Remember "Black Water"?
Now they call themselves "Xe" (pronounced "zee").
Did Bush's C.I.A. pay this private militia to torture, frighten, terrorise and kill?
Report says, "C.I.A. gave the orders, they just pulled the trigger.."
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“The Bogus Idea that if the U.S. Leaves Things Will Worsen Is Both Inherently Racist and Ignorant”
… I understand you were there right after the four Blackwater operatives were killed in Fallujah? I’ve heard commentators describe …
When Blackwater Kills, No Questions Asked
… recent attacks by Blackwater USA mercenaries in Baghdad are far from the first — and many … fire on them. Dozens of witnesses said that, contrary to Blackwater claims, the mercenaries had not come under attack. Several Kurds … Group for Human Rights, an NGO in Baghdad, told IPS that Blackwater convoys, which usually comprise several large, white SUVs, have …
Closing Ranks against the US Militarism
Encirclement has begun. Encirclement is the policy of singling out a nation that has become a major international problem. The US has been a Rogue State for years. William Blum author, historian and former member of the US State Department titled one of hi …Truth Matters
… outside of those under the private contracts of firms like Blackwater, would voluntarily stake their lives for corporate profits, and the …
Lethal Illusion
… by civilian police auxiliaries; the rich by the likes of Blackwater. Still, he maintains, we don’t need an “activist foreign policy …
Rescue: 2008
… and some bad news. The good news is that it looks like Blackwater is being thrown out of Iraq. The bad news is that Blackwater is coming back to the US. The rest of the bad news is that Blackwater is just one of many major problems. It seems to me that the burden …
The Pro-War Undertow of the Blackwater Scandal
… Blackwater scandal has gotten plenty of media coverage, and it deserves a lot … for private mercenaries are antithetical to democracy, and Blackwater’s actions in Iraq have often been murderous. But the scandal is … hearing that featured Erik Prince, the odious CEO of Blackwater USA. A congressman from New Hampshire, Paul Hodes, insisted on …
Of Hampster Wheels and Men
It is evident that the US or Israel is going to launch an unprovoked attack on Iran in the near future, just as it did against Iraq and countless other defenseless nations within recent memory. As a result, untold numbers of innocent people will die and hu …The Kucinich Question
It was July 12 in Detroit, and all eight Democratic Party presidential candidates had just finished sparring at a forum sponsored by the NAACP when John Edwards and Hillary Clinton were caught hatching a plot to rid future debates of all but front-runners. …The Anti-Empire Report
… the US in Iraq or Afghanistan. Neither Halliburton nor Blackwater has a presence in Burma. In short, nothing that would oblige …
The Demise of the Congressional Black Caucus
… security” which fattens the pockets of Halliburton and Blackwater. On the contrary, instead of going after Blackwater mercenaries for their devastating role in post-Katrina, Louisiana, …
George Packer’s “Planning for Defeat”
… State Department’s murderous mercenary private army, Blackwater, from the country. One phone call from Condoleezza Rice put Prime … place and let him know who really runs the show in Iraq: Blackwater stays. So, what are the options for solving the problems we have …
Blackwater Blues for Dead Iraqi Civilians
… Prince, the founder and head of Blackwater USA, has contributed mega-bucks to Republican Party candidates and … family values” stonewalling the families of four Blackwater contractors killed in Fallujah in March 2004? After an incident … ministry of interior yesterday took the decision to expel Blackwater from the country. According to The Guardian, US secretary of …
Coming Attractions: “The Constitution Was Getting Pretty Ratty Anyway”
… The door is kicked open. Two beefy men wearing Blackwater security uniforms enter, guns drawn. Veteran: Take ’im …
K-Ville: Fox Glamorizes a Force of Repression in New Orleans
… not to root for them when the first episode’s villains are Blackwater mercenaries (here called “Black River”). Although the show gets … from across the U.S. and private security forces including Blackwater, Wackenhut and an Israeli company called Instinctive Shooting …
People of the Dome
… of fully armed military troops, along with private Blackwater mercenaries fresh from Iraq under orders to “shoot to kill.” (Blackwater, Inc. billed the federal government $950 per man, per day — at one … reports Jeremy Scahill in his path breaking book, Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army, published by …
Make the jumpNew Orleans After 24 Months
… residents were told by guys dressed like Ninjas wearing “Blackwater” badges: “Try to go into your home and we’ll arrest you.” These …
The Puzzling Suspension of Incredulity to the “Official” 9-11 Theory
Debunking 9/11 Debunking: An Answer to Popular Mechanics and Other Defenders of the Official Conspiracy Theory By David Ray Griffin (Olive Branch Press, 2007) ISBN: 978-1-56656-686-5 According to a categorical assertion by the Association of Musl …Oil Wars: Fueling Both U.S. Empire & Ecocide
… Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, Blackwater, CACI, Fluor, Shaw, the Carlyle Group, the Alexander Group, and …
The Liberal Trashing of Prof. Ward Churchill
The shameless trashing of Ward Churchill from the left side of our political setting was perhaps the most grotesque of all the attacks faced by the tenured University of Colorado professor after his essay “Some Push Back” began making headlines in earl …Updated: Aug. 21, 2009
Founded in 1998 by former Navy Seals, Blackwater Worldwide says it has prepared tens of thousands of security personnel to work in hot spots around the world. But it was an incident in Baghdad in September 2007, in which Blackwater guards killed 17 Iraqis, that brought the company to public notice, and made it a focal point for tensions over the role of the many private security firms supplementing the American war effort.
