Rice puts monitors on Blackwater affairs

WASHINGTON -- Blackwater USA's heavily armed private guards will soon have company when they escort U.S. embassy convoys through the dangerous streets of Baghdad: video cameras and federal agents.

Under pressure to reform State Department protection procedures in Iraq, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Friday ordered the steps to boost oversight of private security contractors after a shooting last month in which Blackwater guards were accused of killing 13 Iraqi civilians.

Dozens of special agents from the department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security will be sent to Baghdad to accompany the Blackwater escorts, whose armored vehicles will now be mounted with video cameras to record every move a convoy makes. At the same time, radio traffic between the embassy and such convoys will be recorded.

Rice hopes the presence of the agents as well as the steady stream of electronic data collected will help address what critics claim is a lack of accountability for private guards who may break rules of engagement or other laws while protecting U.S. diplomats.

They are aimed at "putting in place more robust assets to make sure that the management, reporting and accountability function works as best as it possibly can," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

The measures, which also include recording radio traffic between the embassy and diplomatic convoys and improving communications between those vehicles and U.S. military units in their vicinity, were implemented amid intense criticism of the department's security practices in Iraq and Blackwater's role.

They are the first in a series of moves Rice is expected to take to boost control of contractors the agency depends on to protect its diplomats in Iraq. And they come as Iraqis and U.S. lawmakers clamor for clarification of the now nebulous jurisdiction and authority under which the State Department's private guards work.

On Thursday, the House passed legislation that would place all private government contractors in Iraq under U.S. criminal statutes. The Bush administration has expressed concerns about the proposed amendments to existing law but has pledged to work with Congress on improvements before the Senate takes up the bill in the coming weeks.

The sponsor of the House bill, Democratic Rep. David Price of North Carolina, said Friday that Rice's move was welcome but overdue.

"It goes without saying that contract personnel who are armed and authorized to use deadly force ought to be closely monitored," he said in a statement. "The secretary still needs to address the essential question of accountability: How will rogue individuals who commit criminal acts be brought to justice?"

In ordering changes, Rice accepted preliminary recommendations from an internal review board she created after the Sept. 16 incident in which Blackwater guards are accused of opening fire on Iraqi civilians in a main square in Baghdad.

Blackwater contends its employees came under fire first, but the Iraqi government and witnesses have disputed that, saying the guards opened fire without provocation.

McCormack did not say that previous practices lacked proper safeguards to ensure accountability, but noted that the practices would now be enhanced for all the department's private security contractors, including Blackwater. The company, with about 1,000 employees in Iraq, is the largest of three private firms that guard U.S. diplomats in the country.

The new rules will initially apply only to Blackwater because the initial recommendations cover just Baghdad where the company operates. This could be expanded to include the other two firms, Dyncorp and Triple Canopy, which work in the north and south of Iraq, McCormack said.

The United States has not made conclusive findings about the incident, though there are multiple investigations to determine what happened. The FBI on Thursday took control of what had been a State Department probe, in part to prepare for the possibility the case may be referred to the Justice Department for prosecutions.

The orders issued on Friday were recommended by a separate commission that Rice set up to look into the Baghdad embassy's overall security practices. McCormack maintained they are not intended to imply that the other investigations have determined Blackwater employees may have violated procedures.

The panel is being led by Patrick Kennedy, one of the most senior management experts in the U.S. foreign service. Rice also brought in outside experts, including: retired Gen. George Joulwan, a former NATO commander in Europe; Stapleton Roy, a retired veteran diplomat; and Eric Boswell, a former State Department and intelligence official.

Prior to Rice's orders, Diplomatic Security agents only accompanied U.S. convoys on an "ad hoc" basis, according to McCormack. Now, at least one agent will be in every convoy, he said.

It was not immediately clear how many more agents that would require, but McCormack said it would number in the "dozens." Department officials have refused to say how many Diplomatic Security agents are currently in Iraq, citing security concerns.

In addition, video cameras had not been previously mounted in convoy vehicles as a matter of policy and radio traffic had been monitored but not recorded by the embassy, McCormack said. Rice's orders also mandate that convoys have direct contact with tactical U.S. military teams in their vicinity, he said.

The State Department has counted 56 shooting incidents involving Blackwater guards in Iraq this year. All are being reviewed as part of the comprehensive inquiry that Rice ordered.