Iraq Contractor in Shooting Case Makes Comeback

[Lasher]

WASHINGTON — Last fall, Blackwater Worldwide was in deep peril.

Guards for the security company were involved in a shooting in September that left at least 17 Iraqis dead at a Baghdad intersection. Outrage over the killings prompted the Iraqi government to demand Blackwater’s ouster from the country, and led to a criminal investigation by the F.B.I., a series of internal investigations by the State Department and the Pentagon, and high-profile Congressional hearings.

But after an intense public and private lobbying campaign, Blackwater appears to be back to business as usual.

<snip>

The chief reason for the company’s survival? State Department officials said Friday that they did not believe they had any alternative to Blackwater, which supplies about 800 guards to the department to provide security for diplomats in Baghdad. Officials say only three companies in the world meet their requirements for protective services in Iraq, and the other two do not have the capability to take on Blackwater’s role in Baghdad. After the shooting in September, the State Department did not even open talks with the other two companies, DynCorp International and Triple Canopy, to see if they could take over from Blackwater, which is based in North Carolina.

“We cannot operate without private security firms in Iraq,” said Patrick F. Kennedy, the under secretary of state for management. “If the contractors were removed, we would have to leave Iraq.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/10/world/middleeast/10blackwater.html?_r=1&partner=EXCITE&oref=slogin

Why can't we operate without private security firms? It's time to start un-privatizing our military.

[chknltl]

1. "It's time to start un-privatizing our military."

EXACTLY! :thumbsup: KnR

[tanyev]

2. “If the contractors were removed, we would have to leave Iraq.”

Sounds like a great idea.

[Lasher]

3. I couldn't agree more.

Just cut off the money and spend it on something useful.

[PATRICK]

4. Didn't Obama

acknowledge that necessity would dictate keeping this proto-fascist corporate brownshirt organization on the job for the "interim"?

Between cutting them off and sending the owners to trial and making them our American SS I think there is little acceptable middle ground. Better the draft than that, but then there is the political compromise forced on us as well where again people should be removed, put on trial or simply handed crowns and scepters.