WASHINGTON - Private security contractors will continue to protect U.S. diplomats in Iraq but will operate under closer supervision by U.S. Embassy officials and with clearer accountability for their actions, according to new rules approved Tuesday by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Neither the U.S. military nor the State Department's Diplomatic Security Service is prepared to assume responsibility for guarding diplomats and other official U.S. civilians, according to a Rice-appointed review panel that recommended the changes. Instead, communications among the military, the embassy and the Iraqi government will be improved, and a joint committee will investigate and judge all contractor incidents "involving the use of deadly force."
The panel, appointed by Riceafter security contractors purportedly shot and killed at least 17 Iraqi civilians last month, said that "shortcomings in coordination and oversight" of the security program risk underminingthe U.S. mission in Iraq. Although it noted that contractors have been "highly effective" in keeping diplomats safe, it implicitly agreed with criticisms that the program is poorly conceived and supervised.
The plan includes extensive cultural awareness training for contractors, steps to bring the State Department's rules of engagement into line with those of the military, and the organization of "go teams" to investigate incidents in which weapons are discharged.
Another step Rice has ordered is the appointment of a senior diplomat to oversee Iraq security operations, the official said. That job, a temporary assignment for now, will be held by Steve Browning, a senior Foreign Service officer who is now U.S. Ambassador to Uganda.
The future of Blackwater remains unresolved. Once the FBI completes an investigation in Iraq, the panel's report said, theembassy should recommend to Rice whether Blackwater should be allowed to continue working in Iraq. The Baghdad government has publicly insisted that the company be held culpable but has made no formal demands, an administration official said.
Blackwater has insisted that its employees fired in self-defense and has accused the State Department and House Democrats of making it a scapegoat. In a report submitted to Congress and reported Tuesday by The Associated Press, the company said it was also being targeted by Democrats and the families of four Blackwater guards slain and gruesomely displayed in Fallujah in March 2004 who have teamed up for political gain.
A House investigation and a wrongful-death lawsuit by the families charges Blackwater with insufficiently arming and protecting the men. In its report, Blackwater called the four guards' deaths "tragic" but said it could not have been avoided by better equipment.
Over the past four years, the amount of money the State Department pays to private security and law enforcement contractors has soared from $1 billion to nearly $4 billion a year, Bush administration officials said Tuesday, but they said the department had added few new officials to oversee the contracts.
It was the first time the administration had outlined the ballooning scope of the contracts.
The majority of the money goes to companies like DynCorp International and Blackwater to protect diplomats overseas, train foreign police forces and assist in drug eradication programs. There are only 17 contract compliance officers at the State Department's management bureau overseeing spending of the billions of dollars on these programs, officials said.
The Army has 70 people managing just $900 million in logistics contracts in Kuwait, Pentagon officials said.
Information for this article was contributed by Karen DeYoung of The Washington Post and by John M. Broder and David Rohde of The New York Times; and by Matthew Lee and Anne Gearan of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 9 on 10/24/2007