Iraq's Min. of Interior said more then ' withdraw license from Blackwater'

[donsu]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/21/world/middleeast/21blackwater.html?_r=2&hp=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1190343491-PsdlDaYTJNS0HgrPfpgksA&oref=slogin


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The document concludes that the dozens of foreign security companies here should be replaced by Iraqi companies, and that a law that has given the companies immunity for years be scrapped.

Four days after the shooting, American officials said they were still preparing their own forensic analysis of what happened in Nisour Square. They have repeatedly declined to give any details before their work is finished.

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“The Blackwater company is considered 100 percent guilty through this investigation,” the report concludes.

The shooting enraged Iraqis, in part because they feel powerless to bring the security companies to account.

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Another of the report’s recommendations is for the company to pay compensation to the families of the dead.

Perhaps the part that will bring the most debate is the recommendation to limit foreign security companies.

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But even if the government succeeds in changing the rules, it will have difficulty enforcing them. Four private security companies, all Iraqi, have been prohibited from working in past years, but all of them continued operating by changing their names, according to a former security contractor.

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Blackwater had been operating without a license for more than a year, though it had made an attempt to register this spring. Mr. Bolani said that the government was not moving forward with its registration, but that not being registered would not set the company apart from many other foreign security companies operating here. Only 23 foreign companies have licenses, Mr. Bolani said.
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interesting facts left out of most reporting

[Solly Mack]

1. Recommended

[tularetom]

2. I don't think I'd want to be a Blackwater contractor right now

It's going to be open season on these guys once the word gets out.

[orleans]

3. the author of the book blackwater--Jeremy Scahill--

was on randi's show on sept. 18th

he was saying the u.s. military is a junior partner with these private contractors--that there are 180,000 private contractors in iraq

there are 600 companies working for the u.s.

that there are about 180 mercenary companies in iraq

that the "security" firms are getting paid around $950 per day by our government (and the firms pay their security employees $350 per day)