Nexus - 1404 - New Times Magazine-pages

Page Content (OCR)

Among those calls was one from the CIA, which contracted officials. Under bipartisan fire, Schmitz resigned [in September Blackwater to work in Afghanistan in the early stages of US 2005] and signed up with Blackwater. operations there. In the ensuing years the company has become Despite its central role, Blackwater had largely operated in the one of the greatest beneficiaries of the "war on terror", winning shadows until March 31, 2004, when four of its private soldiers in nearly US$1 billion in noncovert government contracts, many of Iraq were ambushed and killed in Fallujah. A mob then burned the them no-bid arrangements. In just a decade Prince has expanded _ bodies and dragged them through the streets, stringing up two from the Moyock headquarters to 7,000 acres, making it the world's a bridge over the Euphrates. In many ways, it was the moment the largest private military base. Blackwater currently has 2,300 Iraq War turned. US forces laid siege to Fallujah days later, killing personnel deployed in nine countries, with 20,000 other hundreds of people and displacing thousands, inflaming the fierce contractors at the ready. It has a fleet of more than 20 aircraft, Iraqi resistance that haunts occupation forces to this day. For most including helicopter gunships and a private intelligence division, Americans, it was the first they had heard of private soldiers. and is manufacturing surveillance blimps and target systems. "People began to figure out this is quite a phenomenon," said In 2005 after hurricane Katrina, Blackwater deployed its forces Representative David Price, a North Carolina Democrat, who said in New Orleans, where it billed the federal government $950 per he began monitoring the use of private contractors after Fallujah. man per day—at one point, raking in more than $240,000 a day. "I'm probably like most Congress members in kind of coming to At its peak, the company had about 600 contractors deployed this awareness and developing an interest in it" after the incident. from Texas to Mississippi. Since Katrina, it What is not so well-known is that in has aggressively pursued domestic Washington after the Fallujah incident, contracting, opening a new domestic Blackwater executives kicked into high gear, operations division. Blackwater is marketing capitalising on the company's newfound its products and services to the Department of recognition. The day after the ambush, it Homeland Security, and its representatives have met with California Governor Arnold hired the Alexander Strategy Group, a K Street lobbying firm run by former senior Blackwater, with Schwarzenegger. The company has applied 20,000 other staffers of then majority leader Tom DeLay for operating licences in all US coastal states. before the firm's meltdown in the wake of the Blackwater is also expanding its physical contractors at the Jack Abramoff scandal. A week to the day presence eae borders, opening facilities ready, has a fleet of after the ambush. ik Prince was puting in Illinois and California. . own with at least four senior members o Its largest obtainable government contract is more than 20 aircraft, the Senate Armed Services Committee, with the State Department, for providing including helicopter including us chair, John Warner. Senator security to iplomats and facilities in . . ick Santorum arranged the meeting, Iraq. That contract began in 2003 with gunships and a private which included Warner and two other the company's $21 million no-bid deal to intelligence division, key Republican senators— and is manufacturing protect Iraq proconsul Paul Bremer. Appropriations Committee chair Ted Blackwater has guarded the two Stevens of Alaska and George Allen of surveillance blimps and target systems. subsequent US ambassadors, John Virginia. This meeting followed an Negroponte and Zalmay Khalilzad, as earlier series of face-to-faces Prince had well as other diplomats and occupation had with powerful House Republicans offices. Its forces have protected more who oversaw military contracts; among than 90 congressional delegations in Iraq, them: DeLay; Porter Goss, chair of the including that of House Speaker Nancy House Intelligence Committee (and Pelosi. According to the latest future CIA director); Duncan Hunter, government contract records, since June chair of the House Armed Services 2004 Blackwater has been awarded $750 Committee; and Representative Bill million in State Department contracts Young, chair of the House alone. It is currently engaged in an intensive lobbying campaign to = Appropriations Committee. What was discussed at these be sent into Darfur as a privatised peacekeeping force. Last meetings remains a secret. But Blackwater was clearly October, President Bush lifted some sanctions on Christian positioning itself to make the most of its new fame. Indeed, two southern Sudan, paving the way for a potential Blackwater training months later, Blackwater was handed one of the government's mission there. In January, the Washington, DC, representative for most valuable international security contracts, worth more than southern Sudan's regional government said he expected Blackwater $300 million. to begin training the south's security forces soon. The firm was also eager to stake out a role in crafting the rules Since 9/11, Blackwater has hired some well-connected officials that would govern mercenaries under US contract. "Because of close to the Bush Administration as senior executives. Among the public events of March 31, [Blackwater's] visibility and need them are J. Cofer Black, former head of counterterrorism at the to communicate a consistent message has elevated here in CIA and the man who led the hunt for Osama bin Laden after Washington," said Blackwater's new lobbyist, Chris Bertelli. 9/11, and Joseph Schmitz, former Pentagon Inspector General, "There are now several federal regulations that apply to their who was responsible for policing contractors like Blackwater activities, but they are generally broad in nature. One thing that's during much of the "war on terror"—something he stood accused lacking is an industry standard. That's something we definitely of not doing effectively. By the end of Schmitz's tenure, powerful want to be engaged in." By May, Blackwater was leading a Republican Senator Charles Grassley launched a congressional lobbying effort by the private military industry to try to block probe into whether Schmitz had "quashed or redirected two congressional or Pentagon efforts to place their forces under the ongoing criminal investigations" of senior Bush Administration military court martial system. Blackwater, with 20,000 other contractors at the ; ready, has a fleet of more than 20 aircraft, including helicopter gunships and a private intelligence division, and i Is manufacturing JUNE — JULY 2007 NEXUS 13 surveillance blimps and target systems. www.nexusmagazine.com