Blackwater Approved $1 Mil in Iraqi Payments After '07 Shooting Video

Top executives at Blackwater Worldwide authorized secret
payments of about $1 million to Iraqi officials that were
intended to silence their criticism and buy their support
after a September 2007 episode in which Blackwater security
guards fatally shot 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad, according
to former company officials.

Four former Blackwater executives said in interviews that
Gary Jackson, who was then the company's president, had
approved the bribes, and the money was sent from Amman,
Jordan, where Blackwater maintains an operations hub, to a
top manager in Iraq. The executives, though, said they did
not know whether the cash was delivered to Iraqi officials or
the identities of the potential recipients