blackwaterbak

south sudan boosted by evangelicals B2, less energy under obamachina Hong Kong, back in Iraq?!capt 519
new<div></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/05/unfathomable-evil-recognizing-unfathomable-evil-trumps-possible-pardons-of-war-criminals-provoke-outrage/">https://www.alternet.org/2019/05/unfathomable-evil-recognizing-unfathomable-evil-trumps-possible-pardons-of-war-criminals-provoke-outrage/</a></div><div>
</div><div>Progressives, human rights advocates, and journalists responded with outrage on Saturday to a New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/18/us/trump-pardons-war-crimes.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">report</a> that President Donald Trump “has requested the immediate preparation of paperwork needed to pardon several American military members accused or convicted of war crimes.”<div class="p1_13" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" />Unnamed U.S. government officials told the Times that on or around Memorial Day, Trump may pardon multiple servicemembers involved with “high-profile cases of murder, attempted murder, and desecration of a corpse.”<div class="p2_13" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><div class="alt_ad_block story-page-in-content-graph-2" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="teadsNative" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></div>As the newspaper reported:<div class="p3_13" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; position: relative; line-height: 1.7; overflow: hidden; background: rgb(245, 245, 245); border: none !important;">The requests are for Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher of the Navy SEALs, who is scheduled to stand trial in the coming weeks on charges of <a title="" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/23/us/navy-seals-crimes-of-war.html?module=inline" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">shooting unarmed civilians</a> and killing an enemy captive with a knife while deployed in Iraq.<div class="p4_13" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />They are also believed to include the case of a former <a title="" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/19/us/politics/blackwater-security-contractor-iraq-shooting.html?module=inline" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Blackwater security contractor</a> recently found guilty in the deadly 2007 shooting of dozens of unarmed Iraqis; the case of Maj. Mathew L. Golsteyn, the Army Green Beret accused of <a title="" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/16/us/politics/major-matt-golsteyn-trump.html?module=inline" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">killing an unarmed Afghan</a> in 2010; and the case of a <a title="" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/21/us/washington-marine-sentenced-in-taliban-urination-case.html?module=inline" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">group of Marine Corps snipers</a> charged with urinating on the corpse of a dead Taliban fighter.<div class="p5_13" style="font-style: italic; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></blockquote>“These are all extremely complicated cases that have gone through a careful system of consideration,” Gary Solis, a retired military judge and armor officer who served in Vietnam, told the Times. “A freewheeling pardon undermines that whole system."
Solis warned that pardoning servicemembers accused or convicted of war crimes “raises the prospect in the minds of the troops that says, ‘Whatever we do, if we can get the folks back home behind us, maybe we can get let off.'”<div class="p7_13" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" />The news on Saturday came after Trump, earlier this month, <a href="https://publicpool.kinja.com/subject-statement-from-the-press-secretary-regarding-e-1834567951" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">pardoned</a> former Army 1st Lt. Michael Behenna, who was convicted of murdering an Iraqi prisoner in 2008. As Common Dreams <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/05/07/presidential-endorsement-murder-trump-pardon-us-soldier-who-tortured-killed-iraqi" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">reported</a> at the time, human rights advocates decried that decision as “a presidential endorsement of a murder that violated the military’s own code of justice.”<div class="p8_13" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" />The Times report—on which the White House and Justice Department declined to comment—was met with similar condemnation.<div class="p9_13" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" />The Atlantic‘s Adam Serwer, who <a href="https://twitter.com/AdamSerwer/status/1125737436796063746?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1125737436796063746&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2F2019%2F05%2F07%2Fpresidential-endorsement-murder-trump-pardon-us-soldier-who-tortured-killed-iraqi" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">spoke out against</a> Trump’s pardon of Behenna, tweeted, “This incentivizes the commission of war crimes by our opponents and allies, and in doing so puts U.S. servicemembers at greater risk.”<div class="p10_13" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" />Human Rights Watch executive director Ken Roth said, “Think of the horrible message that sends to would-be war criminals around the world.”<div class="p11_13" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" />Murtaza Mohammad Hussain, a reporter at The Intercept, denounced Trump’s expected move as “a huge injustice to those whose lives they destroyed and a message that America will tolerate war crimes.”<div class="p12_13" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" />Their criticism was echoed by others, including journalist Ryan Devereaux, who suggested that “if you were to make a list of ‘top notorious U.S. war crimes of the post-9/11 era’ it would look a lot like the president’s pardoning plans.”</div><div></div><div>=</div><div><a href="https://www.mintpressnews.com/blackwater-erik-prince-5000-mercenaries-maduro/257988/">https://www.mintpressnews.com/blackwater-erik-prince-5000-mercenaries-maduro/257988/</a></div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>as

if the past months of US push for regime change in Venezuela with

officials like Elliott Abrams of Iran-Contra conviction infamy at the

helm wasn’t bizarre enough, things just got weirder, as Erik Prince

has apparently been pitching a plan around Washington to privatize US

coup efforts using his latest Blackwater inspired mercenary empire.

According

to Reuters, Prince — the brother of billionaire Education Secretary

Betsy DeVos who has over the past years since selling his

mired-in-controversy Blackwater group (now Academi) revived

his mercenary empire in China in the form of Frontier Services Group

(FSG) — intends to “deploy a private army to help topple Venezuela’s

socialist president, Nicholas Maduro.”

Price has

reportedly sought access to Trump administration officials to whom he’s

attempting to pitch the whole operation, said to involve some 5,000

soldiers-for-hire to be used by opposition leader Juan Guaido, according

to multiple sources who spoke to Reuters. The controversial private

security CEO has sought investments from both Trump supporters and

wealthy Venezuelan exiles, and reportedly held meetings over the plan as

recently as mid-April

Neither the White House nor Guaido

opposition representatives have confirmed they were entertaining such a

plan, with the latter denying altogether that Guado’s team had even

spoken with Prince or FSG reps.

Reuters’ sources described some of the details of the proposed Venezuela coup plan as follows:

The two sources with direct knowledge of Prince’s pitch said it calls

for starting with intelligence operations and later deploying 4,000 to

5,000 soldiers-for-hire from Colombia and other Latin American nations

to conduct combat and stabilization operations.”

Perhaps the most interesting detail to be revealed is the need for a triggering event

that could set a final bid for coup over the top, after a number of

small attempts failed to gain enough momentum in the past months.

Reuters’ sources described what Prince called a “dynamic event”:

One of Prince’s key arguments, one source said, is that Venezuela needs

what Prince calls a “dynamic event” to break the stalemate that has

existed since January, when Guaido – the head of Venezuela’s National

Assembly – declared Maduro’s 2018 re-election illegitimate and invoked

the constitution to assume the interim presidency.”

In 2017, Prince is known to have lobbied the Trump administration for using private contractors to stabilize the Middle East.

He’s

made headlines last year after pitching an idea to privatize the wars

in Afghanistan and Syria to Trump administration officials, which has

reportedly met with little progress, though there were some indicators

Trump could be open to the idea.

Iraq-style mercenary occupation of Venezuela? Erik Prince hopes so…

To the shock and surprise of many, a subsidiary of his Hong Kong-based Frontier Services Group has

been allowed to operate in Iraq, showing up in the southern city of

Basra,  after both Prince and Blackwater were formally barred by Iraq’s

government from ever entering the country again following the 2007

Nisour Square massacre.

As for Venezuela, things look to

slowly destabilize further as continued total economic collapse fuels an

ongoing humanitarian emergency, and on news of more armed uprisings by

military defectors backing Guaido come out of Caracas.

Feature

Photo | Blackwater founder Erik Prince testifies before a House

committee examining the mission and performance of private military

contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, Oct. 2, 2007. (Susan Walsh/AP)

Source | Zero Hedge

---</div><div>... LNX</div><div>
</div><div>
Neither the White House nor Guaido opposition representatives have

confirmed they were entertaining such a plan, with the latter denying

altogether that Guado’s team had even spoken with Prince or FSG reps.

Reuters’ sources described some of the details of the proposed Venezuela coup plan <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-erikprince-exclusi/exclusive-blackwater-founders-latest-sales-pitch-mercenaries-for-venezuela-idUSKCN1S608F" target="_blank">as follows</a>:

<blockquote>The two sources with direct knowledge of Prince’s pitch

said it calls for starting with intelligence operations and later

deploying 4,000 to 5,000 soldiers-for-hire from Colombia and other Latin

American nations to conduct combat and stabilization operations.”</blockquote>

Perhaps the most interesting detail to be revealed is the need for a

triggering event that could set a final bid for coup over the top, after

a number of small attempts failed to gain enough momentum in the past

months.

Reuters’ sources described what Prince <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-erikprince-exclusi/exclusive-blackwater-founders-latest-sales-pitch-mercenaries-for-venezuela-idUSKCN1S608F" target="_blank">called</a> a “dynamic event”:

<blockquote>One of Prince’s key arguments, one source said, is that Venezuela needs what Prince calls a “dynamic event” to break the stalemate that has existed since January,

when Guaido – the head of Venezuela’s National Assembly – declared

Maduro’s 2018 re-election illegitimate and invoked the constitution to

assume the interim presidency.”</blockquote>

In 2017, Prince is known to have lobbied the Trump administration for using private contractors to stabilize the Middle East.

He’s made headlines last year after <a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-08-19/trump-mulling-blackwater-founder-erik-princes-plan-privatize-war-afghanistan" target="_blank">pitching an idea</a> to privatize the wars in Afghanistan and Syria to

Trump administration officials, which has reportedly met with little

progress, though there were some indicators Trump could be open to the

idea.

Iraq-style mercenary occupation of Venezuela? Erik Prince hopes so…

To the shock and surprise of many, a subsidiary of his Hong Kong-based Frontier Services Group <a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-04-28/its-2019-guess-whos-back-iraq" target="_blank">has been allowed to operate in Iraq</a>,

showing up in the southern city of Basra,  after both Prince and

Blackwater were formally barred by Iraq’s government from ever entering

the country again following the 2007 Nisour Square massacre.

As for Venezuela, things look to slowly destabilize further as

continued total economic collapse fuels an ongoing humanitarian

emergency, and on news of more <a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-04-30/venezuela-says-its-putting-down-ongoing-armed-coup-attempt" target="_blank">armed uprisings by military defectors</a> backing Guaido come out of Caracas.

Feature Photo | Blackwater founder Erik Prince testifies before a

House committee examining the mission and performance of private

military contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, Oct. 2, 2007. (Susan

Walsh/AP)

Source | <a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-04-30/blackwater-founder-calling-5000-mercenaries-topple-venezuelas-maduro" target="_blank">Zero Hedge</a></div><div>
</div>=
<a href="https://www.chathamhouse.org/publications/twt/rise-china-s-private-armies">https://www.chathamhouse.org/publications/twt/rise-china-s-private-armies</a><div class="media media-element-container media-main_image_with_description" style="margin: 0px -6em 1em 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">[pix:

Special forces of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization – which links

China and Russia with Central Asian countries and India and Pakistan –

take part in joint military excercises]</div>The

increasing use of private security companies and military contractors

has changed the conduct of war in recent years. In Syria, Yemen,

Afghanistan and other fault lines across the world, small teams of elite

operators – in units consisting of 15 men or fewer – are outperforming

conventional troops. Increasingly arms and power are held in private

hands, instead of the state. As a result, the authority of the state can

be undermined and trust between governments broken. Central

Asia is now emerging as a front line for operations by private security

companies. The region will be a central transport conduit for China’s

regional development project, the Belt and Road Initiative, which

promises to revive connections between the East and West. Increased

interest by Chinese private security companies in the region, if

unregulated, would damage regional stability and cooperation.Chinese

private security companies grew up after 11 Chinese builders working on

a World Bank project in Afghanistan were shot dead by the Taliban in

Before 2006, when a new external security affairs department was

established, Chinese embassies had little back-up if citizens were

attacked or needed to be evacuated. While

the Chinese government has been hesitant to send police forces to

protect its interests abroad, China’s expanding footprint in Africa and

other unstable areas around the world has spurred demand for private

security. Between 2006 and 2010, the government had to rescue 6,000

citizens from countries including East Timor, Chad, Lebanon, Solomon

Islands, Tonga, Thailand and Haiti. In 2011, conditions in Libya and

Egypt meant 48,000 Chinese citizens had to be evacuated.Mounting

costs and obstacles in coordinating evacuation efforts may have led the

Chinese government to re-evaluate its security strategy for people

working abroad. Early experiments with hiring western security

contractors were disappointing, which only served to increase the demand

for homegrown security firms. Importantly, the impetus to create these

Chinese security firms was driven by market incentives, not political

mandate. Beijing

Security Service and Hua Xin Zhong An Security Service, two of the

first security enterprises to spring up, offered basic security

provision for clients operating in mainland China, with limited

interests in Africa. By 2010, a new breed of security firm had emerged

offering highly trained special operations forces to protect Chinese

personnel in state-owned Chinese oil and gas companies or banks working

in such places as Iraq, Afghanistan or Pakistan. These included Shandong

Huawei Security Group, the first Chinese security firm to open an

overseas office, and DeWe Security Service, a firm operating in 37

countries that played a vital role in evacuations from African war

zones. Boutique security firms such as Ding Tai An Yuan Security have

found new markets addressing specific security challenges unique to the

Belt and Road Initiative. Africa

has been the main region of operation for these Chinese firms, but as

the Belt and Road project expands through Central Asia, the energy and

resources of those firms will probably be redirected there.Hybrid species on the marchOver

the past 15 years, the Chinese private security industry has modernized

the services offered to clients, who remain mostly Chinese. Until 2014,

these firms were all funded and manned by Chinese nationals. The

emergence of Frontier Services Group (FSG) has seen a radical change.

Headed by Erik Prince, a former Navy SEAL and founder of Blackwater,

this Hong Kong-based company is the first Chinese-funded,

American-operated private security group. The organization, previously

known as DVN (Holdings) Limited, was originally an aviation and

logistics company providing additional security and training services.

Its corporate structure is unique in China. Many of its senior

management, including Prince as chairman, are non-Chinese – specifically

retired American military specialists. With Chinese backing, Prince

stated that he could ‘pursue [his] vision for Africa and globally in a

transparent manner and with the most respected partners’. Indeed, many

of his firm’s clients are Chinese private companies or state-owned

enterprises with interests in infrastructure, oil and gas, and mining in

Africa.From

the beginning, FSG has made efforts to distinguish itself from

Blackwater, the private military company now renamed Academi, whose

reputation was tarnished by the killing of 14 Iraqi civilians in

Baghdad’s Nisour Square in 2007. FSG has enjoyed success with logistical

projects in Africa and has hired legal advisers and auditors to provide

transparent annual reports for public scrutiny. In 2016, FSG became a

service provider for companies participating in the Belt and Road

Initiative, and began setting up offices in Myanmar, Laos and Pakistan.

Future offices are planned for Thailand, Cambodia, Kazakhstan and

Uzbekistan.<blockquote style="margin: 1em -2em 1em 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">‘Most

security challenges stem from clashes between the locals and workers

and the fear that an influx of Chinese will affect demographics’</blockquote>In

late 2017, FSG revealed an expanded range of services – including an

offer to the Afghan government of the use of its aircraft for

close-support combat operations. In 2018, Prince offered the US

government use of his private contractors to bring the 17-year Afghan

conflict to an end. His proposal argued that traditional troop

deployments could be substituted by 6,000 contractors and 2,000 US

Special Forces, cutting the annual cost of the war from $68 billion to

$5.5 billion. Since

the collapse of the Soviet Union, China has developed closer relations

with Central Asia through cooperative security arrangements. The

framework of the Shanghai Five group, comprising China, Kazakhstan,

Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan, successfully resolved border disputes

between its members and was later expanded into the Shanghai

Cooperation Organization, to create a platform for cooperation on

counterterrorism and security. In recent years, China’s economic

interests have entered the picture; for example, its oil and gas

interests in Central Asia are growing year on year and are challenging

the dominance of Russian energy groups Gazprom and Lukoil. One example

of a Chinese project is the Turkmenistan-China gas pipeline, that

travels across Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. In

Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan, Chinese state-owned enterprises

have invested heavily in energy, infrastructure and logistics, helping

to connect China to Middle Eastern markets and beyond. Chinese projects

and workers continue to pour into the region, and new security

challenges will naturally rise. The question is how will Chinese

companies choose to resolve these new challenges? Western observers

believe that private security firms can protect Chinese interests in

Central Asia as they have in Africa. However, Central Asian observers

would disagree: unlike many African states, the countries of Central

Asia possess effective troops who can deal with security threats,

because stability is their principal foreign policy concern. Kazakhstan

and Uzbekistan, for example, are ranked among the top 50 most powerful

armies in the world, according to Global Firepower.Most

of the security challenges facing Chinese companies stem not from

the inability of Central Asian countries to provide basic security, but

from clashes between the local populations and workers and the deeply

rooted fear that an influx of Chinese workers might affect

demographics. Examples

were the clashes between locals and workers in 2014 at two oil refinery

construction sites owned by Chinese construction company Zhongda Group

in Kyrgyzstan, one at Tokmok and the other in nearby Kara-Balta. The

Kyrgyz government intervened successfully in both instances to deport

some of the unruly Chinese workers. The

latter type of security challenge was seen in Kazakhstan in early 2016,

when thousands of protesters rallied against land reforms proposed by

the Kazakh government in the oil cities of Atyrau and Aktau, because

they feared the new rules would permit Chinese investors to buy Kazakh

land. In some cases, security challenges take the form of terrorist

attacks, such as the suicide bombing of the Chinese embassy in Bishkek

by locals linked with Uyghur separatists that injured three local

embassy staff....---<h3 class="r dO0Ag" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; white-space: nowrap; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a class="l lLrAF" href="https://taskandpurpose.com/erik-prince-private-air-force" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">Podcast: Erik Prince Wants A Private Air Force</a></h3><div class="slp" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Task & Purpose-Sep 20, 2018</div><div class="st" style="line-height: 1.4; overflow-wrap: break-word; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The man behind defunct mercenary provider Blackwater sees private air power ... A new report links Erik Prince to efforts to buy or build private ...</div><div class="st" style="line-height: 1.4; overflow-wrap: break-word; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><h3 class="r dO0Ag" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; white-space: nowrap; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a class="l lLrAF" href="https://www.thenational.ae/world/the-americas/erik-prince-says-mercenaries-could-replace-us-troops-in-syria-1.814384" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">Erik Prince says mercenaries could replace US troops in Syria</a></h3><div class="slp" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The National-Jan 16, 2019</div><div class="st" style="line-height: 1.4; overflow-wrap: break-word; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">American troops in Syria could be replaced with private military contractors, ErikPrince, a former executive at security firm Blackwater has said.</div>==ANLast

week, President Donald Trump sent shock waves through the United States

military with the announcement that he would be withdrawing all U.S.

troops from war-torn Syria—and on top of that, Trump is planning a

substantial reduction of U.S. forces in Afghanistan.The

decision to pull out of Syria didn’t sit well with Defense Secretary

James Mattis, who announced his resignation. And Trump’s announcements

on Syria and Afghanistan have been followed by an <a href="https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2018/12/21/mattis-is-out-and-blackwater-is-back-we-are-coming/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">ominous new ad</a> from the former Blackwater, the militarized security company responsible for the Nisour Square massacre of 2007.The

former Blackwater, which now goes by Academi, took out a full-page ad

in the January/February 2019 issue of Recoil Magazine. The ad doesn’t

say much: only the words “<a href="https://www.news.com.au/technology/innovation/military/ominous-blackwater-is-coming-advert-raises-prospect-trump-has-privatised-war/news-story/784ce81fc6ebdd9113edba2e2da17044?fbclid=IwAR23OZAXjrcJn5nWu3w4kXXik9L4h15GkFYC8vIUUs2J7s5AtXBUsGgD3ic" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">We are coming</a>”

in all capital letters, with the militarized security company’s

familiar bear paw logo at the bottom of the page. And one cannot help

but wonder if the “We are coming” message is meant for Syria and/or

Afghanistan.Blackwater

was founded in 1997 in North Carolina by former U.S. Navy SEAL Erik

Prince—brother of the Trump Administration’s secretary of education,

Betsy DeVos—and his associate Al Clark. During the Iraq War, the federal

government under the Bush Administration hired Blackwater for private

security operations in Iraq—and the most infamous day in the company’s

21-year history was September 16, 2007.That

day, Blackwater escorted a convoy of U.S. State Department vehicles to a

meeting in Baghdad—and 17 people were killed when Blackwater

mercenaries opened fire on a crowd of civilians in Nasour Square. That

horrifying incident became the subject of several investigations,

including one by the FBI—which determined that at least 14 of the 17

were fired upon without cause.In August, Prince suggested that Trump remove all U.S. troops from Afghanistan and replace them with <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/military/officials-worry-trump-may-back-erik-prince-plan-privatize-war-n901401?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_mtp" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">privatized military contractors</a>.

