Blackwater, State Dept. Attempt to Stonewall Waxman
Everyone's all over this today Stephen M. Ryan, Blackwater's attorney at McDermott, Will and Emery LLP, wrote to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, chaired by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), informing "the Committee that a State Department official directed Blackwater not to provide documents relevant to the Committee's investigation into the company's activities in Iraq without the prior written approval of the State Department," according to a letter by Rep. Waxman (pdf) to Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice. Ryan's letter is also posted here (pdf). And here's the letter from the State Department to Blackwater (pdf).
The State Department is essentially telling Blackwater (pdf) that its contract with them trumps the request by Congress for documents: "It is plain from the cited clause that all documents and information generated in the course of performance of Contract No. S-AQMPD-05-D-1098 are fully subject to the control of the Department."
It seems that the legitimate need Congress has for the information about Blackwater's activities--especially considerable interest given the foreign policy and national security implications of their alleged actions in Iraq recently--easily trump the contractual relationship the State Department has with Blackwater. Thus, the State Department is not "fully" in control of the documents and information requested by the House Oversight committee and should not be able to stop the flow of information to Congress, though subpoena power may ultimately have to be utilized. Hopefully that can be avoided. Congressional committees routinely access information contractors and the government generate in the course of a contractor fulfilling a contract. Or else Congress could not oversee, especially nowadays with today's unprecedented outsourcing of government functions.
The most definitive resource I know of on the investigative power of Congress is Mort Rosenberg's Congressional Research Service report Investigative Oversight: An Introduction to the Law,
Practice and Procedure of Congressional Inquiry. Read it.
Big things poppin'.
-- Nick Schwellenbach
UPDATE: In the comments, KMB notes that a new State Dept. letter to Blackwater (pdf) changes things a bit. It is definitely an acknowledgement by State that Waxman has a right to the information, though we'll see how this plays out.
A more recent letter from DOS to Blackwater changes things a bit....
http://oversight.house.gov/documents/20070925205232.pdf
Posted on: Sep 27, 2007 at 03:03 PM