AP: Blackwater Patched Trucks, Destroying Key Evidence

Boy, this thing was rigged from the get-go. From the AP:

Blackwater Worldwide repaired and repainted its trucks immediately after a deadly September shooting in Baghdad, making it difficult to determine whether enemy gunfire provoked the attack, according to people familiar with the government’s investigation of the incident.

Damage to the vehicles in the convoy has been held up by Blackwater as proof that its security guards were defending themselves against an insurgent ambush when they fired into a busy intersection, leaving 17 Iraqi civilians dead.

U.S. military investigators initially found “no enemy activity involved” and the Iraqi government concluded the shootings were unprovoked.

The repairs essentially destroyed evidence that Justice Department investigators hoped to examine in a criminal case that has drawn worldwide attention.

Blackwater’s explanation for the repairs is that they were done at the “government’s direction” — meaning the State Department. That’s a sadly credible claim, given that the State Department offered limited immunity to the Blackwater guards involved in the September 16th shootings that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead. If State really did direct Blackwater to repair those trucks, it would mean that they made two different crucial moves immediately following the shootings that dramatically undercut the possibility of a criminal prosecution.