Just another "accountability moment"? ~ Condi and Blackwater

[maddezmom]

Just another "accountability moment"?

Testifying before Congress last week, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said there's a hole in U.S. law -- she kept calling it a "lacuna" -- that prevents independent contractors like Blackwater from being prosecuted in the United States for crimes committed in Iraq. "We believe there is a lucana and it needs to be filled," she said.

What Rice didn't say: State Department officials investigating the Sept. 16 incident in which Blackwater employees allegedly shot 17 Iraqi civilians had already granted a form of immunity to the Blackwater employees involved.

In the 1967 case of Garrity v. New Jersey, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the government can't extract a statement out of an employee -- say, a police officer involved in a shooting -- on the threat of losing his job, then turn around and use that statement against the employee in a criminal trial. In a subsequent decision, the court made it clear that Garrity's protection applies to independent contractors working for the government. State Department investigators looking into the Sept. 16 incident apparently offered Garrity deals to Blackwater guards: Tell us everything you know about what happened, but rest assured that your statements won't be used against you in court.

more:http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/index.html?source=whitelist

[StClone]

1. But no loop hole to prevent them

From ripping off a big fat tax-backed pay check...this is Bush Country.

[yellowcanine]

2. "lacuna" = blank space or missing part, according to Webster. I suspect it is a legal term.

But I think Madame Secretary is being a bit disingenuous here. With all of those lawyers the State Dept someone must have pointed out that they needed to be careful about giving immunity to Blackwater guards. I think this was a deliberate action to prevent prosecution of these guys.