Blackwater, a company heavily tarnished with a reputation for corruption and violence, a company that has done a lot of the heavy lifting for the Bush administration in Iraq, a company that was defeated in its plan to turn a US-Mexico border region into an armed camp…one of the most powerful private armies in the world–is feeling so much heat that it’s changed its name from Blackwater Worldwide to the innocuous-sounding (and totally vague) Xe.

It can run but it can’t hide. It’s still responsible for the atrocity/massacre at Nissur Square. It still has blood on its hands in incident after incident. And it’s still banned from future operations in Iraq.

It is an outrage that the US outsources its dirty work to companies like this (which pay their people a lot more than the government pays its soldiers), and then claims they can’t be held responsible for their actions because they’re outside the military system. That was the policy under Bush. I hope it changes under Obama.