Published on
Wednesday, September 02, 2009
Why Doesn't Hillary Clinton Fire Blackwater?by
Jeremy Scahill, The Intercept
As a candidate for president, Hillary Clinton pledged to ban Blackwater. In February 2008, she announced that she would sign on as the co-sponsor of a little-known bill put forward in the House by Representative Jan Schakowsky and in the Senate by Bernie Sanders. The
Stop Outsourcing Security, or SOS Act, sought to end the use of armed mercenaries in US war zones. Clinton became the only other senator to sign on to the bill and the
most important political figure in the US to call for such a ban on “Blackwater and other private mercenary firms in Iraq:”
“These private security contractors have been reckless and have compromised our mission in Iraq,” Clinton
said in a February 28, 2008 statement on the campaign trail. “The time to show these contractors the door is long past due. We need to stop filling the coffers of contractors in Iraq, and make sure that armed personnel in Iraq are fully accountable to the U.S. government and follow the chain of command.”
As Secretary of State, Clinton now presides over a diplomatic security force in Iraq that for the “
indefinite” future will include Blackwater. ABC News’s “
The Blotter” is reporting that Blackwater (which now does business as Xe Services and US Training Center) will continue to be the State Department’s aviation contractor in Iraq, despite a supposed Iraqi ban on the company.
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