US Keeps Blackwater in Iraq Despite Iraqi Ban

The State Department has quietly signed a deal that keeps the company formerly known as Blackwater in Iraq despite an Iraqi government ban. The Washington Times reports the US signed a new contract with Blackwater in February, just days after the Iraqi government said it wouldn’t renew Blackwater’s operating license. The $22 million contract extension runs through September of this year. In 2007, Blackwater guards killed seventeen Iraqi civilians in an unprovoked massacre in Baghdad’s Nisoor Square. The company recently changed its to name to Xe as part of a rebranding campaign