US, Iraq, Set Up Panel to Examine Role of Security Contractors

Voice of America News, STATE DEPARTMENT: The U.S. and Iraqi governments are setting up a joint commission to examine the controversial role of private security companies operating in Iraq. The action follows a lethal incident Sunday involving the American security contractor Blackwater USA. 
 
Officials here say the joint commission will not investigate the Sunday shooting incident, which is already the subject of parallel U.S. and Iraqi inquiries. But they say the panel will use any findings of those probes to try to develop new policies to govern the military contractors, who have been frequently accused of acting with impunity in their roles in Iraq which include protecting U.S. diplomats. 
 
At least 11 Iraqis were killed Sunday in the incident involving Blackwater contractors protecting a U.S. diplomatic convoy moving through a Baghdad neighborhood outside the fortified international zone. 
 
Iraqi officials say the Blackwater guards fired indiscriminately after mortar rounds fell near their vehicles. The North Carolina-based U.S. company says its employees acted lawfully and appropriately to a hostile attack. 
 
The case has strained U.S.-Iraqi relations and focused new attention on vague and conflicting guidelines governing the contractors and their legal status in Iraq. 
 
State Department Deputy Spokesman Tom Casey told reporters the joint commission will attempt to deal with the issues, some of them not new, raised by Sunday's incident. 
 
“It demonstrates that we and the Iraqis are committed to working together both to address the activities or the response to the specific incident that's occurred, as well as to look at the broader issues of the operation of personal security details in Iraq,” said Casey. “So this is I think something that, again, demonstrates that we are and will work together on this issue, and we want to arrive at some common joint recommendations and solutions that each government will then be able to implement.” 
 
Iraqi officials said on Tuesday that Blackwater's operations in Iraq had been suspended. The U.S. embassy in Iraq announced shortly afterwards that it has temporarily banned diplomatic convoy movements outside the international zone, which are largely protected by Blackwater personnel. 
 
White House Press Secretary Dana Perino Wednesday reiterated U.S. expressions of regret for the loss of innocent life on Sunday, while also stressing that U.S. officials operating in the dangerous environment in Iraq need the protection provided by Blackwater and other firms.