Here's more bad news for Blackwater USA.

Via The New York Times [1]:

The American security contractor Blackwater USA [2] has been involved in a far higher rate of shootings while guarding American diplomats in Iraq [3] than other security firms providing similar services to the State Department, according to Bush administration officials and industry officials.

Blackwater USA is currently under investigation for the September 16th shooting incident in Baghdad where 11 civilians were killed when Blackwater USA personnel opened fire after the convoy they were guarding came under attack.

The officials said that Blackwater’s incident rate was at least twice that recorded by employees of DynCorp International and Triple Canopy, the two other United States-based security firms that have been contracted by the State Department to provide security for diplomats and other senior civilians in Iraq.

According to a senior official the Times interviewed, “You can find any number of people, particularly in uniform, who will tell you that they do see Blackwater as a company that promotes a much more aggressive response to things than other main contractors do.”