Blackwater Guards Given Immunity from Prosecution

I pointed out the other day that several of the Blackwater guards involved in the September 16 shooting have left Iraq. Now bmaz points to this AP story revealing that all the guards have been given immunity from prosecution.

The State Department promised Blackwater USA bodyguards immunityfrom prosecution in its investigation of last month’s deadly shootingof 17 Iraqi civilians, The Associated Press has learned.

[snip]

Three senior law enforcement officials said all the Blackwaterbodyguards involved _ both in the vehicle convoy and in at least twohelicopters above _ were given the legal protections as investigatorsfrom the Bureau of Diplomatic Security sought to find out whathappened. The bureau is an arm of the State Department.

[snip]

An initial incident report by U.S. Central Command, which overseesmilitary operations in Iraq, also indicated "no enemy activityinvolved" in the Sept. 16 incident. The report says Blackwater guardswere traveling against the flow of traffic through a traffic circlewhen they "engaged five civilian vehicles with small arms fire" at adistance of 50 meters.

The FBI took over the case early this month, officials said, afterprosecutors in the Justice Department’s criminal division realized itcould not bring charges against Blackwater guards based on theirstatements to the Diplomatic Security investigators.

And here’s today’s candidate for credulous reporting award:

Garrity protections generally are given to police or other public lawenforcement officers, and were extended to the Blackwater guardsbecause they were working on behalf of the U.S. government, oneofficial said. Experts said it’s rare for them to be given to all oreven most witnesses _ particularly before a suspect is identified.

[snip]

It’s not clear why the Diplomatic Security investigators agreed to give immunity to the bodyguards, or who authorized doing so.

Gosh, I couldn’t imagine why the State Department would immediately immunize all the guards in this investigation, can you?

Anyway don’t you think that’s something Condi should have told Waxman’s committee the other day … that these guys had already been given immunity from prosecution and that, therefore, the FBI investigation is likely to end up–like all other investigations of Blackwater–holding no one responsible?