They Don't Just Hate Us For Our Freedom

The New York Times is reporting that in the aftermath of the 2007 Nisour Square massacre by Blackwater operatives, top company officials "authorized secret payments of about $1 million to Iraqi officials that were intended to silence their criticism and buy their support." Seventeen people were killed and more than 20 wounded in the shooting. Despite the Iraqi government announcing it would ban the company from Iraq, Blackwater never left. Now we know why the army-for-profit was able to stay:

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.[...]

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.