BLACKWATER   XE

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Facts on Blackwater and the private security industry

 

Here are some facts about the company and private security contractors:

 

WHAT IS BLACKWATER?

 

* Blackwater is one of the biggest security contractors in Iraq. It employs more than 1,000 people there and is responsible for guarding U.S. diplomats and Embassy security.

 

* Its distinctive small black helicopters hover above Baghdad and its armed vehicles shadow convoys of senior officials through the city's streets.

 

* Blackwater USA consists of nine business units, ranging from canine to parachute units, maritime security and the manufacture of custom armoured vehicles.

 

WHERE DOES IT OPERATE?:

 

* As well as Iraq, it operates in Afghanistan and has also had domestic contracts, such as guarding and policing New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

 

* Based in Moyock, North Carolina, it says it is "the most comprehensive professional military, law enforcement, security, peacekeeping, and stability operations company in the world."

 

WHO RUNS IT?:

 

* The secretive company was founded in 1997 by former Navy SEALs Erik Prince and Al Clark.

 

* Clark has since left but media-shy CEO Prince -- a right-wing billionaire Christian -- has made substantial donations to Republican politicians.

 

WHO ARE THE SECURITY CONTRACTORS?:

 

* Salaries -- reportedly as high as $1,000 a day -- attract troops and ex-Special Forces personnel from countries such as Bosnia, the Philippines, Israel and Chile. Tens of thousands have streamed in since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

 

WHAT IS THEIR ROLE IN IRAQ?:

 

* They have duties once performed by armed forces such as airport and border security. Other contractors cook soldiers' meals, do their laundry and drive truck convoys.

 

HOW MANY CONTRACTOR CASUALTIES HAVE THERE BEEN?:

 

* At least 647 contractors were killed between March 1, 2003, and Sept. 30, 2006.

 

WHAT'S THE WIDER TREND?:

 

* The "privatizing war" trend has been accelerating steadily since the end of the Cold War, when the United States and former adversaries began cutting back professional armies.

 

* The contractors' murky status as civilians in war zones has led to concern in the military over how they fit into the chain of command.

 

CRITICS AT HOME AND ABROAD:

 

* Critics say hired security are paid mercenaries. Many Iraqis believe they operate outside the law with little accountability either to the Iraqi government or U.S. military.

 

Sources: Reuters,

 
 
 
 
 

Setting the Record Straight: Did Monsanto Really Buy Blackwater (Xe)?
There has been a great deal of publicity over the potential purchase of Blackwater (now known as Academi, and Xe before that) by mega corporation Monsanto. While the two seem to be a great match, as they both fail to consider the morality and consequence of their actions, it seems that Monsanto is only involved with Blackwater in infiltrating activist groups who are opposed to the biotech giant — an operation quite sinister enough. The truth of the matter is that Academi (Blackwater) was purchased by private investors, and the heavily sourced article written by Jeremy Scahill in The Nation actually says nothing about Monsanto buying Blackwater.
 

January 14th 2012

 

 

 

2nd ex-Blackwater contractor gets 30 months for manslaughter

 
 

A second former Blackwater contractor was sentenced to prison for involuntary manslaughter Monday in the 2009 shooting death of a civilian in Afghanistan.

Justin Cannon of Corpus Christi, Texas, was sentenced to 30 months by U.S. District Judge Robert Doumar.

A Virginia Beach man, Christopher Drotleff, received a 37-month sentence earlier this month for his actions in the same incident.

The two were charged with murder and convicted of the lesser charge in March after an earlier trial ended in a hung jury. They are the first contractors for the Moyock, N.C.-based security company now known as Xe Services to get prison time for killing a civilian in a war zone.

Rejecting defense attorneys' plea for a lesser punishment, Doumar said the sentence was meant to send a message - especially to Xe.

"They have a responsibility to hire individuals who they feel are capable of following orders and not going off on some tear," he said.

 

June 30th 2011
 
 
 

Xe Services, the security and training company formerly known as Blackwater, faces a $60 million class-action lawsuit for allegedly depriving its workers of employee benefits to which they are entitled.

The lawsuit was filed this week in federal court in Washington on behalf of more than 3,000 people who have done security work for the company in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere since 2001.

It alleges that the Moyock, N.C.-based company improperly classified the workers as independent contractors rather than employees and failed to pay Social Security taxes, contribute to state unemployment funds or provide health, disability or pension plans.

