Quality of Blackwater employees under fire

updated 5:40 p.m. ET Oct. 1, 2007

WASHINGTON - Private security contractor Blackwater USA has had to fire 122 people over the past three years for problems ranging from misusing weapons, alcohol and drug violations, inappropriate conduct and violent behavior, according to a report released Monday by a congressional committee.

That total is roughly one-seventh of the work force that Blackwater has in Iraq, a ratio that raises questions about the quality of the people working for the company.

Amid questions of reckless behavior by U.S contractors, an FBI spokesperson said Monday that the agency is sending a team to Iraq to investigate the role of the North Carolina-based firm in last month's shoot-out in Baghdad that killed 11 Iraqis.

FBI Special Agent Richard Kolko said the agency was making the move at the request of the State Department to examine evidence in the Sept. 16 shooting and to pursue possible criminal charges in light of allegations that guards working for Blackwater might have shot innocent Iraqi citizens.

"The results of the investigation will be reviewed for possible criminal liability and referred to the appropriate legal authority," Kolko said.

There are already several investigations under way, including one by the State Department and another by a U.S.-Iraqi commission that is also examining the broader issue of how private security contractors in Iraq operate.

Probe details shooting incidents
The report, prepared by the majority staff of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, says Blackwater has been involved in 195 shooting incidents since 2005, or roughly 1.4 per week.

In more than 80 percent of the incidents, called “escalation of force,” Blackwater’s guards fired the first shots even though the company’s contract with the State Department calls for it to use defensive force only, it said.

“In the vast majority of instances in which Blackwater fired shots, Blackwater is firing from a moving vehicle and does not remain at the scene to determine if the shots resulted in casualties,” according to the report.

The staff report paints Blackwater as a company that’s made huge sums of money despite its questionable performance in Iraq, where Blackwater guards provide protective services for U.S. diplomatic personnel.

Blackwater has earned more than $1 billion from federal contracts since 2001, when it had less than $1 million in government work. Overall, the State Department paid Blackwater more than $832 million between 2004 and 2006 for security work, according to the report.

Report: Drunk employee killed Iraqi guard
Blackwater, founded in 1997 and headquartered in Moyock, N.C., is the biggest of the State Department’s three private security contractors. The others are Dyncorp and Triple Canopy, both based in Washington’s northern Virginia suburbs.

The report is not only critical of Blackwater. In two cases, the State Department urged Blackwater make payments to the families of Iraqis killed by its guards.

On Dec. 24, 2006, a drunken Blackwater employee shot and killed a bodyguard for Iraq’s Shiite vice president, Adel Abdul-Mahdi.

The Associated Press had previously reported that the contractor had gotten lost on the way back to his barracks in the Green Zone and fired at least seven times when he was confronted by 30-year-old Raheem Khalaf Saadoun.

According to the staff report, within 36 hours of the shooting, the department allowed the Blackwater guard to be transported out of Iraq. A unnamed State Department official then recommended

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