A spokesperson for the National Security Council, interviewed

anonymously, told NBC News, “No such proposal from Erik Prince is under

consideration.” But four months later—with Mattis’ resignation and

Trump’s recent announcements of U.S. withdrawal from Syria and a major

reduction of U.S. forces in Afghanistan—one cannot help but wonder what

the former Blackwater has in mind for the Middle East. Are they hoping

to privatize the United States’ military operations in that part of the

world?In

2009, Blackwater changed its name to Xe Services before changing it to

Academi in 2011. But the notorious bear paw logo remains—and in light of

the company’s infamous history and recent developments with Syria and

Afghanistan, the “We are coming” ad should not be taken lightly.=yemen<div>history, not civil war but clash of empires</div><div>
</div><div>Brit</div><div>
</div><div>marxist south, effective army feared by saudis</div><div>bush41</div><div>clerics thwart oil/empire efforts</div><div>
</div><div>blackwater</div><div>
</div><div><a href="https://kpfa.org/episode/letters-and-politics-april-30-2018/">https://kpfa.org/episode/letters-and-politics-april-30-2018/</a></div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>=</div>===<a href="http://www.rawstory.com/2010/09/disney-monsanto-discovered-blackwaters-hidden-clients/"> http://www.rawstory.com/2010/09/disney-monsanto-discovered-blackwaters-hidden-clients/</a>on list: Royal Caribbean, Deutsche Bank, ChevronAlmost three years ago exactly — Sept. 17, 2007 — a cadre of guards from the security firm then known as Blackwater <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/08/world/middleeast/08blackwater.html" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: bold; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 300ms, background-color 300ms, opacity 300ms;">shot and killed 17 Iraqis at a public plaza in Baghdad</a>.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 <a href="http://www.thenation.com/article/154739/blackwaters-black-ops" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: bold; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 300ms, background-color 300ms, opacity 300ms;">handling intelligence ops for publicly-traded US companies</a>.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 <a href="http://www.thenation.com/article/154739/blackwaters-black-ops" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: bold; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 300ms, background-color 300ms, opacity 300ms;">documents Scahill obtained</a>.Blackwater’s

owner and founder, Erik Prince — who has himself been linked to the CIA

— helped train companies through two other firms he controlled: Total

Intelligence Solutions and the Terrorism Research Center.Perhaps unsurprisingly, no one responded to requests for comment.Monsanto topped the list of firms using Prince’s services, Scahill writes.“According

to internal Total Intelligence communications, biotech giant

Monsanto—the world’s largest supplier of genetically modified

seeds—hired the firm in 2008–09,” the reporter writes. “The relationship

between the two companies appears to have been solidified in January

2008 when Total Intelligence chair Cofer Black traveled to Zurich to meet with… Monsanto’s security manager for global issues.”<blockquote style="border-color: rgb(207, 207, 207); margin: 10px 10px 10px 20px; padding: 15px 20px 15px 25px; border-width: 0px 0px 0px 3px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; border-left-style: solid; border-image: initial; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; quotes: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“After

the meeting in Zurich, Black sent an e-mail to other Blackwater

executives…. saying that Wilson “understands that we can span collection

from internet, to reach out, to boots on the ground on legit basis

protecting the Monsanto [brand] name…. Ahead of the curve info and

insight/heads up is what he is looking for.” Black added that Total

Intelligence “would develop into acting as intel arm of Monsanto.” Black

also noted that Monsanto was concerned about animal rights activists

and that they discussed how Blackwater “could have our person(s)

actually join [activist] group(s) legally.” Black wrote that initial

payments to Total Intelligence would be paid out of Monsanto’s “generous

protection budget” but would eventually become a line item in the

company’s annual budget. He estimated the potential payments to Total

Intelligence at between $100,000 and $500,000. According to documents,

Monsanto paid Total Intelligence $127,000 in 2008 and $105,000 in 2009.….In

an… e-mail to The Nation, Wilson confirmed he met Black in Zurich and

that Monsanto hired Total Intelligence in 2008 and worked with the

company until early 2010. He denied that he and Black discussed

infiltrating animal rights groups, stating “there was no such

discussion.” He claimed that Total Intelligence only provided Monsanto

“with reports about the activities of groups or individuals that could

pose a risk to company personnel or operations around the world which

were developed by monitoring local media reports and other publicly

available information. The subject matter ranged from information

regarding terrorist incidents in Asia or kidnappings in Central America

to scanning the content of activist blogs and websites.” Wilson asserted

that Black told him Total Intelligence was “a completely separate

entity from Blackwater.”</blockquote>Walt Disney?<blockquote style="border-color: rgb(207, 207, 207); margin: 10px 10px 10px 20px; padding: 15px 20px 15px 25px; border-width: 0px 0px 0px 3px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; border-left-style: solid; border-image: initial; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; quotes: none;">The

Walt Disney Company hired Total Intelligence and TRC to do a “threat

assessment” for potential film shoot locations in Morocco, with former

CIA officials Black and Richer reaching out to their former Moroccan

intel counterparts for information. The job provided a “good chance to

impress Disney,” one company executive wrote. How impressed Disney was

is not clear; in 2009 the company paid Total Intelligence just $24,000.</blockquote>And Deutsche Bank?<blockquote style="border-color: rgb(207, 207, 207); margin: 10px 10px 10px 20px; padding: 15px 20px 15px 25px; border-width: 0px 0px 0px 3px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; border-left-style: solid; border-image: initial; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; quotes: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Total

Intelligence and TRC also provided intelligence assessments on China to

Deutsche Bank. “The Chinese technical counterintelligence threat is one

of the highest in the world,” a TRC analyst wrote, adding, “Many four

and five star hotel rooms and restaurants are live-monitored with both

audio and video” by Chinese intelligence. He also said that computers,

PDAs and other electronic devices left unattended in hotel rooms could

be cloned. Cellphones using the Chinese networks, the analyst wrote,

could have their microphones remotely activated, meaning they could

operate as permanent listening devices. He concluded that Deutsche Bank

reps should “bring no electronic equipment into China.” Warning of the

use of female Chinese agents, the analyst wrote, “If you don’t have

women coming onto you all the time at home, then you should be

suspicious if they start coming onto you when you arrive in China.” For

these and other services, the bank paid Total Intelligence $70,000 in

2009.</blockquote>Prince, now the owner of Blackwater successor Xe Services, has his eyes on another target: the Democrats.He’s

now writing a book alleging that officials in the Clinton and Obama

administrations “approved of his most sensitive and controversial

operations,” according to a report by veteran intel reporter Jeff Stein <a href="http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/09/blackwater-targets-dems-defeat" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: bold; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 300ms, background-color 300ms, opacity 300ms;">published in The Washington Post earlier this month.</a>The Post‘s

Jeff Stein cited two unnamed sources who say Erik Prince, the founder

of Blackwater, is hurrying to sell his company before he can go public

with a book that takes aim at the Democratic Party. One of the sources

told Stein that Prince and his friends “think this will destroy the

Democratic Party in the elections.”The

source, who is described as having a “business relationship with Xe,”

said Prince had “given his people three weeks to complete the sale of

the company and the book will be released then,” in time for the

November elections.<a href="http://www.thenation.com/article/154739/blackwaters-black-ops?page=0,1" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 300ms, background-color 300ms, opacity 300ms;">To

read about the firm’s work for Barclay’s, and the companies network of

“black op” subsidiaries, click here to for Scahill’s full report</a>.=reese blackswan  raytheon<a href="http://s3.amazonaws.com/hamptonroadscom/store/1451.pdf"> http://s3.amazonaws.com/hamptonroadscom/store/1451.pdf</a>

==

http://www.democracynow.org/ 3/25/16

blackwater==

<a href="http://www.democracynow.org/"> http://www.democracynow.org/</a> 3/25/16

blackwater 3/25/16

blackwater<a href="http://www.c-span.org/video/?328719-1/book-discussion-disaster-capitalism">http://www.c-span.org/video/?328719-1/book-discussion-disaster-capitalism</a>erik p frontier mining concessions<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.85em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px rgb(225, 225, 225); font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 19.2px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);">Now,

sitting in a boardroom above Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour, he explains

his newest title, acquired this month: chairman of Frontier Services

Group, an Africa-focused security and logistics company with intimate

ties to China’s largest state-owned conglomerate, Citic Group. Beijing

has titanic ambitions to tap Africa’s resources—including $1 trillion in

planned spending on roads, railways and airports by 2025—and Mr. Prince

wants in.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.85em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px rgb(225, 225, 225); font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 19.2px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);">With

a public listing in Hong Kong, and with Citic as its second-largest

shareholder (a 15% stake) and Citic executives sitting on its board,

Frontier Services Group is a long way from Blackwater’s CIA ties and $2

billion in U.S. government contracts. For that, Mr. Prince is relieved.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.85em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px rgb(225, 225, 225); font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 19.2px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);">“I

would rather deal with the vagaries of investing in Africa than in

figuring out what the hell else Washington is going to do to the

entrepreneur next,” says the crew-cut 44-year-old.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.85em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px rgb(225, 225, 225); font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 19.2px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);">Having

launched Blackwater in 1997 as a rural North Carolina training facility

for U.S. soldiers and police, Mr. Prince says he “kept saying ‘yes’ as

the demand curve called—Columbine, the USS Cole and then 9/11.” In

100,000 missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, he says, Blackwater

contractors never lost a U.S. official under their protection. But the

company gained a trigger-happy reputation, especially after a September

2007 shootout that left 17 civilians dead in Baghdad’s Nisour Square.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.85em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px rgb(225, 225, 225); font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 19.2px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);">At

that point, charges Mr. Prince, Blackwater was “completely thrown under

the bus by a fickle customer”—the U.S. government, and especially the

State Department. He says Washington opted to “churn up the entire

federal bureaucracy” and sic it on Blackwater “like a bunch of rabid

dogs.” According to Mr. Prince, IRS auditors told his colleagues that

they had “never been under so much pressure to get someone as to get

Erik Prince,” and congressional staffers promised, “We’re going to ride

you till you’re out of business.”…<span id="more-147422" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px rgb(225, 225, 225); font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" /><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.85em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px rgb(225, 225, 225); font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 19.2px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);">Which

brings him to Hong Kong and his new firm. “This is not a patriotic

endeavor of ours—we’re here to build a great business and make some

money doing it,” he says. Asia, and especially China, “has the appetite

to take frontier risk, that expeditionary risk of going to those

less-certain, less-normal markets and figuring out how to make it

happen.” Mr. Prince says “critics can throw stones all they want” but he

is quick to point out that he has “a lot of experience in dealing in

uncertainties in difficult places,” and says “this is a very rational

decision—made, I guess, emotionless.”…<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.85em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px rgb(225, 225, 225); font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 19.2px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);">“The

U.S. has been fixated on terrorism the last 10 or 15 years,” says Mr.

Prince, “and American companies by and large haven’t had the appetite

for Africa.” In 2010 the African Development Bank found that Chinese

firms signed 20 contracts in Africa for every one signed by an American

firm. But does post-9/11 distraction really explain this discrepancy?<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.85em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px rgb(225, 225, 225); font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 19.2px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);">A

better explanation would begin with China’s state-directed investment

strategy, which funds opaque state-owned firms to operate across Africa

with little regard for trifles such as financial transparency,

environmental degradation or human rights. When a tyrant like Sudan’s

Omar al-Bashir can’t get Western financing for a mega-dam across the

Nile River, China arrives with an easy loan, some state-owned firms to

build the dam and some others to claim oil or mineral concessions

elsewhere in the country. Beijing’s approach has helped boost African

economic growth—projected at 6% this year by the International Monetary

Fund—but it has also helped entrench some of the world’s most oppressive

governments…http://www.balloon-juice.com/2014/01/27/erik-prince-chicom-stooge/--<a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamespoulos/2014/01/25/ex-blackwater-ceo-erik-prince-africa-neocolonial-with-china/">http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamespoulos/2014/01/25/ex-blackwater-ceo-erik-prince-africa-neocolonial-with-china/</a>dryden " he conqiers who thinks he can; ibm ad on risk w/ smart looking einence grise but just a bit)What happens when America outsources its craziest security assignments to a private contractor, then throws him under the bus?<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4em; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; -webkit-padding-start: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Answer: an object lesson in the craziness that awaits when he makes his next big move.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4em; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; -webkit-padding-start: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The <a href="http://www.forbes.com/wall-street/" target="_self" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;">Wall Street</a> Journal <a href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303465004579324650302912522" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;">sat down</a> — in Hong Kong — with Erik Prince, former CEO of the notorious Blackwater firm. Guess what he’s doing there?<blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1.75em; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; quotes: none; position: relative; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4em; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; -webkit-padding-start: 0px;">Now,

sitting in a boardroom above Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour, he explains

his newest title, acquired this month: chairman of Frontier Services

Group, an Africa-focused security and logistics company with intimate

ties to China’s largest state-owned conglomerate, Citic Group. Beijing

has titanic ambitions to tap Africa’s resources—including $1 trillion in

planned spending on roads, railways and airports by 2025—and Mr. Prince

wants in.</blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4em; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; -webkit-padding-start: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Once, policymakers traded blame for “losing China.” Will anyone ask who lost Erik Prince?<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4em; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-margin-after: 0px; -webkit-padding-start: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Prince

himself is clear about what sent him packing. Though the ordeal of

falling out with the federal government was intense — Prince claims he

was the top target of IRS auditors — that’s all in the past. It’s

America’s future that has Prince turning to China. “”I would rather deal

with the vagaries of investing in Africa,” he told the Journal, “than in figuring out what the hell else <a href="http://www.forbes.com/washington/" target="_self" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;">Washington</a> is

going to do to the entrepreneur next.” While America has lost its

stomach for massive adventures, China “has the appetite to take frontier

risk, that expeditionary risk of going to those less-certain,

less-normal markets and figuring out how to make it happen.”...?!
=<a href="http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/07/01/blackwaters-descendants-are-doing-just-fine/">http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/07/01/blackwaters-descendants-are-doing-just-fine/</a>Blackwater is no more. But its descendants live on — and they’re still raking in government money.

The company whose name is synonymous with some of the worst excesses of the Iraq war — and which

earned more than $1 billion protecting U.S. facilities and personnel during the conflict — is back in the

news because of an explosive New York Times story revealing that one of its top officials in Baghdad

threatened to kill a State Department auditor who raised questions about its lucrative contracts.

Just weeks after the alleged threats, Blackwater guards killed 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad’s Nisour Square,

a massacre that permanently strained ties between Iraq and the United States and triggered a criminal

case against the guards that continues to this day.

The article is in one sense a literal blast from the past. Blackwater changed its name to Xe Services in 2009,

in part because its brand had become so toxic after Nisour Square, and then sold itself to a group of outside

investors in 2010. The board of the new company, ACADEMI, includes former Attorney General John

Ashcroft and former San Antonio Spurs owner Red McCombs.

Erik Prince, Blackwater’s flamboyant founder and former chief executive officer, moved to Abu Dhabi,

where he has been linked to quixotic efforts to build a mercenary force for the United Arab Emirates and a

paramilitary outfit designed to battle Somali pirates. He also wrote a book defending his actions during

the war and was working on creating a video game featuring unnamed contractors shooting their way

through a war zone. 10/24/2015 Blackwater’s Descendants Are Doing Just Fine | Foreign Policy

http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/07/01/blackwatersdescendantsaredoingjustfine/ 2/8
 Prince may no longer be working on U.S. contracts, but Blackwater’s descendants are still scoring big jobs,

providing training and embassy security around the world. With fewer contracts coming from Iraq and

Afghanistan, consolidation across the security business means that the State Department — which

remains heavily dependent on private-sector guards for its embassies and consulates — has a smaller and

smaller number of companies from which to choose. That, in turn, means big profits for the remaining

heavyweights, including those that own what had once been Blackwater.

In 2013, for instance, ACADEMI’s subsidiary International Development Solutions* received roughly $92

million in contracts from the State Department for security guards. More recently, ACADEMI, based in

McLean, Virginia, and with 1,250 employees, received a $9 million contract from the Pentagon for private

security services in Afghanistan.

In addition to protecting U.S. installations in the war zones, ACADEMI also has contracts to train Pentagon

personnel heading abroad at the 7,000-acre training center in Moyock, North Carolina, which was built by

Prince as the centerpiece of his Blackwater empire. The site features multiple firing ranges, a three-mile

driving track, and two airfields.

The steady government work has made ACADEMI, like Blackwater before it, attractive to outside

investors. In early June, ACADEMI joined forces with rival private security company Triple Canopy to

form Constellis Holdings, adding even more distance (and name changes) between it and the original

Blackwater.

Triple Canopy is one of several private security companies hired by the State Department to protect its

embassies and consulates around the world. It had a particularly good year in 2012, when it received more

than $200 million in contracts for security of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. The next year it received $5

million more to protect the U.S. Consulate in Basra in Iraq.

By merging, ACADEMI and Triple Canopy will have over 6,000 employees, shrinking competition in the

U.S. market and highlighting the increasing consolidation of what had once been a freewheeling industry.The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction reported that of the $4 billion obligated to

the State Department for Afghanistan reconstruction from 2002 to March 2013, for instance, DynCorp

received 69 percent, or nearly $3 billion.

And with over 618,000 employees worldwide, the London-based global security company G4S is one of the

world’s largest private employers.

But with Blackwater in the news again, questions are once again being raised about the role of these

companies and whether governments that are excessively reliant on their services are able to properly

oversee them.

Meanwhile, Blackwater’s reckless reputation has become so well known that its follow-on companies have

worked hard to distance themselves from it. First and foremost, they take great pains to point out that they

have nothing to do with Prince, Blackwater’s infamous founder.

For example, here’s one of the FAQs on ACADEMI’s website: Is ACADEMI associated with Erik Prince or

the former Blackwater?

The answer: "No … Erik Prince took both the Blackwater name and legacy with him when he sold the

facility."

ACADEMI spokeswoman Callie Wang says the company is entirely separate from Blackwater and has

absolutely no involvement in the criminal trial of the Blackwater guards.

When private investors bought Blackwater’s North Carolina training center in 2010, they implemented

"significantly more than a cosmetic name change," Wang said. "We’ve built a record of excellence."

Most recently, ACADEMI had to dispel rumors that its employees were operating in Ukraine. Once again,

Blackwater’s past haunted the rebuilt company.

"ACADEMI is not Blackwater, and ACADEMI has no personnel in Ukraine," the company said in a

statement.And in response to a request for comment, Triple Canopy said, "We respectfully decline the interview

since we have no direct connection with the subject matter."

Still, the twisted saga of Blackwater’s post-Iraq history vividly illustrates the ways the hugely lucrative

security business has evolved since its glory days during the long war there.

"It’s not the ACADEMIs and Triple Canopies you really have to worry about, but the much smaller

companies that are cropping up in Africa and elsewhere in the world," said Sean McFate, author of the

forthcoming book The Modern Mercenary. "There are new actors, smaller companies, emerging every

day."

McFate, who used to work in Africa for DynCorp alongside Blackwater contractors, said that while

Blackwater isn’t representative of the industry, he expects future atrocities to occur as the global security

industry gets bigger.

"The industry is indeed growing, but not the way people think," McFate said. "Private military companies

are no longer just U.S.-based; they’re appearing around the world. They are also going native, as warlords

and others refashion themselves as for-rent security."

And Prince himself is very much still in the business.

A former U.S. Navy SEAL, Prince founded Blackwater in 1997 when he bought up land in North Carolina

and built a training site for military and law enforcement officials.

A turning point for the company came with the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen. Blackwater was

hired by the Navy to train U.S. sailors how to protect themselves from attackers. It was a big contract that

in turn led to further business, but it wasn’t until the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that the company really

took off. Over the decade, the company won well over $1 billion in government contracts and its guards

became famous for their cowboy swagger. The public first became aware of Blackwater in 2004, when four of its employees were killed, their bodies

burned and hung from a bridge in Fallujah. Then on Christmas Eve in 2006, an off-duty Blackwater

employee shot and killed an Iraqi security guard inside the Green Zone, increasing pressure on the Bush

administration to hold private security contractors accountable for crimes committed in war zones.

The Nisour shooting in September 2007 left Blackwater’s reputation irreversibly damaged.

Prince tried to rebrand the company, renaming it Xe Services in 2009. But then in April 2010, five former

employees of Blackwater were charged with violating federal arms laws after falsifying paperwork to

conceal the fact that they’d given Jordan’s King Abdullah II firearms as a gift. The charges threatened to

end Xe Service’s U.S. contracting business, and so Prince moved to sell the company and separate himself

from it.

His family’s financial adviser from 1998 to 2002, Jason DeYonker, led the sale, organizing a group of

private investors to purchase the company’s North Carolina training site for a reported $200 million.

DeYonker continues to sit on the board of ACADEMI and is one of eight men on the board of Constellis

Holdings.

In 2010, Prince also sold Greystone, an affiliate of Blackwater that did work for the CIA. The company is

still operating under its original name and its website lists offices in Chesapeake, Virginia, and Abu Dhabi.

Around that time, Prince also sold Aviation Worldwide Services, which provided things like ISR

(intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance), airdrops, and defensive air support, to AAR Corp.

After selling his companies, Prince moved to Abu Dhabi, where he’s been implicated in a handful of

secretive — and largely unsuccessful — security contracts like training Somalis to combat pirates.

Prince told Bloomberg Businessweek‘s Drake Bennett in November 2013 that he had done consulting work

for Reflex Resources, or R2, which had a contract with the United Arab Emirates to build a battalion of

foreign troops for the country. But he said he was mostly busy "running a small fund and investing in

Africa."His small fund is called Frontier Resource Group, a private equity firm based in Abu Dhabi, which has a

contract with the South Sudanese government to build an oil refinery. The project was temporarily put on

hold earlier this year, when the security situation in the country grew too dangerous.

Fortuna audaces iuvat, or "fortune favors the bold," reads the Frontier Resource Group’s website.

An email to the company’s address bounced back, saying the account does not exist.

