"Some of the guards now work for other security firms in Iraq, while others work for a Blackwater subsidiary.... in September, the State Department said it temporarily extended a contract with Blackwater subsidiary Presidential Airways to provide air support for US diplomats"
Related: Occupation Iraq: Blackwater There to Stay
So much for Iraqi sovereignty, huh?
"Iraq orders ex-Blackwater guards out; Ruling follows US dismissal of charges in deaths" by Qassim Abdul-Zahra, Associated Press | February 11, 2010
BAGHDAD - Iraq has ordered hundreds of private security guards linked to Blackwater Worldwide to leave the country within seven days or face possible arrest on visa violations, the interior minister said yesterday.
The order was made following a US judge’s dismissal of criminal charges against five Blackwater guards who were accused in the 2007 shooting deaths of 17 Iraqis in Baghdad.
Related: Operation Iraq: Blessed Blackwater
Yeah, turns out the U.S. government f***ed up the investigation on purpose.
It applies to about 250 security contractors who worked for Blackwater in Iraq at the time of the shooting, Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani said.
Some of the guards now work for other security firms in Iraq, while others work for a Blackwater subsidiary, Bolani said. He said all “concerned parties’’ were notified of the order three days ago and now have four days left before they must leave. He did not name the companies.
Blackwater security contractors were protecting US diplomats when the guards opened fire in Nisoor Square, a busy Baghdad intersection, on Sept. 16, 2007. Seventeen people were killed, including women and children, in a shooting that inflamed anti-American sentiment in Iraq....
I love how our newspapers skim over the mass-murder, 'eh, readers?
Backlash from the Blackwater shooting has been felt hardest by private security contractors, who typically provide protection for diplomats, journalists, and aid workers. Iraqi security forces have routinely stopped security details at checkpoints to conduct searches and question guards....
Iraqis know they are behind some of the "suicide" bombings, don't they?
Related: Occupation Iraq: Iraqis Fed Up With False-Flag Operations
Is that why the violence has been absent my paper since then, MSM?
Based in Moyock, N.C., Blackwater is now known as Xe Services, a name change made after six of the security firm’s guards were charged in the Nisoor Square shooting. At the time, Blackwater was the largest of the State Department’s three security contractors working in Iraq.
Xe Services said the company had no employees currently in Iraq, including with its subsidiary, Presidential Airways.
The US Embassy in Baghdad declined to comment. The State Department in Washington did not immediately respond to requests seeking comment.
Not even an anonymous source who wasn't authorized to talk to the press?
The Blackwater guards involved in the shooting said they were ambushed, but US prosecutors and many Iraqis said it was an unprovoked attack with machine guns and grenades on civilians.
One of the accused guards pleaded guilty in the case, but a federal judge in Washington threw out charges against the other five in December, ruling that the Justice Department mishandled the evidence....
Translation: They deliberately botched the image-injuring case because the occupations can't continue without the mercenaries.
The shooting further strained relations between the United States and Iraq, leading the Parliament to seek new laws that would clear the way for foreign contractors to be prosecuted in Iraqi courts. The US government rejected those demands in the Blackwater case.
In January 2009, the State Department informed Blackwater that it would not renew its contracts to provide security for US diplomats in Iraq because of Baghdad’s refusal to grant it an operating license.
But in September, the State Department said it temporarily extended a contract with Blackwater subsidiary Presidential Airways to provide air support for US diplomats. The State Department has since ended its contracts with Xe.Yeah, sure they have.
Because the newspaper and government say so?
Ha!
--more--"
Related: US contractor missing and believed kidnapped in Iraq
Just a one-day wonder, 'eh?
