Report: Iraqi VP Abdul-Mahdi hid details of killing of bodyguard by Blackwater contractor; Employee was flown back to U.S.

Above: A private helicopter with 'security' forces employed by Blackwater hovers over Baghdad in 2004.

Blackwater supports inquiry into fatal shooting

After one of his personal bodyguards was shot to death by a Blackwater USA security contractor last Christmas Eve, Iraqi Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi assured the U.S. ambassador that he was trying to keep the incident out of the public eye...

Contractors operate in a legal gray area in which it's uncertain whether they're subject to civilian law, military law or neither...

It was a relatively rare event: a fatal shooting inside Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone.

The shooter, who has not been identified, was off duty at the time.

Blackwater's general counsel, Andrew Howell, questioned about the incident at a congressional hearing in February, said the company fired the man and flew him home.

Read the rest at the Virginia Pilot

Newspaper: Iraq VP hid details in death of personal bodyguard

Iraqi Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi tried to hide details of the shooting death of one of his personal bodyguards, including information about the U.S.-based private security contractor suspected in the incident, according to records obtained by a newspaper.

Abdul-Mahdi assured then-U.S. ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad that "he had tried to keep the issue from the public eye and had not disclosed to the press the nationality of the suspect," according to a Jan. 8 memo sent by the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice...

No one has been charged in the Christmas Eve shooting of Abdul-Mahdi's bodyguard. The State Department has said a private contractor shot and killed the officer, while North Carolina-based Blackwater USA has said one of its employees was involved in the incident.

According to the memo, Khalilzad told Abdul-Mahdi, one of Iraq's two vice presidents, the embassy was working with Blackwater to "achieve an adequate offer of compensation."

Read the rest at the International Herald Tribune

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