While Prince pursued projects overseas, the firearms charges over the former Blackwater employees did

not go away.

That is, until this February, when most of the charges were dismissed after retired CIA officials testified

the weapons had been given to the Jordanian king with the authorization of the CIA.

Then at the beginning of June, the merger between ACADEMI and Triple Canopy was finalized.

The new company will be led by ACADEMI’s CEO Craig Nixon, who joined the company after spending

two years as a partner at the McChrystal Group, a consulting company formed by Gen. Stanley McChrystal

after he retired in 2010.

Nixon retired from the Army in 2011; his final assignment was as the deputy director of operations

responsible for force protection for the U.S. Central Command.

The companies will continue to operate as separate entities and will keep their individual names,

ACADEMI’s spokeswoman said.

Journalist and author Robert Young Pelton, who was hired by Prince in 2011 to ghostwrite his memoir, but

is now suing him for failing to pay him the agreed fee, says the name changes don’t mean much. "It

doesn’t matter who has the contract, they’re all the same people. Constellis represents a clean slate until

they f* up and get thrown under the bus."

10/24/2015 Blackwater’s Descendants Are Doing Just Fine | Foreign Policy

http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/07/01/blackwatersdescendantsaredoingjustfine/ 7/8

This is inevitable, Pelton said, because the government has a bizarre love-hate relationship with these

companies. On the one hand, they’re reliant on them to outsource political risk and on the other, eager to

slap them in public whenever scandal happens.

Correction, July 2, 2014: The name of the ACADEMI subsidiary that has received $92 million in State

Department contracts for security guards is International Development Solutions. An earlier version of

this story incorrectly called the company International Development Services. (Return to reading.)==http://www.voltairenet.org/article179691.htmlbad transAcademi

(ex-Blackwater), the world’s most powerful private army, reveals having

been signed over, without indicating the name of the buyer, nor the

amount for which it was bought.According to SouthWeb.org, it’s the biotechnology multinational Monsanto who would be the happy acquirer [<a href="http://www.voltairenet.org/article179691.html#nb1" class="spip_note" rel="footnote" title="“Monsanto Buys Blackwater, the largest mercenary army in the world”, (...)" id="nh1" style="text-decoration: none;">1</a>].Created

in 1901, Monsanto debuted as a saccharine producer, used by Coca-Cola.

During World War II, it supplied uranium for the Manhattan project, then

while the Vietnam war, a potent herbicide to defoliate the jungle. For

now over thirty years, Monsanto has become the global leader for

genetically modified organisms. With a revenue of over 13,5 billion

dollars, it is the 206st US multinational.Academi

was created by Erik Prince in 1997, under the name Blackwater

Worldwide. The company, of which some managers are linked to Evangelic

churches financed by the Pentagon, played a role, in Afghanistan in

Iraq, comparable to that which played the Order of Malta, during the

Nicaragua War. It is presided by Billy Joe (Red), McCombs (347th US

fortune), John Aschcroft (former US Attorney general) and the admiral

Bobby R. Inman (former NSA director and deputy director of the CIA).

Academi, which works mainly pour the US government, participated in the

Tripoli battle (Libya) and is currently recruiting combatants to do the

Jihad in Syria.Blackwater’s

growth is partly due to the US Army Privatization Project, supported by

the former Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld. However, this policy

being a failure and budget restrictions helping, Academi is now only

entrusted with surveillance or escort on secret operations ground, by

Washington. It’s reputation has helped it obtain mercenary contracts

from small states, particularly in the Persian Golf.According

to SouthWeb, Academi’s purchase is linked to the admission of the Bill

and Melinda Gates Foundation in Monsanto’s capital. Created by

Microsoft’s founder and the speculator Warren Buffet (the first two

fortunes of the United-States), it’s the most important

’’philanthropic’’ foundation in the world. It notably launched, with the

Rockfeller foundation, the AGRA (Alliance for a Green Revolution in

Africa), which aims to expand usage of Monsanto seeds on the black

continent.<div>===</div><div><a href="http://www.projectcensored.org/private-military-companies-in-service-to-the-transnational-capitalist-class/">http://www.projectcensored.org/private-military-companies-in-service-to-the-transnational-capitalist-class/</a></div><div>
</div><div>Globalization

of trade and central banking has propelled private corporations to

positions of power and control never before seen in human history. Under

advanced capitalism, the structural demands for a return on investment

require an unending expansion of centralized capital in the hands of

fewer and fewer people. The financial center of global capitalism is so

highly concentrated that less than a few thousand people dominate and control $100 trillion of wealth.The few thousand people controlling global capital amounts to less than 0.0001 percent of the world’s population. They

are the transnational capitalist class (TCC), who, as the capitalist

elite of the world, dominate nation-states through international trade

agreements and transnational state organizations such as the World Bank,

the Bank for International Settlements, and the International Monetary

Fund.The

TCC communicates their policy requirements through global networks such

as the G-7 and G-20, and various nongovernmental policy organizations

such as the World Economic Forum, the Trilateral Commission, and the

Bilderberger Group. The TCC represents the interests of hundreds of

thousands of millionaires and billionaires who comprise the richest

people in the top 1 percent of the world’s wealth hierarchy.The

TCC are keenly aware of both their elite status and their increasing

vulnerabilities to democracy movements and to unrest from below. The

military empire dominated by the US and the North Atlantic Treaty

Organization (NATO) serves to protect TCC investments around the world.

Wars, regime changes, and occupations performed in service of empire

support investors’ access to natural resources and their speculative

advantages in the market place.When

the empire is slow to perform or faced with political resistance,

private security firms and private military companies (PMC) increasingly

fulfill the TCC’s demands for the protections of their assets. These

protection services include personal security for TCC executives and

their families, protection of safe residential and work zones, tactical

military advisory and training of national police and armed forces,

intelligence gathering on democracy movements and opposition groups,

weapons acquisitions and weapon systems management, and strike forces

for military actions and assassinations.The

expanding crisis of desperate masses/refugees, alienated work forces,

and environmental exhaustion means an unlimited opportunity for PMCs to

engage in protections services for the global elite.Estimates

are that over $200 billion a year is spent on private security

employing some fifteen million people worldwide. G4S is the largest PMC

in the world with 625,000 employees spanning five continents in more

than 120 countries. Nine of the largest money management firms in the

world have holdings in G4S. Some of its more important contractors are

the governments of the UK, the US, Israel, and Australia.  In the

private sector G4S has worked with corporations such as Chrysler, Apple,

and Bank of America. In Nigeria, Chevron contracts with G4S for

counterinsurgency operations including fast-response mercenaries. G4S

undertakes similar operations in South Sudan, and has provided

surveillance equipment for checkpoints and prisons in Israel and

security for Jewish settlements in Palestine.Another private military contractor Constellis Holdings—formerly Blackwater and Triple Canopy—is

a leading provider of security, support, and military advisory services

to the US government, foreign governments, multinational corporations,

and international organizations. Constellis

is managed by an all male board of directors including billionaire Red

McCombs; John Ashcroft, the former attorney general; retired admiral

Bobby Inman; and Jack Quinn, a leading Democratic advisor who served as

chief of staff to vice president Al Gore and as counsel to President

Clinton.Hundreds of private military contractors now play an important role in TCC security in the evolving 21st century

neo-fascist corporate world. Capital will be free to travel instantly

and internationally to anywhere that profits are possible, while

nation-states will become little more than population containment zones

with increasingly repressive labor controls. For these reasons, PMCs

must be understood as a component of neoliberal imperialism that now

supplements nation-states’ police powers and could eventually substitute

for them.</div>==          1. Blackwater USA - After the private security firm killed 17 Iraqi civilians, they turned to B-M for “crisis management.”  Former B-M executive Robert Tappan, who had been a State Department official, worked at the PR firm’s lobbying subsidiary, BKSH & Associates. Tappan

helped Blackwater founder and head Erik Prince prepare for his

testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Government

Reform. (In February, Blackwater, purportedly on the advice of B-M, changed its name to the mysterious Xe, pronounced Zee.) ZOE?===

<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater:The_Rise_of_the_World's_Most_Powerful_Mercenary_Army"> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater:The_Rise_of_the_World's_Most_Powerful_Mercenary_Army</a>Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army is a book written by independent journalist <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Scahill" title="Jeremy Scahill" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Jeremy Scahill</a>, published by Nation Books in 2007, as a history and analysis of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide" title="Blackwater Worldwide" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Blackwater USA</a>, now called Academi. It won a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Polk_Awards" title="George Polk Awards" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">George Polk Book Award</a>.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater:The_Rise_of_the_World's_Most_Powerful_Mercenary_Army#cite_note-1" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[1]</a><div id="toc" class="toc" style="border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 7px; display: table; zoom: 1; background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249);"><div id="toctitle" style="direction: ltr; text-align: center;"><h2 style="margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border: none; display: inline; line-height: 1.3; background: none;">Contents</h2> </div><ul style="line-height: 1.6; list-style-type: none; margin: 0.3em 0px; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater:The_Rise_of_the_World's_Most_Powerful_Mercenary_Army#Synopsis" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">1 Synopsis</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater:The_Rise_of_the_World's_Most_Powerful_Mercenary_Army#Media_attention" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">2 Media attention</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-3" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater:The_Rise_of_the_World's_Most_Powerful_Mercenary_Army#Editions" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">3 Editions</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-4" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater:The_Rise_of_the_World's_Most_Powerful_Mercenary_Army#References" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">4 References</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-5" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater:The_Rise_of_the_World's_Most_Powerful_Mercenary_Army#External_links" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">5 External links</a></li></ul></div><h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); line-height: 1.3; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Synopsis</h2>The book details the rise of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide" title="Blackwater Worldwide" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Blackwater USA</a>, a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_military_company" title="Private military company" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">private military company</a>, and the growth of security contracting in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_War" title="Iraq War" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Iraq War</a> and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_Terrorism" title="War on Terrorism" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">War on Terrorism</a>. In the book, Scahill contends that Blackwater exists as a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercenary" title="Mercenary" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">mercenary</a> force, and argues that Blackwater's rise is a consequence of the demobilisation of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_military" title="US military" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">US military</a> following the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_War" title="Cold War" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Cold War</a> and its overextension in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq" title="Iraq" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Iraq</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghanistan" title="Afghanistan" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Afghanistan</a>. He describes further how Blackwater (at the time of writing) serves in Iraq and Afghanistan like, in his judgement, a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Praetorian_Guard" title="Praetorian Guard" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Praetorian Guard</a>,

protecting top authority figures and enjoying immunity from the usual

constraints and regulations on traditional armies. Scahill argues that

Blackwater's leadership was motivated by a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-wing" title="Right-wing" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">right-wing</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Party_(United_States)" title="Republican Party (United States)" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Republican</a> ideology, and that its founder, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Prince" title="Erik Prince" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Erik Prince</a>, has provided significant assistance in that venue. Blackwater is also present in some parts of Pakistan....CBC interview with Scahill about the bookNPR interview with Scahill about the bookDemocracy Now! interview with Scahill about the bookThe Strategic Contractor - op-ed 19 Sept 2007 by The Hague Centre for Strategic StudiesBlackwater Founder Implicated in Murder by Jeremy Scahill, The Nation, August 4, 2009Blackwater's Dark Side Exposed - video news report by MSNBCIn Explosive Allegations, Ex-Employees Link Blackwater Founder to Murder, Threats - video by Democracy Now!Human Rights First; Private Security Contractors at War: Ending the Culture of Impunity (2008) =<ul style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0.3em 0px 0px 1.6em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: url("><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/2007/200703/20070314.html" style="text-decoration: none; padding-right: 13px; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent) 100% 50% no-repeat, url(">CBC interview</a> with Scahill about the book</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=8992128" style="text-decoration: none; padding-right: 13px; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent) 100% 50% no-repeat, url(">NPR interview</a> with Scahill about the book</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/20/1337226" style="text-decoration: none; padding-right: 13px; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent) 100% 50% no-repeat, url(">Democracy Now! interview</a> with Scahill about the book</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.hcss.nl/en/publication/389/The-Strategic-Contractor---Iraq,-Blackwater-and-Pr.html" style="text-decoration: none; padding-right: 13px; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent) 100% 50% no-repeat, url(">The Strategic Contractor - op-ed 19 Sept 2007 by The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies</a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090817/scahill" style="text-decoration: none; padding-right: 13px; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent) 100% 50% no-repeat, url(">Blackwater Founder Implicated in Murder</a> by Jeremy Scahill, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nation" title="The Nation" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">The Nation</a>, August 4, 2009</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22425001/vp/32291727#32291727" style="text-decoration: none; padding-right: 13px; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent) 100% 50% no-repeat, url(">Blackwater's Dark Side Exposed</a> - video news report by MSNBC</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.democracynow.org/2009/8/5/in_explosive_allegations_ex_employees_link" style="text-decoration: none; padding-right: 13px; background-image: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(">In Explosive Allegations, Ex-Employees Link Blackwater Founder to Murder, Threats</a> - video by Democracy Now!</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Human Rights First; <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.humanrightsfirst.info/pdf/08115-usls-psc-final.pdf" style="text-decoration: none; padding-right: 18px; background: url(">Private Security Contractors at War: Ending the Culture of Impunity (2008)</a></li></ul>===wired sgaron
IT

APPEARS THE Blackwater’s lawyers brought out the big guns for this

week’s congressional hearings, as in hired PR guns. According to the

Associated Press, Blackwater hired PR powerhouse Burson-Marsteller to

help with its testimony (there were earlier reports — that now appear

erroneous — that the relationship was broader than that):
Blackwaterday1a_2
Burson-Marsteller

was brought aboard by the Washington law firms representing Blackwater —

McDermott Will & Emery and Crowell & Moring.
One

of the executives on the Blackwater account is Robert Tappan, a former

State Department official. Tappan is a managing director of BKSH &

Associates Worldwide, a Burson-Marsteller subsidiary.
At

State, Tappan was deputy assistant secretary for public affairs. While

at State, he spent six months in Baghdad as director of strategic

communications for the Coalition Provisional Authority, the temporary

governing body that disbanded in June 2004.
On

Thursday, Paul Cordasco, a spokesman for Burson-Marsteller, said the

company does not discuss its clients. In a statement sent by e-mail

Friday, Cordasco said BKSH helped Prince prepare for the congressional

hearing.
"With the hearing over, BKSH’s temporary engagement has ended," Cordasco said.
Over

all, I’d say that Burson-Marsteller is deserving of that zillion bucks

they earn, because Blackwater Chairman Erik Prince did a decent job at

the hearing from a PR standpoint (but a different haircut might have

helped). And hey, what better company to hire? Burson Marsteller

recently worked with Virginia Tech to retool its image post-massacre.

Hormel, maker of yummy Spam, is another client (and if you can make Spam

look good, well, that’s gotta say something).
Of

course, just a couple weeks ago, DANGER ROOM assembled its collective

wisdom to provide PR advice to Blackwater, and unlike Burson-Marsteller,

our tips were totally, completely free!
UPDATE:

Oooh, oooh.  "In addition to his role as a top campaign consultant to

the Clinton campaign, Mark Penn is the worldwide president and CEO of

Burson-Marsteller. The firm’s lobbying subsidiary BKSH helped

Blackwater’s top executive, Erik Prince, prepare for his congressional

testimony this week."
Penn

could not be reached for comment, but Burson-Marsteller spokesman Paul

Cordasco said in a statement that "through a personal relationship,

BKSH, a subsidiary of Burson-Marsteller, helped Blackwater prepare for

their recent hearing before Congress. With the hearing over, BKSH’s

temporary engagement has ended."
(High five: HuffPo)
ALSO:
* Disaster Outsourcing* Blackwater: It’s the Money, Stupid* Blackwater’s X-Wing Fighters* Blackwater Hearings Ain’t No Superbad* Watch Blackwater Dig Its Own Grave* Blackwater Author on Blackwater Shootings* Addicted to Blackwater* Black Days for Blackwater* Blackwater: From  Bad to Worse* Top 10 PR Moves for Blackwater* The Merc Cartoon* Blackwater "Bitch Slap": Right Move?* Blackwater Mess Fencing Diplos In* The Blackwater Backlash* Blackwater Ban "Inevitable"* Blackwater: Banned in Iraq?* Blackwater: The Vote* Blackwater Goes Down the Rabbit Hole* Blackwater Buying Counter-Insurgency Aircraft* Blackwater Sprawl* Inside the Belly of the Blackwater Beast* Officers, Mercs Brawl* Mercenary King, Revealed* Hooker in the Green Zone?==9/10/01 rumy makes speech at pentagon, fmr execs from enron, northrup, gen dyn, new pvt sector model xiv 2002 footprint art'l 
bw near The Gt Dismal Swamp in NC 7k acres
on 1991 gulf 1 DC sec of def; ration dod to pvt 1:10
in

1993 DC commiss study by Hallib on how to pvtize; during clinton years

DC at aei, which was pt man for pvt mil push; 1995 DC runs hallib. (xvi)
clinton admin hired co to train croats, tipped war.pjt for new am cent (kristol, dc, rumy) pushed for iraq warBusk 43 admin: wolfie, feith, khalilizad, cambone,  petye aldridge (aerospace corp)end rumy, 1:1 (100K pvt contractors0 in iraq; 2006 quar review, clasisifed as part of US mil xvii Total Froce, ~ike
bw now (2007ish) 2300 in 9 countries incl US20 aircraft incl heli gunships and blimps; has intel div; 500m$ in govt contractsas

brmemer left, Ordfer 17 gave immunity xx (kucinich questined); scam:

not under mil law, but not under civil law (but vol code by industry)

xxiido swaer to uphold const?]  ucmj sent added to bill, but mil may not have the capacity to enforceGreystone div reg in carribean, tax exceptrecruit PI, chile (pinochet), nepal, columbia, ecaudor, el salv, honduras, panama, peru xxiiisent hundreds into katrina (no invite?) then hired 950/day 70 mill, 243K$/day 2005 xxv
erik and family fight secular, pal Colson, some execs order of Malta  !!th C before crusades to defend land taken from moslems
dutch reform after Cavindad lighted visor (some ideas stink)sis (bush pioneer)married richard devos (lost gov race) his dad founded amway) both funded 1994 takeover (amway 2.5 m, biggest soft $ ever) plus 1.3m infomercials convention; devos huge in vouchers1988

g bauer and dobson (foc on fam) start Family res council (evangelical,

voucher, stem cell); erick early intern, then b1 intern(beef with clean

air act?), then rohrabachererik funded helms, north, pombo, spencer abramham, santorin, coburn, delay, demint, pense, hunter, backed pat buchanan (hillsdale?)sold co 1.3b$; wife cnp (fdr lehaye, turn am rt; CFR too liberal) , frccnp:

fallwell, schasfly, robertson, perkins dobson baur, r reed; norquust,

north, gaffney, NRA lapierre; visits by DC, bolton, rumy, ashcroft,

senor, delay, fristcolson

alleged to hire tamsters to beat up antiwat protest, firebomb

brookings; runs prison in Sugar Land (delay distr) 18 vs islam spread in

prison rev robt sirico
ECT free mkt is xian ; creative cooperative leads to common good 21theocons----erik claims idea his vs facts DC comm study by Hillib subsid Brown and Root (--> kbr) on pvt mil support service; paid 3.9M but then cashed inclinton win led to end of democ artl, one by bork too; colson says fight betw church and state inevitable.
neighbors did not want bw training next door; built HS to sim after littleton?erik went to afgan (protect cia sites?) wanted to join cia but bad polygrapgh? (46) green badge.---Bremer

kissinger asst, also haig, RR cent am war ambassador at large on

terrorism; late 80's kiss and assoc; hastert appt council on ctr terr

1999.Marsh and Mclennen (300 died in wtc)sold terrorosm risk insurance; layoffs leadto social unrest.scooter and wolfie asked him to run iraq' what he knew wd not fill thimble (henry kissendores gig)replaced garner, advicefrom chalabi 64 feith and rumy said debath so fired army 400K unemplyed guys w/ guns andexplosivesspoke of god guide; bro ran congr in dobson distr.(wife prayer warrier0pvt oil industry, no taxes, couldtake all profits out of cty 68BW 27.7m$ contract; bremer pix good pr; all merc 2b$/1 yr 30% of reconstr $---4 guys kia said to do humanit work (but fodwas for mil)ASG PR (delay staffers) big in K Str; Paul Behrends usmc lt col, rohrabacher (fought w/ muj 1988); john dooliitle got bw tour NCerik and behr on Chr Freedom intl (RR Iran C guys)Bauer2

days after kill, marines went in w/ Jim Steele (bremer dep) ernron exec

tapped by wolf; col in ctr-insurent el salv death squad; testify iran-cel

salv model? US force back local guys to do dirty work? 115 only like

400 bad guys" in city of 10k (civilains killed by smart bomb)b2 said he wanted to bomb al jazeera (alleged)a week after kia, erik meetswith arms serv omm: incl chr john warner; santprum set up, ted stecvens alaska, geo allen vabefore met w/ delay, porter goss, duncan hunter (hse armed serv) bill young; ~ jack reed of rh Isswat olympic on espn
USCoC ppt on do biz iraq incl list or merc coAbu G titan and CACI bw 300% growth /yrbremer skulks out 2 days early, f16 apachesuccessor john negroponte contra $, hid honduras hu rights viol---school of Am'sbw hired chile coomandos (pinochet sent students to chicago)us sabotaged economy, allende land reform, literacy, cuba ---4? fams sued;  ken starr hired 234 roberts denied
--j cofer black cia zambia, somalia, s africa during apartheidfrustrated by rles. body bag talk, hired pvt; fired for tora bora leak> hired for ctc? quit  to BW-----
joseph

e schmitz bush 43 Pentagon Insp Genral, oversee mil contractors in afg

and iraq 2002-5 resigned, scandlas; june 2005 149 prime contracts w/ 77

co's in iraq 42.1b$ (298) ~ Wyden
Grassley probe of blocking investigations, fake news relase, junket, hide info from congress
june 05 declares he will go to BW (COO genr; counsel" "genl sch"
RR
newt as spkr
catholic xian fundmtlist, in offic pent speeches, Malta
caled

von steuben 1st effectuve insp genl; BW cites as founding merc (with

laf, Polish and rochamebeua) al in "Contractor Pk" 300)von s fled germany gay trial; put motto on new seal:always under the protection of the almighty"
dad CA pol ~ sex ed, inc tax pro states righrts, make illegal for fed to compete w/ any biz , sell UC~ mlk remembrance; won OC congr sat, ran for prez ~ rmn on Am Ind Party (geo walaace) tossed out as head of jbs too extreme 300
wattts riots commies; nixon china visit pro commie
slick

butch lawyeress 20k and apology, 2 kids batards, bought McC house in DC

and wrote VC front in US also 1, full mil hon arlington 301.
older

bro john patrick protected b1 from Iran-c (asst to CB gray); 5 yrs

later, 1 mo after elected, revealed diary (gray and john refused to

cooperate); in 1987 joe was spec asst to meese, RR atty gen'l, so

covered for him; john clerked for scalia, then atty/lobby for Mayer

Brown (CoC, lock, enron, GE, pfizer , bayer 302. b pioneer [sis had

child of 13 yo student; her dad stood by her]
jow nay intel, patton boggs Oiraq reconstr practice june 2003)
Carl levin ~ confrim eg WT letter 3 days before 1992 election saind BC security risk VN, signed with lt cmder rank
US English
invest:

perle asst to wolfie, office next dr rumy 306; perle lobbying at DoD

(global crossing wanted to sell itself to for co; fibre optic network to

china, used by gov't)) perle wd make 700K$ if deal goes thru; Perle

quit when news broke, but runy asked to stay on Def pol  Bd and he did;

