According to the AP, a State Department advisory panel decided yesterday that Blackwater should no longer provide private security for U.S. diplomats in Iraq. The panel suggested Blackwater's license to operate in Iraq not be renewed next year.
This comes less than a week after the DOJ made public the manslaughter charges for five
Blackwater guards involved in the 2007 Nisour Sqaure shooting that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead.
Considering how much the Bush administration has defended Blackwater over the years, and considering the State Department just renewed Blackwater's contract last year and once granted immunity to those involved in the Nisour Square shooting, this is a major blow to this mercenary firm.
While President-elect Obama has said previously that the difficulty of banning Blackwater from Iraq outright would be replacing their guards with more U.S. troops, last week's high-profile indictment coupled with yesterday's advisory panel report no doubt raises the pressure to rid us of Blackwater and bring this war profiteer to justice.
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