Henry A. de Président de comité d'inadvertance de Chambre. Waxman a augmenté son effort d'étudier hier l'entrepreneur privé Blackwater de sécurité mondial, réclamant une enquête fédérale étendue dans les pratiques en matière de l'emploi de la compagnie. Dans les lettres au service de recettes, à l'administration de petite entreprise et au département de travail, Waxman (D-Calif.) a remis en cause la classification de Blackwater de ses ouvriers en tant que « les entrepreneurs indépendants » plutôt qu'employés. Cette désignation, que le gouvernement a remise en cause dans le passé, a permis à la compagnie d'obtenir $144 millions dans les contrats mis de côté pour de petites entreprises et de les éviter de payer pas moins de $50 millions dans des retenues d'impôt à la source à la source dans le cadre des contrats de département d'état, il a dit.

A Blackwater spokeswoman called Waxman’s allegations “completely without merit” and said the company regrets his “decision to publicly air misleading information.” An IRS spokesman declined to comment. The allegations came as a team of Justice Department and FBI investigators completed a two-week visit to Baghdad, where they interviewed additional witnesses in connection with a Sept. 16 incident in which Blackwater security personnel guarding U.S. diplomats killed 17 civilians at a Baghdad traffic circle.

Although a grand jury was convened late last year in the case, federal prosecutors have not determined whether the contractors can be prosecuted under U.S. law. They are immune from Iraqi prosecution under a decree promulgated by the former U.S. occupation government in Iraq.The incident prompted criticism of the use of private security contractors by both the State and Defense departments. As a result, State promised to increase supervision of their activities, and the two departments developed comprehensive guidelines for them.

In Senate testimony late last month, administration officials said that 163,590 contractor personnel were working in Iraq under Defense contracts, slightly more than the number of U.S. troops there. Of those, 6,467 are armed security personnel, about 1,500 of them American citizens. State Department security contractors total 1,518, about half of them Americans. The officials said that many of the rest are British and South African. An additional 32,520 Defense contractor personnel are working in Afghanistan.

Blackwater, one of three U.S. companies that provide security for U.S. diplomats and official civilians in Iraq, has received nearly $1.25 billion in federal contracts from State and other agencies since 2000. According to Waxman, Blackwater has received contracts set aside for companies with fewer than 1,500 employees after self-certifying its own status. The addition of nearly 1,000 personnel in Iraq would put it over the Small Business Administration limit, but Blackwater has insisted that they are independent contractors it merely pays to work for the U.S. government. That designation allows the company to avoid withholding federal income tax from what company records have indicated is $1,222 per day the guards are paid.

Waxman also charged that Blackwater was violating Labor Department affirmative action regulations by withholding its employment records. In its statement, Blackwater said that its “classification of its personnel is accurate” and that it has “always been forthcoming about this aspect of its business with its customer, the U.S. government.”

Washington Post

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