Issa: "Nice Committee Chairman You Got There, It'd Be A Shame If Something Happened To Him."

Henry Waxman is doing yeoman work today at a House Oversight Committee hearing on Blackwater, not only taking them to task for the irresonsible and lawless behavior of their security personnel within Iraq, but directly blaming the State Department for blocking meaningful investigation.

Waxman pointed to a Dec. 2006 incident, in which a drunken Blackwater contractor shot the guard of the Iraqi vice president:

The State Department advised Blackwater how much to pay the family to make the problem go away and then allowed the contractor to leave Iraq just 36 hours after the shooting. Incredibly, internal e-mails documented the debate over the size of the payment. The charge d’affaire recommended a $250,000 payment but this was cut to $15,000 because the diplomatic security service said Iraqis would try to get themselves killed for such a large payout.

Waxman noted that in light of such evidence, it’s hard “not come to the conclusion that the State Department is acting as Blackwater’s enabler.”

In response to these revelations, another member of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Darrell Issa, basically threatened Waxman with a fragging.

If Henry Waxman today wants to go to Iraq and do an investigation, Blackwater will be his support team. His protection team. Do you think he really wants to investigate directly?

TPM has the video.



It's hard to characterize this as anything but a veiled threat. Disgraceful.

(Incidentally, for another California connection, the CEO of Blackwater was an intern for Dana Rohrabacher many years ago. Can you say "conflict of interest"?)