Topic “Blackwater”
Blackwater Will Be Allowed to Bid on Big State Department Contract
GUANTANAMO BAY — A brief detour from my Guantanamo coverage, as a State Department official, speaking only on background, confirmed something else I’ve been working on. The private security company formerly known as Blackwater and now known as Xe Services, will be allowed to bid on the next generation of the State Department’s lucrative Worldwide Protective Services Contract. The company’s track record of killing Iraqi civilians, shooting at Afghan civilians, taking for personal use U.S.
Read the entire story »Is Blackwater Bidding on State Dept. Contract?
Jeremy Scahill, journalism’s most dogged investigator of the privatized military, reports that the State Department’s Worldwide Personal Protective Services contract is up for bid. Why’s that important? Because the contract — now apparently re-dubbed the Worldwide Protective Services program — is the lucrative mechanism whereby the State Department hires private security companies to protect its diplomats overseas. In the past, it’s relied on three of them: DynCorp, Triple Canopy and Blackwater/Xe Services/US Training Center.
Read the entire story »CREW Calls on Justice IG to Investigate Department’s Systemic Supervision and Training Issues in Wake of Blackwater Decision
Washington, D.C. – Today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) asked Department of Justice Inspector General Glenn Fine to investigate the Criminal Division’s inadequate training and supervision of line attorneys. CREW based its request on the December 31, 2009 dismissal of the indictments of four Blackwater security guards after their constitutional rights had been violated by prosecutors, as well as the decision of the United States to drop all charges against former Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) after prosecutors failed to disclose evidence.