AN INTERESTING TIDBIT

In this AFP report about Blackwater, there is this snippet from a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Iraq:

"Yesterday and today there has been no movement out of the Baghdad zone," said Miremebe Nantongo, US embassy spokeswoman. "All chiefs of mission are restricted to the International Zone."

She said the lockdown had "significantly impacted on our operations but we're revisiting the matter on a daily basis. Hopefully we will move beyond this fairly soon.
"We are working very closely with our Iraqi counterparts to find a solution to this problem, which has come up in the past.

"We hope in the near future we will come up with a framework that works for
everybody."

This is an official U.S. admission that there have been problems with Blackwater, as the Iraqis have asserted.

UPDATE via Atrios:

Attytood reports that without Blackwater, even our CIA agents won't leave the safety of the Green Zone.