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Report: Blackwater OK'd payments to Iraqis

WASHINGTON, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- Blackwater tried to buy the silence of Iraqi officials after the company's security guards fatally shot 17 Iraqi civilians, former company officials said.

The former company officials told The New York Times executives of Blackwater Worldwide had authorized secret payments totaling about $1 million to Iraqi officials in return for the officials' agreeing to mute criticism and to support the company after the September 2007 shootings in Baghdad.

Blackwater, the Times said, approved the payments in December 2007 after U.S. and Iraqi investigators had determined the shootings were unjustified and Iraqi officials called for the company to leave the country.

The newspaper reported four former Blackwater executives said Gary Jackson, then the company's president, approved the bribes and that the money went from Amman, Jordan, where the company has offices, to Iraq. The officials, however, told the Times they did not know if the cash went to Iraqi officials or the names of potential recipients.

Blackwater worried it could be refused an operating license it needed to keep contracts, worth hundreds of millions, with the U.S. State Department and private clients, the report said.

The company has since changed its name to Xe.

The bribery attempt divided company officials, the Times said. It quoted officials as saying Cofer Black, then the company's vice chairman, had asked the company's chairman and founder, Erik Prince, about the bribery plan, and Prince did not deny it.

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Natynczyk: Afghan mission ends in 2011

OTTAWA, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- Canada's top military commander says the country's military mission in Afghanistan ends in 2011 and that's when he will pull the country's troops out.

Gen. Walter Natynczyk told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. in an exclusive interview aired Tuesday he was basing his position on parliamentary language directing an end to Canada's military mission in July 2011.

"I mean those are the words that are there," said Natynczyk, the chief of the defense staff. "And for me it's pretty clear. What we do for the Canadian forces are military missions."

The CBC reported that while the government has maintained the country's military mission ends then, Defense Minister Peter MacKay and other ministers and staff have suggested troops could stay in Afghanistan longer, though perhaps not in combat. Canada has 2,800 soldiers in Afghanistan.

Natynczyk said he doesn't envision a role for any soldiers other than a contingent assigned to the embassy staff in Kabul.

"We provide protection, we provide security, we enable governance, we enable development, we enable training," he said. "But our function is security and protection. That's the military mission."

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John Allen Muhammad, D.C. sniper, dies

WASHINGTON, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- John Allen Muhammad, the so-called D.C. Sniper, died by lethal injection at a Virginia prison at 9:11 p.m. Tuesday, a prison official said.

Larry Traylor, a spokesman for Greensville Correctional Center, said Muhammad made no final statement and that he did not hear him say anything during the execution process, USA Today reported.

A few hours earlier, Gov. Tim Kaine had said he would not intervene, clearing the way for the execution. Kaine opposes the death penalty but has allowed executions to be carried out during his tenure.

The U.S. Supreme Court refused a stay of execution Monday.

Muhammad, 48, was sentenced to death for the killing of Dean Meyers, who was shot down at a gas station near Manassas. The shooting was one of 10 Muhammad, a veteran of the first Gulf War, and his teenage disciple, Lee Boyd Malvo, carried out around Washington.

"Muhammad's trial, verdict and sentence have been reviewed by state and federal courts," Kaine said in a statement posted on his Web site. "Having carefully reviewed the petition for clemency and judicial opinions regarding this case, I find no compelling reason to set aside the sentence that was recommended by the jury and then imposed and affirmed by the courts."

Relatives of some of the victims were scheduled to witness Muhammad's death.

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Pilot charged with drinking before takeoff

LONDON, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- A United Airlines pilot has been accused of drunkenness in the cockpit of a plane that was about to take off from London's Heathrow Airport, the airline said.

Erwin Washington, 51, of Lakewood, Colo., has been charged with performing an aviation function while exceeding the "proscribed alcohol limit," British police said.

Washington was scheduled to pilot a flight to Chicago with 124 passengers and 11 crew members on board. The Monday flight was "imminent" when he was arrested, an airport spokesman said.

"Safety is our highest priority and the pilot has been removed from service while we are cooperating with authorities and conducting a full investigation," the spokesman said.

The flight was canceled and passengers were put on other flights, the BBC said.

Washington was released on bail and is scheduled to appear in a London court Nov. 20, the BBC reported Tuesday.