Total Intelligence cofer

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">cofer black fder Total Intelligence Sol 2007 robt richer and prado, both cia (all 3 1st to blackwater)
 ashes
=</font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.thenation.com/article/blackwaters-black-ops/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">RELATED ARTICLE</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">BLACKWATER’S BLACK OPS</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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.)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Total Intelligence Solutions, LLC</b> is an intelligence gathering and analysis company launched by <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=J._Cofer_Black" title="J. Cofer Black">Cofer Black</a> and <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Robert_Richer" title="Robert Richer">Robert Richer</a>

in February of 2007, which Black stated in a media release "brings the

intelligence gathering methodology and analytical skills traditionally

honed by <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=CIA" title="CIA" class="mw-redirect">CIA</a> operatives directly to the board room."<sup id="cite_ref-MR_0-0" class="reference"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Total_Intelligence_Solutions,_LLC#cite_note-MR-0" title="">[1]</a></sup></font></p>

<h2><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Contents</font></h2>

<ul><li class="toclevel-1"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Total_Intelligence_Solutions,LLC#Founding"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber">1</span> <span class="toctext">Founding</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Total_Intelligence_Solutions,LLC#Services"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber">2</span> <span class="toctext">Services</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Total_Intelligence_Solutions,_LLC#Personnel"><span class="tocnumber">3</span> <span class="toctext">Personnel</span></a>

</font><ul><li class="toclevel-2"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Total_Intelligence_Solutions,_LLC#Former_personnel"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber">3.1</span> <span class="toctext">Former personnel</span></font></a></li></ul>

</li><li class="toclevel-1"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Total_Intelligence_Solutions,LLC#Contact_Details"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber">4</span> <span class="toctext">Contact Details</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Total_Intelligence_Solutions,LLC#Articles_and_Resources"><span class="tocnumber">5</span> <span class="toctext">Articles and Resources</span></a>

</font><ul><li class="toclevel-2"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Total_Intelligence_Solutions,LLC#Related_SourceWatch_Articles"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber">5.1</span> <span class="toctext">Related SourceWatch Articles</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-2"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Total_Intelligence_Solutions,LLC#References"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber">5.2</span> <span class="toctext">References</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-2"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Total_Intelligence_Solutions,_LLC#External_Articles"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber">5.3</span> <span class="toctext">External Articles</span></font></a></li></ul>

</li></ul>

</td></tr></tbody></table>

</font></a><h2><a name="Founding" id="Founding"><span class="mw-headline"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Founding</font></span></a></h2>

<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a name="Founding" id="Founding">Black, with a 28 year career at the CIA in the Directorate of

Operations ending as Director of the CIA Counterterrorist Center, along

with Richer, former Associate Deputy Director for Operations at the CIA,

merged </a><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=The_Black_Group&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="The Black Group (page does not exist)">The Black Group</a>, <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Terrorism_Research_Center,Inc.&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Terrorism Research Center, Inc. (page does not exist)">Terrorism Research Center, Inc.</a>, and <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Technical_Defense&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Technical Defense (page does not exist)">Technical Defense</a> to "bring CIA-style intelligence services to Fortune 500" companies.<sup id="cite_ref-MR_0-1" class="reference"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Total_Intelligence_Solutions,LLC#cite_note-MR-0" title="">[1]</a></sup></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"By fusing the resources of these three companies together, we can

offer an established worldwide network of experts who can assess the

global economic, social and political sensitivities that Fortune 500

companies need to navigate," Richer stated in a 2007 media release.<sup id="cite_ref-MR_0-2" class="reference"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Total_Intelligence_Solutions,_LLC#cite_note-MR-0" title="">[1]</a></sup></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"With a service like this, CEOs and their security personnel will be

able respond to threats quickly and confidently -- whether it's

determining which city is safest to open a new plant in or working to

keep employees out of harm's way after a terrorist attack," said Cofer

Black in the company's February 20th, 2007 press release.<sup id="cite_ref-MR_0-3" class="reference"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Total_Intelligence_Solutions,_LLC#cite_note-MR-0" title="">[1]</a></sup></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Cofer Black and COO Enrique Prado both hold positions at <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Blackwater_USA" title="Blackwater USA" class="mw-redirect">Blackwater USA</a>

