An internal US State Department report says Blackwater Worldwide may lose its license to work in Iraq and recommends the agency prepare alternative ways to protect its diplomats there.
The 42-page report by the State Department’s inspector general says the department faces “numerous challenges” in dealing with the security situation in Iraq, including the prospect that Blackwater may be barred from the country. The department would then have turn to other security arrangements to replace Blackwater, officials said.
“The department faces the real possibility that one of its primary Worldwide Personal Protective Services contractors in Iraq — Blackwater (Worldwide) — will not receive a license to continue operating in Iraq,” the recently completed report says.
The report is labeled “sensitive but unclassified.”
An official familiar with the report said initially it would recommend that the department not renew Blackwater’s contract when it expires next year. But that specific language was not included in the document, a copy of which The Associated Press obtained. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the report was not yet public.
The official said later that such a recommendation would not be made until after an investigation of last September’s incident in Baghdad’s Nisoor Square, in which Blackwater guards killed 17 Iraqis. Five guards have been indicted on manslaughter and other charges stemming from that incident. The company was not implicated.
The department had no immediate comment on the report itself.
Deputy spokesman Robert Wood said officials were looking at “whether the continued use of Blackwater in Iraq is consistent with the US government’s goals and objectives.”
It is not clear how the department would replace Blackwater. It relies heavily on private contractors to protect its diplomats in Iraq, as its own security service does not have the manpower or equipment to do so.
The report suggests one way to fill the void would be for the department’s Diplomatic Security Service to bolster its presence in Iraq.
A decision on how US diplomats in Iraq are to be protected will be left to the next administration, which will be in place when Blackwater’s contract comes up for renewal in the spring.
Blackwater spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell declined comment, saying the company had not yet seen the report.
The company has said in the past it plans to largely exit the security contracting business to concentrate on training and other projects.
Blackwater has won more than US$1 billion in government contracts under the administration of US President George W. Bush.
A large portion has been for work in Iraq, where the company’s duties include protecting diplomats based at the US embassy in Baghdad.
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