In case you missed it, Blackwater founder Erik Prince outed himself as a CIA asset in an extraordinary Vanity Fair interview. Prince complained that powerful forces within the government were throwing him under the bus with anonymous press leaks about the private security company’s connections to very sensitive CIA More…
Breaking news from The New York Times:
Top executives at Blackwater Worldwide authorized secret payments of about $1 million to Iraqi officials that were intended to silence their criticism and buy their support after a September 2007 episode in which Blackwater security guards fatally
These documents about the behavior of ArmorGroup, a security company hired by the State Department to protect the U.S. embassy in Kabul, have to be seen to be believed. The Project on Government Oversight released them in a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Here’s a More…
Even as a wrongful-death lawsuit moves forward against the controversial private security company formerly known as Blackwater, the firm seeks to renew its contract with the State Department to guard diplomats when the deal expires next year. And the State Department shows no signs of ruling the company out of More…
For all the criticism faced by Erik Prince, the founder of private security company Blackwater — since renamed Xe — no one’s ever called him a killer. But according to Jeremy Scahill, the reporter most doggedly investigating the company, new sworn statements filed in a civil case against Xe More…
The Washington Post’s Walter Pincus reports that the U.S. military command in Afghanistan is considering hiring private security contractors to post as guards at military bases. Danger Room’s Nathan Hodge contextualizes the move, and writes, “Private security firms should be mindful of Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s directive, which More…
There’s a haunting paragraph in Nancy Youssef’s dispatch from Kabul today. She writes about the influx of U.S. diplomats and other civilians to Kabul — generally considered a Good Thing, even if their activities may be less necessary in the capitol than in the provinces but whatever — and More…
Has anyone written an essay about the misery that deja vu yields? Because:
Four U.S. contractors affiliated with the company formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide fired on an approaching civilian vehicle in Kabul earlier this month, wounding at least two Afghan civilians, according to the company and the U.S.
Gen. Ray Odierno, the top commander in Iraq, recently issued a directive asking his subordinate commanders to reduce the use of civilian contractors on at least 50 bases and small installations across Iraq and, where possible, provide employment to Iraqis instead. …
“This initiative supports
Via Danger Room, it appears the Blackwater private security company has gone in for a bit of cynical rebranding:
Blackwater Worldwide is abandoning its tarnished brand name as it tries to shake a reputation battered by oft-criticized work in Iraq, renaming its family of two dozen businesses under
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