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To help with effort to conduct the Iraq war, the US has hired out security to the private sector. The best known of these private security companies is Blackwater. They're in charge of protecting US diplomatic convoys in Baghdad. The September 16 incident in Baghdad resulted in the deaths of 17 Iraqi civilians. Blackwater guards are accused of opening fire on civilians without provocation. In a 60 Minutes interview, operators of the two other major private security companies, DynCorp and Triple Canopy maintain that Blackwater guards are the most aggressive. So, it's not surprising that this wasn't the first such incident they've been involved in. According to the State Department, Blackwater guards have been involved in 56 shooting incidents in Iraq this year. Thus it appears to be a Blackwater problem not one common to all private security companies now in Iraq.

Blackwater maintains that its guards were fired on first. However, there are other versions to the contrary. Iraqi survivors and witnesses say that the convoy fired without provocation resulting in the death of unarmed civilians. A US military report indicates that Blackwater guards weren't attacked and that the incident was a criminal act. This was based on the fact that no Iraqi ammunition and spent cartridges were found at the scene. This would've proved that Iraqis had fired on the convoy. The only spent cartridges found were those of the Blackwater guards. The Iraqi government also completed an investigation of the incident which found Blackwater 100 percent guilty

The FBI investigation of the September 16th incident is still ongoing. The findings so far according to the New York Times indicate that the Blackwater guards were unjustified in the shootings of 14 Iraqi civilians and violated the deadly-force rules. State Department employees and contractors can only use lethal force in response to the threat of death or physical injury to them or those they're protecting. Three of the shootings may have been justified under the deadly-force rules. These findings support the conclusions of 2 previous investigations by the US military and the Iraqi government.

The investigation is also now under review by the Justice Department. Some officials at the Justice aren't sure adequate criminal laws exist to enable them to charge Blackwater employees with wrongdoing. In a war zone contractors working for the Defense Department are subject to the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act (MEJA). However, top

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