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CIA chief defends Blackwater contract
CIA chief Leon Panetta defended Sunday his agency's 100-million-dollar contract with the controversial and secretive firm formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide.
News of the contract unleashed a furious response from lawmakers this week outraged by new government deals with the renamed Xe Services despite Blackwater's murky history of killing civilians in Iraq.
The firm was thrown into the spotlight after five of its guards were accused of killing 17 unarmed Iraqis in a gun and grenade attack, and wounding some two dozen others during a September 2007 incident at the busy Nisur Square in Baghdad.
But Panetta said his agency did not have much choice but to turn to Xe among the few companies that provide the needed security services in warzones after it underbid other competitors.