Shoot People- Run Guns- Get Big Government Contracts

[Panaconda]

You Can Shoot People, Run Guns, and Still Win Big Gov’t Contracts

* By Spencer Ackerman
* October 5, 2010




Where is it OK to reward companies accused of shooting civilians, running guns, and retaliating against employees who blow the whistle on all the alleged badness? Why, the State Department, that’s where.

Last week, State awarded a security deal worth up to $10 billion, known as the Worldwide Protective Services contract, to eight private-security firms seeking protect diplomats in global hotspots. Some of those companies have engaged in shady behavior on previous government contracts. So here’s a brief rundown of what it turns out your company’s employees can do and still win that lucrative award.

Kill Civilians. On September 16, 2007, guards for Blackwater took U.S. diplomats away from the site of a morning bombing in Baghdad. But at a packed traffic circle called Nisour Square, guards opened fire in what they later told investigators was a response to an insurgent threat. A bullet evidently fired by a Blackwater operative killed the driver of one vehicle at Nisour Square, leaving the car to pitch forward toward the guards. In the ensuing confusion, a hail of gunfire erupted, leaving 17 Iraqis dead as they sought to flee.

Nearly two years later, in Kabul, a caravan driven by a Blackwater subsidiary called Paravant (more on them in a second) got in an accident with an Afghan-driven Toyota. Paravant employees in the rear vehicle say they stopped their car to aid the disabled vehicle in front of them, only to see the Toyota abruptly turn around and head back in their direction. They shot into the car, killing its passenger and an Afghan man walking his dog nearby. A murder trial in Virginia for the two shooters, Justin Cannon and Christopher Drotleff, resulted in a mistrial last week. This week, however, President Hamid Karzai began implementing a ban on private security contractors in Afghanistan — though not those who work for the State Department.

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