Iraqi Government Revokes Blackwater License



From Reuters:

"Iraq announced on Monday it had withdrawn the license of a U.S. security firm and would prosecute employees it said were involved in a shooting in Baghdad in which 11 people were killed.

An Interior Ministry spokesman said security personnel working for contractors Blackwater had opened fire after mortar rounds landed near their cars in Nusour Square in the western Baghdad district of Mansour.

"By chance the company was passing by. They opened fire randomly at citizens," Brigadier-General Abdul-Karim Khalaf said. Eleven people were killed, including one policeman, and 13 people were wounded, he said."

Now we will get a glimpse of whether the Iraqi government is sovereign or merely an American puppet. The Blackwater firm is a big part of the war in Iraq, offering the U.S. government boots on the ground with even less accountability than usual. Blackwater has had its snout squarely in the public trough from the early days of the Bush administration. Expect the Iraqi government to reverse course on this license revocation in a few days, after getting instructions from Fightin' George, our generated and veneered leader.

One question: when did we agree to start calling mercenaries "security contractors" ?

Posted: Mon - September 17, 2007 at 08:25 AM        

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