and Robert Richer left his position there as VP for Intelligence to run

TIS. On its website TIS states that "Despite media reports to the

contrary, Mr. Richer departed Total Intelligence Solutions in February

The TIS leadership team appreciates Mr. Richer's prior

contributions to the company and the departure was amicable for all

parties involved."<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Total_Intelligence_Solutions,_LLC#cite_note-1" title="">[2]</a></sup></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Though billed as non-Blackwater company, TIS is the merger of three

companies, one of which is the Terrorism Research Center, which is owned

by Blackwater founder and owner, Erik Prince.<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Total_Intelligence_Solutions,_LLC#cite_note-2" title="">[3]</a></sup></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2007 TIS was a member of the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=International_Peace_Operations_Association" title="International Peace Operations Association">International Peace Operations Association</a>, with <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=David_Hammond&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="David Hammond (page does not exist)">David Hammond</a> from the law firm <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Crowell%26_Moring" title="Crowell & Moring">Crowell & Moring</a> LLP representing the company as chair of IPOA's General Counsels Committee.<sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Total_Intelligence_Solutions,LLC#cite_note-3" title="">[4]</a></sup> As of February 2009, it is no longer listed as a corporate member.<sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Total_Intelligence_Solutions,_LLC#cite_note-4" title="">[5]</a></sup></font>

</font></a><h2><a name="Services" id="Services"><span class="mw-headline"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Services</font></span></a></h2>

<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a name="Services" id="Services">TIS offers to the business community </a><a href="http://www.totalintel.com/dsp_intelops.php" class="external autonumber" title="http://www.totalintel.com/dsp_intelops.php" rel="nofollow">[1]</a>:</font></p>

<ul><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Identify transactional risk</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Manage reputational risk</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Comply with AML/CFT requirements</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Safely travel to international destinations</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Secure events and other venues</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Surveillance and countersurveillance</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Deployed intelligence collection</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rapid safeguarding of employees or other key assets.</font></li></ul>

<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">TIS subsidiary, Terrorism Research Center, offers tailored support to

the local, state, and federal emergency management and other homeland

security missions<a href="http://www.totalintel.com/dsp_homelandsecurity.php" class="external autonumber" title="http://www.totalintel.com/dsp_homelandsecurity.php" rel="nofollow">[2]</a>:</font></p>

<ul><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Architecting and managing State and Local fusion centers</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Emergency Management Consultancy</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Continuity of Operations/Continuity of Government (COOP/COG) Planning</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">NIMS Compliance and Adherence to the National Response Plan</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Threat Communications and Public Relations</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mutual Aid and Assistance Planning and Agreements</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Familiarization with the Target Capabilities List and Universal Task List</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Grant and Training Awareness and Assistance</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">All-Hazards Simulations and Exercises</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Department of Homeland Security-funded Responder Knowledge Base (RKB)</font></li></ul>

<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">TIS also provides real time intelligence analysis of a variety of current events with their <a href="http://www.totalintel.com/dsp_gfc.php" class="external text" title="http://www.totalintel.com/dsp_gfc.php" rel="nofollow">Global Fusion Center</a>:</font></p>

<ul><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Political violence and terrorism</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Infrastructure protection</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Geopolitical developments</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">International criminal activities</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Social instability and political conflict</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Environmental and health-related threats</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Macro-economic surveys and forecasts</font></li></ul>

<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Products offered by analysis:</font></p>

<ul><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Intelligence Assessments</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Threat Assessments</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Support to Operations</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Daily Intelligence Summaries</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Alternative Analyses</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Longterm Forecasting</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Language and translation services</font></li></ul>

</font></a><h2><a name="Personnel" id="Personnel"><span class="mw-headline"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Personnel</font></span></a></h2>

<ul><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a name="Personnel" id="Personnel" /></font><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a name="Personnel" id="Personnel" /><a name="Personnel" id="Personnel" /><a name="Personnel" id="Personnel" /><a name="Personnel" id="Personnel" /><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=J.Cofer_Black" title="J. Cofer Black">J. Cofer Black</a>: Chairman</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Melinda_Redman&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Melinda Redman (page does not exist)">Melinda Redman</a>, Senior Vice President, Business Development and Administration<sup id="cite_ref-5" class="reference"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Total_Intelligence_Solutions,LLC#cite_note-5" title="">[6]</a></sup></font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Enrique_Prado&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Enrique Prado (page does not exist)">Enrique Prado</a>: Chief Operating Officer</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Caleb_Temple&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Caleb Temple (page does not exist)">Caleb Temple</a>: Senior Vice President - Intelligence/ Analysis</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Jennifer_Hardwick&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Jennifer Hardwick (page does not exist)">Jennifer Hardwick</a>: Vice-President - Client Relations</font></li></ul>

