WASHINGTON, Oct. 29 —NY TIMES- [1] State Department investigators offered Blackwater USA [2] security guards immunity during an inquiry into last month’s deadly shooting of 17 Iraqis in Baghdad — a potentially serious investigative misstep that could complicate efforts to prosecute the company’s employees involved in the episode, government officials said Monday.
Now why on earth would State do THAT, I wonder?
Hmmm. Seems to me the only reason you’d give up soemthing like that is because you’re after something you consider to be bigger. Now, what would that be?
The State Department investigators from the agency’s investigative arm, the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, offered the immunity grants even though they did not have the authority to do so, the officials said. Prosecutors at the Justice Department, who do have such authority, had no advance knowledge of the arrangement, they added.
Hmmm. Sounds like a band of mid level wonks at State are desperate to over-ride the White House and it’s Iraq policy. They’re after leverage against the White House, and think getting the Blackwater Guards to talk will give them that. Given State has a long history of such attempts and given it’s been showing signs of BDS for years, now, this would merely be one more such situation.