More Bad News for Blackwater

Any lingering question as to whether Blackwater USA security contractors were to blame in the Sept. 16 shootout in Baghdad that left 11 Iraqis dead and 12 wounded may be cleared up by a videotape of the incident, which was reportedly filmed from a nearby police station.

ABC News:

“On the tape, there was nobody shooting at the Blackwater guards,” said Gen. Hussein Kamal, Iraq’s deputy minister of interior for intelligence, who has seen the videotape. “I believe they overreacted.”

The Blackwater shootings have become a major source of friction between the U.S. and Iraqi governments.

Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice called Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to apologize after the Sept 16 incident, but Maliki is still furious, and on Sunday he said it was “a serious challenge to the sovereignty of Iraq” and “cannot be accepted.”

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