"Billions of dollars are lost each year to the federal treasury as well as to individuals due to misclassification of employees as independent contractors in order to avoid paying lawful taxes, withholding, and plan benefits," the lawsuit says.

 
June  13th 2011|
 
Real-Life Mercenaries to Star in Blackwater, the Videogame
 
 

Blackwater Worldwide, the real-life mercenary team linked to the killing of civilians and noncombatants in Iraq during U.S. operations there, will be the subject of a Kinect-supported videogame coming to the Xbox 360 later this year.

 

Published by 505 Games and titled, simply, Blackwater, the game is being produced in consultation with the private security contractor’s founder, the former Navy SEAL Erik Prince.

A news release called it “an intense, cinematic shooter experience,” set in a fictional North African town, in which players, as Blackwater operatives, battle two warlords’ factions to protect the city.

“This game and its immersive Kinect-based approach will give players the chance to experience what it is like to be on a Blackwater team on a mission without being dropped into a real combat situation,” Prince said in a statement issued by 505. The game was developed with in conjunction with former Blackwater members “to ensure accuracy of moves, gestures and gameplay,” the 505 release said. “The game also features a selection of officially-licensed weapons for your soldier to choose from.”

The game may also be played using a standard controller.

 

Blackwater,renamed to Xe Services LLC, was contracted by the U.S. government to provide training and diplomatic security, most notably in the Middle East, for much of the last decade. Its presence alongside U.S. diplomatic and military personnel came under scrutiny after several incidents resulting in the deaths either of civilians or Blackwater employees themselves.

 

Its involvement in Iraq became enough of a controversy that the company renamed itself to Xe in the aftermath. Its employees were involved in shootings later found to be unjustified, including one in which 17 Iraqis were slain, prompting the government there to revoke Blackwater’s license to operate in the country. Both the U.S. State Department and the FBI called that incident a reckless use of force that killed innocents, but an FBI investigation could not conclusively prove Blackwater was responsible for all 1 deaths. In another 2006 incident, a Blackwater employee was fired after he, allegedly drunk, shot and killed a security guard of the Iraqi vice president.

 

Though none of its employees have faced prosecution, Blackwater/Xe has been heavily criticized in Congressional hearings as a cost-ineffective private contractor whose uses of force have embarrassed and compromised U.S. diplomatic interests. Additionally, the leak of diplomatic documents by Wikileaks in October 2010 alleged Blackwater committed serious abuses while in Iraq, including killing civilians. The State Department dropped Blackwater as its main private security contractor in 2009.

 
June  8th 2011
 
 
Former Blackwater officials form corporate spying group
 
The people that operated Blackwater and the military's pre-9/11 data mining operation Able Danger have a new project: corporate spying services for Fortune 500 companies.
Their new company is called Jellyfish Intelligence.
"Our organization is not going to be controversial," Jellyfish CEO and former Blackwater senior executive Keith Mahoney insisted.
The Jellyfish mission is "to protect human lives and their business interests throughout the world," the firm's website claims.
"Operation Jellyfish is an innovative, private sector initiative designed by a team of former military and intelligence operatives, chief executives and corporate strategists offering private intelligence services to CEOs and senior executives of multinational corporations," the group claimed.
A marketing document promises Jellyfish has "figures inside key circles... including within the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, clerical circles in Iran, and tribal leaderships on the Pakistani side of the [Afghanistan-Pakistan] border region."
"The Able Danger days, that’s like 1,000 years ago," Chief Technology Officer J.D. Smith said.
 
May 15th 2011
 
 

A new Blackwater in Libya?

 
The UK government has floated the idea of employing private security firms in Libya to help bolster revolutionary forces fighting the regime of Muammar Qaddafi.



Defense experts and military officials raised the idea after high-ranking NATO officials including Secretary General Andres Fogh Rasmussen admitted that “there is no military solution to the conflict in Libya,” and that the crisis should be settled through politics.

Western powers, including the US, Britain and France, which spearheaded attempts at the UN Security Council to impose a no-fly zone over Libya as part of resolution 1973, had from the beginning sought to topple the Qaddafi regime, but their calculations proved wrong after the forces inside the country they are supporting, failed to consolidate their grip on the positions they had captured from pro-Qaddafi troops.

Furthermore, the financial costs of the west's interference in Libya have put much more burden on the countries involved whose economies are already melting down as a result of the global downturn.

