Blackwater,private security company involved in a Baghdad shootout last weekend, operated under State Department authority that exempted the company from U.S. military regulations governing other security firms, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials and industry representatives.
Blackwater is untouchable, protected by State Department officials who defended the company at every turn. Blackwater USA in Iraq, has received $678 million in State Department contracts since 2003.
The confrontation between the Iraqi government and Blackwater, based in Moyock, N.C., has illuminated the uneven and largely dysfunctional regulatory system intended to govern tens of thousands of hired guns operating in Iraq.
Erik Prince runs Blackwater and also happens to be a Michigan native who has roots in a Holland automotive supplier fortune, and has republican political connections (he was an intern in the elder George Bush's White House). There you have it, another republican and Bush crony.
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