Hillary Would Ban Blackwater

Tuesday, March 18, 2008 10:54 AM

By: Jim Meyers Article Font Size

Hillary Clinton said that if she wins the White House, she will pull Blackwater Worldwide and other armed private contractors from Iraq as well as U.S. troops.

The Pentagon has more than 135,000 contract workers in Iraq, and about 7,300 of them work in security. Blackwater of Moyock, N.C., has come under scrutiny by Congress and the courts after a number of violent episodes involving its employees, including a 2007 incident that left at least 17 Iraqis dead.

In a speech at George Washington University in Washington,, D.C., Clinton sought to distance herself from Democratic presidential rival Barack Obama on the issue of private contractors in Iraq, Bloomberg.com reported.

“Senator Obama and I have a substantive disagreement here. He won’t rule out using armed private military contractors in Iraq to do jobs that historically have been done by the U.S. military or government personnel.â€