According to the New York Times, Jean Richter, who was sent to Iraq to review Blackwater's operations, warned in a memo dated 31 August 2007 that little oversight of the company, which had a $1bn contract to protect US diplomats, had created "an environment full of liability and negligence".

Blackwater guards "saw themselves as above the law", Richter wrote in the memo. His inquiry was abandoned after Blackwater's top manager said he could kill the government's chief investigator and no one could or would do anything about it as it was in Iraq. The threat came from Daniel Carroll, Blackwater's project manager in Iraq, during a meeting with Richter and another state department official, Donald Thomas, to discuss the review, which had uncovered overbilling and complaints about a cafeteria in Blackwater's compound.