Blackwater has been run out of Iraq. Following an attack on a State Department convoy Sunday, Blackwater contractors serving as guards opened fire in a Sunni neighborhood of Baghdad, killing eight civilians and wounding 13. The behavior may not be characteristic of contractors, exactly, but it certainly plays into the stereotype of them as brutish mercenaries unconstrained by the law or the rules of war.
And while the incident may not lead to charges of any kind — contractors are not bound by the Uniform Code of Military Justice, as soldiers are, nor are they subject to prosecution under Iraqi law — it has gotten Blackwater’s license revoked.
”We have canceled the license of Blackwater and prevented them from working all over Iraqi territory,” said Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul-Karim Khalaf, according to the New York Times.
So the American government, which employs Blackwater contractors by the hundreds (and possibly by the thousands), will have to find new forces to guard convoys and escort dignitaries. Might be a good opportunity to use an Iraqi firm.
Mother Jones has written a ton about contractors since the Iraq War began. We sent a reporter to ride along with them earlier this year, and sent a different reporter to one of their training camps in 2003. We’ve noted the “South African hit men, Serbian paramilitaries, and other human rights violators” in their ranks, and twice explained how they work the system to make heaps of cash.
Update: One of Mitt Romney’s top national security advisers, Cofer Black, is the Vice Chairman of Blackwater USA.
