Renewing Blackwater contract illegal – IAF legislator

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: A lawmaker from the Sunni Iraqi Accord Front (IAF) said renewing the contract of the private U.S. security firm Blackwater, which killed several Iraqis in al-Nusoor incident in 2007, would be running counter to the law. “The Iraqi government has to deal legally and responsibly with this issue and in accordance with the long-term security pact signed between Iraq and the United States ,” Rasheed al-Azzawi told Iraqi News. An official spokesman for the U.S. embassy in Iraq had said on Thursday (Sept. 3) that the U.S. State Department extended the work of Blackwater through previous knowledge of the Iraqi government. Iraqi officials said 17 people, including women and children, were killed and 27 were wounded when Blackwater guards fired on motorists around Nusoor Square in September 2007 . The Iraqi investigation has concluded the shootings were an act of “premeditated murder” and recommended that Blackwater pay $8 million to families of each of the people killed. Azzawi pointed out that the Iraqi parliament has no authority to intervene to prevent the renewed work of this security contractor. “It is entirely up to the Iraqi government, but the parliament will call for pressures by the government on the U.S. side in order not to renew this firm’s contract,” he added. AmR (S)/SR 1