Uncertain role in 2009 for Blackwater in Iraq
Posted: Tue Dec 23, 2008 10:25 pm
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Uncertain role in 2009 for Blackwater in Iraq
By Mike Baker - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Dec 23, 2008 15:58:12 EST
RALEIGH, N.C. — When a team of Blackwater Worldwide security contractors opened fire last year in Baghdad’s Nisoor Square, nobody was quite sure if a crime had been committed, and if so, whether there was a prosecutor with the authority to bring charges.
More than a year after the shooting that left at least 14 Iraqi civilians dead — an incident that led Iraqi leaders to demand Blackwater leave the country and forced Chief Executive Erik Prince to defend his company in hearings before Congress — the rules under which security firms operate in Iraq are still muddled.
And a new U.S.-Iraqi security agreement that takes effect Jan. 1 isn’t offering any help on the central question of whether Blackwater’s roughly 1,000 guards working in Iraq are subject to that nation’s courts.
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