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This is the direct result of George Bush's "forward leaning" foreign policy. A mundane USAID meeting near the Green Zone, led to a car bomb, bad decisions, extreme violence, angry retorts, over 12 dead Iraqis and this man is paying the price. time.com/5652198/blakcw…
This is a good way to understand some of the confusion that day. But there is no way to understand the intensity by which Blackwater was pursued to make an example. Violence by contractors happened almost every day and Blackwater was by no means the worst. multiplejournalism.org/case/the-nisoo…
Blackwater became famous because of the Fallujah murders, their dominance of the WPPS contract and their rapid decline into sloppiness and chaos as they shot well past the "Tier One". sales pitch. There are only so many ex-Tier One people you can hire. This was not unique to BW. 
By 2005 Blackwater was described to me as a "flat out sloppy operation'. And it showed. My visits to Iraq with BW personal confirmed that things had gone downhill as they struggled to fill slots. By May of 2009 they were out. aljazeera.com/news/middleeas…
My book "Licensed to Kill" was Erik Prince's first real interview with none of the left/right politics that Jeremy Scahill's "Blackwater" book had. IMHO LTIK still stands up as the best book on the industry, written from the inside and from on the ground. amazon.com/Licensed-Kill-…
Scahill's book was the reason why so many political opponents saw Blackwater and Erik Prince as a political enemy. Even though his impact was minimal compared to major donors or defense contractors. Prince asked me if he should sue Scahill and I said "to get even more bad press?"
Since then Scahill and the Intercept have pummeled Prince as they document his desperation to rebuild his businesses and legacy. However unlike Slatten, Erik Prince will not be spending the rest of his life in prison for creating a corporate culture that led to Fallujah or Nisour
