Iraq to Deny New License to Blackwater Security Firm

by Ernesto Londoño and Qais Mizher, The Washington Post

    US Embassy’s preferred contractor accused of killings.

    Mosul, Iraq – The Iraqi government has informed the US Embassy in Baghdad that it will not issue a new operating license to Blackwater Worldwide, the embassy’s primary security company, which has come under scrutiny for allegedly using excessive force while protecting American diplomats, Iraqi and US officials said Wednesday.

    Iraq’s Interior Ministry conveyed its decision to US officials in Baghdad on Friday, in one of the boldest moves the government has made since the Jan. 1 implementation of a security agreement with the United States that sharply curbed American power in Iraq.

    Blackwater employees who have not been accused of improper conduct will be allowed to continue working as private security contractors in Iraq if they switch employers, Iraqi officials said Wednesday.

    The officials said Blackwater must leave the country as soon as a joint Iraqi-US committee finishes drawing up guidelines for private contractors under the security agreement. It is unclear how long that will take. Blackwater employees and other US contractors had been immune from prosecution under Iraqi law.

    "When the work of this committee ends," Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf said, private security companies "will be under the authority of the Iraqi government, and those companies that don’t have licenses, such as Blackwater, should leave Iraq immediately."

    The State Department said Wednesday that its contractors will obey Iraqi law.

    "We will work with the government of Iraq and our contractors to address the implications of this decision in a way that minimizes any impact on safety and security of embassy Baghdad personnel," spokesman Noel Clay said.

    Blackwater spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell said she was not aware of the Iraqi government’s decision.

    "It would be irresponsible for me to comment on a decision that may or may not have been reached," she said in an e-mail Wednesday.

    The United States was unable to persuade the Iraqi government to extend the immunity of its contractors past the expiration of the U.N. Security Council resolution on December 31. No American diplomat has been killed during missions secured by Blackwater.

    The North Carolina company became widely despised by Iraqis after a string of incidents during which its heavily armed guards were accused of using excessive force. The deadliest was the Sept. 16, 2007, shooting in Nisoor Square, in central Baghdad, when Blackwater guards opened fire on Iraqis in a crowded street, killing 17 civilians, after the guards’ convoy reportedly came under fire.

    The US attorney’s office in Washington last month charged five of the men with voluntary manslaughter and using a machine gun to commit a violent act. The men entered not guilty pleas and are awaiting trial. A sixth guard reached a plea deal with prosecutors.

    Private security companies working for the US government in Iraq have been required to obtain licenses from the Iraqi Interior Ministry since 2004, but some have operated without licenses, and until this year, there was little the Iraqi government could do to enforce the rule.

    The ministry revoked Blackwater’s license in September 2007 and threatened to expel the company’s employees, but US officials ignored the order and renewed the company’s contract the following April.

    Iraqi officials said Wednesday they decided not to issue the company a new license largely because of the Nisoor Square shooting.

    "We informed the US Embassy in Iraq about this decision, and they will have to find another company to replace them," said Gen. Hussain Kamal, a senior Interior Ministry official.

    Blackwater employees were also accused of shooting Iraqi guards working for a television station in the spring of 2007. And on Dec. 24, 2006, a drunk Blackwater guard fatally shot a guard employed by Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdul Mahdi.

    According to a congressional report issued in October 2007, Blackwater guards have been involved in nearly 200 shootings in Iraq since 2005.

    The company has received more than $1 billion from the federal government since 2000. In recent months, however, Blackwater has expanded its business model to rely less heavily on private security work overseas. Though tremendously profitable, the field has generated an avalanche of bad publicity for the company and exposed it to numerous lawsuits.

    The two other large security companies that protect American diplomats in Iraq are DynCorp International and Triple Canopy, both based in Northern Virginia.

    Blackwater employees work under the supervision of the embassy’s regional security officer. The company’s drivers and bodyguards take U.S. diplomats to meetings outside the Green Zone, and its pilots often fly in small helicopters over convoys as an added security measure. The Blackwater employees live in a compound in the Green Zone that is informally referred to as "man camp." According to the October 2007 congressional report, Blackwater guards made more than $1,200 per day.

    Private security contractors in Iraq last year became deeply concerned about losing their immunity with the implementation of the security agreement, which US officials feared would trigger a mass exodus. But few have left. Instead, in recent months, Western private security companies have sought to build strong relationships with the Iraqi government and have hired more Iraqi guards.

    Sami Hawa Hamud al-Sabahin, who was among those wounded in the Nisoor Square shooting, said he was overjoyed to hear the news about Blackwater.

    "It makes me happy and lets me feel that the government didn’t forget us," he said.

    Umm Tahsin , the widow of Ali Khalil Abdul Hussein, one of the men killed in the shooting, also applauded the government’s decision. But she lamented that neither the Iraqi nor the US government has compensated her family for their loss.

    "Those people are a group of criminals," she said of Blackwater. "What they did was a massacre. Pushing them out is the best solution. They destroyed our family."