Iraq won’t allow Blackwater to operate in country

The Associated Press: Iraq won’t allow Blackwater to operate in country.

Blackwater’s image in Iraq was irrevocably tarnished by the September 2007 killing of 17 Iraqi civilians in Nisoor Square. Five former Blackwater guards pleaded not guilty Jan. 6 in federal court in Washington to manslaughter and gun charges in that shooting.

I think this is the first time SOFA is bearing its teeth at the US governemnt. The new US-Iraqi security agreement gives the Iraqi government the right to licence (or not) any security firm working within its borders. And Blackwater, after behaving like it’s a free shooting range here, have angered a lot of Iraqis… example of their stupidity?

Federal prosecutors in Seattle intend to charge a former Blackwater USA operative for fatally shooting the bodyguard of the Iraqi vice president after a drunken Christmas party in Baghdad’s secure “Green Zone” in 2006, according to the man’s attorney and sources within the U.S. Department of Justice.

Seattle Times