"The problem is that the insurgency shows little sign of letting up and ambushing conveys in major cities is an opportunity to embarrass the occupiers, and in this case spotlight the issue of private security firms." - Charley Noble

Over the past year it has shown significant signs of letting up Charley, both in Iraq and in Afghanistan. Contract Security does some convoy protection, I do not know if anybody has looked into it, but how many of the attacks on these convoys are criminal and not politically motivated at all? When kidnapping was the rage in Baghdad seven out of eight were criminal acts done for the money. Way back in the 70's the long distance drivers who drove from western Europe to Tehran had to have "Contract Security" to protect them when driving through the mountains of Iranian Kurdistan. The trick the locals played there was induced rockslides which knocked trucks off the road, they then went down and robbed the cargo.

Blackwater is either the third or fourth largest private security company operating in Iraq, the largest is a British outfit, they reckon that all told there are about 100,000 private security personnel working in Iraq, of which 65% of them are Iraqis. Blackwater's contract is with US government types, high value targets for the likes of Al-Qaeda-in-Iraq. After all their leadership has taken a bit of a pasting, as have their foot soldiers (They lose in less than a year what the MNF has lost in four). They are even worse off now that the Sunni Arabs are turning against them. It's little wonder that they will go after what appears to be softer targets protected by "civilians".

As for being a Blackwater employee out in Iraq, the memory of four horribly burnt corpses being dragged through the streets before being hung up on a bridge, must colour what threshold, or leeway you would allow an innocent by-stander when the shit hits the fan and bullets start flying. Those four corpses were after all Blackwater employees.