Support down, sanctimony up: The tawdrier the "contractors" euphemism becomes, the saintlier the "contractors" become in the press releases, as noted here.

We're being told a convenient and self-serving story about those events. In that story, a few barbaric "isolated extremists" from the "Saddamist stronghold" of Falluja killed four contractors who were guarding food convoys in an act of unprovoked lawlessness. CommonDeams

The expanded alibi now claims the four mercenaries were "guarding food convoys."

Let the polls slip another few points and it will be "shielding food convoys of birthday cakes American soldiers donated to blind and crippled Iraqi girl orphans with cleft palates."