Story HERE. Hat tip to Juan Cole, who covered this while the MSM completely ignored it.
BAGHDAD (AFP) — Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Wednesday that Blackwater should leave the country because of the mountain of evidence against the under-fire US security firm.
His comments came amid growing anger among Iraqis that "above-the-law" security contractors are continuing to operate in Iraq while Blackwater is being probed over a deadly shooting 17 days ago.
"I believe the abundance of evidence against it makes it unfit to stay in Iraq," Maliki told a televised press conference in Baghdad.
If I hadn't checked Professor Cole's site, I'd have never seen this. Isn't it news? PERTINENT news?
First time Maliki said Blackwater must go, weeks back, the Bush administration got to him and he weakened his statement. That didn't work. If you think Blackwater is a big deal with Democrats here in the USA, it's an even BIGGER deal with Iraqis. This is obviously putting Nuri al-Maliki between a rock and a hard place and the hard place is getting harder.
Oh wouldn't it be grand to know what manner of threats the U.S. State department relayed to Iraq's duly elected Prime Minister to get him to back off his earlier demands that Blackwater leave Iraq! Backed into a corner as he now is by the Iraqi people themselves, perhaps he could tell us.
We here at Daily Kos, Democrats, and Rep. Waxman need to start looking into Ms. Rice's efforts to control the Iraqi Government. Of course, we'd get nothing out of the U.S. State department, but it looks to me like we're approaching the point where al-Maliki himself must talk about it. And CNN and MSNBC, isn't it about time you started covering Prime Minister al-Maliki's press conferences a little more closely?