1115.org

Time was when we refused to talk to our enemies. Now we are forced to avoid our friends:

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki kept a polite distance Saturday as they attended a group meeting and avoided discussion of a Baghdad shootout involving guards from a U.S. company protecting American diplomats.

With tensions soaring over the Sept. 16 incident, Rice and al-Maliki chose not to speak directly at a United Nations gathering at which they were among senior diplomats and officials from Iraq’s neighbors, including Iran and Syria, weighing future assistance to Iraq.

Neither Rice nor al-Maliki brought up the matter in the broader talks, according to David Satterfield, the State Department’s coordinator for Iraq, who said testily that the two also did not meet separately on the sidelines and that the incident had not been on the agenda.

It was not immediately clear when the last time Rice and al-Maliki have been in such close proximity and not spoken face-to-face.

It’s easy to understand why Maliki would avoid Rice. From where Maliki is sitting, Condi Rice’s State Department colluded with Blackwater USA to put out an entirely fictitious account of the Blackwater “convoy protection” shooting incident. They flat out lied. And they stoutly maintained the lie all week. Since Maliki probably deems it expedient not to spit in Rice’s eye, he feels it’s best to avoid her.

But why would Rice avoid Maliki? According to her, there has been an unfortunate incident (truly unfortunate), the facts of which are not fully clear, but the State Department knows there was no wrongdoing (there was U.S. embassy staff in the convoy, if you remember, staff which has no been doubt fully debriefed), and confidently expects the whole misunderstanding to be cleared up to everyone’s satisfaction. Meanwhile, the whole incident has needlessly put a huge strain on Iraqi-U.S. relations. And it is her job, is it not, to defuse the tension, to pour sweetness and light in the direction of Maliki? It is her job, is it not, to seek him out and talk to him, and make it all better?

So why is Condi Rice avoiding Maliki? Job getting to be too much for her? Can’t do the whole diplomatic thing any more? Or is Condi all too guiltily aware that the Blackwater USA version of events is a pure fabrication? Is she all too guiltily aware that the U.S. Embassy in Iraq supported that version of events even though they knew it to be totally untrue? Not to put too fine a point on it, is she the one who ordered the U.S. Embassy in Iraq to support the fabricated version of events?

Let the sarcastic tone not obscure the seriousness of the situation. In effect, Condi Rice’s State Department stands accused of conspiring to cover up wanton acts of murder that border on war crimes. It looks very much like the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad made itself into an enthusiastic and active accomplice after the fact. And, as Matt pointed out in comments the other day, not for the first time either:

After the incident this May 24, in which Blackwater guards shot and killed an Iraqi driver outside the Interior Ministry, the Blackwater team was surrounded by Interior Ministry commandos with AK-47 assault rifles. The Blackwater guards refused to provide their names or details of the incident. A U.S. military convoy happened on the scene and an officer tried to mediate.

Eventually, a State Department official arrived, according to a security company representative familiar with the incident. The Blackwater team was allowed to return to the Green Zone.

Later, both Blackwater and the State Department initially denied that the shooting occurred. The company and agency officials then confirmed that the incident had taken place but defended the guards, saying they had followed the rules on the use of force.

The State Department said it planned a thorough investigation. Four months later, no results have been announced.

So all we’re watching now is history repeating itself. And, in this administration, such history is doomed to keep repeating itself in the short term unless there are some consequences to such actions.

For far too long Blackwater USA has been involved in questionable shooting incidents, and the State Department has stepped in every time to make sure that no questions were really asked. Not by anyone who mattered:

Senior Iraqi officials repeatedly complained to U.S. officials about Blackwater USA’s alleged involvement in the deaths of numerous Iraqis, but the Americans took little action to regulate the private security firm until 11 Iraqis were shot dead last Sunday, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials.

Before that episode, U.S. officials were made aware in high-level meetings and formal memorandums of Blackwater’s alleged transgressions. They included six violent incidents this year allegedly involving the North Carolina firm that left a total of 10 Iraqis dead, the officials said.

“There were no concrete results,” Lt. Gen. Hussein Kamal, the deputy interior minister who oversees the private security industry on behalf of the Iraqi government, said in an interview Saturday.
[..]
U.S. Embassy officials did not respond to several requests to describe what action, if any, was taken in response to the six incidents involving Blackwater. Mirembe Nantongo, a U.S. Embassy spokeswoman, said the embassy always looks into anything “outside of normal operation procedures.”

Looks, but doesn’t see?