President Obama’s critics like to say he’s anti-business, and that he doesn’t understand, nor even like, the military. He is a Democrat, after all, so how could he? Well, we can say that’s fundamentally not true with only two words: Blackwater Worldwide. If Blackwater, the private security services company now known as Xe Services, which …
Continue reading “Who Says Obama’s Bad for Business?”
The International Defense Exhibition, otherwise known as IDEX, has been held bi-annually in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) since 1993. It is the largest defense expo in the Middle East and North Africa and one of the biggest in the world. But far from being a one-off, it highlights the UAE’s growing stature as a …
Continue reading “Bigger than Blackwater: Arming the UAE”
Failures in vetting, training, and supervising Defense Department private security contractors are putting U.S. and coalition troops as well as Afghan civilians at risk and unwittingly aiding Afghan militants by hiring security contractors provided by the Taliban and by warlords, warns a new report released last week by the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee. The …
Continue reading “Senate Urges Pentagon to Rein in Afghan Contractors”
It’s shameful enough for the country that spends more on defense than the rest of the world combined to hire mercenaries to fight its woebegone wars; the mercenaries we hire are hooligans who we kicked out of our overpriced military. As Tim McGlone of The Virginian-Pilot reported on March 8, two Blackwater "workers" – Christopher …
Continue reading “Lawyers, Guns, and Blackwater”
Kelley Vlahos on contractors abusing contractors
Legal headaches are growing exponentially for the security firm formerly known as Blackwater – once the darling of the military-industrial community. In separate developments, two former employees of the company charged that the security firm committed "systematic fraud" under its contracts with the U.S. State Department in Iraq and Afghanistan; the Iraqi government announced it …
Continue reading “Blackwater’s Migraines Multiply”
Updated at 7:07 p.m. EST, Feb. 11, 2010
Hundreds of former Blackwater security guards have until Sunday to leave Iraq in a clear act of retribution for the dismissal of a U.S. court case against the company. The Iraqi government, meanwhile, also complained about former PM Allawi’s “dangerous” statements about civil war. At least three Iraqis were killed and eight were wounded in light violence, while a U.S. soldier died of injuries received in a non-combat incident.
The Iraqi government has ordered hundreds of private security contractors who previously worked for Blackwater Worldwide or its subsidiaries to leave the country within seven days or risk arrest for visa violations, Iraq’s interior minister said Wednesday. The order applies to roughly 250 security contractors who worked for Blackwater, now known as Xe Services, in …
Continue reading “Iraqi Govt Expels Former Blackwater Contractors”
As multiple scandals involving Blackwater continue to emerge almost daily, Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence is preparing to introduce legislation aimed at ending the US government’s relationship with Blackwater and other armed contracting companies. “In 2009, the U.S. government employed well over 20,000 armed private security …
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Two former Blackwater operatives were arrested by US federal agents on murder charges, stemming from their alleged involvement in the shooting deaths of two Afghan civilians in Kabul in May. They have been identified as Justin Cannon, 27, of Corpus Christi, Texas, and Christopher Drotleff, 29, of Virginia Beach, Va. They have been charged with …
Continue reading “Two Blackwater Guards Arrested by FBI on Murder Charges” 
