"Maliki insists U.S. replace Blackwater" I thought Condi had "a talk" with Maliki?

[in_cog_ni_to]

Did she lose her touch?

Maliki insists U.S. replace Blackwater
Ahmad Al-Rubaye / AFP / Getty Images
Blackwater USA contractors secure the site of a roadside explosion in central Baghdad in 2005. The U.S. Embassy said a Blackwater convoy accused of killing eight civilians during a shootout in the capital Sunday had come under fire, and some local Iraqi television stations reported an exchange of gunfire at the scene.
A joint Iraqi-American group investigates the shootout involving the security firm and plans to reexamine immunity status.
By Ned Parker, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
11:37 AM PDT, September 19, 2007
BAGHDAD -- Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki today demanded that the U.S. Embassy replace the private security company Blackwater USA after a shootout last weekend reportedly left 11 Iraqis dead.

"This crime has inflamed contempt, hatred and anger both from the government and the Iraqi public. Hence, it is important that this company's activities be frozen and the American Embassy invest in the services of another one," Maliki told reporters.

"According to the Ministry of Interior, this is the seventh time that this company has been responsible for similar actions, therefore they should be brought to account in this matter," he said.

Maliki reiterated that the Iraqi government's preliminary investigation had found that the Blackwater security detail had fired without provocation Sunday at a traffic circle in western Baghdad's Mansour district. Since then, the number of dead has risen from eight to 11, according to Interior Ministry spokesman Brig. Gen. Abdul Kareem Khalaf.

The prime minister said his government was seeking a resolution to the case through a new joint U.S.-Iraqi committee with the help of the U.S. military and Iraqi army, which are investigating Sunday's shooting.

"This company should be punished," Maliki said. "We are not going to allow it to kill Iraqis in cold blood. We have frozen all its activities and a joint panel has been formed to investigate the incident."

The committee also will address the status of foreign private security contractors, who currently enjoy immunity from Iraqi courts based on a decree issued by U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer III before his departure from Iraq in June 2004, Maliki said.

The embassy was in damage-control mode today, the day after U.S. officials and civilian personnel were barred from ground travel out of the Green Zone, headquarters to the Iraqi government and the diplomatic community. The order was imposed in part due to fears of attacks against Americans by Iraqis irate over the perception that private security guards are held unaccountable for the killing of Iraqis.<snip>

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-blackwater20sep20,0,5891686.story?coll=la-home-center

[enid602]

1. bribe

Guess the bribe wasn't enough.

[musette_sf]

2. looks like her "talk" with Maliki

went about as well as her demand to meet with the Pope.

[goodhue]

3. a talk is not going to cut it

eom

[bullimiami]

4. i guess maliki is out

[L. Coyote]

5. Rice let slip that Blackwater is "we"

Does anyone thing Blackwater USA is anything other than a US front?

Meanwhile TIME asks: Can the U.S. Live Without Blackwater? Rice says "WE"

in reference to Blackwater.

Can the U.S. Live Without Blackwater?
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1663306,00.html?imw=Y

During a telephone conversation on Monday night, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki agreed that U.S. diplomats must be free to travel around Iraq, but how they will do that is now a point of contention. The U.S. embassy in Baghdad relies heavily on Blackwater security to guard its personnel as they visit government ministries and other sites around Iraq. American diplomats have not been able to travel outside the Green Zone since Iraq suspended Blackwater's license following a firefight Sunday that resulted in the deaths of at least eight Iraqi civilians. "We're there to strengthen the capacity of the Iraqi Government. We're not able to do that all in the Green Zone," Rice said she told Maliki ........

[tanyev]

6. Condi is just as effective as Secretary of State as she was Natl. Security Advisor.

[NastyRiffraff]

7. Who listens to Condi anymore

Even Maliki doesn't. Everyone knows they can blow Condi off with impunity.

[ljm2002]

8. What I love about this...

...is it shows up Condi for the incompetent lightweight she is.

Does that make me a bad person? Oh well -- who gives a sh*t. She really is on the short-list of despicable people in this administration.

[Bonhomme Richard]

9. "officials and civilian personnel were barred from ground travel" really means

that you can forget about your large satchels of money being delivered unless you back off blackwater.

[goodhue]

10. well that certainly is possible reading of the situation

I tend to think the Iraq Army, the Mahdi Army and many other well-armed Iraqis are primed to hunt Blackwater, so Blackwater is in hiding for their own security.

[IDemo]

11. So if Blackwater is completely expelled, will that yield a bigger surge for Bush?

Not that I think it will ultimately happen, but if all of Blackwater's merc's are booted from the country, either Bush will demand a larger surge, or another company(s) will step in. And any other company's men will be well disciplined against any sort of similar behavior, right? :eyes:

Condi: "Nobody could have foreseen assholes running amok like this."

[madokie]

12. condi is about as worthless as a used condom