Blackwater VP: Too soon to judge Baghdad shootings

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A top official in the U.S. private security firm Blackwater said on Thursday it was too soon to pass judgment on the killing of 17 Iraqi civilians by its employees last September and urged critics to await an FBI report.

The company, which has 800 to 900 private security guards operating in Iraq, came under fire over the incident at a New York University School of Law conference called "Privatizing Defense: Blackwater, Contractors and American Security."

The September 16 killings by Blackwater security guards escorting a convoy in a central Baghdad square enraged Iraqis who complained private security firms had operated with impunity since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

An FBI investigation is under way but The New York Times has reported the bureau's agents found at least 14 of the shootings were unjustified. It said the findings indicated the company's employees violated deadly force rules in effect for security contractors in Iraq.

Jeremy Scahill, author of "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army," told the conference a separate military investigation concluded all the deaths were the result of "unjustified and unprovoked fire."

Asked about the incident, Blackwater Vice President Marty Strong said, "I spent nine months in Iraq, it's a very difficult place."

"Irrespective of The New York Times or any other newspaper saying they think they know what's going on, the FBI is going to complete an official investigation, not one done by the seat of the pants," said Strong, a panelist at the conference.

"At that time we're going to find out exactly what they found out," he said, adding Blackwater had not conducted its own investigation so he could not comment further.

"We're awaiting the government's investigation."

ACCOUNTABILITY

Several panelists at the conference said that despite efforts by the Defense and State Departments to improve oversight of private security contractors since the Blackwater incident, the industry was still lacking accountability.

Laura Dickinson, a professor at the University of Connecticut Law School whose forthcoming book "Outsourcing War and Peace" examines the privatization of military functions, said the Blackwater incident was a warning of the dangers in the growing use of private companies in conflict situations.

"We need accountability if we're going to continue with privatization," Dickinson said.

Scott Horton, a lecturer at Colombia Law School, faulted the Justice Department for going "AWOL" and not taking any interest in enforcing the law. He said in five years of war with an estimated 180,000 contractors working in Iraq, there had been only two or three prosecutions for any offenses.

"What we're seeing now is an astonishing failure to enforce criminal law," Horton said.

He said the Defense Department had started to do more recently to hold its civilian contractors accountable, due partly to concerns expressed by soldiers in the field that impunity was undermining the U.S mission in Iraq.

Horton said Harper's magazine, to which he is a contributor, would be reporting this week on the case of a Canadian contractor in Iraq who was charged in March after a brawl involving a knife in what could be a test case for holding contractors accountable through military justice.

(Editing by Peter Cooney)