Blackwater May Lose License In Iraq

Amid Probe Of Deadly 2007 Incident, Gov't Report Recommends Other Ways To Protect Diplomats

(CBS/AP)  An internal State Department report says Blackwater Worldwide may lose its license to work in Iraq and recommends that the agency prepare alternative means to protect its diplomats there.

The 42-page draft report by the State Department's Inspector General says the department faces "numerous challenges" in dealing with the security situation in Iraq, including the prospect that Blackwater may be barred from the country. The department would have turn to other security arrangements to replace Blackwater, officials said.

The State Department had no immediate comment on the report itself, but deputy spokesman Robert Wood said that after the probe is done, officials would look at "whether the continued use of Blackwater in Iraq is consistent with the U.S. government's goals and objectives."

It is not clear how the State Department would replace Blackwater. It relies heavily on private contractors to protect its diplomats in Iraq, as its own security service does not have the manpower or equipment to do so. The report suggests that one way to fill the void would be for the State Department's Diplomatic Security Service to beef up its presence in Iraq.

"The department faces the real possibility that one of its primary Worldwide Personal Protective Services contractors in Iraq - Blackwater (Worldwide) - will not receive a license to continue operating in Iraq," says the recently completely report.

The report is labeled "sensitive but unclassified."

An official familiar with the report said initially that it would recommend that department not renew Blackwater's contract when it expires next year. But that specific language is not included in the document, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press.

The official said later that such a recommendation would not be made until after an investigation of last September's incident in Baghdad's Nisoor Square in which Blackwater guards killed 17 Iraqis is complete.

Hassan Jaber was wounded that day - shot in the arm and back as he tried to escape, CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer reported earlier this month from Baghdad. Jaber, like other wounded victims, got $7,500 compensation from the U.S. Embassy in Iraq, which he used to pay for medical care. But his body is still full of shrapnel.

Five guards have been indicted on manslaughter and other charges stemming from that incident. The company was not implicated.

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Read The Indictment

A decision on how U.S. diplomats in Iraq are to be protected will be left to the Obama administration, which will be in place when Blackwater's contract comes up for renewal in the spring.

Terminating the North Carolina-based company's Iraq contract will be difficult for incoming Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton because no other private security contractor has its range of resources, particularly its fleet of helicopters and planes.

Current Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ordered a review of the department's use of private security firms after the Nisoor Square incident. The Inspector General's report is an analysis of how recommendations in that review have been implemented and includes several key findings, including that the department plan for the possibility that it may no longer be able to rely on private contractors like Blackwater.

Blackwater spokeswoman Anne Tyrell declined to comment, saying the company has not yet seen the report. The company has said in the past, though, that it plans to largely get out of the security contracting business to concentrate on training and other projects.

Blackwater has won more than $1 billion in government contracts under the Bush administration, a large portion of which has been for work in Iraq, where among its duties is protecting diplomats based at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

State Department officials have praised Blackwater's work in Iraq, noting that no personnel under the company's protection has been killed. However, after Nisoor Square incident, the firm came under heavy criticism for the actions of its employees, which were immune from Iraqi law under legal protections dating from the U.S.-led occupation of the country.

Immediately after that incident, the State Department stepped up its supervision of Blackwater employees in Iraq, including posting a Diplomatic Security agent in every convoy the company escorts and installing video cameras in its vehicles.

And, the immunity enjoyed by Blackwater employees and other private security guards who protect civilians in Iraq will soon come to an end under a new U.S.-Iraqi security pact that will take effect on Jan. 1.

U.S. investigators have linked Blackwater guards to 70 shooting incidents involving civilians before Nisoor Square and only two since then.

[lila356]

Blackwater: The Neo-Nazi-SS, Bushcheney''s secret and private army "So-called Christian" Death Squad should lose all of their licenses and be forced out of business and completely shut down, here in the US and abroad. Our tax dollars pay them each well over $200,000/year! Blackwater must stop expanding and building their SS training camps across our nation. If they want to serve they should join the Army, Navy, USMC, USAF, just like the rest, and be held accountable for their actions and covert terrorist operations everywhere. They dishonor the US of A, all Americans, and especially our troops, who need better protective equipment, medical care, rehabilitation and re-entry therapy. Stop the shadow military NOW! Christ would not kill a living soul, no matter what!

[noloyalisti]

I hold Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rice personally responsible for murder for the behavior of these Christian terrorists at Blackwater. Add that to their list of war crimes.

