US: Blackwater Guards Stayed in Iraq Despite Ban

Hundreds of Contractors Worked for Other Companies

Another scandal coming out of the release of WikiLeaks State Department cables shows that “hundreds” of Blackwater contractors remained in Iraq after the nation’s government banned the group over a 2007 massacre.

A separate cable confirmed that the contractors Triple Canopy and DynCorp had hired large numbers of the Blackwater contractors so they could stay in the nation under their umbrella.

The cable expressed concern that such a vast number of Triple Canopy’s fighters were Blackwater transplants that the company’s ability to continue operating in Iraq would be seriously compromised if it was forced to expel them all.

Iraq’s government announced that former employees of Blackwater were not welcome in the country in January 2010. The Iraqi government banned the company in 2009 as evidence of the massacre came to light.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.