Conyers asked for invbest, 6 mos later joe said no apprance of

impropriety to a reasonable person 307.
Lt

gen Boykin  dep undersec for def (intel) God put b2; spec ops and CIA;

death squads in iraq alleged; xian jihad; ordered abu G be gitmo-ized

309 just bad eggs 310joe no rule of law in tribal
rumy

aid j shaw no exper in telecomm or def steered deals to pals; joe

drafted press rel saying never invest by IG [was by fbi), wd not take

down even when shown false
jag on trafficking (RW theme) but ignored in iraq; contractors held
Boeing

tankers: hastert, rove, card; perle supported in wsj, tho had invested

20M$ in perle's fund 317 year before; deal approved by pete aldridge jr,

fmr mcD-D, biot by boeng, contract cancelled; joe scrubbed report (to

protect WH?) 318 joe claimed could not contact aldridge even tho had

subpena and his bro was A's lawyer at lockheed (3 gutys got 445K 02-05)
joe gave bremer award9/05 started at BW (katrina)
---karrina

900rpm; deputized by gov (badges)DHS contract; got coast g call sign,

claimed to rescue 150 ppl (₎; protected banks and rich ppl; in 3 wk

400K tyo proect morque; 3 mos 33 m$ 326 06 73M, 240K/day 327
B2

repealed 1031 bacon act so did not have to pay previaling wage; KBR

(halli #1 $ iraq)30m$ assess infra and support recovery; shaw gp 700m

katrina (135 m irq); both co had Joe Allbaugh lobbying; B-Ch camp mgr

and ex head FEMA 327
950 m shaw1.4b fluor (alan B also ran iraq recon, sowing down so shifted to La)
merc

la; dyncorp, wac, am sec gp, kroll, Instuinctive Shooting Intel

(israel)[helod in to proetect gated commun], 235 co's and up; f patrick

quin iii guard 3m house, his hotels considered to house fema workers 328
575M Bechtel
dhs IG said need sec 2-5 yrs 330; BW best value
aug

06 BW guard library (almart a fema outpost too) used by fema, parteon

denied entry, not told why, denied name of guard or his sup; BW hq in

swaggart bible college
BW sets us new domestic disater div 332
BW caught wave/themes/desires of b34; pvt, iraq, boost xian biz 333
apr 2005 Minutemen
d hunter booster fence& BW , dana r endorsr MM may

05 house approve 2k border guards, commit wants to outsrc training 334

mike rogers said cost more 4 yrs harvard than train in 10 mos; fid dutybw and red cross $ raiser gala, brmer goh
b43 tried rto use kartrina to ~ posse comit 337
K STR
JA b43 trans team; 3/06 pled; ASG defunct (delay other scandals)ranked

top 25, $ up 34%, 8m$, 70 clients enron, time-w, pharma, lilly MS Salem

Comm, Nat relig broadcasters, Grace news; pvt intel/sec via behrends
Intl

Peace Ops Assoc delay staff ed Buckha, Karl Gallant (armpac) Tony Rudy

9delay liar)rudyworked w/ behrends in dana office early 90's) 337 (w/

erik? said def analyist actually unpaid intern)
erik escaped tho on bd of Toward tradition  (JA chr) mag co and elottery gave $ at a time when delay cd help them
Paul b worked for Crowell's C&M capotiol link (BW 2004)339---
neo/theo-cons stretched mil to breaking, but opnned up hige pvt biz 1:1 341
Jordan king Uk ed, soec ops, gets 1b$ US mil aid
Bw says can deploy brigade [3-5K]
darfur,

jordan ; xian fredom head jim jacobson (RR) says UN intentimally fail

in darfur to justify existence 351 behrends radio campaign
kopel on merc 354
rebranding
kucinich
IPOA ~ S africa merc law (opposed by Doug Brooks; passed aug 06:

Exec outcomes formed 1989, DeBeers co, Angola retook oil 1993. Sierra

leone paid 35m (1/3 of def $) ~ insurgents, 9 daysto take diamond land

361

greystone 366-
after 2002 elections b43 said pvtize 850K fed jobs 372
june 06 GAO siad could not figure out how much $ to merc (min 10% wd be 5.6 b) 04-07 BW morethan 500M$
206 quad rev hire official pol
summer 07 AEI merc conf! 377 jcblack end----===

dn update 7/16/14 4 on trial, merged with compet

===

bs

A

press release from Constellis Holdings signals major news in the High

Threat Security Industry. Academi, the company formerly known as

Blackwater and Xe, will join Triple Canopy along with a handful of other

high threat security companies under a new management structure named

Constellis Holdings.

“This move allows us to create a suite of services to better provide critical support capabilities for government and commercial clients and will utilize ACADEMI’s world-class training facility,

the largest and most comprehensive private training center in the U.S.”

said Jason DeYonker, Managing Director of Constellis Holdings, Inc.

Constellis Holdings, Inc. has agreed

to acquire Constellis Group, Inc., a leading provider of security,

support and advisory services to government, multinational corporations

and international organizations operating in challenging environments

around the world. Constellis Holdings was formed by the founders of Triple Canopy and the private equity investors who formed ACADEMI.

The

transaction brings together a global team of industry leaders,

including: Triple Canopy, Constellis Ltd., Strategic Social, Tidewater

Global Services, National Strategic Protective Services, ACADEMI

Training Center and International Development Solutions.

Operating

under the oversight of a distinguished Board and an experienced

management team, the combination of these companies will enable a

significant expansion of services within the global security market,

delivering mission support, integrated security solutions, training and

advisory services at home and abroad.

<span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; display: inline !important; background-color: rgb(251, 251, 251);">-

See more at:

http://www.your-poc.com/academi-triple-canopy-5-companies-merge-forming-largest-high-threat-security-group-world/#sthash.FiHVwsPu.dpuf

==

<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/10/blackwater-state-department-contracts_n_5572355.html">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/10/blackwater-state-department-contracts_n_5572355.html</a>

The

State Department awarded more than a billion dollars in funding to the

security firm Blackwater and its later incarnations even after one of

the company's top officials allegedly threatened a government

investigator's life, a review by The Huffington Post has shown.

The New York Times <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/30/us/before-shooting-in-iraq-warning-on-blackwater.html" target="_hplink" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">revealed last week</a> that

the State Department's chief investigator reported being threatened by a

Blackwater official in Iraq in August 2007. The investigator said

project manager Daniel Carroll told him "that he could kill me at that

very moment and no one could or would do anything about it as we were in

Iraq."

Officials

at the American embassy in Baghdad later asked the investigators

conducting the Blackwater probe to leave. A few weeks later, in

September, Blackwater guards shot and killed 17 Iraqi civilians. A

criminal trial for four of the guards is currently underway.

===

<h1 style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; line-height: 1.083em; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">harge</h1>

<h6 class="byline" style="margin: 2px 0px; line-height: 1.2em; font-weight: bold;">By REUTERS</h6>

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — The military contractor formerly known as <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/blackwater_usa/index.html?inline=nyt-org" title="More articles about Blackwater USA." class="meta-org" style="text-decoration: none;">Blackwater Worldwide</a> has agreed to pay a $7.5 million fine to settle charges of arms-sales violations, the Justice Department said Tuesday.

The

agreement, filed in United States District Court in New Bern, N.C.,

covers unauthorized sales of satellite phones in Sudan; unauthorized

military training provided to foreign governments, including Canada’s;

illegal possession of automatic weapons; and other violations, the

Justice Department said.

The

sales and training in question took place from 2005 to 2008 and did not

have the authorization of the Treasury and State Departments, as

required by law, prosecutors said. The company, now called Academi LLC,

acknowledged “responsibility for the conduct” in signing what is known

as a deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department.

The

agreement means the company will not face prosecution on 17 counts as

long as it meets auditing requirements and complies with export

restrictions.

Two

years ago Blackwater, which also used the name Xe Services LLC, reached

a $42 million settlement with the State Department for similar

allegations.

“This

company clearly violated U.S. laws by exporting sensitive technical

data and unauthorized defense services to a host of countries around the

world,” Brock Nicholson, special agent in charge of United States

Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigations in North Carolina and

two other states, said in a written statement.

The company was once based in North Carolina and still has a large training center there.

As

a military contractor for the United States government in Iraq,

Blackwater was a target of intense international scrutiny. In 2004, four

of its security guards were ambushed and killed, and two of their

bodies were hung from a bridge in Falluja. In 2007, 17 Iraqi civilians

were killed when Blackwater guards opened fire in Nisour Square in

Baghdad.

</div>

===

spooky biz monsanto

=

<h3 id="6303" itemprop="name" style="margin: 0px 5px 5px 0px; padding: 0px; font-weight: bold; direction: ltr; line-height: 1.2em;">State Dept. Dropped Blackwater Probe After Manager Threatened to Kill Investigators</h3>

</div>

The

State Department abandoned a probe of the private military firm

Blackwater in Iraq after a company official threatened to kill the

government’s chief investigator. The New York Times reports

investigators began looking into Blackwater’s Iraq operations just weeks

before company operatives shot dead 17 Iraqi civilians in the 2007

massacre at Baghdad’s Nisoor Square. The investigators found widespread

misconduct and warned of an "environment full of liability and

negligence." But according to government documents, the previously

undisclosed investigation was quashed after Blackwater’s project manager

in Iraq, Daniel Carroll, issued a threat "that he could kill" the chief

investigator, Jean Richter, and "no one could or would do anything

about it as we were in Iraq." The U.S. Embassy in Iraq ended up siding

with Blackwater, ordering Richter and a colleague to leave the country

and calling them "unsustainably disruptive" and "unnecessarily hostile"

to "contract personnel." The New York Times says the investigators’

unheeded warnings "make clear that the [State] Department was alerted to

serious problems involving Blackwater and its government overseers

before Nisour Square." The trial of four Blackwater operatives accused

in the massacre began this month after years of delay.

</div>

wtf: <a href="http://academi.com/pages/about-us/board-of-directors/john-ashcroft">http://academi.com/pages/about-us/board-of-directors/john-ashcroft</a>  w/ clearchannels fdr

===

<a href="http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/blackwater_worldwide"> http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/blackwater_worldwide</a>

===

life inc; provided sec for walmart post katrina

===

DISASTER PROFITEERING:

Will They Do for the Gulf Coast What They Did for Iraq?

Funds to rebuild the

areas of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana hit by the storm are

flowing quickly. Congress has already approved $62 billion for disaster

relief, and the total price tag is expected to exceed $100 billion.

"They are throwing money out, they are shoveling it out the door,"

according toWashington lobbyist James Albertine (John M. Broder, "In Storm's Ruins, a Rush to Rebuild and Reopen for Business," Washington Post, September 10, 2005).

Normal contracting rules have been suspended, so the majority - if not

all - of the contracts for hurricane relief and rebuilding will be

awarded on a no-bid, cost-plus basis. This is a recipe for fiscal

disaster. As

Danielle Brian of the Project on Government Oversight has said, this

process is likely to attract greedy, self-interested companies: "This is

very painful. You are likely to see the equivalent of war profiteering -

disaster profiteering."

Among the

politically connected firms that have already received contracts related

to Hurricane Katrina cleanup and rebuilding include Vice President

Cheney's former company, Halliburton (to rebuild military facilities affected by the storm and to help repair the breach in the levee); Bechtel, Fluor, CH2MHill, the Shaw Group, and Dewberry Technologies to build or repair housing in the region; and the private military company, BlackwaterAssociates,

allegedly to guard local buildings. The majority of these firms have

been active in the rebuilding of Iraq, where poor performance,

overcharging, and outright fraud have been regular occurrences.

Lobbyists have also hit the ground running in an effort to help their clients secure contracts.  Most prominent among them is Joe Allbaugh, who flew to the region before many FEMA officials made their way there.  Among his clients are Halliburton and the Shaw Group, both of which have rebuilding contracts already in hand....

<div><a href="http://www.worldpolicy.newschool.edu/wpi/projects/arms/updates/091305Katrina.html">http://www.worldpolicy.newschool.edu/wpi/projects/arms/updates/091305Katrina.html</a></div>

===

patr acts

blackwater got more than billion from gov 174

erik p at u of mi talk said he

still ran com called in airstrike in afgan, ~ geneva conv, moved to

bahrain, said we shd have pvt contactors in nigeria, yemen, somalia,

saudi 175

<a href="http://boingboing.net/2011/12/14/blackwater-iraq-data-dump-mer.html">http://boingboing.net/2011/12/14/blackwater-iraq-data-dump-mer.html</a>

<h2 class="headline"><a href="http://boingboing.net/2011/12/14/blackwater-iraq-data-dump-mer.html" rel="bookmark">Blackwater

and co Iraq data-dump: mercenaries shot a judge with impunity, used

bullets as hand signals, were not disciplined as this "would lower

morale"</a></h2>

By <a href="http://boingboing.net/author/cory_doctorow_1" title="Posts by Cory Doctorow" rel="author">Cory Doctorow</a> at 9:32 am Wednesday, Dec 14

Four years after their initial

Freedom of Information Act request, Gawker has received and published

4,500 pages' worth of detail on the way that mercenaries from Blackwater

and other defense contractors conducted themselves in Iraq. Their basic

procedure appears to have been to shoot any car that attempted to pass

or tailgate any of the convoys they guarded, especially if the driver

was a "military aged male." Then, with no followup (or very little),

they would conclude that the driver was unharmed and drive on, filing a

report later. One victim of a <s>Blackwater</s> mercenary

shooting was a judge, who was wounded in the leg (though the mercs'

report claimed he was unharmed). The State Department backed the

mecenaries on this; in Gawker's words, 'The State Department determined

that shooting at judges for driving too fast in their own country is

"within the established Department of State policy for escalation of

force."' Other drivers were shot because they carried passengers with

"devices" in their hands -- such as mobile phones....

Blackwater subsequently

rebranded itself as "Xe," and has just changed its name to Academi, and

is still seeking lucrative government contracts. I reviewed <a href="http://boingboing.net/2007/03/11/blackwater-superbly.html">Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army</a>

in 2007, and it remains an important read for anyone who wants to

understand the way that US-funded mercenaries run amok in America's

fields of war (and in America's disaster zones, such as post-Katrina New

Orleans), murdering and rampaging with impunity.

<a href="http://gawker.com/5866375/gentlemen-we-shot-a-judge-and-other-tales-of-blackwaters-rampage-through-iraq">‘Gentlemen, We Shot a Judge’ and Other Tales of Blackwater, DynCorp, and Triple Canopy’s Rampage Through Iraq</a>

<a href="http://www.blackwaterwatch.com/">http://www.blackwaterwatch.com/</a>

===

spying on greens

<a href="http://www.grist.org/article/2010-09-15-notorious-agribiz-giant-monsanto-hired-security-firm-blackwater">http://www.grist.org/article/2010-09-15-notorious-agribiz-giant-monsanto-hired-security-firm-blackwater</a>

The 2007 atrocity in Iraq

wrecked the company's reputation, forcing it change its name to the

unpronounceable Xe and break into what The New York Times <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/04/world/middleeast/04blackwater.html">recently called</a>  [<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/04/world/middleeast/04blackwater.html?r=1">http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/04/world/middleeast/04blackwater.html?r=1</a>

]"a web of more than 30 shell companies or subsidiaries [created] in

part to obtain millions of dollars in American government contracts."

(None of this has stopped the Obama administration from continuing to

work with Blackwater and its shell companies; last year, Scahill <a href="http://www.thenation.com/article/secret-us-war-pakistan">reported</a> that Blackwater was on the ground in Pakistan on a U.S. contract.)

Into this unsavory milieu stepped Monsanto in 2008, Scahill reports. The

agribusiness giant was one of a group of transnationals -- others

include Chevron, the Walt Disney Company, Royal Caribbean Cruise

Lines, Deutsche Bank, and Barclays -- that hired a Blackwater shell

company called "Total Intelligence Solutions" for overseas services....

----

<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide</a>

Xe Services LLC (pronounced <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:IPA_for_English" title="Wikipedia:IPA for English">/ˈziː/</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Pronunciation_respelling_key" title="Wikipedia:Pronunciation respelling key">zee</a>) is a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_military_company" title="Private military company">private military company</a> founded as Blackwater USA in 1997 by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Prince" title="Erik Prince">Erik Prince</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Clark_%28Blackwater%29" title="Al Clark (Blackwater)">Al Clark</a>.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-Gielink_2007_149-1">[2]</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-2">[</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-2">3]</a>

The company has a wide array of business divisions, subsidiaries, and

spin-off corporations but the organization as a whole has aroused

significant controversy.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-SundayHerald_090207-3">[4]</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-Alternet_092807-4">[</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-Alternet_092807-4">5]</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-ScoopNZ_092807-5">[</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-ScoopNZ_092807-5">6]</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-HeraldUK_09-6">[</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-HeraldUK_09-6">7]</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-TehranTimes_092307-7">[</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-TehranTimes_092307-7">8]</a>

Based in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Carolina" title="North Carolina">North Carolina</a>, Xe operates a tactical training facility (<img src="/04f80986-078e-58f2-b2c3-b000a8564462.png"/><a class="external text" rel="nofollow" href="http://toolserver.org/%7Egeohack/geohack.php?pagename=Blackwater_Worldwide&params=36_27_N_76_12_W_type:landmark_scale:50000_region:US">36°27′N 76°12′W / 36.45°N 76.2°W</a>)

that the company claims is the world's largest, where it trains more

than 40,000 people a year, mostly from U.S. and other military and

police services. The training consists of military offensive and

defensive operations, as well as smaller scale personal security.

Xe is currently the largest of the <a title="United States Department of State" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_State">U.S. State Department</a>'s three private security contractors. Of the 987 contractors Xe provides, 744 are U.S. citizens.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-APBW_092207-8">[9]</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-CRS_CongressReportRL32419-9">[</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-CRS_CongressReportRL32419-9">10]</a> At least 90% of the company's revenue comes from government contracts, of which two-thirds are <a title="No-bid contract" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No-bid_contract">no-bid contracts</a>.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-Virginian-Pilot_072506-10">[11]</a> Xe provided security services in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#Iraq_War_involvement">Iraq</a> to the <a class="mw-redirect" title="United States federal government" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_government">United States federal government</a>, particularly the <a title="Central Intelligence Agency" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Intelligence_Agency">Central Intelligence Agency</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-OversightContract1-0">[1]</a> on a contractual basis. They no longer have a license to operate in Iraq: the new <a class="mw-redirect" title="Iraqi government" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraqi_government">Iraqi government</a> made multiple attempts to expel them from their country,<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-WP-licenserenewal-11">[12]</a> and denied their application for an operating license in January 2009.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-nyt-licenseapplication-12">[13]</a>

However, the company is still under contract with the State Department

and some Xe personnel were working legally in Iraq at least until

September 2009.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-13">[14]</a>

In October 2007, the company,

Blackwater USA, was renamed Blackwater Worldwide. It announced on

February 13, 2009 that it would operate under the new name "Xe." In a

memo sent to employees, President <a class="new" title="Gary Jackson (CEO) (page does not exist)" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gary_Jackson_%28CEO%29&action=edit&redlink=1">Gary Jackson</a>

wrote that the new name "reflects the change in company focus away from

the business of providing private security." A spokesperson for the

company stated that it feels the Blackwater name is too closely

associated with the company's work in the <a class="mw-redirect" title="Occupation of Iraq" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupation_of_Iraq">occupation of Iraq</a>.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-14">[15]</a>

Spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell said there was no meaning in the new name,

which the company took over a year to arrive at in an internal search.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-15">[16]</a>

...

