A month after the last American troops left Iraq,
the State Department is operating a small fleet of surveillance drones here to help protect the United States Embassy
and consulates,
as well as American personnel.
Some senior Iraqi officials expressed outrage at the program,
saying the unarmed aircraft are an affront to Iraqi sovereignty.
The program was described by the department’s diplomatic security branch
in a little-noticed section of its most recent annual report
and outlined in broad terms in a two-page online prospectus for companies
that might bid on a contract to manage the program …
.