Iraq Tells Everyone Related to Blackwater to GTFO

As payback for the Nisoor Square incident, the Iraqi gov't has told everyone previously associated with Blackwater to get out, and revoked their visas.

Iraq has given hundreds of guards linked to the private security company formerly known as Blackwater a week to leave the country or face arrest, Interior Ministry officials said Wednesday.

The order follows the dismissal in December by a U.S. federal judge of murder charges against five Blackwater guards accused of killing Iraqi civilians in a 2007 shooting incident on Baghdad's Nisoor Square.

The Iraqi government said that 17 people died in the shooting, in which Blackwater guards opened fire on the busy square after they said they had come under attack, though an FBI investigation found only 14 deaths.

About 250 guards employed by Blackwater at the time of the shooting have been told that they must surrender their weapons and leave the country within seven days, said an Interior Ministry official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Interior Minister Jawad Bolani told the Associated Press the guards had been notified three days earlier. Iraq refused to renew Blackwater's operating license after the shootings, which infuriated Iraqis and strained relations between the U.S. and Iraqi governments.

By: Brant