Posted by
Rob Stevenson on Monday, September 17, 2007 8:01:03 PM
The Iraqi government has revoked the operating license of
Blackwater USA. Blackwater, a private military contractor based out of Virginia, is paid by the American government to provide a variety of services for the U.S. Military including their main duty of escorting American supplies and key personnel, including Ambassador Crocker in dangerous areas of Iraq.
Although Blackwater is a civilian firm and is not under the direct payment or jurisdiction of the military, they are a military force. This is to say that they are armed, authorized to use deadly force, and most are prior servicemen in the Marine Corps or Army and Navy special operations units.
Today's news comes in the wake of a firefight in which eight Iraqi civilians lost their lives, allegedly killed by Blackwater employees. There were many explosions around the diplomatic convoy in western Baghdad that Blackwater was guarding on Sunday, and it is unclear how events unfolded. A state department representative said,
"We believe some innocent life was lost. Nobody wants to see that. But I can't tell you who was responsible for that."
This is not the first incident of Blackwater personnel in violent confrontations with Iraqi civilians, but this is hardly surprising given the nature of their work.
For more information
see the AP story here.You may remember Blackwater from a 2004 incident in which four contractors were beaten, killed, dragged through the streets and hung on lampposts in Fallujah.