While the Bush administration certainly protected Blackwater after
Nisour Square, part of the reason for the alleged or attempted bribes
may be this: As the US and Iraq negotiated the Status of Forces
Agreement and the Iraqi government attempted to impose more authority
over private military companies, the stakes got higher for Blackwater.
An official license to operate in Iraq, which Blackwater did not have
and long believed was an unnecessary formality, became crucial for
Blackwater in order to continue on as the State Department's prime
contractor.
Blackwater and the US State Department had a mutual interest in keeping the company in Iraq. The company provided the elite bodyguards for occupation officials and when Blackwater stopped work for three days after Nisour Square, those officials could not leave their fortress in the Green Zone. For Blackwater, the contract meant big money--more than $1 billion. In the aftermath of Nisour Square, then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other officials basically read the riot act to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Blackwater was back to business in Iraq on the fourth day after the massacre and remains in the country.[...]
