Kastigar imposes a "total prohibition" on "any use" of defendants' compelled statements "in any respect" to "inflict[] criminal penalties" on them. It certainly advances the "infliction of criminal penalties" when a prosecutor uses a defendant's compelled statement to decide to indict the defendant, and to obtain authorization from DOJ to seek the indictment, as happened here. A defendant who is indicted as a result of his compelled statements is hardly in the same position as if he had stood on his privilege.

Two ex-Blackwater contractors were convicted of manslaughter [JURIST report] in March for their role in the May 2009 shooting deaths of two Afghan nationals and the wounding of a third. Last April, a federal grand jury indicted five former Blackwater executives [JURIST report] on charges of weapons violations and lying to investigators. In February 2010, the Iraqi government ordered 250 former Blackwater employees to leave Iraq [JURIST report] in reaction to the dismissal of charges against the ex-Blackwater employees allegedly involved in the September 2007 shootings. That month, the Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] also opened an investigation [JURIST report] into whether Blackwater bribed the Iraqi government to be permitted to continue operating in Iraq following the 2007 shootings. Blackwater ceased operations in Baghdad [JURIST report] in May 2009 when its security contracts expired and were not renewed.