More Blackwater news

This sounds like a recipe for something very ugly. The Times is reporting that "the Iraqi interior minister said Wednesday that he would authorize raids by his security forces on Western security firms to ensure that they were complying with tightened licensing requirements on guns and other weaponry, setting up the possibility of violent confrontations between the Iraqis and heavily armed Western guards."

And: (update: fixed quote)

BERN, Switzerland (AP) - A Swiss national who worked in Iraq for the U.S. security firm Blackwater is being investigated to see whether he broke a law barring Swiss citizens from working for foreign military services, an official said Tuesday.
The United Nations has called the use of private security guards by companies like Blackwater Worldwide, which was involved in the killing of 17 civilians in Baghdad two months ago, a growing new form of mercenary activity, which is discouraged in international rules on the conduct of war. Blackwater Worldwide recently changed its name from Blackwater USA.
The United States rejects the notion that government-contracted security guards, of whatever nationality, are mercenaries.

And:

One of the world's most notorious mercenaries may soon be overseeing all of the State Department's security convoys in Iraq.

The New York Times is reporting today that the Department of Defense is taking control of the State Department's convoys of security contractors, like Blackwater. The Pentagon already coordinates its outsourced security details through a single, Defense Department entity, the Reconstruction Operations Centers, which tracks movement of security convoys to make sure they and the military don't trip over one another. Most likely this existing mechanism will be expanded to monitor Blackwater, Triple Canopy and DynCorp convoys for the Department of State.

But here's the interesting twist: The Reconstruction Operations Centers are themselves outsourced, through a recently renewed $475 million contract to the British firm Aegis. And Aegis is run by the infamous old-school gun-for-hire, Tim Spicer.