Congrats to Blackwater for its fat new State Department contract!!!

[Bluebear]

Caring about violent abuses of authority is so 2008.

From Spencer Ackerman for WIRED:

Never mind the dead civilians. Forget about the stolen guns. Get over the murder arrests, the fraud allegations, and the accusations of guards pumping themselves up with steroids and cocaine. Through a “joint venture,” the notorious private security firm Blackwater has won a piece of a five-year State Department contract worth up to $10 billion, Danger Room has learned.

Apparently, there is no misdeed so big that it can keep guns-for-hire from working for the government. And this is despite a campaign pledge from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to ban the company from federal contracts.

Eight private security firms have won State’s giant Worldwide Protective Services contract, the big Foggy Bottom partnership to keep embassies and their inhabitants safe. Two of those firms are longtime State contract holders DynCorp and Triple Canopy. The others are newcomers to the big security contract: EOD Technology, SOC, Aegis Defense Services, Global Strategies Group, Torres International Services and International Development Solutions LLC.

Don’t see any of Blackwater’s myriad business names on there? That’s apparently by design. Blackwater and the State Department tried their best to obscure their renewed relationship. As Danger Room reported on Wednesday, Blackwater did not appear on the vendors’ list for Worldwide Protective Services. And the State Department confirms that the company, renamed Xe Services, didn’t actually submit its own independent bid. Instead, they used a blandly-named cut out, “International Development Solutions” to retains a toehold into State’s lucrative security business. Blackwater’s “affiliate U.S. Training Center is part of International Development Solutions (IDS), a joint venture with Kaseman,” according to an official State Department statement to Danger Room. “This joint venture was determined by the Department’s source selection authority to be eligible for award."

=====

Spencer is clearly just a whiner.

http://www.americablog.com/2010/10/congrats-to-blackwater-for-its-fat-new.html

[peacetalksforall]

1. I want to say I despise Hillary Clinton. I can't think of another word to use instead of despise.

[Bluebear]

4. Her boss must also think it's time to "move forward"

Ah, DLC. :puke:

[dflprincess]

2. Just more "looking forward"

As the administration has a policy of not prosecuting for past war crimes it is a pity "rule of law" (remember that?) doesn't allow prosecution for future war crimes they are apt to be commit.

Maybe we're suppose to believe Blackwater has changed its ways.

[Better Today]

3. Thank goodness it's not business as usual and that we're holding 'em accountable.

[tblue]

5. Oh but we're supposed to stop 'whining.'

We're s'posed to shut up and eat our spinach, remember?

[gratuitous]

6. And quit wishing for ponies

So unsensible!

[leftstreet]

7. And get yourself drug tested

Yay! Blackwater!

[metapunditedgy]

8. And vote! If you don't vote, even the ponies you have will be taken away from you. n/t

[golddigger]

13. And expect Canadian style heatlhcare.

[Bluebear]

15. Buck up!

:crazy:

[davidwparker]

9. True, Obama is nothing like Bush. He just carries on

a lot of Bush's policies. State Department ... that is the executive branch right?

Just wanted to make sure I wasn't blaming anything on Obama unnecessarily.

[Individualist]

10. Changealicious!

[golddigger]

11. Change That Freakin Matters! Take that slogan and shove it.

[madrchsod]

12. that is another change we can believe in.

[BurtWorm]

14. Why?! Because they're too chicken shit to fight Republicans who'd make a federal case of it?

Or because they're actually pleased with Blackwater's stellar work as a contractor?

I can't think of any other possibility. :puke:

[Starry Messenger]

16. Oh barf.

[Bluebear]

18. Surprise! (not)

[Starry Messenger]

19. Not only do I loathe the mercenary aspect of this...

It's the fact that this is Eric Prince's (former?) company and he and his mom funneled so much cash to Prop 8. I really don't think we should be *employing* companies that are using profits for social engineering on a massive scale.

[TexasObserver]

17. recommend

[Swamp Rat]

20. k&r

[laughingliberal]

21. k & r n/t