Blackwater: We will leave if U.S. orders it

[unhappycamper]

Blackwater: We will leave if U.S. orders it
By Mike Baker - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Jan 30, 2009 6:36:35 EST

MOYOCK, N.C. — Blackwater Worldwide, denied an operating license in Iraq, said Thursday it could leave the country within 72 hours but cautioned that such a move would cause more harm to the American diplomats it protects than the company itself.

Iraqi officials made public Thursday a decision to deny the North Carolina-based company an operating license, citing lingering outrage over a September 2007 shooting in Baghdad’s Nisoor Square that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead.

Blackwater founder Erik Prince stressed that Blackwater had yet to receive any indication from the State Department that it would be ordered to evacuate.

“Our abrupt departure would far more hurt the reconstruction team and the diplomats trying to rebuild the country than it would hurt us as a business,” Prince said in an exclusive interview with the AP.

The shooting strained relations between Washington and Baghdad and fueled the anti-American insurgency in Iraq, where many Iraqis saw the bloodshed as a demonstration of American brutality and arrogance. Five former Blackwater guards have pleaded not guilty to federal charges in the United States that include 14 counts of manslaughter and 20 counts of attempted manslaughter.


Rest of article at: http://armytimes.com/news/2009/01/ap_blackwater_iraq_013009/%2e

[liberal N proud]

1. The free ride is over, Kick their ass down the road