</font></a><h3><a name="Former_personnel" id="Former_personnel"><span class="mw-headline"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Former personnel</font></span></a></h3>

<ul><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a name="Former_personnel" id="Former_personnel" /></font><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a name="Former_personnel" id="Former_personnel" /><a name="Former_personnel" id="Former_personnel" /><a name="Former_personnel" id="Former_personnel" /><a name="Former_personnel" id="Former_personnel" /><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Robert_Richer" title="Robert Richer">Robert Richer</a>, former Chief Executive Officer</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Matthew_Devost" title="Matthew Devost">Matthew Devost</a>: President<sup id="cite_ref-6" class="reference"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Total_Intelligence_Solutions,LLC#cite_note-6" title="">[7]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-7" class="reference"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Total_Intelligence_Solutions,LLC#cite_note-7" title="">[8]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-8" class="reference"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Total_Intelligence_Solutions,_LLC#cite_note-8" title="">[9]</a></sup></font></li></ul>

</font></a><h2><a name="Contact_Details" id="Contact_Details"><span class="mw-headline"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Contact Details</font></span></a></h2>

<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a name="Contact_Details" id="Contact_Details">Website: </a><a href="http://www.totalintel.com/index.php" class="external free" title="http://www.totalintel.com/index.php" rel="nofollow">http://www.totalintel.com/index.php</a></font>

</font></a><h2><a name="Articles_and_Resources" id="Articles_and_Resources"><span class="mw-headline"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Articles and Resources</font></span></a></h2>

</font></a><h3><a name="Related_SourceWatch_Articles" id="Related_SourceWatch_Articles"><span class="mw-headline"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Related SourceWatch Articles</font></span></a></h3>

</font></a><h3><a name="References" id="References"><span class="mw-headline"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">References</font></span></a></h3>

<ol class="references"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a name="References" id="References" /></font><li id="cite_note-MR-0"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a name="References" id="References" /><a name="References" id="References" /><a name="References" id="References" /><a name="References" id="References">↑ <sup /></a><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Total_Intelligence_Solutions,LLC#cite_ref-MR_0-0" title="">1.0</a> <sup><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Total_Intelligence_Solutions,LLC#cite_ref-MR_0-1" title="">1.1</a></sup> <sup><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Total_Intelligence_Solutions,LLC#cite_ref-MR_0-2" title="">1.2</a></sup> <sup><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Total_Intelligence_Solutions,LLC#cite_ref-MR_0-3" title="">1.3</a></sup> <a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/02-20-2007/0004530623&EDATE=" class="external text" title="http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/02-20-2007/0004530623&EDATE=" rel="nofollow">"Former CIA and Counterterrorism Experts Respond to Security and Intelligence Demands of the Private Sector :</a> Total Intelligence Solutions Brings CIA-style Intelligence Services to Fortune 500", Media Release, February 20, 2007.</font></li><li id="cite_note-1"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Total_Intelligence_Solutions,LLC#cite_ref-1" title="">↑</a> Total Intelligence Solutions, <a href="http://www.totalintel.com/dsp_aboutus_personnel.php" class="external text" title="http://www.totalintel.com/dsp_aboutus_personnel.php" rel="nofollow">"About Total Intelligence Solutions - Personnel"</a>, Total Intelligence Solutions website, accessed February 2009.</font></li><li id="cite_note-2"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Total_Intelligence_Solutions,LLC#cite_ref-2" title="">↑</a> <a href="http://www.iraqslogger.com/index.php/post/1632" class="external text" title="http://www.iraqslogger.com/index.php/post/1632" rel="nofollow">"Erik Prince Launches Intelligence Company"</a>, Iraqi Slogger, undated.</font></li><li id="cite_note-3"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Total_Intelligence_Solutions,LLC#cite_ref-3" title="">↑</a> International Peace Operations Association, <a href="http://ipoaworld.org/eng/glac/35-committees/57-glac.html" class="external text" title="http://ipoaworld.org/eng/glac/35-committees/57-glac.html" rel="nofollow">"Government and Legal Affairs Committee"</a>, International Peace Operations Association website, accessed February 2009.</font></li><li id="cite_note-4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Total_Intelligence_Solutions,LLC#cite_ref-4" title="">↑</a> International Peace Operations Association, <a href="http://ipoaworld.org/eng/memberslist.html" class="external text" title="http://ipoaworld.org/eng/memberslist.html" rel="nofollow">"Current IPOA Corporate Membership List"</a>, International Peace Operations Association website, accessed February 2009.</font></li><li id="cite_note-5"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Total_Intelligence_Solutions,LLC#cite_ref-5" title="">↑</a> <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/6/683/11b" class="external text" title="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/6/683/11b" rel="nofollow">"Melinda Redman"</a>, LinkedIn, accessed February 2009.</font></li><li id="cite_note-6"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Total_Intelligence_Solutions,LLC#cite_ref-6" title="">↑</a> <a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/07-25-2007/0004632405&EDATE=" class="external text" title="http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/07-25-2007/0004632405&EDATE=" rel="nofollow">"Total Intelligence Solutions Expands with New Security and Investigations Division - Names Craig T. Johnson Director"</a>, Media Release, July 25, 2007.</font></li><li id="cite_note-7"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Total_Intelligence_Solutions,LLC#cite_ref-7" title="">↑</a> <a href="http://redteamjournal.com/2008/12/matthew-devost-joins-the-rtj-advisory-board/" class="external text" title="http://redteamjournal.com/2008/12/matthew-devost-joins-the-rtj-advisory-board/" rel="nofollow">"Matthew Devost Joins the RTJ Advisory Board"</a>, <i>Red Team Journal</i>, December 29, 2008.</font></li><li id="cite_note-8"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Total_Intelligence_Solutions,LLC#cite_ref-8" title="">↑</a> <a href="http://www.devost.net/bio.php" class="external text" title="http://www.devost.net/bio.php" rel="nofollow">"Matthew G. Devost"</a>, Matthew G. Devost website, accessed February 2009.</font></li></ol>

