Last week when the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) reported that the VA Inspector General wanted copies of its confidential whistle blower reports, I had a feeling there was more to the story. When I checked, I found that there was.
The VA’s Acting Inspector General, Richard J Griffin, was in the House Oversight Committee’s hot seat in 2007. At that time, Griffin was the Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic Security and the operations conducted by Blackwater USA in Iraq were one of his responsibilities. Blackwater was a private firm contracted to provide security to diplomatic personnel but its record wasn’t good. One of its agents reportedly killed the Iraqi Vice President’s security guard. He was quickly flown out of the country.
"On December 25 , the day after the shooting of the guard, Blackwater terminated the contractor from the State Department contract based on its policy against possessing a firearm while intoxicated. That same day, only hours after the shooting, Blackwater arranged to have the contractor flown out of lraq. The State Department was informed of Blackwater's arrangements for the contractor and received a copy of his itinerary. On the morning of December 26, less than 36 hours after the killing, Blackwater transported the contractor to Baghdad Intemational Airport, from which he flew to Jordan, and then back to the United States."
[excerpt from a Committee on Oversight and Government Reform memo dated October 1, 2007] There were a number of other disturbing incidents involving Blackwater contractors as well. |
Erik Prince, Blackwater's founder, is the brother of Betsy DeVos, former chair of Michigan's Republican Party. The DeVos family founded Amway.
Rep. Henry Waxman, who chaired the Oversight Committee at the time, questioned Griffin. The State Dept's decision to provide a getaway for the accused contractor led to friction with Prime Minister Maliki. Griffin resigned a month later. The dead Iraqi security guard's family was paid $15,000.
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After his failure to demonstrate any accountability at State, how did Griffin end up with responsibility for oversight of anything in the federal government again? President Bush appointed him as Deputy Inspector General of the Veteran's Administration, a year after the Blackwater fiasco.
How come an obscure blogger can find this information with nothing more than a laptop and an internet connection, while the House members and the media with their staff and their budgets cannot?
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I'd like to think that Mr. Griffin's appearance before the Veteran's Affairs Committee was accompanied by the ghosts of all those Iraqis who lost their lives to the Blackwater contractors he was supposed to oversee. I'd also like to think they were joined by the ghosts of any vets who fought in Iraq, or elsewhere, and who may have died waiting for treatment in the hospitals and healthcare system he was supposed to audit. It would be fitting if they haunted him together.
My purpose is to give them a voice.
As for the Republicans, they shouldn’t be allowed to forget how they made sure that the continued presence of Americans would not be welcome in Iraq. They shouldn’t be allowed to forget that they negotiated a Status of Forces Agreement that postponed withdrawal from Iraq until December 31, 2011. And they shouldn’t be allowed to forget that Iraq agreed only with jurisdiction over serious crimes committed by Americans in their country. To stay in Iraq, President Bush had to agree to give Iraq “jurisdiction over members of the United States Forces and of the civilian component for grave premeditated felonies” and he also had to agree to give Iraq “jurisdiction over United States contractors and United States contractor employees.”
http://www.nytimes.com/...
Imagine the howling if President Obama had signed such an agreement. He did not. Before the withdrawal deadline, “American negotiators in Baghdad concluded that it would be impossible to obtain that protection, [immunity from legal prosecution], essentially scuttling any chance of a substantial troop presence” after the deadline for withdrawal. Obama would have been criticized simply for extending the terms that Bush negotiated, and he would have been criticized if he withdrew the troops by the deadline Bush negotiated. Withdrawal was the right choice.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
Iraq demanded jurisdiction because of what happened under Bush’s watch.
Here’s another reminder for Republicans.
December 14, 2008.
President Bush went to Iraq to sign the SOFA with Prime Minister Maliki. The occasion is notable for the memorable spectacle of a flying shoe that narrowly missed the President.