This is great news for Iraq, if the government can enforce it. Whether it's such good news for us, the country to which the people (and their vast stores of everything from guns to hardened vehicles to helicopters) are supposed to be repatriated toot-sweet, is, um, another question.
Via NYT:
The Interior Ministry said Monday that it was pulling the license of an American security firm allegedly involved in the fatal shooting of civilians during an attack on a U.S. State Department motorcade in Baghdad.
The ministry said it would prosecute any foreign contractors found to have used excessive force in the Sunday incident.
Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul-Karim Khalaf said eight people were killed and 13 were wounded when security contractors working for Blackwater USA opened fire in a predominantly Sunni neighborhood of western Baghdad.
''We have canceled the license of Blackwater and prevented them from working all over Iraqi territory. We will also refer those involved to Iraqi judicial authorities,'' Khalaf said.
This of course assumes the "Iraqi authorities" involved can execute the orders they impose. Blackwater being better armed than the current Iraqi military, such as they are, this is somewhat questionable.
It will require the US military to force this US company (oh so lavishly compensated for their many capabilities in many fields the most notable one being a willingness toshoot dead anybody they feel like. (See also first story linked to, concerning the shootemup yesterday in a Sunni neighborhood that's getting them, theoretically, thrown out of the country.)
Map reading is not so high on their list of skill sets but I'm sure they've upped training levels in this area after that unfortunate incident awhile back in Fallujah.