</font></a><h3><a name="External_Articles" id="External_Articles"><span class="mw-headline"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">External Articles</font></span></a></h3>

<div id="catlinks" class="catlinks"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a name="External_Articles" id="External_Articles" /></font><div id="mw-normal-catlinks"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a name="External_Articles" id="External_Articles" /><a name="External_Articles" id="External_Articles" /><a name="External_Articles" id="External_Articles" /><a name="External_Articles" id="External_Articles" /><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Special:Categories" title="Special:Categories">Categories</a>: <span dir="ltr"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Category:Private_intelligence-gathering_firms" title="Category:Private intelligence-gathering firms">Private intelligence-gathering firms</a></span> | <span dir="ltr"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Category:Corporations" title="Category:Corporations">Corporations</a></span> | <span dir="ltr"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Category:Civil_liberties%28U.S.%29" title="Category:Civil liberties (U.S.)">Civil liberties (U.S.)</a></span> |<span style="text-decoration: underline;"> http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Total_Intelligence_Solutions,LLC</span><span dir="ltr"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Category:Needs_review" title="Category:Needs review">
</a></span></font></div></div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
===
</font><div class="print-site_name"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Published on <em>The Nation</em> (<a href="http://www.thenation.com">http://www.thenation.com</a>)</font></div>

    <p>
    </p><hr class="print-hr" />
    <h1 class="print-title"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Blackwater's Black Ops</font></h1>

    <div class="print-created"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jeremy Scahill | September 15, 2010</font></div>

    <p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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 <em>The Nation</em>.

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.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On September 3 the <em>New York Times</em> 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 <em>The Nation</em> 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.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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."</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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 "<span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Possible Opportunity in DEA—Read and Delete</span>,"

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."...</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
===

</font><div class="timeLine"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> August 21, 2009 1:26 PM </font></div> <h1><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Making Sense Of The Blackwater Connection</font></h1>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Jeremy Scahill,</b> a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellow at <i>The Nation Institute,</i> is the author of <i>Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army.</i> </font><hr width="50%" /><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

In

April 2002, the CIA paid Blackwater more than $5 million to deploy a

small team of men inside Afghanistan during the early stages of US

operations in the country. A month later, Erik Prince, the company's

owner and a former Navy SEAL, flew to Afghanistan as part of the

original twenty-man Blackwater contingent. Blackwater worked for the CIA

at its station in Kabul as well as in Shkin, along the

Afghanistan-Pakistan border, where they operated out of a mud fortress

known as the Alamo. It was the beginning of a long relationship between

Blackwater, Prince and the CIA.

