this.