Rice calls for "360-degree look" at Blackwater scandal

0 Comments | AFP, October, 2007

WASHINGTON (AFP) — US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she wanted a no-holds barred probe into the affairs of private security company Blackwater USA accused of involvement in nearly 200 shootings in Iraq.

Rice ordered the probe following fatal shootings by the company's staff in charge of protecting US diplomats in Iraq.

"I have been very clear with people that I expect it to be probing, I expect it to be a 360-degree look, and I expect it to be unvarnished from these outside experts and I'm sure it will be," Rice said of the probe in an interview Monday with the New York Post.

Blackwater has been involved in nearly 200 shootings in Iraq since 2005, according to a US Congress report this week that depicted the company's employees as dangerously out...