Now the New York Times <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/20/us/20intel.html?_r=1&hp">is reporting</a>

that in 2004 the CIA hired Blackwater "as part of a secret program to

locate and assassinate top operatives of Al Qaeda." According to the

Times, "it is unclear whether the CIA had planned to use the contractors

to capture or kill Qaeda operatives, or just to help with training and

surveillance."

The Times reports that "the CIA did not have a

formal contract with Blackwater for this program but instead had

individual agreements with top company officials, including the founder,

Erik D. Prince, a politically connected former member of the Navy Seals

and the heir to a family fortune." A retired intelligence officer

"intimately familiar with the assassination program" told the Washington

Post, "Outsourcing gave the agency more protection in case something

went wrong." The Post reported that Blackwater "was given operational

responsibility for targeting terrorist commanders and was awarded

millions of dollars for training and weaponry, but the program was

canceled before any missions were conducted."

"What the agency

was doing with Blackwater scares the hell out of me," said Jack Rice, a

former CIA field operator who worked for the directorate of operations,

which runs covert paramilitary activities for the CIA. "When the agency

actually cedes all oversight and power to a private organization, an

organization like Blackwater, most importantly they lose control and

don't understand what's going on," Rice told <i>The Nation.</i> "What

makes it even worse is that you then can turn around and have

deniability. They can say, 'It wasn't us, we weren't the ones making the

decisions.' That's the best of both worlds. It's analogous to what we

hear about torture that was being done in the name of Americans, when we

simply handed somebody over to the Syrians or the Egyptians or others

and then we turn around and say, 'We're not torturing people.'"

Reached

by telephone, Illinois Democrat Jan Schakowsky, a member of the House

Intelligence Committee, said that because of her oath of secrecy on

sensitive intelligence issues, she could neither confirm nor deny that

Congress was aware of Blackwater's involvement in this program before

the Times report. Schakowsky also declined to comment on whether

Blackwater came up at a June briefing by CIA director Leon Panetta,

which she attended. That briefing sparked calls for an investigation

into whether Vice President Dick Cheney ordered the CIA to conceal an

assassination program from Congress.

"What we know now, if this

is true, is that Blackwater was part of the highest level, the innermost

circle strategizing and exercising strategy within the Bush

administration," Schakowsky told The Nation. "Erik Prince operated at

the highest and most secret level of the government. Clearly Prince was

more trusted than the US Congress because Vice President Cheney made the

decision not to brief Congress. This shows that there was absolutely no

space whatsoever between the Bush administration and Blackwater."

As <i>The Nation</i> has <a href="http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090817/scahill2">reported,</a>

Blackwater continues to operate on the US government payroll in both

Iraq and Afghanistan, where it works for the State Department and the

Defense Department. The CIA will not confirm whether Blackwater

continues to work for the agency (or, for that matter, if it ever has).

Blackwater's

work for the CIA was the result of meetings in the immediate aftermath

of 9/11 between Prince and Alvin "Buzzy" Krongard, then-executive

director of the CIA, the agency's number-three man. Krongard and Prince,

according to a former Blackwater executive interviewed by The Nation,

"were good buddies." In a 2006 interview for my book, <a href="http://blackwaterbook.com">Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army,</a>

Krongard said that the company was hired to provide security for the

CIA in Afghanistan. "Blackwater got a contract because they were the

first people that could get people on the ground," Krongard said. "The

only concern we had was getting the best security for our people. If we

thought Martians could provide it, I guess we would have gone after

them."

The relationship between Krongard and Prince apparently

got chummier after the contract was signed. One former Blackwater

executive said in 2006, "Krongard came down and visited Blackwater [at

company headquarters in North Carolina], and I had to take his kids

around and let them shoot on the firing range a number of times." That

visit took place after the CIA contract was signed, according to the

former executive, and Krongard "may have come down just to see the

company that he had just hired."

The relationship between

Blackwater and the CIA quickly evolved. Shortly after Prince arrived in

Afghanistan in May 2002, according to a former Blackwater executive who

was with Prince, the Blackwater owner focused on winning more business

with government agencies, providing private soldiers for hire. In 2002

Prince, along with former CIA operative Jamie Smith, created Blackwater

Security Consulting, which would put former Navy SEALs and other special

ops on the market.

