The State Department Should Not Have Renewed Blackwater's Contract

Floor Speech

Madam Speaker, only a week after the State Department renewed Blackwater's contract, the Bush administration was at it again giving more praise to Blackwater, the private military contractors. Last Friday, Ambassador Crocker said contractors "like Blackwater are absolutely essential."

But was it absolutely essential for Blackwater to gun down 17 innocent Iraqis? Was it absolutely essential for a Blackwater employee to kill a guard to the Vice President of Iraq? Was it absolutely essential for a Blackwater helicopter to drop CS gas on a traffic jam in Baghdad?

It has been months, and some in cases years, since these incidents and we still don't have the results of those investigations. Instead, our government has ignored those abuses and renewed Blackwater's contract and then a week later said they are absolutely essential. What kind of country do we live in where it's acceptable for the United States government to praise and reward a company that kills innocent people?

The only thing that is absolutely essential is that we end this State Department's dependence on private military contractors now.

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