BAGHDAD, Oct 6 (KUNA) — The US administration has decided to sent a team of monitors to Iraq to keep an eye on staff of the private security company Blackwater during their operations o0n Baghdad streets, the US Embassy in Iraq said Saturday.
“US Secretary of State Condaleezza Rice has received an initial probe” into a Baghdad shootout involving Blackwater last month, a statement by the embassy said.
Based on the probe findings, Rice directed “actions to improve operational accountability and control” of Blackwater’s operations, the statement said.
Blackwater employees, who are closely associated with the US Embassy in Iraq, were involved in a controversy last month when they opened fire on civilians and claimed they were terrorists. Some 25 people were killed in that incident after which there were claims for dismantling such private security outfits.
Under new measures, State Department security agents will accompany every convoy of Blackwater. Authorities will also record Blackwater radio transmissions, man video cameras in the company’s security vehicles and begin archiving electronic tracking and movement data, the statement said. Blackwater USA’s heavily armed private guards will soon have company when they escort U.S. embassy convoys through the dangerous streets of Baghdad: video cameras and federal agents. Dozens of special agents from the State
Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security will be sent to Baghdad to accompany the Blackwater escorts, whose armored vehicles will now be mounted with video cameras to record every move a convoy makes. At the same time, radio traffic between the embassy and such convoys will be recorded, the statement said.