http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004267.phpReporter Grills Perino on Use of Blackwater
By Paul Kiel - September 21, 2007, 4:28PM
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino had a hard time with questions about the State Department's use of Blackwater during this afternoon's press briefing:
Q Why do you have to have private contractors who have, on the face of it, a lousy record?
MS. PERINO: Well, I think that there is because -- I think that is because there is a need. I don't know why it was originally set up that way....
More from the briefing below.
Q Blackwater security resumed limited patrols in Baghdad today. Did it do so under any new instructions from the U.S. government? Do you feel that improved training is required? What do you have to say about this?
MS. PERINO: I think you're going to have to ask the State Department in terms of if there was anything different about their resumption of duties today. I think Tom Casey did some on-the-record speaking this morning about it.
In addition, just remember that we have just set up a joint inquiry commission with the Maliki government, and so we're going to have to take some time to figure out what happened at that event, and then also look at the policy recommendations to see if there's anything that needs to be changed.