[Grovenet] Well, d'oh, as Homer Simpson would say . . . . . .

Tue Oct 30 15:01:02 PDT 2007

What do you expect from the folks who made "apprehending Osama Bin Ladin"
our nation's top priority six years ago? 

I saw an absurd* film with an absolutely hilarious line in it recently. It
was the "Farmer Astronaut" about a frustrated ex-astronaut who decides to
build his own rocket from surplus parts on his Midwest farm. In the story
the administration comes down on him like a "ton of bricks" for presuming to
build his own private rocket to orbit the earth. A committee representing
the administration calls him to testify about this whole affair. At one
point the chairman asks the would-be astronaut, "How do we know you aren't
building WMD?" 

The farmer replies, "Sir, if I were building a weapon of mass destruction
you would not be able to find it!" 

Ron D'Eau Claire

*I say "absurd" because, while the story about the people was nicely done,
the science was unnecessarily flawed and absurd. It's one thing when
outrageous fantasy is essential to the story. In this case it wasn't, and so
it detracted from the whole story for me. 

-----Original Message-----
From: grovenet-bounces at rdrop.com [mailto:grovenet-bounces at rdrop.com] On
Behalf Of Bob Browning
Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2007 12:45 PM
To: Grovenet
Subject: [Grovenet] Well, d'oh, as Homer Simpson would say . . . . . .

 <http://news.yahoo.com/;_ylt=AgMof3rBNdAPSCKAzVEuP96WwvIE> Yahoo! News

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ttp%3A//help.yahoo.com/> 

Blackwater immunity draws criticism 

By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer1 hour, 8 minutes ago 

Democrats criticized the Bush administration Tuesday 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 Sept. 16 shootings,
maintained that any lawbreakers "must be held to account" as a result of the
inquiry that has since been 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 limited immunity has delayed the government's criminal inquiry
of the shootings that enraged the Iraqi government, 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 Leahy.
"That goes equally for misconduct and for incompetence. If you get caught,
they will get you immunity. If you get convicted, they will commute your
sentence."

Sen. Barack Obama, the Illinois Democrat running for president, demanded to
know whether Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was aware of the immunity
offers and agreed with it. In a letter to Rice Tuesday, Obama asked whether
the FBI and Justice Department were consulted before limited immunity was
offered.

The White House had little to say about the matter Tuesday. President Bush
ignored a question on the arrangement shouted after his meeting with the
president of Uganda. And his spokeswoman dodged most questions about it at
her daily briefing with reporters, referring them to the State Department.

"It is under review," White House press secretary Dana Perino said. "Anyone
who has engaged in criminal behavior will be prosecuted."

State Department Sean McCormack said Rice has steadfastly supported
accountability for anyone involved in the Blackwater shootings found to have
broken the law. Rice also asked that the FBI take over the investigation
from her department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security, McCormack said.

"Her attitude has been since the very beginning that we need to determine
the facts and if there facts lead us to the conclusion that there are those
who broke rules laws or regulations, they must be held to account,"
McCormack said. He declined further comment.

The immunity deal will not prevent the Blackwater guards from ever being
prosecuted. However, it forces prosecutors to prove that 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.

The FBI has re-interviewed some of the Blackwater employees, and officials
have said that at least several of them have refused to answer questions,
citing their constitutional right to avoid self-incrimination.

One official, however, said that not all the guards have cited their Fifth
Amendment right against self-incrimination - leaving open the possibility
for future charges. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity
because of the ongoing investigation, declined to elaborate.

A second senior U.S. official familiar with the investigation said Tuesday
that the immunity deal stemmed from a waiver that Blackwater employees
signed that banned their initial statements from being used in court. The
official said it makes the job harder but does not make prosecution
impossible.

It's not clear why the Diplomatic Security investigators agreed to give
immunity to the bodyguards, or who authorized doing so.

The apparent misstep comes in the wake of already-strained relations between
the United States and Iraq, which is demanding the right to launch its own
prosecution of the Blackwater bodyguards. The Iraqi government on Tuesday
approved draft legislation lifting immunity for foreign private security
companies, sending the measure to parliament, a spokesman said.

Blackwater spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell declined comment about the U.S.
investigation. Based in Moyock, N.C., Blackwater USA is the largest private
security firm protecting U.S. diplomats in Iraq.

The company has said its Sept. 16 convoy was under attack before it opened
fire in west Baghdad's Nisoor Square, killing 17 Iraqis. A follow-up
investigation by the Iraqi government, however, concluded that Blackwater's
men were unprovoked. No witnesses have been found to contradict that
finding. 

An initial incident report by U.S. Central Command, which oversees military
operations in Iraq, also indicated "no enemy activity involved" in the Sept.
16 incident. The report says Blackwater guards were traveling against the
flow of traffic through a traffic circle when they "engaged five civilian
vehicles with small arms fire" at a distance of 50 meters. 

The FBI took over the case early this month, officials said, after
prosecutors in the Justice Department's criminal division realized it could
not bring charges against Blackwater guards based on their statements to the
Diplomatic Security investigators. 

___ 

Associated Press writers Matthew Lee and Lolita C. Baldor contributed to
this story.

Copyright C 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information
contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten
or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated
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