The British government, as one of the masterminds behind the Libya invasion, is floating raw proposals in its attempt to get rid of the quagmire it has created for itself.
The idea of private security contractors is already so much unpopular that it might ignite another barrage of strong criticism at the No 10 Downing Street in London.

Private security firms' international image was severely tarnished when it was revealed the US security contractor Blackwater Worldwide committed serious crimes and abuses in Iraq, including killing civilians

 
April 13th 2011
 
 
 

Afghanistan lets Blackwater stay despite shakeup of security contractors

 
 

Blackwater looks set to survive an Afghan government clampdown on mercenaries after Hamid Karzai was forced by his western partners to abandon a complete disbandment of private security companies.

Under plans to be announced by the Afghan government this month many security contractors, whom Karzai regards as being little better than militias, will be allowed to continue operating for another year.

As part of a complex new transition strategy the government is giving them until 21 March 2012 before most security for development projects is taken over by the Afghan Public Protection Force. The APPF is a government security service intended to assume control over the country's hugely lucrative commercial security industry, which employs around 30,000 guards.

 

Western and Afghan officials say the draft plans drawn up by former Karzai opponent Ashraf Ghani will actually allow companies to keep supplying private guards and security services to development projects indefinitely. According to a list seen by The Guardian 11 companies operating in Afghanistan that have a good reputation with government officials will enjoy favoured status in taking over contracts.

 

 
 

March 9th 2011

 

 

US govt appeals to reopen Blackwater case

 

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A US appeals court met behind closed doors Tuesday as the government appealed a judge's decision to clear five former guards with security company Blackwater of killing 14 Iraqi civilians in 2007.
The three appeals court judges agreed to a request from all sides for the hearing into the controversial case to be closed to the public. A ruling is not expected for three months.

Charges against the Blackwater employees were dismissed last year, when a judge ruled US prosecutors violated the guards' rights by using incriminating statements they had made under immunity during a State Department probe.

February 9th 2011  

 

 

Excessive force claim is denied by security firm Blackwater's president

 

THE former president of the security firm Blackwater has denied in sworn testimony that the company's contractors regularly used excessive force in Iraq or that officials falsified travel documents.

Gary Jackson said in a deposition for a civil lawsuit in December that he believes both claims were false.

Two former Blackwater employees, Brad and Melan Davis, have accused the company's workers of using extreme force and improperly invoicing for travel costs. Blackwater has since changed its name to Xe Jackson declined to answer several questions during the deposition, exercising his constitutional right not to incriminate himself. Jackson's lawyers advised him to refuse to answer when questions came close to the scope of a criminal case against him.

A federal grand jury in North Carolina indicted Jackson and others last year on weapons charges

 

February  1th 2011 

 

 

'US embassy official Blackwater agent'

 

 

Pakistani media say the US embassy official charged with the murder of two Pakistani citizens is an agent for the notorious security firm, Blackwater.
The US official identified by police as Raymond Davis shot dead two men riding on a motorcycle in Lahore on Thursday in what he claimed was self-defense during an attempted robbery.
A third Pakistani was run over and killed in the incident after being hit by a US consulate vehicle rushing to the scene to the American's aid.
The US embassy in Islamabad has confirmed the man involved was a consular official and says it is carrying out an investigation.
Trying to avoid an anti-American reaction, US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said Thursday that Washington will fully cooperate with Pakistani authorities and will explain about the incident to the Pakistani people.

 

January 29th 2011  

 

 

Blackwater’s Prince building mercenary force with apartheid-era ‘hit squad’ officer

 

The northeast African country of Somalia has been one of the world's most notorious failed states for more than two decades. Its current government has been pushed out of most of the country's territory and now controls a fraction of the capital city, and high-seas piracy off the country's coast has been the scourge of shipping companies for years.

But for Erik Prince, founder of the notorious security contractor formerly known as Blackwater, that's not a reason to flee the country -- it's a financial opportunity.

According to news reports published Thursday, Prince has partnered with an African-based security company, Saracen International, to win security contracts from the Somali government that would see the mercenaries fight the on-land part of the war against Somali high-seas pirates, and would also go after al-Shabab, the Islamist militant group that has the Somali government cornered in parts of Mogadishu, the capital

 

January 22th 2011 

 

 

Former Blackwater bought by investment group

 

RALEIGH, N.C. – An investment group with ties to the founder of the company formerly known as Blackwater announced Friday that it has bought the security firm, which was heavily criticized for its contractors' actions in Iraq.