Xe is a privately held company

and does not publish much information about internal affairs. Xe's

founder and former CEO Erik Prince, a former <a title="United States Navy SEALs" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Navy_SEALs">Navy SEAL</a>, attended the <a title="United States Naval Academy" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Naval_Academy">Naval Academy</a>, graduated from <a title="Hillsdale College" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillsdale_College">Hillsdale College</a>, and was an intern in <a title="George H. W. Bush" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_H.W.Bush">George H. W. Bush</a>'s White House. Prince is a major financial supporter of <a title="Republican Party (United States)" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Party_%28United_States%29">Republican Party</a> causes and candidates.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-NPRBW_092507-19">[</a>

...

There are a variety of ongoing

controversies involving Blackwater Worldwide that are not in direct

relation to their specific and individual operations for the U.S.

government. However, their role in their work is the factor of these

controversies.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-Gielink_2007_149-1">[2]</a> It has alternatively been referred to as a <a class="mw-redirect" title="Security contractor" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_contractor">security contractor</a> or a <a title="Mercenary" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercenary">mercenary</a> organization by numerous reports by the U.S. and international media.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-SundayHerald_090207-3">[4]</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-Alternet_092807-4">[</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-Alternet_092807-4">5]</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-ScoopNZ_092807-5">[</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-ScoopNZ_092807-5">6]</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-HeraldUK_09-6">[</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-HeraldUK_09-6">7]</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-TehranTimes_092307-7">[</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-TehranTimes_092307-7">8]</a> Critics consider Xe's self-description as a <a title="Private military company" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_military_company">private military company</a> to be a <a title="Euphemism" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphemism">euphemism</a> for <a title="Mercenary" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercenary">mercenary</a> activities.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-032607Cherbonnier.html-49">[50]</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-154">[</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-154">155]</a><a title="Jeremy Scahill" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Scahill">Jeremy Scahill</a>

points out that Chilean nationals, mostly former soldiers, whose

country of origin does not participate in hostilities in Iraq, work for

Xe in that country; thus, those Chileans meet the definition of

"mercenary."<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-155">[156]</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-156">[</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-156">157]</a> At least 60 Chilean Blackwater employees were trained during dictator <a title="Augusto Pinochet" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augusto_Pinochet">Augusto Pinochet</a>'s regime.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-157">[158]</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-158">[</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-158">159]</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-159">[</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-159">160]</a> Author <a title="Chris Hedges" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Hedges">Chris Hedges</a>

wrote about the establishment of mercenary armies, referring to

Blackwater as an example of such a force, asserting its existence as a

threat to democracy and a step towards the creation of a modern day <a title="Praetorian Guard" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Praetorian_Guard">Praetorian Guard</a> in a June 3, 2007, article in the <a class="mw-redirect" title="Philadelphia Inquirer" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia_Inquirer">Philadelphia Inquirer</a>.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-160">[161]</a>

...

Mark Manzetti, writing in the <a class="mw-redirect" title="New York Times" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Times">New York Times</a> on August 19, 2009, reported that the CIA had hired Blackwater "as part of a secret program to locate and assassinate top operatives of Al Qaeda."<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-NYTimes2009-08-19-180">[181]</a> Newly appointed CIA director <a title="Leon Panetta" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Panetta">Leon Panetta</a>

had recently acknowledged a planned secret assassination program, one

withheld from Congressional oversight. Manzetti's sources, which tied

the assassination program to Blackwater, declined to have their names

made public. The CIA was acting on a 2001 presidential legal

pronouncement, known as a finding, which authorized the CIA to pursue

such efforts.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-Secret_Plan_Against_Al_Queda-181">[182]</a>

Several million dollars were spent on planning and training, but it was

never operationalized and no militants were caught or captured.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-Secret_Plan_Against_Al_Queda-181">[182]</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-BBC20090819-182">[</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-BBC20090819-182">183]</a> <a title="Jeremy Scahill" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Scahill">Jeremy Scahill</a> reported in <a title="The Nation" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nation">The Nation</a>

in November 2009 that Blackwater operate alongside the CIA in Pakistan

in "snatch and grab" operations targeting senior members of the Taliban

and Al Qaeda. The report cited an unnamed source who has worked on

covert US military programs, who revealed that senior members of the

Obama administration may not be aware that Blackwater is operating under

a US contract in Pakistan. A former Blackwater executive confirmed that

they operate covertly in Pakistan. A spokesman for Blackwater denied

the claims, stating that they have "only one employee in Pakistan."<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-183">[184]</a>

In December 2009, the CIA canceled their contract with Blackwater to

load bombs onto drone aircraft in Afghanistan and Pakistan.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-184">[185]</a>

ashes:  cofer black fder Total Intelligence Sol 2007 robt richer and prado, both cia (all 3 1st to blackwater)

SW

<h3>"America's Holy Warriors"</h3>

Erik Prince<a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-36">[37]</a> is "the secretive, mega-millionaire, <a title="Right-wing" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Right-wing">right-wing</a>

Christian founder of Blackwater, the private security firm that has

built a formidable mercenary force in Iraq," Chris Hedges wrote December

31, 2006, in Truthdig.<a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-Hedges-37">[38]</a>

Prince "champions his company

as a patriotic extension of the U.S. military. His employees, in an act

as cynical as it is deceitful, take an oath of loyalty to the

Constitution.<a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-38">[39]</a>

These mercenary units in Iraq, including Blackwater, contain some

20,000 fighters. They unleash indiscriminate and wanton violence against

unarmed Iraqis, have no accountability and are beyond the reach of

legitimate authority. The appearance of these paramilitary fighters,

heavily armed and wearing their trademark black uniforms, patrolling the

streets of New Orleans after <a title="Hurricane Katrina" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Hurricane_Katrina">Hurricane Katrina</a>,

gave us a grim taste of the future. It was a stark reminder that the

tyranny we impose on others we will one day impose on ourselves," Hedges

wrote.<a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-Hedges-37">[38]</a>

<h3>Starr defense</h3>

"The new 'counsel of record' for the North Carolina-based company is none other than former Whitewater investigator <a class="mw-redirect" title="Kenneth Starr" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Kenneth_Starr">Kenneth Starr</a>—the independent counsel in the 1999 impeachment of President <a title="Bill Clinton" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Bill_Clinton">Bill Clinton</a> over the <a title="Monica Lewinsky" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Monica_Lewinsky">Monica Lewinsky</a> sex scandal," <a title="Jeremy Scahill" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Jeremy_Scahill">Jeremy Scahill</a> and Garrett Ordower reported online October 26, 2006, in The Nation.<a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-JerSca-39">[40]</a> "Starr was brought in last week by Blackwater to file motions in front of the US <a title="Supreme Court" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Supreme_Court">Supreme Court</a> in a case stemming from the killing of four Blackwater contractors in the Iraqi city of Fallujah on March 31, 2004."

"There are undeniable benefits to having Starr, the US Solicitor General under President <a class="mw-redirect" title="George H.W. Bush" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=George_H.W._Bush">George H.W. Bush</a>, represent Blackwater—a highly partisan <a class="mw-redirect" title="GOP" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=GOP">GOP</a>

company—in front of a Supreme Court stacked with Bush appointees. Starr

also has a personal connection to Blackwater. Starr and Joseph Schmitz,

the general counsel and chief operating officer of Blackwater's parent

company, the Prince Group, have both worked closely with the arch-<a title="Conservative" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Conservative">conservative</a> <a title="Washington Legal Foundation" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Washington_Legal_Foundation">Washington Legal Foundation</a>.

Since 1993 Starr has served on the legal policy advisory board of the

organization for which Schmitz has frequently acted as a spokesperson

and attorney," Scahill and Ordower wrote.<a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-JerSca-39">[40]</a>

<h3><a name="CIA-Pentagon-Blackwater.22revolving_door.22" id="CIA-Pentagon-Blackwater.22revolving_door.22">CIA-Pentagon-Blackwater </a><a title="Government-industry revolving door" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Government-industry_revolving_door">"revolving door"</a></h3>

"A number of senior CIA and Pentagon officials have taken top jobs at Blackwater, including firm vice chairman <a title="J. Cofer Black" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=J._Cofer_Black">Cofer Black</a>, who was the Bush Administration's top counterterrorism official at the time of the <a class="mw-redirect" title="9/11" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=9/11">9/11</a>

attacks (and who famously said in 2002, 'There was before 9/11 and

after 9/11. After 9/11, the gloves came off')," Ken Silverstein wrote

September 12, 2006, in Harper's Magazine.<a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-Silv-40">[41]</a>

In fall 2005, <a title="Robert Richer" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Robert_Richer">Robert Richer</a>

"resigned from the post of Associate Deputy Director of Operations; he

immediately took a job as Blackwater's Vice President of Intelligence.

Richer is a former head of the CIA's Near East Division and long served

in Amman, where, for a period beginning in 1999, he held the post of

station chief. For years he was the agency's point man with Jordan's

King Abdullah, with whom he developed an extraordinarily close

relationship," Silverstein wrote.<a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-Silv-40">[41]</a>

Also, Silverstein wrote in September 2006, "there's talk at the agency that Blackwater is also aggressively recruiting <a title="José Rodriguez" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Jos%C3%A9_Rodriguez">José Rodriguez</a>, the CIA's current top spy as director of the <a title="National Clandestine Service" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=National_Clandestine_Service">National Clandestine Service</a>. Rodriguez has a number of former agency friends at Blackwater, most notably <a class="new" title="Rick Prado (page does not exist)" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Rick_Prado&action=edit&redlink=1">Rick Prado</a>, with whom he served in Latin America and who is now Blackwater's Vice President of Special Programs."<a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-Silv-40">[41]</a>

Recent Cofer Black start-up and merger, <a title="Total Intelligence Solutions, LLC" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Total_Intelligence_Solutions,LLC">Total Intelligence Solutions, LLC</a>, is a merger of three companies, <a class="new" title="The Black Group (page does not exist)" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=The_Black_Group&action=edit&redlink=1">The Black Group</a>, <a class="new" title="The Terrorism Research Center, Inc. (page does not exist)" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=The_Terrorism_Research_Center,Inc.&action=edit&redlink=1">The Terrorism Research Center, Inc.</a> and <a class="new" title="Technical Defense (page does not exist)" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Technical_Defense&action=edit&redlink=1">Technical Defense</a>.

TIS very well may fall outside the legal corporate domain of

Blackwater, however two of the top executives at TIS, Cofer Black and <a class="new" title="Enrique Prado (page does not exist)" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Enrique_Prado&action=edit&redlink=1">Enrique Prado</a>

still hold positions at Blackwater, and Robert Richer recently left his

position at Blackwater to take on responsibilities at TIS. As well, it

should be noted that one of the three companies merged to create TIS,

The Terrorism Research Center, is owned by Blackwater founder Erik

Prince.<a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-41">[42]</a>

...

<h3>Soliders of Fortune</h3>

<h4><a name=".22Coalition_of_the_Billing.22" id=".22Coalition_of_the_Billing.22">"Coalition of the Billing"</a></h4>

<a name=".22Coalition_of_the_Billing.22" id=".22Coalition_of_the_Billing.22">"There are no reliable figures on the number of guards from </a><a title="Colombia" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Colombia">Colombia</a> or other countries," Sonni Efron wrote July 30, 2005, in the Los Angeles Times. "Fijians, Ukrainians, South Africans, Nepalese and Serbs reportedly are on the job in Iraq."<a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-Sonni-45">[46]</a>

<a title="Peter W. Singer" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Peter_W._Singer">Peter W. Singer</a> of the <a title="Brookings Institution" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Brookings_Institution">Brookings Institution</a>, "author of a book on the private military industry, said veterans of Latin American conflicts, including <a title="Guatemala" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Guatemala">Guatemalans</a>, <a title="El Salvador" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=El_Salvador">Salvadorans</a> and <a title="Nicaragua" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Nicaragua">Nicaraguans</a>,

also had turned up. 'What we've done in Iraq is assemble a true

'coalition of the billing',' Singer said, playing off President Bush's

description of the U.S.-led alliance of nations with a troop presence in

Iraq as a '<a title="Coalition of the willing" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Coalition_of_the_willing">coalition of the willing</a>'," Efron wrote.<a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-Sonni-45">[46]</a>

<h4><a name="Chilean.22former_commandos.22" id="Chilean.22former_commandos.22"> </a><a title="Chile" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Chile">Chilean</a> "former commandos"</h4>

Blackwater and other U.S.-based

private military contractors do not only recruit Americans; according

to Jonathan Franklin, former commandos from Chile are an increasing

presence among private military troops in Iraq. Gary Jackson, president

of Blackwater, told the British newspaper The Guardian that former Chilean commandos, "many of who had trained under the military government of <a title="Augusto Pinochet" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Augusto_Pinochet">Augusto Pinochet</a>,"

will be sent to Iraq for a year and a half, to guard oil wells from

saboteurs. "We scour the ends of the earth to find professionals - the

Chilean commandos are very, very professional and they fit within the

Blackwater system," said Jackson. And the private military melting pot

doesn't stop there: "Squads of Bosnians, Filipinos and Americans with

special forces experience have been hired for tasks ranging from airport

security to protecting Paul Bremer, the head of the Coalition

Provisional Authority."<a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-46">[47]</a>

<h4><a name="Colombian.22seasoned_counter_insurgency_troops.22" id="Colombian.22seasoned_counter_insurgency_troops.22">Colombian "seasoned counter insurgency troops"</a></h4>

<a name="Colombian.22seasoned_counter_insurgency_troops.22" id="Colombian.22seasoned_counter_insurgency_troops.22">The Colombian news magazine Semana and the Financial Times

of London reported in September 2006 that "35 Colombians—mostly

seasoned counter insurgency troops—alleged in a letter to Blackwater

that recruiters had promised them salaries of $4,000 a month," Bill

Sizemore wrote in The Virginian-Pilot. "They said it was only

when they were given their contracts barely hours before leaving Bogota

that they learned they would be paid $34 a day, or about $1,000 a

month."</a><a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-Size-47">[48]</a>

"American contractors can earn $10,000 a month or more working for Blackwater and its competitors in Iraq," Sizemore wrote.<a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-Size-47">[48]</a>

In July 2005, Rep. <a title="Jan Schakowsky" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Jan_Schakowsky">Jan Schakowsky</a>

(D-Ill.) was concerned "that U.S. government contractors [were] hiring

thousands of impoverished former military personnel, with no public

scrutiny, little accountability and large hidden costs to taxpayers,"

Sonni Efron wrote in the Los Angeles Times.<a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-Sonni-45">[46]</a>

"The United States has spent more than $4 billion since 2000 on <a title="Plan Colombia" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Plan_Colombia">Plan Colombia</a>,

a counter-terrorism and counter-narcotics program that includes

training and support for the Colombian police and military. Last month,

Congress moved toward approval of an additional $734.5 million in aid to

the Andean region in 2006, most of it for Colombia. 'We're training

foreign nationals - who then take that training and market it to private

companies, who pay them three or four times as much as we're paying

soldiers,' Schakowsky said. 'American taxpayers are paying for the

training of those Colombian soldiers,' she said. 'When they leave to

take more lucrative jobs, perhaps with an American military contractor,

they take that training with them. So then we're paying to train that

person's replacement. And then we're paying the bill to the private

military contractors'," Efron wrote.<a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-Sonni-45">[46]</a>

<h4>Filipino "mercenaries"</h4>

"Many Filipinos apply for any

type of work just to work abroad and earn money", with an estimated

"tenth of the country's 84 million population ... out of the country and

working legally and illegally abroad", Claro Cortes reported June 11,

2006, in Gulf News.<a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-Cortes-48">[49]</a>

"Authorities at the former US

Naval Base in Subic have denied reports that an American company is

using the facility to hire Filipino mercenaries for Iraq", Cortes wrote.

Several Manila newspapers reported that Blackwater USA "was using the

former US naval base to recruit Filipino mercenaries to fight in Iraq"

and "even featured pictures of Filipino-looking men wearing combat

fatigues during what appears to be guard duty in an alleged Middle East

community."<a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-Cortes-48">[49]</a>

"The Communist Party of the

Philippines (CPP) denounced the US for hiring Filipino mercenaries to

fight its wars in Iraq and other countries," Manila's Sun Star reported June 12, 2006.<a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-SunStar-49">[50]</a>

"New People's Army (NPA) spokesman Gregorio 'Ka Roger' Rosal said

hiring Filipino civilians to provide support services for the US' war in

Iraq and other countries is bad enough and should be discouraged, but

'hiring Filipino soldiers of fortune to fight in US wars of aggression

and terror against other countries is even worse and deserves nothing

but condemnation.'

"Rosal said the establishment

of Blackwater's recruitment center in the Philippines stemmed from the

mounting casualties of US military personnel that have triggered severe

criticism, massive protests and plunging ratings for US President George

W. Bush.

"He said the US has also turned

to Third World countries to be able to cut costs as hired Filipino

mercenaries are paid only US$60,000-US$80,000 a year, half of what it

pays American mercenaries with equivalent qualifications and

assignments," the Sun Star reported.<a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-SunStar-49">[50]</a>

...

<h2>Public relations and lobbying</h2>

On October 11, 2007, Blackwater announced their withdrawal from IPOA. According to the Wall Street Journal,

a Blackwater spokeswoman said, “We have decided to take a hiatus from

the association. We, like many other organizations engaged in this type

of work, are pursuing other aspects and methods of industry outreach and

governance."<a class="external autonumber" title="http://www.bayoubuzz.com/News/World/Iraq/US/Blackwater_Fading_From_Iraq_Would_Hurt_US_State_Department4873.asp" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.bayoubuzz.com/News/World/Iraq/US/Blackwater_Fading_From_Iraq_Would_Hurt_US_State_Department4873.asp">[2]</a><a class="external autonumber" title="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119207104012555696.html?mod=googlenews_wsj" rel="nofollow" href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119207104012555696.html?mod=googlenews_wsj">[3]</a>

Blackwater's immediate departure from IPOA may have been to avoid an internal investigation from the trade association. <a class="external autonumber" title="http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/foreign/display.var.1761971.0.0.php" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/foreign/display.var.1761971.0.0.php">[4]</a>

Blackwater has started up their own organization, <a class="new" title="The Blackwater Peace and Stability Operations Institute (page does not exist)" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=The_Blackwater_Peace_and_Stability_Operations_Institute&action=edit&redlink=1">The Blackwater Peace and Stability Operations Institute</a>, <a class="external autonumber" title="http://gpsoi.org/" rel="nofollow" href="http://gpsoi.org/">[5]</a> and taken up the services of a well known public relations company.

The law firms representing Blackwater, <a class="new" title="McDermott Will & Emery (page does not exist)" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=McDermott_Will%26_Emery&action=edit&redlink=1">McDermott Will & Emery</a> and <a title="Crowell & Moring" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Crowell%26_Moring">Crowell & Moring</a>, have hired <a class="mw-redirect" title="Public relations" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Public_relations">public relations</a> giant <a title="Burson-Marsteller" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Burson-Marsteller">Burson-Marsteller</a>. <a title="Robert Tappan" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Robert_Tappan">Robert Tappan</a>, one of the Burson-Marsteller executives working on the Blackwater case,<a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-51">[52]</a> was formerly the deputy assistant secretary for public affairs at the State Department.

While in this capacity, he spent six months in Baghdad as the director

of strategic communications for the Coalition Provisional Authority. <a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-52">[53]</a>

According to <a class="external text" title="http://www.prweek.com" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.prweek.com">PRWeek</a>, Burson subsidiary, <a class="mw-redirect" title="BKSH & Associates" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=BKSH_%26_Associates">BKSH & Associates</a>,

was hired through an internal connection at Blackwater to help with

Erik Prince's October 2, 2007 testimony to Congress and that this

"temporary engagement has ended". <a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-53">[54]</a>

In January 2008, Blackwater hired <a title="Womble, Carlyle, Sandridge & Rice" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Womble,Carlyle,Sandridge_%26_Rice">Womble, Carlyle, Sandridge & Rice</a>, "as its D.C. representative for contracting and acquisition issues," reported O'Dwyer's PR Daily.

