Blackwater immunity deal condemned

DEMOCRATS criticised the Bush administration yesterday for giving immunity to Blackwater USA bodyguards, calling the move a failure to hold the security contractors responsible for the shooting deaths of 17 Iraqi civilians.

The State Department, whose investigators initially promised to shield the bodyguards’ statements in the criminal inquiry of the September 16 shootings, maintained any lawbreakers “must be held to account” as a result of the inquiry taken over by the Justice Department and FBI.

Senate Judiciary chairman Patrick Leahy, who sits on two Senate panels that oversee the State Department and the Justice Department, called the immunity deal an example of “the amnesty administration”.

The offer for limitedimmunity has delayed the government inquiry and threatens to derail prosecution as investigators seek other evidence from the crime scene, now six weeks cold.

“In this administration, accountability goes by the boards,” said Mr Leahy. “That goes equally formisconduct and for incompetence. If you get caught, they will get you immunity. If you get convicted,they will commute your sentence.”

Senator Barack Obama, demanded to know if Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was aware of the immunity offers and agreed with it.

The deal will not prevent the Blackwater guards from ever being prosecuted.

However, it forces prosecutors to prove they did not use the information gleaned from the bodyguards’ statements — or anything related to them — when seeking criminal charges. That means investigators will have to find other credible witnesses or evidence to make their case.