Blackwater Given The Boot

The Telegraph reports that Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, has called the Iraqi prime minister to express her regret over a shootout involving a private American security firm (Blackwater) in which at least eight people were killed and 13 wounded.

The Iraqi government has withdrawn the licence from Blackwater, one of the largest foreign security firms working in the country, and says it intends to prosecute the guards after they "opened fire randomly at citizens".

The article notes that Blackwater has more than 1000 staff in Iraq, this figure is a tad misleading.

Balckwater has in fact, according to this article, over 100,000 personnel operating in Iraq.

Why so many?

• The body count figures, reported by the media and Pentagon, exclude the 770 mercenary deaths.



• The mercenaries are unaccountable to public oversight by Congress, re their actions and their costs.



• When Bush announces in the future with great flourish that the US is pulling out of Iraq, the mercenaries will be left there continuing the war.

Has anyone told the Iraqi's exactly how many Blackwater operatives there are in Iraq?