Blackwater USA in ah Babylon

An official of the Bush admin. was forced to resign (w/o, as yet, receiving a Medal of "Freedom") as a result of the colossal cock-ups involving State Dep't. "supervision" of private security contractorsmercenaries in Babylon. That's somewhat good news. Not so good? John D. Negroponte (the D stands for Deathsquad) is now handling even more State Dep't. matters:

As she has concentrated on the Middle East peace process, Iran and Russia, Rice has increasingly turned major responsibility for hot-button issues -- including North Korea, Pakistan and Iraq -- over to Negroponte. He has taken the lead on management problems, such as the contractors, along with his longtime Foreign Service colleague Patrick Kennedy, a senior management official who served as Negroponte's management deputy when Negroponte was director of national intelligence, before he took the No. 2 post at the State Department.

Great. Once these people have established themselves as scum, can't they all just "retire?" Permanently, instead of being recycled as soon as the next more overtly fascist administration steals an election? Is that too much to ask? Yes, because beings like Cheney will actually recycle themselves, & all their little chums, until...well it never really stops. There are always more in the wings.

But the changes in security policy for Iraq and in her team are unlikely to temper rising criticism of Rice's management style. She is due to testify today before the House oversight committee, whose chairman, Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), has accused the department's prime security contractor in Iraq, Blackwater Worldwide, of tax evasion; charged the department with papering over evidence of widespread corruption in the Iraqi government; and accused the State inspector general of failing to monitor shoddy work and overspending in construction of a new, $600 million U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

Maybe the gig as provost @ Stanford didn't prepare her too well for running State. And we might even bet that her studies in Kremlinology & Eastern Europe (when they were the Soviet Union & the Warsaw Pact nations) may not have helped much w/ the current gov'ts. & individuals running things in the New Europe.

Congress was also raking Sec. Dr. Rice over the coals, as anonymous officials issued denials:

State Department officials denied any double standard or impropriety in the firing of Griffin and this week's promotion of two of his subordinates who directly oversaw the hiring of contractors, including those in Iraq.
[...]
Rice's answers on the Blackwater scandal did not satisfy many Democrats during the hearing, including Rep. Paul Hodes of New Hampshire.
Before giving Blackwater hundreds of millions of dollars, "didn't you or your subordinates ever stop to ask whether or not the legal framework was a place to hold these contractors accountable for its actions?" he asked.
Congress is moving to put all armed contractors operating in combat zones under military control and make them subject to U.S. criminal jurisdiction.

From the NYT, it's Blackwater, under seige!!

Even in the Blackwater compound, no definitive account has emerged of how and why the Sept. 16 shootings occurred, company employees said. For its part, Blackwater has said that its guards were responding to an insurgent attack. But in furtive discussions over recent weeks, certain details about the episode, they said, have gained currency among many Blackwater workers, many of whom would like to believe that their colleagues acted appropriately.
Those workers said, for example, that Blackwater guards who fired at Iraqis in Nisour Square described how an Iraqi driver had pulled up his car well after the Blackwater convoy had arrived and warned traffic to stay back. The encroaching car, the workers said, caused their colleagues to feel threatened and initiate machine-gun fire. They also said that friction between Blackwater convoys and groups of armed Iraqi police in the days before the shooting had created a mutual distrust, and that the police officers, perhaps as a result of earlier disputes, fired at the Blackwater convoy. “The Iraqi police were testing these guys at various intersections,” said one former Blackwater guard who has spoken with men on the convoy at Nisour Square.
Iraqi police at the intersection have said they were not armed that day, and none of the dozens of Iraqi witnesses interviewed by Iraqi investigators and reporters for The New York Times said they saw anyone firing at the Blackwater convoy or even brandishing a weapon.
But in a measure of the gulf between the narratives that have taken hold in the Blackwater compound and on the streets of Baghdad, the former guard and a current employee said that a consistent view had developed within the compound: that Blackwater was fired upon by Iraqis with AK-47s who fled the scene after Blackwater returned an overwhelming amount of fire.
“How long does it take for a dead terrorist to become a dead civilian?” a Blackwater employee said. “As long as it takes to remove an AK-47 from the body,” suggesting that accomplices might have removed weapons as they fled.
The Blackwater employees said that talk about the Sept. 16 shootings had also focused on a heated dispute between members of the team in the square, pitting the men pouring gunfire into Iraqi vehicles against other Blackwater guards who were imploring them to stop.
“There was turmoil in the team, where half the guys were saying, ‘Don’t shoot,’” said a military veteran who spoke to a member of the Blackwater team on the convoy.

Not quite the "thin blue line" of police forces. But the stories don't all seem to match, do they?