Posted on 02/07/2007 12:12:50 PM PST by Abathar
WASHINGTON -- After denying it numerous times, the Pentagon said Wednesday that a North Carolina company provided armed security guards in Iraq under a subcontract buried so deeply the government couldn't find it.
The secretary of the Army told two Democratic lawmakers in a letter that the Blackwater USA contract was part of a huge military support operation by run by Halliburton subsidiary KBR.
The news came during a day of close scrutiny for Blackwater.
The families of four Blackwater guards whose bodies were burned and dragged through the streets by a mob in Iraq told Congress on Wednesday that the company failed to provide armored vehicles and other promised protections.
The guards' families have sued Blackwater, telling a House hearing it was the only way they can learn all the circumstances of the deaths. Blackwater and several Republican lawmakers said the lawsuit should not be argued at a congressional hearing.
The deaths of the four, all former members of the military, brought to U.S. television some of its most gruesome images of the Iraq war. A frenzied mob of insurgents ambushed a supply convoy the guards were escorting through Fallujah on March 31, 2004. The men were attacked, their bodies mutilated; two of the corpses were strung from a bridge.
At the hearing, Kathryn Helvenston-Wettengel, mother of Stephen Helvenston, read a statement on behalf of the families. She stopped several times to collect herself as she recounted the emotional day.
She said the security guards were denied armored vehicles, heavy weapons and maps for their convoy routes, and that the rear gunners were removed from vehicles to perform other duties.
"Blackwater gets paid for the number of warm bodies it can put on the ground in certain locations throughout the world," she said. "If some are killed it replaces them at a moment's notice."
Helvenston-Wettengel said her son was alive when Iraqis tied him to his vehicle and dragged him through the streets. He eventually was decapitated.
In a statement prepared for House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Blackwater USA general counsel Andrew Howell said lawyers for the family members were using the hearing for their own purposes and that the case should be heard in court, not in Congress.
Howell said the hearing should not delve into an "incomplete and one-sided exploration of a specific battlefield incident."
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said he did not believe the testimony was germane to a house committee scrutinizing U.S. companies with Iraq contracts. He pressed the witnesses on whether their lawyers wrote their statement, but Ms. Helvenston-Wettengel said each of the four women at the hearing wrote a portion of the statement.
The three men killed in addition to Helvenston - a former Navy SEAL - were Wesley Batalona, a former Army Ranger represented by his daughter Kristal; Michael Teague, formerly in an Army helicopter unit, represented by his widow Rhonda; and Jerry Zovko, a former Army Ranger represented by his mother Donna.
The committee also is looking into Blackwater's contract to provide security services in Iraq. After numerous denials, the Pentagon has confirmed that Blackwater provided armed security guards in Iraq under a subcontract that was buried so deeply the government at first couldn't find it.
The secretary of the Army on Tuesday wrote two Democratic lawmakers that the Blackwater USA contract was part of a huge military support operation by run by Halliburton Co. subsidiary KBR. Dick Cheney ran Halliburton before he became vice president.
Several times last year, Pentagon officials told inquiring lawmakers they could find no evidence of the Blackwater contract. Blackwater, of Moyock, N.C., did not respond to several requests for comment.
The discovery shows the dense world of Iraq contracting, where the main contractor hires subcontractors who then hire additional subcontractors. Each company tacks on a charge for overhead, a cost that works its way up to U.S. taxpayers.
"This ongoing episode demonstrates the Pentagon's complete failure to safeguard taxpayer dollars," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., one of the lawmakers who had asked about the Blackwater contract and received denials.
"They continue to look the other way in the face of overwhelming evidence that Halliburton was charging taxpayers for unauthorized security services," Van Hollen said.
On Tuesday, Army Secretary Francis Harvey wrote Van Hollen and Waxman that on Jan. 30 the Army learned that ESS Support Services Worldwide, a dining facilities subcontractor under the KBR contract, hired Blackwater through a hotel company, further obscuring the contract.
"The U.S. Army is continuing to investigate this matter and we are committed to providing full disclosure of the results of our investigations to the committee," he wrote.
Blackwater employees have suffered heavy casualties in Iraq. In addition to the four killed in Fallujah in 2004, the company said three of its employees were killed in Mosul in 2005, and last month, five of its employees died when a helicopter went down in Baghdad under heavy fire.
Honest question...why hide the contract unless you don't want it to be found?
Did they hide it? Or just lose it? Don't be too quick to assume nefarious motives.
I can think of a lucrative contract for Blackwater types.
Or just lose it?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Good One!
Everythime someone or thing dodges or attempts to hide makes the situation worse when they are caught!!! Sad this company was not smart enough to know that. Kinda stupid if you ask me. This is just basic common sense.
There's not a doubt in my mind that a contract like that would greatly help the progress of the war.
This doesn't even count the "overhead and costs" bill Blackwater sent to Regency.
What were the motives for hiding a contract w/ Blackwater? Who would stand to gain? A conspiracy should at least have some sort of gain, shouldn't it?
To avoid scrutiny over alleged "war profiteering"???
Who would stand to gain?
Whomever cashed the check?
A conspiracy should at least have some sort of gain, shouldn't it?
Who said anything about any conspiracy? It sounds like business as usual........................
I heard on the radio news that it was illegal for Halliburton to contract for security -- the military was supposed to contract for security if required.
I’m sorry about your son, but this isn’t just about supporting our troops or prosecuting the war. We can’t look the other way from those who would risk innocent lives to profit from the war. Our brave troops are willing to risk their lives because they believe the cause is just. We should all be outraged if war profiteering and abuses were enabled at high levels of the government, no matter what party is in office. If it can’t stand in the light of what is right, it shouldn’t have been done. This needs to be investigated objectively.
So they fire Blackwater and hire a new company and guess what? Different letterhead, same people.
I’ve read that some of the Blackwater fighters are not even Americans. It sounds like we are paying big bucks to hire people to do jobs that traditionally our military has done. It doesn’t sound like a good idea to me.
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