The US State Department's security chief Richard Griffin
resigned on Wednesday amid sharp criticism over his office's poor
supervision of private security firms in Iraq in the wake of the
Blackwater shooting incident.
"He submitted his letter of resignation dated today," the
department's spokeswoman Julie Reside told reporters, noting that
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had accepted his
resignation.
Griffin, assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security,
announced his resignation one day after Rice ordered a series of
measures to boost government oversight of the private guards the
department uses to protect its diplomats in Iraq.
Blackwater is a major military contractor providing security
services to US State Department personnel in Iraq. Its guards
protecting a State Department convoy opened fire in a crowded
Baghdad square, killing as many as 17 civilians on September
16.
(Xinhua News Agency October 25, 2007)
