Rice orders improved Iraq guards

(AP) — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday ordered new measures to improve government oversight of private guards who protect U.S. diplomats in Iraq, including cultural awareness training for contractors and a board to investigate any future killings.

The steps, recommended by an independent review panel she created after last month’s deadly Baghdad shooting involving Blackwater USA, also would tighten the State Department’s rules of engagement and bring them into line with those of the military.

The State Department will set up panels that include security officials and others to look into each shooting or other use of deadly force by private guards and organize rapid response teams to investigate shooting incidents.

The department will also require contractors to have Arabic speakers on hand.

Another step Miss Rice has ordered is the appointment of a senior diplomat to oversee Iraq security operations, State Department officials said. That job, a temporary assignment for now, will be held by Steve Browning, a senior foreign service officer who is now U.S. ambassador to Uganda.

The moves announced yesterday are among those that Miss Rice opted to make on her own, but further changes are likely after she meets later this week with Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates.

Some of the review panel’s recommendations would require joint action with the Pentagon, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

Miss Rice was briefed Monday on the panel’s findings, and the State Department released the document yesterday afternoon.

“Prompt measures should be taken to strengthen the coordination, oversight and accountability aspects of the State Department’s security practices in Iraq in order to reduce the likelihood that future incidents will occur,” the report said.

Patrick F. Kennedy, a State Department official who led the review, told reporters that the group focused on management and policy, not possible wrongdoing by Blackwater or others.

The shooting in a Baghdad square Sept. 16 killed 17 Iraqi civilians. Iraqi authorities claim Blackwater guards fired unprovoked, but Blackwater’s founder has said his employees were fired on first.

The incident is being investigated by Iraqi and U.S. investigators. The report said when the FBI investigation was completed, the U.S. Embassy must submit its recommendations as to whether the continued services of Blackwater were “consistent with the accomplishment of the overall United States mission in Iraq.”

The new review board for deadly incidents would have the power to refer cases to the Justice Department, Mr. Kennedy said.

The panel made no specific recommendations about what should happen to Blackwater, whose guards were escorting an official from the U.S. Embassy when the shooting occurred.

The killings have outraged Iraqis and focused attention on the shadowy rules surrounding heavily armed private guards.

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