Exclusive: Blackwater Wins Piece of $10 Billion Mercenary Deal

[Panaconda]

Exclusive: Blackwater Wins Piece of $10 Billion Mercenary Deal

By Spencer Ackerman
October 1, 2010

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 2008 campaign pledge from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to ban the company from federal contracts.

...

Blackwater and the State Department tried their best to obscure their renewed relationship. As Danger Room reported 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 retain a toehold into State’s lucrative security business. No one who looks at the official announcement of the contract award would have any idea that firm is connected to Blackwater.

...

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/10/exclusive-blackwater-wins-piece-of-10-billion-merc-deal/#ixzz117ZiD4M

[madokie]

1. Eric Prince should be brought before a court of law

Lot so unlawful shit going on in Iraq and blackwater.

[TBF]

2. I wonder how Blackwater "veterans" will be treated -

in this outsourcing of the military will they be treated via private insurance?

[MadHound]

3. More change?

What that ten billion could do in the civilian sector. Help education, create jobs, repair infrastructure. Instead we're going to piss away another ten billion killing people. Better yet, we're going to use a gang of thugs and war criminals to piss away those billions for us.