So the latest craziness from the wingnutosphere goes like this:

Miniter -- who's written from Baghdad before -- claims that even the CIA can't operate in and around Baghdad without the gun-toting Bklackwater guys, which may well be true, as it's been reported that the State Department has halted many of its outside activities, even in the supposedly safe Green Zone. He also suggests that the people killed were not civilians but "civilians", with quotation marks, and that entire anti-Blackwater campaign is some kind of Iranian plot to undermine the highly successful -- according to Miniter, anyway -- surge: According to exclusive information obtained by Pajamas Media’s Washington editor Richard Miniter, the movement of key CIA station personnel in Baghdad has been all but shut down. Are we witnessing Iran’s counter-strike to the surge? Movements of key CIA station personnel in Baghdad—along with most State department diplomats and teams building police stations and schools—have been frozen for the second day in a row, according to a State department source who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Essentially, the CIA, State department and government contractors are stuck inside the International Zone, also known as “the Green Zone,” in Central Baghdad. Even travel inside that walled enclave is somewhat restricted.

The "surge" is going so well that not even the CIA can leave the Green Zone without a heavily armed mercenary escort? And it's all Iran's fault? Yeah, of course it doesn't make any sense. Did they ever make sense?

And if you are wondering what the whole "civilians with quotation marks" thing is all about, it's probably from this CYA memo sent out by Blackwater PR (and passed on to me by an unsympathetic recipient):

Subject: Private and Confidential- Blackwater Proprietary I wanted to get you some facts regarding Sunday's incident in Iraq: As you have obviously seen in the media Blackwater DSS personnel were involved in an incident in Baghdad that has made International news. These are the facts as we understand them: Based on cables, incident reports, and witness accounts, Blackwater is confident that its independent contractors acted lawfully and appropriately in response to a hostile threat in Baghdad on Sunday. Initial press accounts include countless inaccuracies. For instance, the helicopters providing aerial support never fired weapons. Furthermore, we have received no official word from the Ministry of the Interior regarding plans to revoke licenses. The "civilians" reportedly fired upon by Blackwater professionals were in fact armed enemies. Blackwater was escorting a US Embassy convoy when a roadside bomb disabled one of the armored vehicles in the convoy. No one was injured. Bombing occurred 25 yards outside our venue in Monsoor District

The embassy employees were immediately escorted away from the area.

Tactical Support Team (TST) requested

TST receives small arms fire in traffic circle near the initial explosion

TST command vehicle disabled by small arms fire

Blackwater personnel came under small arms fire when they were attempting to tow the disabled vehicle away. They returned fire.

A vehicle approached at high rate of speed during the salvage operation and ignored warnings to stop. The vehicle was fired upon until it stopped moving.

Another vehicle moved behind the stopped vehicle and began to push it toward the salvage operation. That vehicle was also stopped.

We suspect the first vehicle contained explosives and was trying to get within range for detonation.

Blackwater personnel exited the area as soon as possible. In cases like this, we do not stay around to investigate.

The press is reporting "civilian" deaths. The reality is these people were trying to kill Americans. They are insurgents and terrorists.

We did our job. We protected embassy personnel against an attack meant to kill them.

The licensing issue is not a factor. An MoI license is not required for the work we do for DoS .

The DoS continues to appreciate the work we do keeping them safe in a professional and extremely competent manner.

The Department of State greatly discourages us speaking with the press. Regards,

David David G. Ray

Blackwater International

Director of Aviation Operations

See? If they killed it, they were terrorists. Even though they didn't stick around to double-check. And they don't need no stinking license anyway.

In any case, here's today's UN Security Briefing on Iraq (PDF). Lots more insurgent attacks which, er, proves that the surge is working because, um, the insurgents are desperate even though Blackwater killed them all while the CIA was hunkered down in the Green Zone afraid to get blown up. And none of it would've been possible without Drudge and the 101st Fighting Keyboardists.

Or something.