clipped from: www.truthout.org   

    Iraq Contractor in Shooting Case Makes Comeback
    By James Risen
    The New York Times

    Washington - Last fall, Blackwater Worldwide was in deep peril.

    Guards for the security company were involved in a shooting in September that left at least 17 Iraqis dead at a Baghdad intersection. Outrage over the killings prompted the Iraqi government to demand Blackwater's ouster from the country, and led to a criminal investigation by the F.B.I., a series of internal investigations by the State Department and the Pentagon, and high-profile Congressional hearings.

    But after an intense public and private lobbying campaign, Blackwater appears to be back to business as usual.
 The chief reason for the company's survival? State Department officials said Friday that they did not believe they had any alternative to Blackwater, which supplies about 800 guards to the department to provide security for diplomats in Baghdad.