Prince subsequently tried to join the CIA but

was reportedly denied when his polygraph test came back inconclusive.

Still, he maintained close ties with the agency. He reportedly was given

a "green badge" that permitted him access to most CIA stations. "He's

over there [at CIA headquarters] regularly, probably once a month or

so," a CIA source told Harper's journalist Ken Silverstein in 2006. "He

meets with senior people, especially in the [directorate of

operations]."

Prince would also go on to hire many senior

Bush-era CIA officials to work at Blackwater. In July 2007 Buzzy

Krongard joined the company's board; Prince offered him a $3,500

honorarium per meeting attended plus all expenses paid. "Your experience

and insight would be ideal to help our team determine where we are and

where we are going," Prince wrote in a letter to Krongard. At the time

his brother, Howard "Cookie" Krongard, was the State Department

inspector general responsible for overseeing Blackwater's work for the

State Department. In September 2007 California Democratic Representative

Henry Waxman accused Cookie Krongard of impeding a Justice Department

investigation into Blackwater over allegations the company was illegally

smuggling weapons into Iraq.

Prince hired several other former

CIA officials to run what amounted to his own private CIA. Most notable

among these was J. Cofer Black, who was running the CIA's

counterterrorism operations and leading the hunt for Osama bin Laden

when Blackwater was initially hired by the CIA in 2002. Black left the

government in 2005 and took a job at Blackwater running Prince's private

intelligence company, Total Intelligence Solutions.

While at the

CIA, Black ran the "extraordinary rendition" program and coordinated

the CIA "Jawbreaker" team sent into Afghanistan to kill or capture bin

Laden and senior Al Qaeda leaders. In the days immediately after 9/11,

he told Bush that his men would aim to kill Al Qaeda operatives. "When

we're through with them, they will have flies walking across their

eyeballs," Black promised Bush. When Black told Bush the operation would

not be bloodless, the president reportedly said, "Let's go. That's war.

That's what we're here to win."

Before the CIA Jawbreaker team

deployed on September 27, 2001, Black gave his men direct and macabre

directions: "I don't want bin Laden and his thugs captured, I want them

dead.... They must be killed. I want to see photos of their heads on

pikes. I want bin Laden's head shipped back in a box filled with dry

ice. I want to be able to show bin Laden's head to the president. I

promised him I would do that." According to CIA operative Gary Schroen, a

member of the Jawbreaker team, it was the first time in his thirty-year

career he had been ordered to assassinate an adversary rather than

attempt a capture.

In September 2002, five months after

Blackwater's first known contract with the CIA in Afghanistan, Black

testified to Congress about the new "operational flexibility" employed

in the "war on terror." "There was a before 9/11, and there was an after

9/11," Black said. "After 9/11 the gloves come off." Black outlined a

"no-limits, aggressive, relentless, worldwide pursuit of any terrorist

who threatens us," saying it "is the only way to go and is the bottom

line." Black would later brag, in 2004, that "over 70 percent" of Al

Qaeda's leadership had been arrested, detained or killed, and that "more

than 3,400 of their operatives and supporters have also been detained

and put out of an action." The Times reports that the Blackwater-CIA

assassination program "did not successfully capture or kill any

terrorist suspects."

In addition to Black, Total Intelligence's

executives include CEO Robert Richer, the former associate deputy

director of the CIA's Directorate of Operations and second-ranking

official in charge of clandestine operations. From 1999 to 2004, Richer

was head of the CIA's Near East and South Asia Division, where he ran

covert operations in the Middle East and South Asia. As part of his

duties, he was the CIA liaison with Jordan's King Abdullah, a key US

ally and Blackwater client, and briefed George W. Bush on the burgeoning

Iraqi resistance in its early stages.

Total Intelligence's chief

operating officer is Enrique "Ric" Prado, a twenty-four-year CIA

veteran and former senior executive officer in the Directorate of

Operations. He spent more than a decade working in the CIA's

Counterterrorist Center and ten years with the CIA's "paramilitary"

Special Operations Group.

Total Intelligence is run out of an

office on the ninth floor of a building in the Ballston area of

Arlington, Virginia. Its Global Fusion Center, complete with

large-screen TVs broadcasting international news channels and computer

stations staffed by analysts surfing the web, "operates around the clock

every day of the year" and is modeled after the CIA's counterterrorist

center, once run by Black. The firm employs at least sixty-five

full-time staff--some estimates say it's closer to 100. "Total Intel

brings the...skills traditionally honed by CIA operatives directly to

the board room," Black said when the company launched.

