New Deal for Blackwater
Days after the Baghdad government decided it no longer wanted the company then known as Blackwater in Iraq, the State Department signed a $22.2 million deal in February to keep the embattled contractor working there through most of the summer, contract records show.
The decision keeps Blackwater - since renamed Xe - in Iraq months longer than anyone has suggested publicly, while raising questions about why the U.S. would pay a contractor for work in Iraq if it may not be able to operate there legally.
The State Department has been under pressure from Blackwater critics, including several in Congress, not to renew the company's contracts in Iraq. Much of the concern stems from a 2007 incident that left 14 Iraqi civilians dead and six former Blackwater guards facing manslaughter charges. One of the guards pleaded guilty, but the company was accused of no wrongdoing in the incident.
|
What a clever plan. The public doesn't want Blackwater working in Iraq so they changed their name.
Shhhh. No one will ever know.
There is no wealth like knowledge and no poverty like ignorance. -Ali ibn Abi Talib
Transgressions that are tolerated today will become common place tomorrow. -Greg W
"If you are thinking a year ahead, sow a seed. If you are thinking ten years ahead, plant a tree. If you are thinking one hundred years ahead, educate the people."
Chinese Proverb
No comments:
Post a Comment