The firm will serve as Blackwater's "D.C. representative for

contracting and acquisition issues." Firm lobbyists on the Blackwater

account include Jimmy Broughton, who was former Senator <a title="Jesse Helms" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Jesse_Helms">Jesse Helms</a>'s chief of staff; Mark Harkins, who worked for Representative <a title="Brad Miller" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Brad_Miller">Brad Miller</a>; and Kevin Jones, who served as a legislative assistant to former Treasury Secretary <a title="Lloyd Bentsen" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Lloyd_Bentsen">Lloyd Bentsen</a>.. <a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-54">[55]</a>

In January 2008, the online database Lobbyists.info also listed <a class="new" title="C&M Capitolink (page does not exist)" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=C%26M_Capitolink&action=edit&redlink=1">C&M Capitolink</a> and <a class="new" title="Gregory F. Hahn (page does not exist)" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Gregory_F._Hahn&action=edit&redlink=1">Gregory F. Hahn</a>, in addition to Womble Carlyle, as Blackwater's lobbying firms. <a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-55">[56]</a>

<h2><a name="Executives" id="Executives">Executives</a></h2>

<ul><li style=" list-style: none;"><a name="Executives" id="Executives"> </a></li><li><a name="Executives" id="Executives"> </a><a title="Erik Prince" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Erik_Prince">Erik Prince</a>, Chairman of the Board</li><li><a class="new" title="Joseph E. Schmitz (page does not exist)" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Joseph_E.Schmitz&action=edit&redlink=1">Joseph E. Schmitz</a> (former Inspector General, <a title="Office of the Secretary of Defense" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Office_of_the_Secretary_of_Defense">Office of the Secretary of Defense</a>, under <a class="mw-redirect" title="Donald Rumsfeld" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Donald_Rumsfeld">Donald Rumsfeld</a>)<a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-Witte-8">[9]</a></li><li><a title="J. Cofer Black" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=J.Cofer_Black">J. Cofer Black</a>, Vice Chairman of the Board (former Coordinator in the Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism, <a title="U.S. Department of State" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=U.S._Department_of_State">U.S. Department of State</a>, under Secretary of State <a class="mw-redirect" title="Colin Powell" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Colin_Powell">Colin Powell</a>)</li></ul>

In

February 2009, Prince announced he was stepping down as the company's

CEO, but would remain its chair. "I'm a little worn out by the whole

thing, the politics of it all," he said. In other personnel changes, "<a class="new" title="Joe Yorio (page does not exist)" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Joe_Yorio&action=edit&redlink=1">Joe Yorio</a>, 44, an executive from shipping company <a class="new" title="DHL (page does not exist)" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=DHL&action=edit&redlink=1">DHL</a> with an Army Special Forces background, will become president of Xe, replacing longtime employee <a class="new" title="Gary Jackson (page does not exist)" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Gary_Jackson&action=edit&redlink=1">Gary Jackson</a>. <a class="new" title="Danielle Esposito (page does not exist)" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Danielle_Esposito&action=edit&redlink=1">Danielle Esposito</a>,

32, a veteran employee, will become chief operating officer and

executive vice president. The chief executive slot remains open and is

likely to be filled by Mr. Yorio." <a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-56">[57</a>

<h2><a name="Books" id="Books">Books</a></h2>

<ul><li style=" list-style: none;"><a name="Books" id="Books"> </a></li><li><a name="Books" id="Books"> </a><a class="new" title="Robert Young Pelton (page does not exist)" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Robert_Young_Pelton&action=edit&redlink=1">Robert Young Pelton</a>, <a class="external text" title="http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?inkey=91-9780307345455-0" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?inkey=91-9780307345455-0">License to Kill: Hired Guns in the War on Terror</a>, Crown Publishing Group, 2006. 288 pp. <a class="internal" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Special:BookSources/9780307345455">ISBN 9780307345455</a></li></ul>

<ul><li><a title="Jeremy Scahill" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Jeremy_Scahill">Jeremy Scahill</a>, <a title="Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army (book)" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Blackwater:The_Rise_of_the_World%27s_Most_Powerful_Mercenary_Army%28book%29">Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army (book)</a>, Avalon Publishing Group, Inc./Nation Books, 2007. 438 pp. $26.95. ISBN 10 1560259795 ISBN 13 978-1560259794</li></ul>

...wac talk Jeremy Scahill's Blackwater is the dark story of the rise of this mercenary army - World Affairs Council of Northern California  <a href="http://fora.tv/2008/06/13/Jeremy_Scahill_Blackwaters_Covert_Rise_to_Power">http://fora.tv/2008/06/13/Jeremy_Scahill_Blackwaters_Covert_Rise_to_Power</a>

more contractors than mil; 180K (70 ct martuial for murder; 0 for contractors, immunity)

has started intelligenct w/ sr cia offer services to corps (already works for dea), columbia

total intel solution 3 cia vets black ctriteror post 9/11, extra ord; robt richter, ricj prado cia paramilitary

dad gave seed $ to focus on fam and dobbs, also --------

knights of malta (colleague?)

lighted sunvisor, sold biz over a billion

<h2>Resource</h2>

<h3><a name="Outside_Resources" id="Outside_Resources">Outside Resources</a></h3>

<ul><li style=" list-style: none;"><a name="Outside_Resources" id="Outside_Resources"> </a></li><li><a name="Outside_Resources" id="Outside_Resources"> </a><a class="new" title="ClearWater Project (page does not exist)" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=ClearWater_Project&action=edit&redlink=1">ClearWater Project</a>, "<a class="external text" title="http://www.noprivatearmies.org/index.html/" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.noprivatearmies.org/index.html/">ClearWater Project's Website</a>."

Website of a group "organized to preserve the public nature of and

civilian control over law enforcement and military activity and training

for law enforcement and military personnel. Clearwater opposes the

privatization of war and of law enforcement."</li><li>"<a class="external text" title="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1feTAeju31g&feature=related/" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1feTAeju31g&feature=related/">The Journal with Bill Moyers</a>." Interview with The Nation investigative reporter and author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army.</li><li>"<a class="external text" title="http://www.copswiki.org/w/bin/view/Common/OpenLetterToCongress/" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.copswiki.org/w/bin/view/Common/OpenLetterToCongress/">Anti-Xe/Blackwater Petition</a>."

Open Letter and petition to Congress calling for dismissal of

Blackwater Contractors and approval of Congress passing the Stop

Outsourcing Security Act.</li><li><a class="new" title="Stop Blackwater (page does not exist)" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Stop_Blackwater&action=edit&redlink=1">Stop Blackwater</a>, "<a class="external text" title="http://www.stopblackwater.net/" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.stopblackwater.net/">Stop Blackwater</a>." Group website, who is committed to ending BlackWater/Xe.</li><li>"<a class="external text" title="http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8300466635546090283&hl=en#/" rel="nofollow" href="http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8300466635546090283&hl=en#/">End Blackwater Presentation</a>."

Presentation on the history of Blackwater and how to work toward ending

it, given by a grassroots activist Ray Lutz, who runs the site

StopBlackwater.net and founded COPS - Citizens' Oversight Projects.</li><li>"<a class="external text" title="http://www.blackwaterwatch.com/about/" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.blackwaterwatch.com/about/">BlackWater Watch</a>"</li><li>"<a class="external text" title="http://www.alternatefocus.org/RandFofBlackwater.html/" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.alternatefocus.org/RandFofBlackwater.html/">The Rise and Fall of BlackWater in Potero</a>."

Documentary on Alternate Focus Screening presenting the small Southern

California town of Potrero joining in with environmentalists, peace

activists, veterans groups, immigrant rights groups, and others to stop

the mercenary firm Blackwater Worldwide from building a training

facility in their town. This is the story of their fight and ultimate

defeat of Blackwater.</li><li>"<a class="external text" title="http://www.alternatefocus.org/BlackwaterShow.html/" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.alternatefocus.org/BlackwaterShow.html/">Blackwater in Potero</a>."

In late 2006, Blackwater USA, now known as Blackwater Worldwide,

submitted a proposal to build a training facility called Blackwater West

in the rural San Diego County town of Potrero. This documentary tells

the story of what followed.</li><li><a title="Democracy Now!" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Democracy_Now%21">Democracy Now!</a>, "<a class="external text" title="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5fazcMjxKo&feature=player_embedded/" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5fazcMjxKo&feature=player_embedded/">Ray Lutz on Democracy Now!</a>."

Grassroots activist, who runs the site StopBlackwater.net, talks about

the opening of a new BlackWater USA Base in Potero, CA.</li><li><a class="new" title="Citizens Overwights Projects (page does not exist)" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Citizens_Overwights_Projects&action=edit&redlink=1">Citizens Overwights Projects</a>, "<a class="external text" title="http://www.copswiki.org/w/bin/view/Common/BlackwaterWorldwide/" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.copswiki.org/w/bin/view/Common/BlackwaterWorldwide/">Blackwater Worldwide on COPs Wiki</a>."

Great overview of all things related to Blackwater/Xe put together by

Citizens Oversight Projects, a group led by social and political

activist Ray Lutz, who also runs the site StopBlackwater.net.</li></ul>

<h3>Related SourceWatch articles</h3>

<ul><li><a title="Alexander Strategy Group" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Alexander_Strategy_Group">Alexander Strategy Group</a></li><li><a title="Aviation Worldwide Services, LLC" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Aviation_Worldwide_Services,LLC">Aviation Worldwide Services, LLC</a></li><li><a title="Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army (book)" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Blackwater:The_Rise_of_the_World%27s_Most_Powerful_Mercenary_Army%28book%29">Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army (book)</a> by <a title="Jeremy Scahill" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Jeremy_Scahill">Jeremy Scahill</a></li><li><a title="Blackwater Watch" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Blackwater_Watch">Blackwater Watch</a></li><li><a title="Civil war in Iraq" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Civil_war_in_Iraq">civil war in Iraq</a></li><li><a title="Custer Battles" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Custer_Battles">Custer Battles</a></li><li><a title="Defense contractors" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Defense_contractors">Defense contractors</a></li><li><a title="Executive Outcomes" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Executive_Outcomes">Executive Outcomes</a></li><li><a title="Greystone, Ltd." href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Greystone,Ltd.">Greystone, Ltd.</a></li><li><a title="Hurricane Katrina" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Hurricane_Katrina">Hurricane Katrina</a></li><li><a title="International Peace Operations Association" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=International_Peace_Operations_Association">International Peace Operations Association</a></li><li><a title="Loose Cannon Pentagon" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Loose_Cannon_Pentagon">Loose Cannon Pentagon</a></li><li><a class="mw-redirect" title="McCain doctrine" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=McCain_doctrine">McCain doctrine</a></li><li><a title="Military-industrial complex" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Military-industrial_complex">Military-industrial complex</a></li><li><a title="Outsourcing" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Outsourcing">outsourcing</a></li><li><a title="Post-war Iraq" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Post-war_Iraq">post-war Iraq</a></li><li><a title="Presidential Airways, Inc." href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Presidential_Airways,_Inc.">Presidential Airways, Inc.</a></li><li><a title="Private Military Corporations" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Private_Military_Corporations">Private Military Corporations</a></li><li><a title="Privatization of Iraq" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Privatization_of_Iraq">Privatization of Iraq</a></li><li><a title="Vinnell Brown and Root" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Vinnell_Brown_and_Root">Vinnell Brown and Root</a> (<a class="mw-redirect" title="VBR" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=VBR">VBR</a>)</li><li><a title="Vinnell Corporation" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Vinnell_Corporation">Vinnell Corporation</a></li><li><a title="War profiteering" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=War_profiteering">war profiteering</a></li></ul>

<h3>References</h3>

<ol class="references"><li id="cite_note-0"><a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-0">↑</a> National Public Radio, Business <a class="external text" title="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100675028" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100675028">Blackwater Picks A New Name: It's Xe</a>, Radio report. February 13, 2009</li><li id="cite_note-1"><a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-1">↑</a> August Cole, <a class="external text" title="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123454232273983709.html" rel="nofollow" href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123454232273983709.html">"Blackwater Puts on a New Public Face"</a>, Wall Street Journal, February 14, 2009.</li><li id="cite_note-2"><a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-2">↑</a> <a class="external text" title="http://blackwatersecurity.com/" rel="nofollow" href="http://blackwatersecurity.com/">Blackwater Security.com.</a></li><li id="cite_note-3"><a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-3">↑</a> <a class="external text" title="http://www.nndb.com/company/462/000105147/" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.nndb.com/company/462/000105147/">Company profile: Blackwater USA,</a> NNDB.com.</li><li id="cite_note-4"><a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-4">↑</a> <a class="external text" title="http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=132691&ran=55342" rel="nofollow" href="http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=132691&ran=55342">"Timeline of significant events for Blackwater,"</a> The Virginian-Pilot, September 18, 2007.</li><li id="cite_note-5"><a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-5">↑</a> "<a class="external text" title="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122575221687994747.html" rel="nofollow" href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122575221687994747.html">Blackwater Lays Off Workers</a>," Associated Press, November 4, 2008.</li><li id="cite_note-6"><a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-6">↑</a> <a class="external text" title="http://www.blackwaterusa.com/history.html" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.blackwaterusa.com/history.html">History,</a> BlackwaterUSA.com.</li><li id="cite_note-7"><a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-7">↑</a> <a class="external text" title="http://www.princemanufacturing.com/gemba/princegroup.asp" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.princemanufacturing.com/gemba/princegroup.asp">Prince Group,</a> PrinceManufacturing.com.</li><li id="cite_note-Witte-8">↑ <a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Witte_8-0">9.0</a> <a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Witte_8-1">9.1</a> Griff Witte, <a class="external text" title="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/31/AR2005083102602.html" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/31/AR2005083102602.html">"Pentagon's IG Takes Job at Contractor,"</a> Washington Post, September 1, 2005.</li><li id="cite_note-9"><a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-9">↑</a> <a class="external text" title="http://www.blackwaterusa.com/aviation/" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.blackwaterusa.com/aviation/">Aviation,</a> BlackwaterUSA.com.</li><li id="cite_note-10"><a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-10">↑</a> <a class="external text" title="http://aerospace-defense.press-world.com/v/16093.html" rel="nofollow" href="http://aerospace-defense.press-world.com/v/16093.html">"Blackwater USA Completes Acquisition of Aviation Worldwide Services press release,"</a> Press World, April 28, 2003.</li><li id="cite_note-Hill-11">↑ <a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Hill_11-0">12.0</a> <a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Hill_11-1">12.1</a> Klaus Marre, "<a class="external text" title="http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/waxman-blackwater-may-have-engaged-in-tax-evasion-2007-10-22.html" rel="nofollow" href="http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/waxman-blackwater-may-have-engaged-in-tax-evasion-2007-10-22.html">Waxman: Blackwater may have engaged in tax evasion</a>," The Hill, October 22, 2007</li><li id="cite_note-12"><a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-12">↑</a> <a title="Peter Dale Scott" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Peter_Dale_Scott">Peter Dale Scott</a>, <a class="external text" title="http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14672" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14672">The Real Grand Chessboard and the Profiteers of War</a>, Global Research, August 11, 2009.</li><li id="cite_note-Kim-13">↑ <a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Kim_13-0">14.0</a> <a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Kim_13-1">14.1</a> <a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Kim_13-2">14.2</a> <a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Kim_13-3">14.3</a> <a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Kim_13-4">14.4</a> Kim Gamel, <a class="external text" title="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/23/ap/world/mainD8MR7MG00.shtml" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/23/ap/world/mainD8MR7MG00.shtml">"Helicopter Shot Down in Iraq; 5 Killed,"</a> Associated Press (CBS News), January 23, 2007.</li><li id="cite_note-Baker-14">↑ <a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Baker_14-0">15.0</a> <a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Baker_14-1">15.1</a> Mike Baker, <a class="external text" title="http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/special_packages/iraq/16528882.htm" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/special_packages/iraq/16528882.htm">"Blackwater silent after helicopter crashes in Iraq, killing five,"</a> Associated Press (The Mercury News), January 23, 2007.</li><li id="cite_note-15"><a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-15">↑</a> Steven R. Hurst, <a class="external text" title="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/24/ap/world/mainD8MRHRQ80.shtml" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/24/ap/world/mainD8MRHRQ80.shtml">"5 Americans Killed in Iraq Copter Crash ... over dangerous Sunni neighborhood in central Baghdad,"</a> Associated Press (CBS News), January 24, 2007.</li><li id="cite_note-IraqCon-16">↑ <a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-IraqCon_16-0">17.0</a> <a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-IraqCon_16-1">17.1</a> <a class="external text" title="http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/04/21/iraq.contractors/" rel="nofollow" href="http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/04/21/iraq.contractors/">"7 U.S. security contractors killed in Iraq. Blackwater USA also lost 4 men in Falluja last year,"</a> CNN, April 21, 2005.</li><li id="cite_note-Ellen-17">↑ <a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Ellen_17-0">18.0</a> <a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Ellen_17-1">18.1</a> <a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Ellen_17-2">18.2</a> Ellen Knickmeyer, <a class="external text" title="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6493-2005Apr21.html" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6493-2005Apr21.html">"Insurgents Down Civilian Helicopter Near Iraqi Capital. 6 Americans Among Victims; More Bodies Found in Tigris,"</a> Washington Post, April 22, 2005.</li><li id="cite_note-18"><a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-18">↑</a> Jonathan E. Kaplan, <a class="external text" title="http://web.archive.org/web/20040503215003/http://thehill.com/news/041404/blackwater.aspx" rel="nofollow" href="http://web.archive.org/web/20040503215003/http://thehill.com/news/041404/blackwater.aspx">"Private army seeking political advice in D.C.,"</a> The Hill, April 14, 2004.</li><li id="cite_note-19"><a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-19">↑</a> Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman, <a class="external text" title="http://counterpunch.org/mokhiber04232004.html" rel="nofollow" href="http://counterpunch.org/mokhiber04232004.html">"The Rising Corporate Military Monster,"</a> CounterPunch, April 23, 2004.</li><li id="cite_note-20"><a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-20">↑</a> This Reuters <a class="external text" title="http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2005-12-22T163749Z_01_EIC259631_RTRUKOC_0_UK-IRAQ-USA-CONTRACTORS.xml" rel="nofollow" href="http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2005-12-22T163749Z_01_EIC259631_RTRUKOC_0_UK-IRAQ-USA-CONTRACTORS.xml">article</a> is no longer available.</li><li id="cite_note-21"><a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-21">↑</a> This News & Observer <a class="external text" title="http://newsobserver.com/news/story/1999152p-8384905c.html" rel="nofollow" href="http://newsobserver.com/news/story/1999152p-8384905c.html">article</a> is no longer available.</li><li id="cite_note-22"><a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-22">↑</a> <a class="external text" title="http://www.sourcewatch.org/images/f/f1/Blackwater_remanding_order_case_number_05-00048.pdf" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/images/f/f1/Blackwater_remanding_order_case_number_05-00048.pdf">order.pdf Blackwater remanding order case number 05-00048,</a> SourceWatch pdf.</li><li id="cite_note-23"><a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-23">↑</a> Griff Witte, <a class="external text" title="http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=12693" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=12693">"AFGHANISTAN: Blackwater Broke Rules, Report Says,"</a> Washington Post (CorpWatch), October 5, 2005.</li><li id="cite_note-24"><a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-24">↑</a> <a class="external text" title="http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/09/17/iraq.irpt/" rel="nofollow" href="http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/09/17/iraq.irpt/">"Amateur video shows roadside bomb attack on contractors,"</a> CNN, September 17, 2007.</li><li id="cite_note-25"><a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-25">↑</a> <a class="external text" title="http://www.wane.com/Global/story.asp?S=7081597" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.wane.com/Global/story.asp?S=7081597">"Report: Contractors involved in shooting,"</a> Associated Press (WANE.com), September 16, 2007.</li><li id="cite_note-26"><a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-26">↑</a> <a class="external text" title="http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Iraq.html" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Iraq.html">"Blackwater License Being Pulled in Iraq,"</a> Associated Press (New York Times), September 17, 2007.</li><li id="cite_note-27"><a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-27">↑</a> Sabrina Tavernise and James Glanz, <a class="external text" title="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/19/world/middleeast/19blackwater.html?r=1&hp=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1190201929-uIeDip4T0srsm9Dpg6mnGg" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/19/world/middleeast/19blackwater.html?r=1&hp=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1190201929-uIeDip4T0srsm9Dpg6mnGg">"Iraqi Report Says Blackwater Guards Fired First,"</a> New York Times, September 19, 2007.</li><li id="cite_note-28"><a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-28">↑</a> <a class="external text" title="http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L23649035.htm" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L23649035.htm">"</a> Reuters AlertNet, September 23, 2007.</li><li id="cite_note-29"><a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-29">↑</a> Lara Jakes Jordon and Mat Apuzzo, "<a class="external text" title="http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g8j2u56IMqRcZhCnXxakvpIEJ3-QD8U4E4E01" rel="nofollow" href="http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g8j2u56IMqRcZhCnXxakvpIEJ3-QD8U4E4E01">FBI Finds Blackwater Trucks Patched</a>," Associated Press, January 12, 2008.</li><li id="cite_note-30"><a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-30">↑</a> <a class="external text" title="http://www.embraer.com/english/content/aeronaves/super_tucano.asp" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.embraer.com/english/content/aeronaves/super_tucano.asp">Super Tucano,</a> Embraer.com, accessed September 4, 2007.</li><li id="cite_note-BBBB-31">↑ <a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-BBBB_31-0">32.0</a> <a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-BBBB_31-1">32.1</a> <a class="external text" title="http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htairfo/articles/20070827.aspx" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htairfo/articles/20070827.aspx">"Blackwater Buys Brazilian Bombers,"</a> Strategy Page, August 27, 2007.</li><li id="cite_note-32"><a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-32">↑</a> Rod Hafemeister, "<a class="external text" title="http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2007/02/AFblackwater070223/" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2007/02/AFblackwater070223/">Lt. colonels charged with assaulting contractor</a>", Air Force Times, February 26, 2007.</li><li id="cite_note-33"><a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-33">↑</a> "<a class="external text" title="http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2007/03/airforce_blackwater_officerscleared_070331/" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2007/03/airforce_blackwater_officerscleared_070331/">Charges dismissed against officers in Kabul run-in with contractor</a>", Air Force Times, April 4, 2007.</li><li id="cite_note-34"><a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-34">↑</a> Jay Price, "<a class="external text" title="http://www.newsobserver.com/110/story/545341.html" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.newsobserver.com/110/story/545341.html">Air Force looks into fight with contractor</a>", The News & Observer (North Carolina), February 21, 2007.</li><li id="cite_note-35"><a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-35">↑</a> <a class="external text" title="http://216.109.125.130/search/cache?ei=UTF-8&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwrongedbyblackwater.com&bwm=p&bwms=p&fr=sfp&u=www.wrongedbyblackwater.com/&d=J_6CTudmPb_W&icp=1&.intl=" rel="nofollow" href="http://216.109.125.130/search/cache?ei=UTF-8&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwrongedbyblackwater.com&bwm=p&bwms=p&fr=sfp&u=www.wrongedbyblackwater.com/&d=J_6CTudmPb_W&icp=1&.intl=">wrongedbyblackwater.com via Yahoo cache</a>. Undated, accessed September 30, 2007.</li><li id="cite_note-36"><a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-36">↑</a> <a class="external text" title="http://www.nndb.com/people/926/000117575/" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.nndb.com/people/926/000117575/">Profile: Erik Prince,</a> NNDB.com.</li><li id="cite_note-Hedges-37">↑ <a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Hedges_37-0">38.0</a> <a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Hedges_37-1">38.1</a> Chris Hedges, <a class="external text" title="http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20061231_chris_hedges_americas_holy_warriors/" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20061231_chris_hedges_americas_holy_warriors/">"America’s Holy Warriors,"</a> Truthdig, December 31, 2006.</li><li id="cite_note-38"><a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-38">↑</a> <a class="external text" title="http://mountainrunner.us/files/blackwaterpledge.pdf" rel="nofollow" href="http://mountainrunner.us/files/blackwaterpledge.pdf">"Memorandum

