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Feds probe Blackwater links to arms smuggling - Sept 21, 2007
Related content - Newsweek: Blackwater and the Bush legacy -
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20892483/site/newsweek/
Reports: Weapons linked to employees may have gone to terrorist
groups.
BAGHDAD - Federal prosecutors are investigating whether employees of
the private security firm Blackwater USA illegally smuggled into Iraq
weapons 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, N.C., 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,
N.C.
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.
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ordered a review of
security practices for U.S. diplomats in Iraq following a deadly
incident involving Blackwater USA guards protecting an embassy
convoy.
Rice's announcement came as the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad resumed
limited diplomatic convoys under the protection of Blackwater outside
the heavily fortified Green Zone after a suspension because of the
weekend incident in that city.
Early stages of investigation.
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.
In Saturday's editions, The News & Observer of Raleigh reported that
two former Blackwater employees - Kenneth Wayne Cashwell of Virginia
Beach, Va., and William Ellsworth "Max" Grumiaux of Clemmons, N.C. -
are cooperating with federal investigators.
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.
Turkish complaint led to internal probe.
In the United States, officials in Washington said the smuggling
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.
Probe perhaps accidently made public.
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-Calif.,
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 Virginias suburbs, outside the jurisdiction of North
Carolina's attorneys.
Feds probe Blackwater links to arms smuggling - Sept 21, 2007
Related content - Newsweek: Blackwater and the Bush legacy -
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20892483/site/newsweek/
Reports: Weapons linked to employees may have gone to terrorist
groups.
BAGHDAD - Federal prosecutors are investigating whether employees of
the private security firm Blackwater USA illegally smuggled into Iraq
weapons 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, N.C., 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,
N.C.
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.
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ordered a review of
security practices for U.S. diplomats in Iraq following a deadly
incident involving Blackwater USA guards protecting an embassy
convoy.
Rice's announcement came as the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad resumed
limited diplomatic convoys under the protection of Blackwater outside
the heavily fortified Green Zone after a suspension because of the
weekend incident in that city.
Early stages of investigation.
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.
In Saturday's editions, The News & Observer of Raleigh reported that
two former Blackwater employees - Kenneth Wayne Cashwell of Virginia
Beach, Va., and William Ellsworth "Max" Grumiaux of Clemmons, N.C. -
are cooperating with federal investigators.
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.
Turkish complaint led to internal probe.
In the United States, officials in Washington said the smuggling
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.
Probe perhaps accidently made public.
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-Calif.,
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 Virginias suburbs, outside the jurisdiction of North
Carolina's attorneys.