Representative

Schakowsky says the House Intelligence Committee is investigating the

CIA assassination program and will probe alleged links to Blackwater.

"The presidential memos (often referred to as 'findings') authorizing

covert action like the lethal activities of the CIA and Blackwater have

not yet surfaced," says Ray McGovern, a retired twenty-seven-year CIA

analyst who once served as George H.W. Bush's national security briefer.

"They will, in due course, if knowledgeable sources continue to put the

Constitution and courage above secrecy oaths."

<b>Blackwater Strikes Back</b>

The

Times report comes as Prince and his Blackwater empire are facing the

prospect of a potentially explosive civil trial over the killing of

Iraqi civilians. Attorney Susan Burke and the Center for Constitutional

Rights (CCR), who are suing Prince and his companies on behalf of their

Iraqi victims, have alleged that Prince is "equivalent to a top mafia

boss who is responsible for all the day-to-day crimes committed at his

direction and behest." If the case proceeds, the process of discovery

could blow the lid off some of the darkest secrets of the powerful

security contractor and its secretive owner. Burke and CCR are suing

Prince and his companies directly rather than his individual employees

because they say Prince "wholly owns and personally controls all

Defendants." Burke also alleges that Prince has committed "violations of

the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, a federal

statute permitting private parties to seek redress from criminal

enterprises who damage their property." Among the allegations are war

crimes, extra-judicial killings and assault and battery of Iraqis.

Since

the first case was filed by Iraqi civilians against Prince and

Blackwater over the killing of seventeen Iraqis at Baghdad's Nisour

Square on September 16, 2007, the company's high-powered lawyers have

fought feverishly to have that and four other cases dismissed. Now,

facing a crucial August 28 hearing in federal court in Virginia, they

are putting forward a new argument: instead of Prince and Blackwater

standing trial, the US government should be the defendant.

In a

motion filed August 12, Blackwater's lawyers asked federal Judge T.S.

Ellis III to order "that the United States 'be substituted as the party

defendant,' in place of all of the current Defendants." In his motion,

Blackwater lawyer Peter White of the powerhouse firm Mayer Brown argued

that the company was working for the State Department in Iraq and

therefore was on official business when the alleged killings and

injuries of Iraqis took place. White cites the 1988 Westfall Act, which

prohibits suits against government employees for their actions on behalf

of the government and states that the government will assume liability

for any lawsuits against employees.

Federal tort law defines

"employees" in this context as "persons acting on behalf of a federal

agency in an official capacity, temporarily or permanently in the

service of the United States, whether with or without compensation." The

fact that the defendants are "corporate entities" in this instance,

White claims, "does not alter that conclusion." In the motion,

Blackwater's attorneys note that the company, which recently renamed

itself Xe Services, now does business with the government under the name

US Training Center (USTC).

"The idea that the United States

government should accept liability for the unprovoked criminal

manslaughter of seventeen innocent Iraqis by Blackwater mercenaries, and

place it on the back of taxpayers, is corporate animism run amok," says

Ralph Nader, who has spent his entire career fighting against corporate

personhood. "If Blackwater wants to be treated like a person, then its

latest mutation, USTC, should be prosecuted, convicted and given the

equivalent penalty of corporate capital punishment by revoking its

charter and terminating its corporate operations."

The Westfall

Act was passed in 1988 as an amendment to the Federal Torts Claim Act

"to protect federal employees from personal liability for common law

torts committed within the scope of their employment, while providing

persons injured by the common law torts of federal employees with an

appropriate remedy against the United States." After Westfall, the

government assumed legal responsibility for suits filed against federal

employees and made the sole remedy for victims suits against the

government.

Blackwater has asked Attorney General Eric Holder to

intervene in the case and to assume liability for the allegations

against Blackwater. If that were to happen, legal experts say, the case

would be dead in the water. "It's clear that if they win this motion and

the government is substituted, since the wrongs occurred in a foreign

country, the government is absolutely immune and the case will be

dismissed," says Alan Morrison, a former federal prosecutor who is now

the associate dean for public interest at George Washington Law School.

"This is an effort [by Blackwater and Prince] to absolve themselves...of

any liability for the alleged wrongs to the plaintiffs." He adds: "A

gigantic, for-profit corporation is seeking to use this statute,

designed to protect government employees, to shield themselves from any

responsibility for the deaths and injuries" of Iraqis.