USTC Holdings said in a statement that the acquisition of the company now called Xe Services includes its training facility in North Carolina.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. But the statement said owner and founder Erik Prince will no longer have an equity stake and no longer be involved in Xe's management or operations. The company will be managed by a board appointed by the equity holders and will include independent, unaffiliated directors, the statement said.

Prince founded the company in 1997 along with former colleagues from the Navy SEALs.

The ownership group is led by two private equity firms, including New York-based Forte Capital Advisors. Forte managing partner Jason DeYonker has been a longtime financial adviser to Prince, helping him expand the Moyock, N.C., training grounds and negotiating Blackwater's first training contracts with the U.S. government.

 

December 18th 2010

 

 

Karzai: Blackwater behind terrorism

 

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said US private security firms, including Xe Services LLC, formerly known as Blackwater, are being behind terrorism in the country.At a press conference in Kabul, Karzai said that US security companies have been behind explosions that have claimed the lives of women and children. The Afghan president added that they have caused "blasts and terrorism" in different parts of Afghanistan over the past months. The Afghan president said his administration cannot even distinguish between the bomb blasts carried out by US security firms and those of the Taliban militants
.
"In fact we don't yet know how many of these blasts are by Taliban and how many are carried out by them (US security companies)."Blackwater has been involved in the murder of several Afghan citizens over the past years. The company has also been struggling with a trail of legal cases and civil lawsuits, including one for killing 17 Iraqi civilians during a Baghdad shootout in 2007.
Earlier in June, the CIA reportedly admitted that Blackwater had been loading bombs on US drones that target suspected militants in neighboring Pakistan.
The Afghan president has also pointed out that American private security firms are corrupt and have fueled nine years of war.
"Deals under the name of private security companies are cut in the hallways of American government buildings. It involves 1.5 billion dollars," he said.
Karzai has accused security companies of running what he called an economic mafia based on crooked contracts.

October 27h 2010

 

 

Erik Prince Blackwater & XE Tycoon, Contractor, Soldier, Spy

 

Erik Prince, recently outed as a participant in a C.I.A. assassination program, has gained notoriety as head of the military-contracting juggernaut Blackwater, a company dogged by a grand-jury investigation, bribery accusations, and the voluntary-manslaughter trial of five ex-employees, set for next month. Lashing back at his critics, the wealthy former navy seal takes the author inside his operation in the U.S. and Afghanistan, revealing the role he’s been playing in America’s war on terror.

 

October 25h 2010  

 

 

US Justice Department abandons murder case against Blackwater contractor

 

The US Justice Department said Monday it would not seek charges against Andrew J. Moonen. The Blackwater Worldwide military contractor had been accused of killing a guard assigned to an Iraqi vice president on December 24, 2006.

The government’s abandonment of the case against Moonen is the latest instance in which security guards working with Blackwater, now known as Xe Services, have been allowed to walk free after committing brutal crimes against the Iraqi and Afghan population. Other prosecutions of Blackwater personnel have been blocked due to immunity deals struck with the accused.

Moonen, 30, a former army paratrooper, was the primary suspect in the Christmas Eve 2006 killing of Raheem Saadoun, a 32-year-old father of two and one of the body guards of Iraqi Vice President Adil Abdul Mahdi.

 

October 24h 2010 

 

 

Machines of War: Blackwater, Monsanto, and Bill Gates

 

A report by Jeremy Scahill in The Nation (Blackwater's Black Ops, 9/15/2010) revealed that the largest mercenary army in the world, Blackwater (now called Xe Services) clandestine intelligence services was sold to the multinational Monsanto. Blackwater was renamed in 2009 after becoming famous in the world with numerous reports of abuses in Iraq, including massacres of civilians. It remains the largest private contractor of the U.S. Department of State "security services," that practices state terrorism by giving the government the opportunity to deny it.

October 17th 2010  

 

Blackwater Founder Moves to Abu Dhabi

The rumors were true: Blackwater founder Erik Prince has up and moved to Abu Dhabi, according to court documents. Sources say the former Navy Seal hopes to provide security services to African and Middle Eastern governments—and escape the bad press and legal scrutiny he's faced here. “He needs a break from America,” said one colleague.

 

 

 

 

 

October 9th 2010

 
 

 

State Department auditors said Friday that guard dogs deployed by two private security companies to protect American embassies in Afghanistan and Iraq are not being properly trained to detect bombs.

