More about Blackwater

The last week has seen several stories about Blackwater's activites in Iraq, which are increasingly under the spotlight following sworn testimony from two ex-employees.
The Times has this:

Iraqis speak of random killings committed by private Blackwater guards

The Times reports (August 7th): Guards employed by Blackwater, the US security company, shot Iraqis and killed victims in allegedly unprovoked and random attacks, it was claimed.
A Virginia court also received sworn statements from former Blackwater employees yesterday alleging that Erik Prince, the company’s founder, “views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe”.
They also accused the company of following a policy of deliberate killings and arms dealing and of employing people unfit or improperly trained to handle lethal weaponry.
More at: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6742135.ece

The Nation highlights the continued use of Blackwater, now Xe, under the Obama Administration:

US Still Paying Blackwater Millions

The Nation reports (August 7th): Just days before two former Blackwater employees alleged in sworn statements filed in federal court that the company's owner, Erik Prince, "views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe," the Obama administration extended a contract with Blackwater for more than $20 million for "security services" in Iraq, according to federal contract data obtained by The Nation. The State Department contract is scheduled to run through September 3. In May, the State Department announced it was not renewing Blackwater's Iraq contract, and the Iraqi government has refused to issue the company an operating license.
According to federal contracting records reviewed by The Nation, since President Barack Obama took office in January the State Department has contracted with Blackwater for more than $174 million in "security services" alone in Iraq and Afghanistan and tens of millions more in "aviation services."
More at; http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090817/scahill2

And most shocking are these allegations in Raw Story:

Ex-employees claim Blackwater pimped out young Iraqi girls

Raw story reports (August 7th): Since the revelation earlier this week of allegations by two former employees of security firm Blackwater that its owner was complicit in murder in order to cover up the deliberate killing of Iraqi civilians, explosive charges have continued to emerge.
Perhaps the most shocking of those charges — quoted by MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann on Thursday from the employees’ sworn declarations — is that Blackwater was guilty of using child prostitutes at its compound in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone and that owner Erik Prince knew of this activity and did nothing to stop it.
The declarations describe Blackwater as “having young girls provide oral sex to Enterprise members in the ‘Blackwater Man Camp’ in exchange for one American dollar.” They add even though Prince frequently visited this camp, he “failed to stop the ongoing use of prostitutes, including child prostitutes, by his men.”
http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/08/07/blackwater-provided-child-prostitutes/

The Iraqi Government, on the other hand, has other priorities, pushing ahead with new censorship legislation:

Iraq Censorship Laws Move Ahead

NY Times reports (August 3rd): The doors of the communications revolution were thrown open in Iraq after the American-led invasion in 2003.
Now those doors may be shut again, at least partially, as the Iraqi government moves to ban sites deemed harmful to the public, to require Internet cafes to register with the authorities and to press publishers to censor books.
But opponents of the proposals question why Iraq would seek to impose the same sorts of censorship that had been among the most loathed aspects of daily life under Saddam Hussein and suggest that they are another example of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki’s working to consolidate his power. The new policies will put Iraq more in line with neighboring Islamic states.
The new rules constitute a “return of dictatorship,” said Ziad al-Ajeeli, who directs the Society to Defend the Freedom of the Press, a nonprofit Iraqi group.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/04/world/middleeast/04censor.html?ref=middleeast