Blackwater USA denied any involvement in illegal weapons smuggling through Iraq to Kurdish insurgents in Turkey, responding to reports the private security contractor is a target of federal prosecutors.
"Allegations that Blackwater was in any way associated or complicit in unlawful arms activities are baseless," the company said in a statement on Saturday. "The company has no knowledge of any employee improperly exporting weapons."
Officials with knowledge of the case said on Friday that the US Attorney's Office in Raleigh, North Carolina, was handling the investigation with help from Pentagon and State Department auditors. While the officials said the case was in the early stage, they added the auditors have concluded there is enough evidence to file charges.
George Holding, the US attorney for the eastern district of North Carolina, has declined to comment, as have Pentagon and State Department spokesmen.
Officials in Washington said the smuggling investigation grew from internal Pentagon and State Department inquiries into US weapons that had gone missing in Iraq. Turkish authorities protested to the US in July that they had seized US arms from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels.
The PKK is fighting for an independent Kurdistan and is banned in Turkey, which has a restive Kurdish population and is considered a "foreign terrorist organization" by the US State Department. That designation bars US citizens or those in US jurisdictions from supporting the group in any way.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, which has heightened since 11 Iraqis were killed on Sept. 16 in a shooting involving Blackwater contractors protecting a US diplomatic convoy in Baghdad.
Iraq's Interior Ministry said on Saturday it had expanded its investigation into similar incidents involving Blackwater.
Major General Abdul-Karim Khalaf said the company has been implicated in six other incidents over the past seven months, including a Feb. 7 shooting outside Iraqi state television in Baghdad in which three building guards were fatally shot.
Also on Saturday, the News & Observer of Raleigh, citing unidentified sources, reported that federal investigators were looking at whether Blackwater had shipped automatic weapons and military goods to Iraq without a license.
The paper said two former Blackwater employees -- Kenneth Wayne Cashwell of Virginia Beach, Virginia, and William Ellsworth "Max" Grumiaux of Clemmons, North Carolina -- are cooperating with federal investigators.
According to court records, the men pleaded guilty early this year to possession of stolen firearms that had been shipped in interstate or foreign commerce, and aided and abetted another in doing so.
Blackwater said on Saturday the company immediately fired the men after learning they were stealing from the company and invited the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) to investigate.
The company pointed to news coverage from 2005, in which a spokesman for the ATF's Charlotte office confirmed the company came forward to authorities and asked for help.
The existence of a federal probe into Blackwater came to light last week, after State Department Inspector General Howard Krongard mentioned it while denying that he had improperly blocked fraud and corruption probes in Afghanistan and Iraq.
In a letter to Representative Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Krongard denied that he had refused to cooperate with an investigation into alleged weapons smuggling by a large, unidentified State Department contractor.
Krongard said in a statement that he "made one of my best investigators available to help Assistant US Attorneys in North Carolina in their investigation into alleged smuggling of weapons into Iraq by a contractor."
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
CYBERSCAM: Anne, an interior decorator with mental health problems, spent a year and a half believing she was communicating with Brad Pitt and lost US$855,259 A French woman who revealed on TV how she had lost her life savings to scammers posing as Brad Pitt has faced a wave of online harassment and mockery, leading the interview to be withdrawn on Tuesday. The woman, named as Anne, told the Seven to Eight program on the TF1 channel how she had believed she was in a romantic relationship with the Hollywood star, leading her to divorce her husband and transfer 830,000 euros (US$855,259). The scammers used fake social media and WhatsApp accounts, as well as artificial intelligence image-creating technology to send Anne selfies and other messages