for All Blackwater USA Officers, Employees, and Independent

Contractors. Subject: Blackwater USA National Security Oath and

Leadership Standards,"</a> Prince Group (MountainRunner.us), September 16, 2005.</li><li id="cite_note-JerSca-39">↑ <a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-JerSca_39-0">40.0</a> <a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-JerSca_39-1">40.1</a> Jeremy Scahill and Garrett Ordower, <a class="external text" title="http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20061113&s=whitewater_to_blackwater" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20061113&s=whitewater_to_blackwater">"From Whitewater to Blackwater,"</a> The Nation, October 26, 2006.</li><li id="cite_note-Silv-40">↑ <a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Silv_40-0">41.0</a> <a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Silv_40-1">41.1</a> <a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Silv_40-2">41.2</a> Ken Silverstein, <a class="external text" title="http://www.harpers.org/sb-revolving-door-blackwater-1158094722.html" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.harpers.org/sb-revolving-door-blackwater-1158094722.html">"Revolving Door to Blackwater Causes Alarm at CIA,"</a> Harper's Magazine, September 12, 2006.</li><li id="cite_note-41"><a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-41">↑</a> <a class="external text" title="http://www.iraqslogger.com/index.php/post/1632/Black_andPrince_Launch_Intel_Company" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.iraqslogger.com/index.php/post/1632/Black_andPrince_Launch_Intel_Company">"Black and Prince Launch Intel Company,"</a> Iraqslogger, no date. Registration required.</li><li id="cite_note-42"><a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-42">↑</a> <a class="external text" title="http://ipoaonline.org/journal/index.php?option=com_content&task=category&sectionid=5&id=19&Itemid=30" rel="nofollow" href="http://ipoaonline.org/journal/index.php?option=com_content&task=category&sectionid=5&id=19&Itemid=30">IPOA Online Journal,</a> IPOAOnline.org.</li><li id="cite_note-Frank-43">↑ <a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Frank_43-0">44.0</a> <a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Frank_43-1">44.1</a> Frank Langfitt, <a class="external text" title="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5433902" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5433902">"Private Military Firm Pitches Its Services in Darfur,"</a> All Things Considered/<a class="mw-redirect" title="NPR" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=NPR">NPR</a>, May 26, 2006.</li><li id="cite_note-44"><a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-44">↑</a> Anna Maria Tremonti, <a class="external text" title="http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/2006/200605/20060511.html" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/2006/200605/20060511.html">"Whole Show Blow-by-Blow. The Current for Show May 11, 2006,"</a> CBC (Canada), May 11, 2006.</li><li id="cite_note-Sonni-45">↑ <a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Sonni_45-0">46.0</a> <a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Sonni_45-1">46.1</a> <a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Sonni_45-2">46.2</a> <a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Sonni_45-3">46.3</a> Sonni Efron, <a class="external text" title="http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/contract/2005/0730risky.htm" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/contract/2005/0730risky.htm">"Worry Grows as Foreigners Flock to Iraq's Risky Jobs,"</a> Los Angeles Times (GlobalPolicy.org), July 30, 2005.</li><li id="cite_note-46"><a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-46">↑</a> Jonathan Franklin, <a class="external text" title="http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1162392,00.html" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1162392,00.html">"US

contractor recruits guards for Iraq in Chile. Forces say experienced

soldiers are quitting for private companies which pay more for similar

work,"</a> The Guardian (UK), March 5, 2004.</li><li id="cite_note-Size-47">↑ <a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Size_47-0">48.0</a> <a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Size_47-1">48.1</a> Bill Sizemore, <a class="external text" title="http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=102251&ran=202519&tref=po" rel="nofollow" href="http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=102251&ran=202519&tref=po">"Blackwater USA says it can supply forces for conflicts,"</a> The Virginian-Pilot,

March 30, 2006: "Stepping into a potential political minefield,

Blackwater USA is offering itself up as an army for hire to police the

world's trouble spots."</li><li id="cite_note-Cortes-48">↑ <a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Cortes_48-0">49.0</a> <a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Cortes_48-1">49.1</a> Claro Cortes, <a class="external text" title="http://www.aljazeerah.info/News%20archives/2006%20News%20Archives/June/11%20n/Manila%20Newspapers%20US%20Firm%20Blackwater%20Recruiting%20Mercenaries%20to%20Fight%20in%20Iraq,%20Authorities%20Deny%20it.htm" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.aljazeerah.info/News%20archives/2006%20News%20Archives/June/11%20n/Manila%20Newspapers%20US%20Firm%20Blackwater%20Recruiting%20Mercenaries%20to%20Fight%20in%20Iraq,%20Authorities%20Deny%20it.htm">"Manila

Newspapers: US Firm Blackwater Recruiting Mercenaries to Fight in Iraq,

Authorities Deny it. GN Headline: US firm 'not recruiting mercenaries

for Iraq',"</a> <a class="mw-redirect" title="Al-Jazeerah" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Al-Jazeerah">Al-Jazeerah</a>, June 11, 2006.</li><li id="cite_note-SunStar-49">↑ <a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-SunStar_49-0">50.0</a> <a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-SunStar_49-1">50.1</a> <a class="external text" title="http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/man/2006/06/12/news/congress.can.look.into.hiring.of.pinoy.mercenaries.to.iraq.palace.html" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/man/2006/06/12/news/congress.can.look.into.hiring.of.pinoy.mercenaries.to.iraq.palace.html">"Congress can look into hiring of Pinoy 'mercenaries' to Iraq: Palace,"</a> Sun Star (Manila, Philippines), June 12, 2006.</li><li id="cite_note-50"><a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-50">↑</a> Tim Shorrock, <a class="external text" title="http://timshorrock.blogspot.com/2005/01/contractors-arrogance-contributed-to.html" rel="nofollow" href="http://timshorrock.blogspot.com/2005/01/contractors-arrogance-contributed-to.html">"Contractor's arrogance contributed to Iraqi rebellion, Marine Colonel says. 'Money doesn't talk, it swears...',"</a> Tim Shorrock Blogspot, January 31, 2005.</li><li id="cite_note-51"><a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-51">↑</a> <a class="external free" title="http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5io26XfEe4F4LJr8KxWsRUyjO_SbwD8S34P3O0" rel="nofollow" href="http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5io26XfEe4F4LJr8KxWsRUyjO_SbwD8S34P3O0">http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5io26XfEe4F4LJr8KxWsRUyjO_SbwD8S34P3O0</a></li><li id="cite_note-52"><a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-52">↑</a> <a class="external free" title="http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/rls/62028.htm" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/rls/62028.htm">http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/rls/62028.htm</a></li><li id="cite_note-53"><a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-53">↑</a> <a class="external free" title="http://www.prweek.com/us/news/article/743606/Blackwater-incident-sheds-light-crises/" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.prweek.com/us/news/article/743606/Blackwater-incident-sheds-light-crises/">http://www.prweek.com/us/news/article/743606/Blackwater-incident-sheds-light-crises/</a></li><li id="cite_note-54"><a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-54">↑</a> "<a class="external text" title="http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/0121blackwater.html" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/0121blackwater.html">Blackwater Bolsters Lobby Team</a>," O'Dwyer's PR Daily (sub req'd), January 21, 2008.</li><li id="cite_note-55"><a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-55">↑</a> "<a class="external text" title="http://www.lobbyists.info/detail.cfm?organization_id=27967&page=1&RequestTimeout=1500" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.lobbyists.info/detail.cfm?organization_id=27967&page=1&RequestTimeout=1500">Blackwater USA</a>," Lobbyist.info (sub req'd), accessed January 2008.</li><li id="cite_note-56"><a title="" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-56">↑</a> August Cole, "<a class="external text" title="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123595280053605191.html" rel="nofollow" href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123595280053605191.html">Founder, CEO of Blackwater Steps Aside, 'Worn Out'</a>," Wall Street Journal (sub req'd), March 2, 2009.</li></ol>

<h3>External articles</h3>

<ul><li><a title="Blackwater USA/External Links" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Blackwater_USA/External_Links">Background information and series of articles</a></li><li><a title="Blackwater USA/external articles 2003-2006" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Blackwater_USA/external_articles_2003-2006">Articles for 2003-2006</a></li><li><a title="Blackwater USA/external articles 2007" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Blackwater_USA/external_articles_2007">Articles for 2007</a></li><li><a title="Blackwater USA/external articles 2008" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Blackwater_USA/external_articles_2008">Articles for 2008</a></li></ul>

<ul><li>Jeremy Scahill, "<a class="external text" title="http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090817/scahill" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090817/scahill">Blackwater Founder Implicated in Murder</a>," The Nation, August 4, 2009.</li></ul>

=

<a href="http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/004355.php">http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/004355.php</a>

===

2010

<h1 id="page-title">Blackwater's Black Ops</h1>

<div class="field-item even">September 18, 2010</div>

</div>

<div class="field-item even">Jeremy Scahill</div>

</div>

<div class="field-item even"><a target="_blank" href="http://www.thenation.com/article/154739/blackwaters-black-ops?page=full" rel="nofollow">The Nation</a></div>

</div>

Over the past several years,

entities closely linked to the private security firm Blackwater have

provided intelligence, training and security services to US and foreign

governments as well as several multinational corporations, including

Monsanto, Chevron, the Walt Disney Company, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines

and banking giants Deutsche Bank and Barclays, according to documents

obtained by The Nation. Blackwater's work for corporations and

government agencies was contracted using two companies owned by

Blackwater's owner and founder, Erik Prince: Total Intelligence

Solutions and the Terrorism Research Center (TRC). Prince is listed as

the chairman of both companies in internal company documents, which show

how the web of companies functions as a highly coordinated operation.

Officials from Total Intelligence, TRC and Blackwater (which now calls

itself Xe Services) did not respond to numerous requests for comment for

this article.

One of the most incendiary

details in the documents is that Blackwater, through Total Intelligence,

sought to become the "intel arm" of Monsanto, offering to provide

operatives to infiltrate activist groups organizing against the

multinational biotech firm.

Governmental recipients of

intelligence services and counterterrorism training from Prince's

companies include the Kingdom of Jordan, the Canadian military and the

Netherlands police, as well as several US military bases, including Fort

Bragg, home of the elite Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), and

Fort Huachuca, where military interrogators are trained, according to

the documents. In addition, Blackwater worked through the companies for

the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency and

the US European Command.

On September 3 the New York

Times reported that Blackwater had "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." The documents obtained

by The Nation reveal previously unreported details of several such

companies and open a rare window into the sensitive intelligence and

security operations Blackwater performs for a range of powerful

corporations and government agencies. The new evidence also sheds light

on the key roles of several former top CIA officials who went on to work

for Blackwater.

The coordinator of Blackwater's

covert CIA business, former CIA paramilitary officer Enrique "Ric"

Prado, set up a global network of foreign operatives, offering their

"deniability" as a "big plus" for potential Blackwater customers,

according to company documents. The CIA has long used proxy forces to

carry out extralegal actions or to shield US government involvement in

unsavory operations from scrutiny. In some cases, these "deniable"

foreign forces don't even know who they are working for. Prado and

Prince built up a network of such foreigners while Blackwater was at the

center of the CIA's assassination program, beginning in 2004. They

trained special missions units at one of Prince's properties in Virginia

with the intent of hunting terrorism suspects globally, often working

with foreign operatives. A former senior CIA official said the benefit

of using Blackwater's foreign operatives in CIA operations was that "you

wouldn't want to have American fingerprints on it."

While the network was

originally established for use in CIA operations, documents show that

Prado viewed it as potentially valuable to other government agencies. In

an e-mail in October 2007 with the subject line "Possible Opportunity

in DEA—Read and Delete," Prado wrote to a Total Intelligence executive

with a pitch for the Drug Enforcement Administration. That executive was

an eighteen-year DEA veteran with extensive government connections who

had recently joined the firm. Prado explained that Blackwater had

developed "a rapidly growing, worldwide network of folks that can do

everything from surveillance to ground truth to disruption operations."

He added, "These are all foreign nationals (except for a few cases where

US persons are the conduit but no longer 'play' on the street), so

deniability is built in and should be a big plus."

The executive wrote back and

suggested there "may be an interest" in those services. The executive

suggested that "one of the best places to start may be the Special

Operations Division, (SOD) which is located in Chantilly, VA," telling

Prado the name of the special agent in charge. The SOD is a secretive

joint command within the Justice Department, run by the DEA. It serves

as the command-and-control center for some of the most sensitive

counternarcotics and law enforcement operations conducted by federal

forces. The executive also told Prado that US attachés in Mexico;

Bogotá, Colombia; and Bangkok, Thailand, would potentially be interested

in Prado's network. Whether this network was activated, and for what

customers, cannot be confirmed. A former Blackwater employee who worked

on the company's CIA program declined to comment on Prado's work for the

company, citing its classified status.

In November 2007 officials from

Prince's companies developed a pricing structure for security and

intelligence services for private companies and wealthy individuals. One

official wrote that Prado had the capacity to "develop infrastructures"

and "conduct ground-truth and security activities." According to the

pricing chart, potential customers could hire Prado and other Blackwater

officials to operate in the United States and globally: in Latin

America, North Africa, francophone countries, the Middle East, Europe,

China, Russia, Japan, and Central and Southeast Asia. A four-man team

headed by Prado for countersurveillance in the United States cost

$33,600 weekly, while "safehouses" could be established for $250,000,

plus operational costs. Identical services were offered globally. For

$5,000 a day, clients could hire Prado or former senior CIA officials

Cofer Black and Robert Richer for "representation" to national

"decision-makers." Before joining Blackwater, Black, a twenty-eight-year

CIA veteran, ran the agency's counterterrorism center, while Richer was

the agency's deputy director of operations. (Neither Black nor Richer

currently works for the company.)

As Blackwater became embroiled

in controversy following the Nisour Square massacre, Prado set up his

own company, Constellation Consulting Group (CCG), apparently taking

some of Blackwater's covert CIA work with him, though he maintained

close ties to his former employer. In an e-mail to a Total Intelligence

executive in February 2008, Prado wrote that he "recently had major

success in developing capabilities in Mali [Africa] that are of extreme

interest to our major sponsor and which will soon launch a substantial

effort via my small shop." He requested Total Intelligence's help in

analyzing the "North Mali/Niger terrorist problem."

In October 2009 Blackwater

executives faced a crisis when they could not account for their

government-issued Secure Telephone Unit, which is used by the CIA, the

National Security Agency and other military and intelligence services

for secure communications. A flurry of e-mails were sent around as

personnel from various Blackwater entities tried to locate the device.

One former Blackwater official wrote that because he had left the

company it was "not really my problem," while another declared, "I have

no 'dog in this fight.'" Eventually, Prado stepped in, e-mailing the

Blackwater officials to "pass my number" to the "OGA POC," meaning the

Other Government Agency (parlance for CIA) Point of Contact.

What relationship Prado's CCG

has with the CIA is not known. An early version of his company's website

boasted that "CCG professionals have already conducted operations on

five continents, and have proven their ability to meet the most

demanding client needs" and that the company has the "ability to manage

highly-classified contracts." CCG, the site said, "is uniquely

positioned to deliver services that no other company can, and can

deliver results in the most remote areas with little or no outside

support." Among the services advertised were "Intelligence and

Counter-Intelligence (human and electronic), Unconventional Military

Operations, Counterdrug Operations, Aviation Services, Competitive

Intelligence, Denied Area Access...and Paramilitary Training."

The Nation has previously

reported on Blackwater's work for the CIA and JSOC in Pakistan. New

documents reveal a history of activity relating to Pakistan by

Blackwater. Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto worked with

the company when she returned to Pakistan to campaign for the 2008

elections, according to the documents. In October 2007, when media

reports emerged that Bhutto had hired "American security," senior

Blackwater official Robert Richer wrote to company executives, "We need

to watch this carefully from a number of angles. If our name surfaces,

the Pakistani press reaction will be very important. How that plays

through the Muslim world will also need tracking." Richer wrote that "we

should be prepared to [sic] a communique from an affiliate of Al-Qaida

if our name surfaces (BW). That will impact the security profile."

Clearly a word is missing in the e-mail or there is a typo that leaves

unclear what Richer meant when he mentioned the Al Qaeda communiqué.

Bhutto was assassinated two months later. Blackwater officials

subsequently scheduled a meeting with her family representatives in

Washington, in January 2008.

Through Total Intelligence and

the Terrorism Research Center, Blackwater also did business with a range

of multinational corporations. According to internal Total Intelligence

communications, biotech giant Monsanto—the world's largest supplier of

genetically modified seeds—hired the firm in 2008–09. The relationship

between the two companies appears to have been solidified in January

2008 when Total Intelligence chair Cofer Black traveled to Zurich to

meet with Kevin Wilson, Monsanto's security manager for global issues.

After the meeting in Zurich,

Black sent an e-mail to other Blackwater executives, including to Prince

and Prado at their Blackwater e-mail addresses. Black wrote that Wilson

"understands that we can span collection from internet, to reach out,

to boots on the ground on legit basis protecting the Monsanto [brand]

name.... Ahead of the curve info and insight/heads up is what he is

looking for." Black added that Total Intelligence "would develop into

acting as intel arm of Monsanto." Black also noted that Monsanto was

concerned about animal rights activists and that they discussed how

Blackwater "could have our person(s) actually join [activist] group(s)

legally." Black wrote that initial payments to Total Intelligence would

be paid out of Monsanto's "generous protection budget" but would

eventually become a line item in the company's annual budget. He

estimated the potential payments to Total Intelligence at between

$100,000 and $500,000. According to documents, Monsanto paid Total

Intelligence $127,000 in 2008 and $105,000 in 2009.

Reached by telephone and

asked about the meeting with Black in Zurich, Monsanto's Wilson

initially said, "I'm not going to discuss it with you." In a subsequent

e-mail to The Nation, Wilson confirmed he met Black in Zurich and that

Monsanto hired Total Intelligence in 2008 and worked with the company

until early 2010. He denied that he and Black discussed infiltrating

animal rights groups, stating "there was no such discussion." He claimed

that Total Intelligence only provided Monsanto "with reports about the

activities of groups or individuals that could pose a risk to company

personnel or operations around the world which were developed by

monitoring local media reports and other publicly available information.

The subject matter ranged from information regarding terrorist

incidents in Asia or kidnappings in Central America to scanning the

content of activist blogs and websites." Wilson asserted that Black told

him Total Intelligence was "a completely separate entity from

Blackwater."

Monsanto was hardly the only

powerful corporation to enlist the services of Blackwater's

constellation of companies. The Walt Disney Company hired Total

Intelligence and TRC to do a "threat assessment" for potential film

shoot locations in Morocco, with former CIA officials Black and Richer

reaching out to their former Moroccan intel counterparts for

information. The job provided a "good chance to impress Disney," one

company executive wrote. How impressed Disney was is not clear; in 2009

the company paid Total Intelligence just $24,000.

Total Intelligence and TRC also

provided intelligence assessments on China to Deutsche Bank. "The

Chinese technical counterintelligence threat is one of the highest in

the world," a TRC analyst wrote, adding, "Many four and five star hotel

rooms and restaurants are live-monitored with both audio and video" by

Chinese intelligence. He also said that computers, PDAs and other

electronic devices left unattended in hotel rooms could be cloned.

Cellphones using the Chinese networks, the analyst wrote, could have

their microphones remotely activated, meaning they could operate as

permanent listening devices. He concluded that Deutsche Bank reps should

"bring no electronic equipment into China." Warning of the use of

female Chinese agents, the analyst wrote, "If you don't have women

coming onto you all the time at home, then you should be suspicious if

they start coming onto you when you arrive in China." For these and

other services, the bank paid Total Intelligence $70,000 in 2009.