In 2002, Blackwater won a classified contract to provide security for the Central Intelligence Agency station in Kabul, Afghanistan, and the company maintains other classified contracts with the C.I.A. Over the years, Blackwater has hired several former top agency officials, including Cofer Black, who ran the C.I.A. counterterrorism center immediately after the Sept. 11 attacks. C.I.A. operatives regularly use Blackwater's training complex in North Carolina.
In 2004, the C.I.A. hired contractors from Blackwater as part of a secret program to locate and assassinate top operatives of Al Qaeda, according to current and former government officials. Blackwater executives helped the spy agency with planning, training and surveillance, and the C.I.A. spent several million dollars on the program, which did not successfully capture or kill any terrorist suspects.
In June 2009, alarmed by the agency's use of an outside company for the program, Leon E. Panetta, the C.I.A.'s director, called an emergency meeting to tell Congress that the agency had withheld details of the program for seven years, officials said.
The C.I.A. did not give the Blackwater executives a "license to kill," though, officials said. Instead, it directed the contractors to collect information on the whereabouts of Al Qaeda's leaders, carry out surveillance and train for possible missions.
But government officials said that bringing outsiders into a program with lethal authority raised deep concerns about accountability in covert operations. Blackwater's work on the program ended years before Mr. Panetta took over the agency, after senior C.I.A. officials themselves questioned the wisdom of using outsiders in such a program.
The C.I.A. did not have a formal contract with Blackwater for the program; it had individual agreements with top company officials, including the founder, Erik D. Prince, a politically connected former member of the Navy Seals and the heir to a family fortune.
The extent of Blackwater's dealings with the C.I.A. has largely been hidden, but its public contract with the State Department to provide private security to American diplomats in Iraq has generated intense scrutiny and controversy.
Iraqi officials had long complained about what they called indiscriminate gunfire by private security forces hired by Americans. American officials said they had no alternative for protecting diplomats, but in negotiations in 2008 over a status of forces agreement with the American military, Iraqi officials were adamant that private contractors no longer have immunity for their actions.
On Dec. 8, 2008, federal prosecutors charged five Blackwater guards involved in the Baghdad shootings with manslaughter. A sixth guard admitted in a plea deal to killing at least one Iraqi. In January 2009, the Iraqi government indicated it would not renew Blackwater's operating license amid concerns of inappropriate use of force.
In February, Blackwater announced that it was abandoning the brand name that has been tarnished by its work in Iraq, choosing Xe (pronounced zee) as the new name for its family of two dozen businesses. Most people in and outside of the company still use Blackwater.
The company has continued to grow through government work, even as it has attracted criticism and allegations of brutality. From a secret division at its North Carolina headquarters, it has assumed a role in Washington's most important counterterrorism program: the use of drones to kill Al Qaeda's leaders, according to government officials and current and former employees.
The division's operations are carried out at hidden bases in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where Blackwater contractors assemble and load Hellfire missiles and 500-pound laser-guided bombs on remotely piloted Predator aircraft, work previously performed by C.I.A. employees. They also provide security at the covert bases, the officials said.
Blackwater is not involved in selecting targets or actual strikes. The targets are selected by the C.I.A., and employees at its headquarters in Langley, Va., pull the trigger remotely. Only a handful of the agency's employees actually work at the Predator bases in Afghanistan and Pakistan, current and former employees said.
Related: Private Military Companies | Iraq
