Report: State Dept. extends Blackwater contract in Iraq
Published: September 2, 2009
Updated 5 months ago
The mercenary group formerly known as Blackwater International, which was banned from Iraq by its government after a Baghdad massacre which killed 17 civilians, will see its contract extended in the country by the U.S. State Department, according to a published report.
ABC News reporter Kirit Radia notes: “Sources say the department has agreed to temporarily continue using the subsidiary known as Presidential Airways to provide helicopter transport for embassy employees around Iraq until a new contract with another security company, Dyncorp International, is fully implemented. Presidential Airways is an arm of U.S. Training Center, which is a subsidiary of the company Xe, formerly and still commonly known as Blackwater.”
Controversy has surrounded the private security firm practically since it was founded, but erupted anew recently when former employees accused Blackwater’s founder and former CEO of murdering or facilitating the murders of other employees who were preparing to blow the whistle on his alleged criminal activities.
The sworn statements also say that founder Erik Prince and Blackwater executives were involved in illegal weapons smuggling and had, on numerous occasions, ordered incriminating documents, e-mails, photos and video destroyed. The former employees described Blackwater as “having young girls provide oral sex to Enterprise members in the ‘Blackwater Man Camp’ in exchange for one American dollar.” They add even though Prince frequently visited this camp, he “failed to stop the ongoing use of prostitutes, including child prostitutes, by his men.”
One of the statements also charges that “Prince’s North Carolina operations had an ongoing wife-swapping and sex ring, which was participated in by many of Mr. Prince’s top executives.”
The former employees additionally claim that Prince was engaged in illegal arms dealing, money laundering, and tax evasion, that he created “a web of companies in order to obscure wrong-doing, fraud, and other crimes,” and that Blackwater’s chief financial officer had “resigned … stating he was not willing to go to jail for Erik Prince.”
The company was also allegedly involved in the planning stages of the CIA’s assassination program, which was reportedly never used, then scrapped by CIA chief Leon Panetta.
Prince has repeatedly insisted his company has done nothing wrong and Blackwater continues to fulfill its contracts with the United States government.
For the massacre of Iraqi civilians, five Blackwater guards were arrested and charged with manslaughter. A sixth guard flipped and agreed to testify against the others. Government informants later claimed the company tried to gather up and destroy weapons involved in the slaughter.
The State Department announced last January that it would not be renewing Blackwater’s contract for security services in Iraq when it was set to expire in May, however the Obama administration decided to extend it through Sept. 3, according to The Nation Jeremy Scahill.
ABC reported the new contract extension is for an unspecified amount of time and could end “within weeks or months.”
When it is finally allowed to expire, Blackwater’s involvement with Iraq will have ended, completely.
13 comments
Printer Friendly |
Email
| Get breaking news alerts: Email/mobile |
Contractors Outnumber U.S. Troops in Afghanistan
What a sick fricken country you have become.
You now employ killers to do your dirty work…pausible deniability…once America was a SuperPower …killers all of you …I’m sure some a hole will say but but but 911 911 911
Obama!! Obama!!! Obama!!! Obama!!!
BUSH!!! BUSH!!!!BUSH!!!! BUSH!!!!
KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL DESTROY DESTROY RAPE RAPE RAPE RAPE
Change Change Change Change HOPE HOPE HOPE HOPE HOPE HOPE HOPE.
Thanks to Jeremy Scahill, who has relentlessly kept the heat on Blackwater,
America’s murderous mercenary experts. Dyncorp is not much better.
If my memory serves me right, Dyncorp employees were involved in child prostitution trafficking.
where is the change obama where
to all you shit heads who still root for obama are DUMB AS SUCKERS
legislation needs to be passed blocking any payment to Erik Prince, his progeny, any stockholders of his various newly minted corporations, any officers or managers of same.
Further Eric Prince needs to be taken into custody and transferred to one of the CIA operated Eastern European prisons,(aka Boutique Prisons, aka Mall Prison, aka Porta-Joint). There he should be interrogated within the scope and boundaries of, and with the techniques described and blessed by Dick Cheney. The question for interrogation is did you take orders from Dick Cheney to rape, pillage, and murder men woman and children. Once he admits this be it true or false, Mr Cheney should be arrested.
That day of arrest ten and more than a 100 years hence will be a national holiday equal to the fourth of July as marking the return to justice in USA
In a just and perfect world, that would happen. Unfortunately, the United States is creating one of the most unjust and immoral environments in modern world history.
Erik Prince will retire rich, and acres of grounds overseas will be littered with the graves of the innocent people he helped kill.
This is the United States of America. This is YOUR Country now. Any idea of poetic justice will be drowned in a sea of profits and cronyism. The only way to change it is from within- and NOT at the ballot box.
Is anyone willing to make that sacrifice?
Welcome to the age of plunder conducted by jihad mercenary gangs working for the elite.
oops … “the age of plunder” …
sorry …
Yuck. How about we quit paying any mercenaries? This is disgusting.
Blackwater re-hired? Surprize, surprize! What would you expect from Bush Lite?
Jeremy Scahill better watch his back. That crazy fucking Prince guy will send a couple of his killers after him.
Federal contracting is the new spoils system. It allows Congress and Presidents to end run around laws going back to the 1880s to remove the corruption of patronage from government work. The laws that keep patronage out of government are generally called Civil Service laws.
By law, a “A-76″ study must be used to outsource a government function. The contractors must be able to perform the function at no more then 125 percent the cost of what government did it for “in house”. Additionally, the function most NOT be “inherently governmental”. That used to mean law enforcement, war fighting, prisons, tax collection along with the supporting functions.
Obviously A-76 studies are seldom used now and nothing is inherently governmental. The revolving door between Federal/Military managers to contracting positions ensure that you will get no complaints from that them and the millions in campaign contributions and employment of campaign supporters ensure that no elected official in either party will complain either about the cost or the performance of the contractor.
Wow, obama brought on so much “change”, that he went around the world to stand where we started…. Hell, he’s even facing the same direction…
SUCKERS!!!!
Would you like a side of freedom fries to go with that change?