The Associated Press reported:
Iraq has ordered hundreds of private security guards linked to Blackwater Worldwide to leave the country within seven days or face possible arrest on visa violations, the interior minister said Wednesday.
The order comes in the wake of a U.S. judge’s dismissal of criminal charges against five Blackwater guards who were accused in the September 2007 shooting deaths of 17 Iraqis in Baghdad.
The New York Times reported:
Two former employees of Blackwater Worldwide have accused the private security company of defrauding the government for years by filing bogus receipts, double billing for the same services and charging government agencies for strippers and prostitutes, according to court documents unsealed this week.
In a December 2008 lawsuit, the former employees said top Blackwater officials had engaged in a pattern of deception as they carried out government contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan, and in Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
The lawsuit, filed under the False Claims Act, also asserts that Blackwater officials turned a blind eye to “excessive and unjustified” force against Iraqi civilians by several Blackwater guards.
Can someone please tell me why all Americans are not concerned about Blackwater and their overwhelming arsenal of weaponry. The US military is stretched to near breaking and National Guard Units are being deployed to Afghanistan two and three tours of duty. Isn’t anyone worried that in a crisis Blackwater could do the very same thing they did when Katrina struck and move their mercenaries into place. They are now better equipped then the country of Iraq and I think they have several other locations Midwest and West Coast. Their fearless leader Prince has bent and broken all the rules and now is forming shell companies to cover his tracks and still continue to rip the government off by getting contracts in different company names. They are not accountable to anyone…not Military and not civilian. They can come into any city and kill people and have no one to answer to. Thanks to Rumsfield for that one…I think we should all be very afraid and that some movement should be made to change the law that makes them not accountable and to limit the use or eliminate their arsenal. I realize they are a private company but how in the world did we as US citizens allow this to happen. They are now the largest Private Military Contractor in the world. Killers for hire to the highest bidder.