The Washington Independent

Posts Tagged blackwater

Blackwater founder builds mercenary army for United Arab Emirates

By | 05.18.11 | 8:51 am | More from The Michigan Messenger

Erik Prince, heir to one of Michigan’s richest and most conservative families and founder of Blackwater, is still getting government contracts now that he sold off the nation’s largest private military company — but now those contracts are with the United Arab Emirates.

The New York Times More…

Blackwater founder reportedly involved in Somalia

Erik Prince, the founder of the private — and embattled — private military contractor Blackwater (now Xe) is reportedly engaged with a South African organization to provide security for Somalia’s battered government.

The New York Times reports Prince is involved with Saracen International. The company is based More…

CIA Just Straight Throwing Money at Blackwater

By | 06.23.10 | 9:52 am

It’s like they’re in a strip club, according to Jeff Stein:

The Central Intelligence Agency has hired Xe Services, the private security firm formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide, to guard its facilities in Afghanistan and elsewhere, according to an industry source.

The previously undisclosed CIA contract is worth about

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Military Task Force Tackles Thorny Issue of Contractors in Afghanistan

By | 06.21.10 | 6:00 am

It has an uncertain budget, a team of fewer than two dozen military officers and civilians, and barely a year to make its mark on counterinsurgency in Afghanistan before the U.S. begins its transfer of security responsibilities to Afghans. In that time, a new military task force will attempt to More…

Is Blackwater Founder Fleeing the United States?

By | 06.15.10 | 2:32 pm

Jeremy Scahill, the security company’s chief journalistic pursuer, reports:

Sources close to Blackwater and its secretive owner Erik Prince claim that the embattled head of the world’s most infamous mercenary firm is planning to move to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Middle Eastern nation, a major hub for

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Blackwater Will Be Allowed to Bid on Big State Department Contract

By | 04.28.10 | 11:02 am

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 More…

Is Blackwater Bidding on State Dept. Contract?

By | 04.21.10 | 5:30 pm

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 More…

McChrystal: Military Overdependent on Contractors

By | 04.19.10 | 10:49 am

Via Danger Room, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, took a jaundiced view of the role of contractors in Afghanistan:

“I think we’ve gone too far,” McChrystal said at France’s IHEDN military institute. “I actually think we would be better to reduce the number

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RNC Scraps Blackwater Fundraiser, Other Young Eagles Events

By | 03.31.10 | 3:51 pm

Yesterday I listed the year’s upcoming Young Eagles RNC fundraisers and wondered what their fate would be. Today we get an answer:

We are canceling all Young Eagles events until the club review is completed. This includes: Opening Day with the Phillies, U.S. Training Center, YE’s Leadership Summit

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