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Message #5271 posted by forged registration (Info) October 17, 2007 21:34:08 ET
sorry! you didn't say "pretty please" and lick my jackboots!!
Iraqi prime minister pressing U.S. for quicker withdrawal of Blackwater USA
Published: Wednesday, October 17, 2007 | 5:20 PM ET
Canadian Press: Steven R. Hurst, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BAGHDAD - Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has pressed U.S. Embassy officials in recent meetings to pull the Blackwater USA security firm out of Iraq even before the six-month deadline he initially set, a top aide to the Iraqi leader said Wednesday.
The aide said the Americans responded that they cannot give al-Maliki an answer until the FBI finishes its inquiry into the incident in which Iraqi officials say Blackwater personnel killed 17 Iraqis.
FBI agents on Saturday began questioning survivors and other witnesses to the Sept. 16 shooting by guards in four Blackwater gun trucks. Iraq's government says they opened fire without provocation; the company says the guards responded to an attack.
The State Department also has teams in Iraq looking into what happened. Patrick Kennedy, the department's top management official, is said to be studying whether the agency should continue using Blackwater to provide security.
Al-Maliki's aide, who spoke on condition he not be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter, said an Australian-owned security firm whose employees mistakenly shot and killed two Christian women Oct. 9 does not face eviction from Iraq because it quickly apologized, co-operated with authorities and offered compensation for the deaths.
Iraq's government is demanding $8 million compensation for each of the 17 people reported killed in the Sept. 16 incident involving Blackwater.
The al-Maliki aide said the prime minister's office also is drafting legislation that would cancel Decree 17, a measure issued by the former U.S. occupation government that put private security companies outside Iraqi law.
Also Wednesday, a roadside bomb exploded near a police patrol and killed at least seven officers near Diwaniyah, in a Shiite area south of Baghdad that has seen fierce clashes between Shiite factions in recent months.
Violence in the area around Diwaniyah, 130 kilometres south of Baghdad, also has targeted the U.S.-led coalition. Suspected Shiite militiamen fired mortars at two military bases and shot at a Polish helicopter Monday, prompting a battle that killed five civilians and wounded dozens, including two Polish soldiers.
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