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Washington: The founder of Blackwater USA says he is looking forward to telling his side of the story to members of Congress who labeled his private security firm an out-of-control outfit indifferent to Iraqi civilian casualties.
Blackwater, which has been paid more than $1 billion in federal contracts since 2001, is embroiled in a host of controversies over the conduct of its guards that have prompted some Iraqis to demand its expulsion.
Blackwater's 38-year-old founder and chairman, Erik Prince, was to be one of the witnesses as the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee holds a hearing Tuesday into private security contracting.
''We look forward to setting the record straight on this issue and others tomorrow when Erik Prince testifies before the committee,'' Blackwater spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell said Monday.
Others on the witness list included David Satterfield, the State Department's Iraq coordinator; Richard Griffin, assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security; and William H. Moser, deputy assistant secretary of state for logistics management.
On Monday, the FBI opened an investigation of the latest fatal shootings in Baghdad involving Blackwater guards, and the House committee issued a scathing 15-page report on the company's conduct.
Among its most serious charges was that Blackwater contractors sought to cover up a June 2005 shooting of an Iraqi man and the company paid, with State Department approval, the families of others inadvertently killed by its guards.
Blackwater has had to fire 122 guards -- one-seventh of the personnel it has in Iraq -- over the past three years for problems ranging from misuse of weapons, alcohol and drug violations, inappropriate conduct, and violent behavior, the committee report said.
The FBI, at the State Department's request, was sending a team to Iraq to investigate a Sept. 16 incident that angered the Iraqi government.
On that day, 11 Iraqis were killed in a shoot-out involving Blackwater guards protecting a US diplomatic convoy in Baghdad. Blackwater says its guards acted in self-defense after the convoy came under attack. Iraqi witnesses have said the shooting was unprovoked.
The House committee's report, prepared by the panel's Democratic majority staff, also said Blackwater has been involved in 195 shooting incidents since 2005.
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