[niceface19]

This death squad deserve to die in hell ASAP, all of them, if you don''t belive it, go to Youtube,

type in Iraq shooting on cars,

you will see these thugs killed so many women and children in Iraq as they are driving, this is crazy, but was encouraged by Bush''s criminal regime

[dimmu19]

All the neocons should be lined up and booted out of this country. That what make sense...

See ya later Limbaugh !

[dimmu19]

You mean the LIE that we had a surplus economy at the end of the Clinton administration, when in fact our national debt was the highest it had been in history?

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I take it your talking about all the debt from Reagen and Bush Sr. that Clinton got stuck with and the 7.5 unemployment rate Sr. passed on at the end of his term?

[rudy6543]

Posted by RowdynTex at 10:03 PM

I just read the first couple sentences and knew the liar at the bottom would be you. Rowdy likes to make up history as she goes along.

She is a huge fat liar. (I added some adjectives sweety)

[centerfall94]

We never, ever sent civilian contractors into an active war zone before in our military history. After the shooting and violence was over, then they went in. Now we know why.

Why our once great country would contract with a bunch of gangbanger, thugs, and assasin mercenaries is beyond me.

Posted by LMartinK at 09:58 PM : Dec 17, 2008

It''s not beyond anyone. The evidence is clear. The neocons, Bush Administration and many complicit and/or complacent republicans are directly to blame. Everyone knows this.

[gce65]

Throw out the Blackwater mercenaries!

These are not patriots, these are killers for hire beholden only to their corporate masters.

Our government should cancel all contracts with Blackwater, Eric Prince, and any other scumbags like him.

[kansas1946]

I bet the Iraqis will be glad to get those thugs out of there.

[stevex47]

"But I am seeing the the ultra left nut jobs are running head to head with them when it comes to spewing hate."

Surprising?

After the lies of WMD''s and thousands killed becuase of it. Running a suplus economy into BANKRUPTCY. Killing the big 3 auto makers. Illegal eavesdropping. Outting a CIA agent. Guantanomo, Sbu Ghraib. Foley. Craig. Hastert. Gonzales.

The list is too long as to the reasons to legitimately hate whaat the reich wing nutjobs have to done to this once Great Country.

Your inability to understand why millions of people across the world dislike this country''s repukes is disturbing.

[stevex47]

"Was it not the carlyle group that was meeting at the time the WTC was destroyed ? Then Bush rushed the Bin Ladins out of the meeting & the country to cover his mess up ?"

True. Now the big related question...

Who was the head of security of WTC and building 7 until the day before 9-11?

[rudy6543]

I used to think the right wing religious nuts were the top culture of hate in this country. But I am seeing the the ultra left nut jobs are running head to head with them when it comes to spewing hate.


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Posted by endurorob at 07:34 PM

LOL. Who do you think you''re fooling with that BS? You never once thought anything but good about your neocon lovers.

[rudy6543]

What??? Bush''s private little army which became a multi-million dollar industry overnight might lose a no-bid contract??? What will they contribute to the next Republican''s campaign?

[treknutz]

Blackwater Busted? Gee, Cheneys little death squad is gonna get their hand slapped. Bunch of mercenaries who think they are above any law in the guise of corporate security. The sad thing is they are being paid with OUR tax dollars and will retire to third world countries when they get their millions in bonus mone from the likes of Cheney!

[endurorob]

I used to think the right wing religious nuts were the top culture of hate in this country. But I am seeing the the ultra left nut jobs are running head to head with them when it comes to spewing hate.

[endurorob]

the republiCON party has become the new fascists the

new NAZI''''s,

if you voted for bush you should go out and shoot yourself


Posted by pythoncharly

Way to inspire unity in the Obama culture of change.

[babooph]

Was it not the carlyle group that was meeting at the time the WTC was destroyed ? Then Bush rushed the Bin Ladins out of the meeting & the country to cover his mess up ?

[tincup356]

Blackwater is hired by Carlyle group,,,and GW Bush sits on the board of directors,,with daddy. So...Bush should be held responsible for what his hired thugs have done...after all Bush has profited 6 billion through Carlyle so he is just as guilty.

[macusweil]

"Gov''t Report Recommends Other Ways To Protect Diplomats."

Yeah, there''s an idea, like maybe real soldiers at not using right-wing mercenary rent-a-thugs.

[biblethumpar]

it is sickening what these Mercenaries make, its even sickening they claim they are protecting the United States,
all they are protecting is their wallet.