Blackwater Out of Iraq

In October 2007 I posted a story about Blackwater, that controversial security contracting company which the Bush Administration hired for his Iraq War.  Yesterday, the Iraqi Interior Ministry failed to renew the contract.  CNN reports: 

Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Abdul Karim Khalaf told CNN the ministry denied the request mainly because of a September 2007 shooting incident in which security guards -- then employed by Blackwater -- fired on a crowd and killed 17 Iraqis.A U.S. Embassy official in Baghdad, who asked not to be named, confirmed the report.

Hooray!  No doubt the decision was made easier with the exiting of George Bush from the White House.  Yet, Blackwater and CEO Erik Prince received hundreds of millions of tax dollars for their work in Iraq.  No surprise there.

Here's what President Obama faces:  Blackwater USA has a 'contract' for homegrown 'security' here in the states.  The book cited in my October post was Jeremy Scahill's,  Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army.  It is a chilling account of this secret mercenary army operating right here in America.  Will Obama continue to contract this 'service' or will he expect the National Guard to assume such domestic military security?