"When

Blackwater chooses to interpose itself in the middle and to make profit

off these individual employees in the relationship with the government,

the notion that Blackwater itself, a corporation, could be an employee

is unusual to say the least," says Morrison. "Why would Congress want

to, in effect, transfer liability from a large, well-heeled corporation

like Blackwater to the United States taxpayers for this kind of conduct?

What they'd be saying [if Blackwater's interpretation of the Westfall

Act is accepted] is they would have wanted to assume liability for that

which they didn't have any liability in the first place."

The

Justice Department has not yet issued a position in this case.

"Unfortunately, there's nothing we can provide in regard to your inquiry

at this time," an official wrote in an e-mail. Earlier, in response to

questions from The Nation, a Justice Department spokesperson sent a memo

filed by the department earlier this year in a similar case against

Blackwater in federal court in Florida, in which the department had

rejected the company's attempt to make the government responsible.

"Defendants' request for Westfall Act certification should be denied

because only natural persons can be considered 'employee[s] of the

government,'" Assistant Attorney General Tony West wrote on June 8 in a

thirty-five-page filing opposing Blackwater's motion.

Several

legal experts interviewed by The Nation said they could not foresee the

Justice Department intervening on Blackwater's behalf. But the Westfall

Act has been used by attorneys general in both the Bush and Obama

administrations to attempt to absolve senior Bush officials of liability

for their alleged role in crimes and to make the government liable. On

June 26 Holder's office intervened in a lawsuit filed by CCR against

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and twenty-three other military and

medical officials "for their role in the illegal detention, torture,

inhumane conditions and ultimate deaths" of two Guantánamo prisoners.

Citing

the Westfall Act, Tony West wrote that "the type of activities alleged

against the individual defendants were 'foreseeable' and were 'a direct

outgrowth' of their responsibility to detain and gather intelligence

from suspected enemy combatants." In defending the government's

position, West cited case law stating that "genocide, torture, forced

relocation, and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment by individual

defendants employed by Department of Defense and State Department were

within scope of employment" and similar cases justifying CIA torture as

part of official duty.

"It is essentially saying torture is all

in a day's work when it comes to holding people in military detention,"

says Shane Kadidal, who heads the Guantánamo project at CCR. In that

case, the issue was not whether Rumsfeld and the others were "employees"

but whether they were doing official business. Blackwater's argument is

a tougher sell, says Morrison. "Does it hold water?" he asks. "It holds

Blackwater."

Meanwhile, in another development, Prince's lawyers

have responded to explosive allegations made against Prince by two

former employees. In sworn affidavits submitted by lawyers representing

the Iraqis suing Blackwater, the two alleged that Prince may have

murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals who were cooperating

with federal authorities investigating the company. One of the former

employees alleges that Prince "views himself as a Christian crusader

tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe,"

and that Prince's companies "encouraged and rewarded the destruction of

Iraqi life." They also charge that Prince was profiting from illegal

weapons smuggling. In a motion filed August 10, Prince's lawyers asked

Judge Ellis to strike from the record the sworn statements of the two

former employees, saying that "the conclusory allegations they contain

are inadmissible on multiple grounds, including lack of foundation,

hearsay, irrelevance, and unfair prejudice." They charge that the

lawyers suing Blackwater are attempting to "use this litigation as a

'megaphone' to increase their ability to influence the public's

perceptions regarding the use of contractors in military battlefield

situations, the Iraq War, and most particularly about Erik Prince and

the other defendants. Unsubstantiated statements made in filings in this

Court become 'newsworthy' simply because they appear in those filings."

The lawyers characterize the allegations as "scandalous, baseless,

inadmissible, and highly prejudicial." Interestingly, nowhere do

Prince's lawyers say flatly that the allegations are untrue.

As

the cases against Prince move forward, the company continues to do a

robust business with the federal government, particularly in

Afghanistan. Schakowsky has called for a review of all of the companies'

current contracts, and she has called on Secretary of State Hillary

Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates to stop awarding the company

contracts. The "Obama administration should at the very least cancel and

debar [Blackwater's] present and pending government contracts," says

Nader. "Otherwise corporate crimes, privileges and immunities continue

to pay and pay and pay."

<a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/2102-215_162-5257759.html">http://www.cbsnews.com/2102-215_162-5257759.html</a>

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