TRC also did background checks

on Libyan and Saudi businessmen for British banking giant Barclays. In

February 2008 a TRC executive e-mailed Prado and Richer revealing that

Barclays asked TRC and Total Intelligence for background research on the

top executives from the Saudi Binladin Group (SBG) and their potential

"associations/connections with the Royal family and connections with

Osama bin Ladin." In his report, Richer wrote that SBG's chair, Bakr

Mohammed bin Laden, "is well and favorably known to both arab and

western intelligence service[s]" for cooperating in the hunt for Osama

bin Laden. Another SBG executive, Sheikh Saleh bin Laden, is described

by Richer as "a very savvy businessman" who is "committed to operating

with full transparency to Saudi's security services" and is considered

"the most vehement within the extended BL family in terms of criticizing

UBL's actions and beliefs."

In August Blackwater and the

State Department reached a $42 million settlement for hundreds of

violations of US export control regulations. Among the violations cited

was the unauthorized export of technical data to the Canadian military.

Meanwhile, Blackwater's dealings with Jordanian officials are the

subject of a federal criminal prosecution of five former top Blackwater

executives. The Jordanian government paid Total Intelligence more than

$1.6 million in 2009.

Some of the training Blackwater

provided to Canadian military forces was in Blackwater/TRC's "Mirror

Image" course, where trainees live as a mock Al Qaeda cell in an effort

to understand the mindset and culture of insurgents. Company literature

describes it as "a classroom and field training program designed to

simulate terrorist recruitment, training, techniques and operational

tactics." Documents show that in March 2009 Blackwater/TRC spent $6,500

purchasing local tribal clothing in Afghanistan as well as assorted

"propaganda materials—posters, Pakistan Urdu maps, etc." for Mirror

Image, and another $9,500 on similar materials this past January in

Pakistan and Afghanistan.

According to internal

documents, in 2009 alone the Canadian military paid Blackwater more than

$1.6 million through TRC. A Canadian military official praised the

program in a letter to the center, saying it provided "unique and valid

cultural awareness and mission specific deployment training for our

soldiers in Afghanistan," adding that it was "a very effective and

operationally current training program that is beneficial to our

mission."

This past summer Erik Prince

put Blackwater up for sale and moved to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

But he doesn't seem to be leaving the shadowy world of security and

intelligence. He says he moved to Abu Dhabi because of its "great

proximity to potential opportunities across the entire Middle East, and

great logistics," adding that it has "a friendly business climate, low

to no taxes, free trade and no out of control trial lawyers or labor

unions. It's pro-business and opportunity." It also has no extradition

treaty with the United States.

</div>

----

29 june 13

<h1 class="post-title" style="zoom: 1; border: 0px; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; letter-spacing: -1px; width: 480px; line-height: 33.6px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Yes, Monsanto Actually DID Buy the BLACKWATER Mercenary Group!</h1>

<div>

</div>

A report by Jeremy Scahill in The Nation revealed that the largest mercenary army in the world, Blackwater (later called Xe Services and more recently “Academi“)

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.

Many

military and former CIA officers work for Blackwater or related

companies created to divert attention from their bad reputation and make

more profit selling their nefarious services-ranging from information

and intelligence to infiltration, political lobbying and paramilitary

training – for other governments, banks and multinational corporations.

According to Scahill, business with multinationals, like Monsanto,

Chevron, and financial giants such as Barclays and Deutsche Bank, are

channeled through two companies owned by Erik Prince, owner of

Blackwater: Total Intelligence Solutions and Terrorism Research Center.

These officers and directors share Blackwater.

One of them,

Cofer Black, known for his brutality as one of the directors of the

CIA, was the one who made contact with Monsanto in 2008 as director of

Total Intelligence, entering into the contract with the company to spy

on and infiltrate organizations of animal rights activists, anti-GM and

other dirty activities of the biotech giant.

Contacted

by Scahill, the Monsanto executive Kevin Wilson declined to comment,

but later confirmed to The Nation that they had hired Total Intelligence

in 2008 and 2009, according to Monsanto only to keep track of “public

disclosure” of its opponents. He also said that Total Intelligence was a

“totally separate entity from Blackwater.”

However,

Scahill has copies of emails from Cofer Black after the meeting with

Wilson for Monsanto, where he explains to other former CIA agents, using

their Blackwater e-mails, that the discussion with Wilson was that

Total Intelligence had become “Monsanto’s intelligence arm,” spying on

activists and other actions, including “our people to legally integrate

these groups.” Total Intelligence Monsanto paid $ 127,000 in 2008 and $

105,000 in 2009.

No

wonder that a company engaged in the “science of death” as Monsanto,

which has been dedicated from the outset to produce toxic poisons

spilling from Agent Orange to PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls),

pesticides, hormones and genetically modified seeds, is associated with

another company of thugs.

Almost simultaneously with the publication of this article in The Nation, the

Via Campesina reported the purchase of 500,000 shares of Monsanto, for

more than $23 million by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which with this action completed the outing of the mask of “philanthropy.” Another association that is not surprising.

It

is a marriage between the two most brutal monopolies in the history of

industrialism: Bill Gates controls more than 90 percent of the market

share of proprietary computing and Monsanto about 90 percent of the

global transgenic seed market and most global commercial seed. There

does not exist in any other industrial sector monopolies so vast, whose

very existence is a negation of the vaunted principle of “market

competition” of capitalism. Both Gates and Monsanto are very aggressive

in defending their ill-gotten monopolies.

Although

Bill Gates might try to say that the Foundation is not linked to his

business, all it proves is the opposite: most of their donations end up

favoring the commercial investments of the tycoon, not really “donating”

anything, but instead of paying taxes to the state coffers, he invests

his profits in where it is favorable to him economically, including

propaganda from their supposed good intentions. On the contrary, their

“donations” finance projects as destructive as geoengineering or

replacement of natural community medicines for high-tech patented

medicines in the poorest areas of the world. What a coincidence, former Secretary of Health Julio Frenk and Ernesto Zedillo are advisers of the Foundation.

Like

Monsanto, Gates is also engaged in trying to destroy rural farming

worldwide, mainly through the “Alliance for a Green Revolution in

Africa” (AGRA). It works as a Trojan horse to deprive poor African

farmers of their traditional seeds, replacing them with the seeds of

their companies first, finally by genetically modified (GM). To this

end, the Foundation hired Robert Horsch in 2006, the director of

Monsanto. Now Gates, airing major profits, went straight to the source.

Blackwater,

Monsanto and Gates are three sides of the same figure: the war machine

on the planet and most people who inhabit it, are peasants, indigenous

communities, people who want to share information and knowledge or any

other who does not want to be in the aegis of profit and the

destructiveness of capitalism.

So why were so many media outlets, editorialists and bloggers clamoring to say that the purchase was a “hoax”?

That’s

a good question. The more cynical among us might suspect a financial

incentive from Monsanto itself to such “journalists.” Monsanto indeed

has hired a public relations team to seek out critical blogs and

websites reporting on their crimes against both Nature and humankind. We

have seen this first hand in comments on PoliticalBlindSpot.com

articles on Monsanto. It is not beyond the realm of possibilities that

they have created blogs where seemingly legitimate authors write organic

thoughts, observations and rebuttals. The public presumes these are

real-world people, when in fact they are working PR for the company.

But

the core argument of those who claim that the Monsanto purchase of

Blackwater is not true lies in the fact that we can only officially

document Blackwater being hired by Monsanto for years. Immediately

following this extensive work that Blackwater did for Monsanto, they

sold the company. Because of the nature of how the sale transpired, it

is impossible to document who the sale was to. The obvious and logical

conclusion to insiders (particularly in the private security industry),

however, is that the sale was in fact to Monsanto who had been employing

the group.

</div>

<a href="http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/xe-international-blackwater-sold/" target="_blank" style="zoom: 1; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">Xe (now Academi) has, indeed, been purchased</a>,

and while there’s no way of DOCUMENTING who the new owners really are,

the logical conclusion would be that Monsanto, who had been employing

them prior to the sale are the new owners. This, of course, would also

make sense of the secrecy surrounding the deal and the identity of the

new owners. The<a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iv14RnpjJqraPQCs5aVH9PUXN9Jw?docId=CNG.ee663915284de0064f72d69189fad44d.71" target="_blank" style="zoom: 1; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;"> company was bought out</a> by

private investors via private equity companies that don’t have to

divulge any of their dealings, with Bank of America providing much of

the <a href="http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2010/12/16/blackwater-founder-in-deal-to-sell-company/?partner=rss&emc=rss" target="_blank" style="zoom: 1; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">$200 million in financing</a> for the deal.

New

York-based USTC Holdings said it will acquire Xe and its core operating

subsidiaries, but did not disclose the price or terms of the agreement

in a statement.

USTC Holdings is an investor consortium led by private equity firms Forte Capital Advisors and Manhattan Partners.

</blockquote>

researchers have been trying to document the buy via a paper trail, but

so far without much luck. That, of course, is the point…

Keeping it private

One thing <a href="http://manhattan-partners.com/pdf/xe_services_acquired.pdf" target="_blank" style="zoom: 1; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">that is known</a>: Forte Capital Advisors is the baby of long-time Blackwater ally Jason De Yonker:

DeYonker

has unique experience with the Company that dates back to its founding

in the late 1990s. He advised the Company through development of its

early business plan and expansion of the Moyock training facility

as well as supporting negotiations of its first training contracts with

U.S. government agencies. Between 1998 and 2002, Mr. DeYonker co-managed

Xe founder, Erik Prince’s family office which included management of

Mr. Prince’s portfolio companies.

</blockquote>

What does that mean? The guy is a <a href="http://fortenyc.com/bios_jason_deyonker.html" target="_blank" style="zoom: 1; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">glorified accountant</a>.

Prior

to joining Forté, Jason co-managed a +$100 million family office. In

addition to actively managing various platform companies, Jason was a

part of the executive team responsible for family wealth management.

Jason

has spent the last 18 years advising on various mergers, acquistions

and divestitures with an aggregate transaction value greater than $1

billion. Jason’s experience include: transaction advisory, portfolio

management, real estate development, venture capital and cross border

dealings. Jason began his career with Arthur Andersen Corporate Finance

Group, and was a Director in Deloitte & Touche’s Corporate Finance

Group. He also was the Finance Director for the West Family Trust, a

venture capital group focused on cross-border transactons.

Jason

recieved a Bachelor of Business Administration, with a concentration in

finance and accounting, from the Univeristy of Michigan.

</blockquote>

The other investor? It looks like the very junior partner will be <a href="http://manhattan-partners.com/" target="_blank" style="zoom: 1; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">Manhattan Partners</a>,

a private equity company – a shop that gathers money

from anonymous rich investors and uses the pool of cash to  leverage

buyouts of big companies they wouldn’t have been able to take over on

their own.

Manhattan Partners invests in “compelling growth and <a href="http://manhattan-partners.com/" target="blank" style="zoom: 1; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">special situation transactions</a>,” but this will be their first known foray into defense industries – <a href="http://www.warisbusiness.com/features/deal-of-the-month/the-blackwater-vegan-soap-connection/" target="blank" style="zoom: 1; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">WarIsBusiness.com reports</a> (<a href="http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/12/will-blackwater-go-vegan-after-sale-to-hippy-firm/" target="_blank" style="zoom: 1; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">via Spencer Ackerman</a>):

Manhattan Growth Partners is led by Dean Bosacki and Patrick McBride. Bosacki serves on the board of “the world’s largest <a href="http://www.gradimages.com/" style="zoom: 1; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">commencement photography</a> business,”

among other companies. Manhattan Growth Partners, which describes

itself as “a progressive thinking private equity firm,” also holds a

majority interest in Hugo Naturals, a line of organic, vegan-friendly

soaps, lotions, scents and soy candles sold at Whole Foods and other

greenwashed retailers.

</blockquote>

the end of the day, it would seem the logical conclusion is that in

spite of arguments to the contrary, Monsanto in fact did by the

Blackwater mercenary group… or at least the renamed Blackwater Xe (now Academi) Services group. The big question now is why?

===

rightweb:

<ul><li>Institute for the Study of War: Board Member</li><li>Academi LLC (Formerly Blackwater and Xe): Senior adviser</li><li>Fox News: Military analyst</li><li>U.S. Army: Former four-star general, Vice Chief of Staff</li></ul>

</div>

Please note: IPS Right Web neither represents nor endorses any of the individuals or groups profiled on this site.

John F. “Jack” Keane, a 37-year

U.S. army veteran, former four-star general, and former vice chief of

staff of the Army, is a vocal advocate of hawkish U.S. foreign policies.

Well connected among both defense contractors and the neoconservative

advocacy community, Keane has served as a board member at the <a href="http://www.rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/institute_for_the_study_of_war">Institute for the Study of War</a>—a hawkish military policy institute that has been directed by <a href="http://www.rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/kagan_kimberly">Kimberly Kagan</a> and chaired by <a href="http://www.rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/Cheney_Elizabeth">Liz Cheney</a>—and is a frequent guest on Fox News.

Keane’s appearances on Fox

occasionally attract attention, such as his March 2012 claim on Mike

Huckabee’s program that President Barack Obama knew Osama bin Laden’s

whereabouts nearly a year before ordering the raid that led to the

al-Qaeda leader’s assassination. “We had the target in the summer [of]

2010 and it took until the following May to execute the mission. … I

know for a fact we had it that summer,“ Keane claimed. He suggested,

oddly, that the Obama administration had exercised “delay and

procrastination” while the White House “was trying to verify that the

target was actually there.” Huckabee did not press Keane to substantiate

any of his claims.<a id="ednref1" href="http://www.rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/keane_jack#edn1" name="_ednref1" title="">[1]</a>

Since leaving the military,

Keane has enjoyed a successful private-sector career that has often

appeared to dovetail with his political advocacy. In addition to serving

on the corporate boards of MetLife, General Dynamics, and Allied Barton

Security, Keane is also a co-founder of Keane Advisors LLC, a financial

consulting firm that specializes in working with military contractors.<a id="ednref2" href="http://www.rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/keane_jack#edn2" name="_ednref2" title="">[2]</a>

In June 2012, Keane was named a

“senior adviser” to Academi LLC, the most recent incarnation of the

notorious military contractor <a href="http://www.rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/blackwater_worldwide">Blackwater</a>.

Announcing Keane’s selection, Academi board member and former White

House Counsel Jack Quinn called Keane “an American hero” whose

“commitment to our national security is second to none.” Quinn promised

that Keane “will help continue to bring Academi to an even higher level

of performance.”<a id="ednref3" href="http://www.rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/keane_jack#edn3" name="_ednref3" title="">[3]</a>

Because Keane advocates

prolonged counterinsurgency campaigns and military confrontations that

would presumably benefit his business with military contractors, Real

News Network reporter Jesse Freeston has called him “a textbook example

of the military-industrial complex in action.”<a id="ednref4" href="http://www.rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/keane_jack#edn4" name="_ednref4" title="">[4]</a>

Advocacy

Keane was a stalwart opponent of withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq and remains an avid supporter of the war in Afghanistan, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQORnbapSls">telling Fox News</a>

in March 2012, “If we move out too early, if we cut and run, we will

turn [Afghanistan] back into a sanctuary, the al-Qaeda will return, and

the risk I believe to the United States is absolutely unacceptable.”

In a January 2012 appearance on

the network, Keane also predicted war with Iran. “I think we’ve been on

a collision course with Iran since 1980 when they declared us their

strategic, number-one enemy in the world,” he said, “and they’ve been

using state-sponsored terrorism against us through their proxies for 30

years and it’s not gonna stop. I think it’s inevitable that we will have

some kind of conflict with them.” During the interview, Keane suggested

that U.S. intelligence agencies believed Iran was “a year or two away

from [nuclear] weaponization” —even though, as of mid-2012, U.S.

intelligence officials have continued to conclude that Iranian leaders

have not decided to build a nuclear weapon.<a id="ednref5" href="http://www.rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/keane_jack#edn5" name="_ednref5" title="">[5]</a>

Keane is perhaps best known for his co-authorship, with <a href="http://www.rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/american_enterprise_institute">AEI’</a>s <a href="http://www.rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/kagan_frederick">Frederick Kagan</a>, of “<a href="http://www.aei.org/papers/foreign-and-defense-policy/regional/middle-east-and-north-africa/choosing-victory-a-plan-for-success-in-iraq-paper/">Choosing Victory: A Plan for Success in Iraq</a>,” a 2007 policy paper that many observers—<a href="http://www.rightweb.irc-online.org/articles/display/the_surge_of_ideas">including</a> Gen. Davis Petraeus<a id="ednref6" href="http://www.rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/keane_jack#edn6" name="_ednref6" title="">[6]</a>—credited

with laying the political groundwork for President Bush’s troop surge

in Iraq. Keane subsequently became a vocal public proponent of U.S.

counterinsurgency campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, warning about the

alleged impact of “failure” in Iraq on regional security issues,

including in Iran. In an October 2011 interview with Fox News, for

example. Keane suggested that the then-pending Iraq drawdown was “a

disaster” that would weaken U.S. “influence” against Iran.<a id="ednref7" href="http://www.rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/keane_jack#edn7" name="_ednref7" title="">[7]</a>

Shortly after the Fox interview, on October 26, 2011, Keane appeared at a U.S. House of Representatives hearing on <a href="http://homeland.house.gov/hearing/joint-subcommittee-hearingiranian-terror-operations-american-soil">“Iranian Terror Operations on American Soil</a>”

to discuss an alleged plot by Iran to kill the Saudi ambassador to the

United States. Discussing the alleged conspirators, Keane said: “We’ve

got to put our hand around their throat now. …  Why don’t we kill them?

We kill other people who kill others.” Keane described Iran as “our

number-one strategic enemy in the world,” declaring the alleged plot a

“stunning rebuke to the Obama administration’s policy of negotiation and

isolation with the Iranians.” He then recommended undertaking “covert

operations led by the CIA” and giving “money, information, and

encouragement to the dissident leaders inside Iran to use their

population to put pressure on the regime.” Joining Keane at the hearing

were Reuel Marc Gerecht of the neoconservative Foundation for Defense of

Democracies and Matthew Levitt of the Washington Institute for Near

East Policy, a spin-off of the <a href="http://www.rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/American_Israel_Public_Affairs_Committee">American Israel Public Affairs Committee</a>.<a id="ednref8" href="http://www.rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/keane_jack#edn8" name="_ednref8" title="">[8]</a>

Investigative journalist Gareth

Porter credited Keane with quietly working behind the scenes to curry

both active and retired military opinion in favor of a protracted U.S.

presence in Iraq. In a 2009 interview with the Real News Network, Porter

called Keane “the mafia don of this network of retired and active-duty

generals who are now quietly at work trying to figure out how they can

really turn this [Iraq] storyline … against Obama, making sure that

anybody in the Pentagon who meets with a reporter is going to give the

same line that … [Obama]'s threatening stability in Iraq.”<a id="ednref9" href="http://www.rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/keane_jack#edn9" name="_ednref9" title="">[9]</a>

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<h2 style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; line-height: 20px; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Suzanne Folsom, SVP, General Counsel & Chief Compliance Officer</h2>

<p style="margin: 0px 0px 6.5px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; line-height: 16px; text-align: justify; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Suzanne

Rich Folsom is the SVP, General Counsel & Chief Compliance Officer

at ACADEMI. Ms. Folsom is an expert in regulatory and compliance risk

management and corporate governance. She has proven executive leadership

skills at the world's largest and most diverse corporations and

international organizations such as AIG, the World Bank Group, the

United Nations and leading international law firms O'Melveny & Myers

LLP and Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP. Ms. Folsom has lived

around the world while working as a lawyer, policy advisor and

governance specialist.

Ms.

Folsom was recruited by AIG to lead the regulatory and compliance team,

and to remedy the company's material weaknesses. During her tenure, Ms.

Folsom installed a best in class regulatory and compliance framework

and program for the company and its more than 3,000 subsidiaries in 130

countries. Ms. Folsom and her team were widely praised by international

regulators from around the globe for their extraordinary efforts during a

time of heightened concern over the global financial crisis.

Prior

to her work at AIG, Ms. Folsom distinguished herself as a tireless

advocate for good governance and a courageous champion of global

anti-corruption initiatives at the World Bank Group. From 2003 to 2008,

she served as the Counselor to the President of the World Bank Group.

During her tenure, she also assumed the role of Director of U.S.

Affairs, and later was selected as the Bank's Director of the Department

of Institutional Integrity. Ms. Folsom's extensive and diverse

professional experience includes eight years with O'Melveny & Myers

LLP, where she served as Special Counsel and advised a host of

high-profile international and domestic clients.

Previously,

Ms. Folsom served as the Chief of Staff to Her Majesty Queen Noor of

the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. In addition, she served as First Family

Liaison to the U.S. Presidential Inaugural Committee and Special

Assistant to Mrs. Barbara Bush for the 1988 Presidential Campaign. Ms.

Folsom’s political career also includes serving as Executive Director of

a women's political action committee.

Ms.

Folsom received her political science degree from Duke University and

her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, where she focused on

international law, ethics and corporate governance. Ms. Folsom has

lectured on issues of ethics, compliance and governance at professional

forums including the American Bar Association, the International Bar

Association, Harvard Law School, the World Bank, and the Inter-American

Bank as well as private institutions and associations. She is published

in the area of governance and is a frequent commentator in the press and

media on issues pertaining to corporate ethics and governance. She has

worked in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East.