The department’s inspector general singled out U.S. Training Center, an affiliate of Xe Services, the firm formerly known as Blackwater, for lapses in its guard dog program in Kabul.

Another firm, the Washington-based RONCO Consulting Corporation, was scored for its guard dog program at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, as well as in Kabul.

The Baghdad program alone costs over $24 million a year, the report said.

The audit “revealed systemic problems that directly affect the safety and security of U.S. Government personnel and installations,” the IG said.

The principal weakness of the programs, the IG said, was that the dogs were not regularly served up new explosives to sniff.

“The Department of the Treasury’s standard requires that fresh explosives be used for each testing session and that testing be done annually,” the IG said.

 

October 9th 2010

 

 

Exclusive: Blackwater Wins Piece of $10 Billion Mercenary Deal
 

Never mind the dead civilians. Forget about the stolen guns. Get over themurder arrests, the fraud allegations, and the accusations of guards pumping themselves up with steroids and cocaine. Through a “joint venture,” the notorious private-security firm Blackwater has won a piece of a five-year State Department contract worth up to $10 billion, Danger Room has learned.

Apparently, there is no misdeed so big that it can keep guns-for-hire from working for the government. And this is despite a 2008 campaign pledge from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to ban the company from federal contracts.

Eight private security firms have won State’s giant Worldwide Protective Services contract, the big Foggy Bottom partnership to keep embassies and their inhabitants safe. Two of those firms are longtime State contract holders DynCorp and Triple Canopy. The others are newcomers to the big security contract: EOD Technology, SOC, Aegis Defense Services, Global Strategies Group, Torres International Services and International Development Solutions LLC.

Don’t see any of Blackwater’s myriad business names on there? That’s apparently by design.

Blackwater and the State Department tried their best to obscure their renewed relationship. As Danger Room reported Wednesday, Blackwater did not appear on the vendors’ list for Worldwide Protective Services. And the State Department confirms that the company, renamed Xe Services, didn’t actually submit its own independent bid.

Instead, they used a blandly named cut-out, “International Development Solutions,” to retain a toehold into State’s lucrative security business. No one who looks at the official announcement of the contract award would have any idea that firm is connected to Blackwater

 
October 4th 2010

 

 

Walt Disney, Monsanto discovered among Blackwater’s hidden clients
 

Almost three years ago exactly -- Sept. 17, 2007 -- a cadre of guards from the security firm then known as Blackwater shot and killed 17 Iraqis at a public plaza in Baghdad.

The company, long in the public eye, has been known for brutal tactics and as a mercenary for the US State Department in countries where the US has boots on the ground. What hasn't been known, however, is that the same company was handling intelligence ops for publicly-traded US companies.

Atop the list is Monsanto, the biotech giant, who The Nation's Jeremy Scahill revealed Wednesday accepted a proposal through a Blackwater subsidiary which "offer[ed] to provide operatives to infiltrate activist groups organizing against the multinational biotech firm."

Monsanto doesn't stand alone. Through a network of 30 subsidiaries and shell corporations, Blackwater-linked entities provided "intelligence, training and security services" to a cache of major multinational firms, including: Monsanto, Chevron, the Walt Disney Company, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, Deutsche Bank and Barclays, according to documents Scahill obtained.

 

September 29th 2010

 

Rampant drug use, random gunfire at Blackwater’s Baghdad parties: claim

Blackwater founder threatened to 'come after' lawyer pursuing allegations: claim

 

Blackwater employees in Baghdad held wild parties featuring large amounts of cocaine and hash, where armed personnel would sometimes fire randomly at nearby buildings housing Iraqi civilians, says a former contractor for the security company.

Howard Lowry, a Texas businessman who worked in Iraq from 2003 to 2009, made the allegations in testimony he gave in a whistleblower trial aimed at Xe Services, the company formerly known as Blackwater.

"I feel that numerous families of individuals of Blackwater employees that have been killed on the job are not getting the true story," Lowry said in the deposition, which was obtained by The Nation's Jeremy Scahill.

Scahill reports that Lowry alleges he bought at least 100 AK47 machine guns for Blackwater guards on Baghdad's black market, as well as large quantities of steroids

 

September 24th 2010  

 

 

 

The company which gained notoriety for killing unarmed civilians in Iraq, now uses shell affiliates to seize government businesses, The New York Times reported on Friday.
According to the paper, at least three of these fake subsidiaries have won deals with the US Army and the CIA.

Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has urged the Justice Department to investigate whether Blackwater has misled the government when using dummy offshoots to obtain government contracts, according to the Times.
Levin's committee has come to realize that Blackwater has done everything to win lucrative government contracts despite criminal charges and criticism rooted in the 2007 bloody incident in Iraq.

 

September 6th 2010  

 

 
 

Blackwater Worldwide created a web of more than 30 shell companies or subsidiaries in part to obtain millions of dollars in American government contracts after the security company came under intense criticism for reckless conduct in Iraq, according to Congressional investigators and former Blackwater officials.

While it is not clear how many of those businesses won contracts, at least three had deals with the United States military or the Central Intelligence Agency, according to former government and company officials. Since 2001, the intelligence agency has awarded up to $600 million in classified contracts to Blackwater and its affiliates, according to a United States government official.

The Senate Armed Services Committee this week released a chart that identified 31 affiliates of Blackwater, now known as Xe Services. The network was disclosed as part of a committee's investigation into government contracting. The investigation revealed the lengths to which Blackwater went to continue winning contracts after Blackwater guards killed 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad in September 2007. That episode and other reports of abuses led to criminal and Congressional investigations, and cost the company its lucrative security contract with the State Department in Iraq

 

September 5th 2010  

 

 

 

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The security company Blackwater Worldwide formed a network of 30 shell companies and subsidiaries to try to get millions of dollars in government business after the company faced strong criticism for reckless conduct in Iraq, The New York Times reported.

The newspaper said Friday that it was unclear how many of the created companies got American contracts but that at least three of them obtained work with the U.S. military and the CIA.

Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has asked the Justice Department to see whether Blackwater misled the government when using the subsidiaries to gain government contracts, according to the Times.

It said Levin's committee found that North Carolina-based Blackwater, which now is known as Xe Services, went to great lengths to find ways to get lucrative government work despite criminal charges and criticism stemming from a 2007 incident in which Blackwater guards killed 17 Iraqi civilians. A committee chart outlines the web of Blackwater subsidiaries.

Messages left late Friday with spokespeople for the Michigan Democrat and Xe were not immediately answered.

The 2007 incident and other reports of abuses by Blackwater employees in Iraq led to criminal investigations and congressional hearings, and resulted in the company losing a lucrative contract with the State Department to provide security in Iraq.

 

September 5th 2010  

 

 
Blackwater Reaches Deal on U.S. Export Violations
 

WASHINGTON — The private security company formerly called Blackwater Worldwide, long plagued by accusations of impropriety, has reached an agreement with the State Department for the company to pay $42 million in fines for hundreds of violations of United States export control regulations.

 

August 22th 2010

 

 

Blackwater guards indicted for murder

 

A federal grand jury has added an additional indictment to a former Blackwater employee involved in the murders of two Afghan civilians in May of 2009, according to The Virginian-Pilot.

Two Blackwater guards have been charged with second-degree murder for the fatal shootings.

 

August 12th 2010

 

 

Blackwater Deal In Afghanistan Questioned
 

The Obama administration has awarded $220m (£146m) in new contracts to the military contractor formerly known as Blackwater to provide security in Afghanistan. This is despite accusations against the company of murder and indiscriminate killings of civilians in Iraq and investigations into alleged corruption and sanctions busting.

The contracts have drawn stinging criticism in Congress and assertions that because of Blackwater's reputation for indifference to innocent lives it will jeopardise the mission in Afghanistan.

But Leon Panetta, the head of the CIA, has defended the new contracts by saying the company, which changed its name to Xe Services as part of an image makeover, has "shaped up their act".

The state department has agreed to pay Xe Services $120m to provide security to new diplomatic premises being built in Afghanistan, including consulates outside Kabul. The CIA has awarded a separate contract worth $100m to "secure its bases" in Afghanistan.

 

 

 

 

U.S. State Department pays Blackwater company thugs millions in Afghanistan while Afghan teachers starve

 

In another example of the inanity of the U.S. State Department’s work in Afghanistan, it was revealed several days ago that the U.S. State Department has awarded a $120 million contract for security operations to the United States Training Center (USTC) at new U.S. Consulates in Mazar-i-Sharif and Heart. The USTC is a division of Xe, the new name Blackwater USA chose to hide behind after its indictment for murdering dozens of Iraqi civilians in broad daylight on a busy Baghdad square.
The $120 million contract, split between the two small consulates means that $6.6 million per month will be spent on each consulate— on security alone! Blackwater security workers earn about $18,000/month. Afghan teachers earn about $50/month. For a fair comparison, figure that $50/month is below a living wage in Kabul. It takes three times that to pay rent, buy food and all the other costs required to raise a family, as a bare minimum— and that means no meat, no car, and making children work, and not go to school.


