State to Blackwater: I Think We Should See Other ContractorsDouglas Feith once reportedly quipped that the State Department should be called the Department of Nice. To Blackwater, however, it might be better termed the Department of Passive-Aggressive. According to the AP, State won’t exactly ask Blackwater to leave Iraq, but in true awkward-breakup fashion, it’s indicating that Blackwater should get out if it wants to do the honorable thing:
Blackwater’s work escorting U.S. diplomats outside the protected Green Zone in Baghdad expires in May, one [State Department] official said, and other officials told The Associated Press they expect the North Carolina company will not continue to work for the embassy after that.
It is likely that Blackwater does not compete to keep the job, one official said. Blackwater probably will not be fired outright or even “eased out,” the official added, but there is a mutual feeling that the Sept. 16 shooting deaths mean the company cannot continue in its current role.
Blackwater spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell responded, “We will follow the lead of our client. If they want us to stay we will stay. If they want us to leave we will do so.” Translated from the contractor-speak, that’s “Fine. Be that way.”
