Some of the teams that guard U.S. officials in Iraq are provided by Blackwater Security Consultants, which backs them up with helicopters and specially built military-style armored vehicles.
Five former Blackwater security guards pleaded not guilty in January to charges of voluntary manslaughter and other serious crimes stemming from their involvement in the September 16, 2007, incident in a Baghdad square.
Earlier this month, five former Blackwater security guards pleaded not guilty to charges of voluntary manslaughter and other serious crimes stemming from their involvement in the September 16, 2007, shootings in a Baghdad square.
CNN: Official: U.S. will not renew Iraq contract with Blackwater
Iraq's National Security Advisor, Mouwafak al-Rubaie was in Washington this week and was asked about controversial security contractor Blackwater and the problem of holding security contractors accountable for what they do in his country.
DynCorp has been mentioned as a possible replacement for Blackwater USA in the contract to provide armed security for diplomats in Iraq following a string of security incidents involving Blackwater guards, including a September shooting that left 17 Iraqis dead.
The U.S. Embassy and Blackwater maintain that the security company responded on Sunday to a car bomb near a diplomatic convoy.
The man who founded the private security firm Blackwater USA defended his company yesterday, saying his armed contractors are not cowboys, reckless in Iraq.
On March 31, 2004, four Americans working as guards for the private security company Blackwater were ambushed and killed by insurgents in the Iraqi city of Falluja, the charred remains of two of them dragged away by a mob and hung from a bridge over the Euphrates River.
Earlier this month, Ms Rice ordered that a member of the state department's own security staff accompany all Blackwater-escorted diplomatic convoys and that video cameras be installed in the firm's security vehicles.
Blackwater, one of three security firms working for the United States in Iraq, has one of the biggest security contracts there.
CNN: Official: U.S. will not renew Iraq contract with Blackwater
Blackwater is not the only security contractor in the Middle East.
This week the New York Times reported that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had once hired Blackwater, a private-security contractor, in connection with a plots to assassinate al-Qaeda operatives.
Several of the plaintiffs are connected to a September 2007 shooting incident in Baghdad in which the Iraqi government says security guards, then employed by Blackwater, fired upon and killed 17 Iraqi civilians.
CNN: Ex-guards' statements implicate Blackwater founder in Iraq crimes
The decision was made after the Iraqi government refused last week to renew the firm's operating license because of a 2007 incident in which the Iraqi government says security guards -- then employed by Blackwater -- fired on and killed 17 Iraqis.
CNN: Official: U.S. will not renew Iraq contract with Blackwater
Did Blackwater have any reputation, any different from any other security contractor in Iraq when you were there?
The Iraqi government said Tuesday it would review the status of private security companies as anger over the alleged involvement of Blackwater USA in a fatal shooting of civilians threatened to spread to other firms providing protection for dignitaries and Westerners on Iraq's chaotic streets.
Officials said the State Department is talking with security firms DynCorp International and Triple Canopy, which share the Iraq contract with Blackwater, about picking up Blackwater's duties.
CNN: Official: U.S. will not renew Iraq contract with Blackwater
Officials said the State Department is talking with security firms DynCorp International and Triple Canopy, which share the Iraq contract with Blackwater, about picking up the duties handled by Blackwater.
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