Is State Department Cover-up a Criminal Obstruction of Justice?

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By Professor Emeritus Peter Bagnolo (about the author) Page 1 of 3 page(s)

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Is State Department Cover-up a Criminal Obstruction of Justice?

Even as Condoleeza Rice was playing the coy fox with Henry A. Waxman's Oversight Committee, was the news breaking the new Watergate of Blackwater and the State Department? Could this lead to the impeachment, thus putting her and others under criminal investigation for Obstruction of Justice? If so, would it eventually lead to the White House?

Will the information State Department e-mails obtained by ABC News and subsequent investigations by the LA Times lead to Obstruction of Justice and eventually to impeachment proceedings? Did the White House know about all of this?

The above cited Emails discuss how a regional State Department official WAS complaining about a number of incidents where Blackwater guards were reported as opening fire upon innocent civilians.

This particular official said that that Iraqis were frustrated because they were unable to find protection or justice for the reported alleged crimes by Blackwater.

He said, further, "If we are unable or unwilling to address this issue, sooner or later those requesting compensation for their losses will lose patience with us and seek recourse through other means...in the worst-case scenario, some might seek revenge."

Meanwhile Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice deflected, ignored and avoided commenting on a number of Blackwater issues put to her by Henry A. Waxman's House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and particularly, her department's oversight of private security contractors. Now in the wake of her appearance of faux ignorance, new evidence surfaced showing that the US was concealing alleged atrocities attributed to Blackwater, primarily shootings of Iraqi civilians over two years ago.

Condoleezza Rice, The Bushite Secretary of State is now regretful that the State Department did not properly supervise "private security contractors" in Iraq, however, she was defensive concerning the wider sphere of American diplomacy in Iraq during what she labeled, "complex and difficult" circumstances, remiss in not adding, Complex and difficult circumstances that the Bushites created.

Rice testified for more than three hours during a House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, hearing, in which many responses were rather testy and hostile.

In May of 2005, a Blackwater convoy was moving a senior U.S. diplomat down a Baghdad roadway when suddenly guards opened fire on an approaching taxi. The driver, Mohammed Nouri Hattab, said to The Times, he was reducing and about to stop when a burst of machine-gun fire slashed into and through his taxi, wounding him and also killing 19-year-old newlywed Yas Ali Mohammed Yassiri, a passenger, according to a chain of Emails obtained by ABC news.

Some of those internal Emails in question displayed the State Department officials were trying to deflect a 2005 Los Angeles Times battery of questions about the alleged killing of an Iraqi civilian by Blackwater guards.

One state department official said in the Email, "Give [the Los Angeles Times] what we can and then dump the rest on Blackwater. ...We can't win this one."

Another official, in this chain of e-mails said that the "findings of the investigation are to remain off-limits to the reporter." Still another suggested that no one should even mention the existence of a criminal investigation because it would "...raise questions and issues."

In August 2005, following a tip, the Times began their inquiries. Peter Mitchell, who, at the time was a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Iraq, informed his bosses that he was going to inform a reporter that the State Department, "thoroughly investigated" the incident and there was "no criminal act ...."

The truth appears, to the contrary that however, the only investigation completed was "administrative." Nevertheless, two Blackwater employees were fired and returned to the U.S. because they violated operating procedures. Blackwater has so far, refused to comment on the shooting or the firings any further, according to the Times.

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Professor Bagnolo has majored in: Cultural Anthropology, Architectural design, painting, creative writing. As a child prodigy, abed with polio for almost two years, he was offered an opportunity to skip three grades at age 8.
Later He was a (more...)

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