McClatchy: Blackwater to be phased out of guarding U.S. diplomats in Iraq

[babylonsister]

Blackwater to be phased out of guarding U.S. diplomats in Iraq
By Warren P. Strobel | McClatchy Newspapers

* Posted on Friday, October 19, 2007


WASHINGTON — Troubled military contractor Blackwater USA is likely to be eased out of its role of guarding U.S. diplomats in Iraq in the aftermath of a shooting last month that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead, U.S. officials said Friday.

While no decisions have been finalized, Blackwater's role in Baghdad is likely to be taken over by one of two other contractors who provide security for the State Department in Iraq, the officials said. They are Triple Canopy and DynCorp International.

"There will be some sort of disengagement process, but it won't be that they're shown the door," said a State Department official. "As one builds down, another builds up."

He and other U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity because Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice hadn't received an oral report from a four-person team led by Patrick Kennedy, the department's director of management policy. The team reviewed State Department security operations in Iraq.

Blackwater has denied wrongdoing in the Sept. 16 shooting, the latest deadly incident involving its employees in Iraq, saying the guards were defending themselves. But reports by the U.S. military and the Iraqi government say the Blackwater guards fired without provocation.

Iraq's government has demanded that Blackwater leave Iraq within six months.

A company spokeswoman, Anne Tyrrell, didn't return a phone call seeking comment.

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http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/20706.html

[babylonsister]

1. Wow. No one gives a shit. That's interesting. nt

[EFerrari]

2. The city of Fallujah will still be dead.

:(