 

 

 

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has been briefed by the Pakistani Military High Command that they are being overwhelmed by highly trained and extremely well armed militants in the border regions and terrorists operating across the country. We have been told by the highest sources that Blackwater/Xe and other US based mercenary groups have been actively attacking police, military and intelligence organizations in Pakistan as part of operations under employment of the Government of India and their allies in Afghanistan, the drug lords, whose followers make up the key components of the Afghan army

 
 

 

 

The US State Department awarded Blackwater another "diplomatic security" contract to protect US officials in Afghanistan. CBS News reports that the $120 million deal is for "protective services" at the US consulates in Herat and Mazar-e-Sharif. Blackwater has another security contract in Afghanistan worth $200 million and trains Afghan forces. The company also works for the CIA and the US military and provides bodyguards for US Ambassador Karl Eikenberry as well as US lawmakers and other officials who visit the country. The company has four forward operating bases in Afghanistan and Prince has boasted that Blackwater's counter-narcotics forces have called in NATO airstrikes.

The new security contract was awarded to one of Blackwater's alter egos, the United States Training Center, despite the indictments of five senior company officials on bribery, weapons and conspiracy charges. Its operatives in both Afghanistan and Iraq have been indicted for killing innocent civilians. The Senate Armed Services Committee has called on the Justice Department to investigate Blackwater's use of a shell company, Paravant, to win training contracts in Afghanistan. Despite these and numerous other scandals, the State Department once again awarded the company a lucrative contract

 

June 22th, 2010 

 

 
 

CBS News has learned in an exclusive report that the State Department has awarded a part of what was formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide a contract worth more than $120 million for providing security services in Afghanistan.

Private security firm U.S. Training Center, a business unit of the Moyock, N.C.-based Blackwater, now called Xe Services, was awarded the contract Friday, a State Department spokeswoman said Friday night

 

June 20th, 2010 

 

 

 Sources close to Blackwater and its secretive owner Erik Prince claim that the embattled head of the world's most infamous mercenary firm is planning to move to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Middle Eastern nation, a major hub for the US war industry, has no extradition treaty with the United States. In April, five of Prince's top deputies were hit with a fifteen-count indictment by a federal grand jury on conspiracy, weapons and obstruction of justice charges. Among those indicted were Prince's longtime number-two man, former Blackwater president Gary Jackson, former vice presidents William Matthews and Ana Bundy and Prince's former legal counsel Andrew Howell. 

 

 June 17th, 2010 

 

 

Retail Guns-for-Hire: Blackwater Opens Storefronts

 

The company formerly known as Blackwater has tried, with only limited success, to shed its tainted name. So now, “Xe Services LLC” is embracing the Blackwater brand, and opening a series of retail stores under the infamous guns-for-hire moniker.

At the Blackwater Pro Shops in Fayetteville, North Carolina and Salem, Connecticut, you can “purchase clothing and equipment emblazoned with the logo,” the Solider Systems blog explains. ”If thatdoesn’t get your blood pumping you can also try out your new firearms at their indoor range.” 

 

 June 17th, 2010 
 

 

Secret Erik Prince ( Blackwater )Tape Exposed

 

Erik Prince, the reclusive owner of the Blackwater empire, rarely gives public speeches and when he does he attempts to ban journalists from attending and forbids recording or videotaping of his remarks. On May 5, that is exactly what Prince is trying to do when he speaks at DeVos Fieldhouse as the keynote speaker for the "Tulip Time Festival" in his hometown of Holland, Michigan. He told the event's organizers no news reporting could be done on his speech and they consented to the ban. Journalists and media associations in Michigan are protesting this attempt to bar reporting on his remarks. 
Despite Prince's attempts to shield his speeches from public scrutiny, The Nation magazine has obtained an audio recording of a recent, private speech delivered by Prince to a friendly audience. The speech, which Prince attempted to keep from public consumption, provides a stunning glimpse into his views and future plans and reveals details of previously undisclosed activities of Blackwater. The people of the United States have a right to media coverage of events featuring the owner of a company that generates 90% of its revenue from the United States government