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Official: U.S. will not renew Iraq contract with Blackwater

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posted on Jan, 30 2009 @ 03:55 PM
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Official: U.S. will not renew Iraq contract with Blackwater


www.cnn.com

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The State Department will not renew the contract of security contractor Blackwater Worldwide when it expires in May, a senior State Department official said Friday.

The decision was made after the Iraqi government refused last week to renew the firm's operating license because of a 2007 incident in which the Iraqi government says security guards -- then employed by Blackwater -- fired on and killed 17 Iraqis.

Blackwater's latest "task order" expires in May, and the senior official said that "one of the conditions is that you have to have a license" to continue working in the country.

"No license, no renewal," the official said. "If they don't have a license to operate, we would certainly not renew the task order."
(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
news.bbc.co.uk
www.cbsnews.com

Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
Sources: 5 Blackwater guards charged in Iraq deaths



posted on Jan, 30 2009 @ 03:55 PM
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Well this comes as no surprise after the five BW employees that were charged with manslaughter for the shooting in Iraq where 17 Iraqis were killed. Blackwater will loose their license to operate and have to come home. In my opinion this can't happen too soon. Hopefully our troops will not be far behind.

www.cnn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)



posted on Jan, 30 2009 @ 03:56 PM
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This is great news.
Just the name "Blackwater" creeps me out.



posted on Jan, 30 2009 @ 04:00 PM
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Thank god. There's really no need for "private contractors" (a.k.a mercenaries) to be over there in the first place, unless you want to operate in a legal gray area and ignore international law.



posted on Jan, 30 2009 @ 04:04 PM
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reply to post by drwizardphd
 


The problem being Doc.is if they aren't over there doing merc.work.They will be back home doing God knows what for their government masters.



posted on Jan, 30 2009 @ 04:08 PM
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I think a lot of the companies associated with the outgoing administration, which was not very shy about handing them contracts, will be scrambling for something to replace the taxpayer money fountain


Haliburton, KBR, Blackwater... I'm hoping we won't be hearing these names much longer, except perhaps in the context of bankruptcy proceedings.



posted on Jan, 30 2009 @ 11:34 PM
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Well the US military isn't in the diplomatic security business. And the State Dept doesn't have the manpower with it's security apparatus to protect it's diplomats, so that leaves Triple Canopy and Dyncorp (already on State Dept contract here), to pick up the BW slack.

It may not be pretty, but that's the reality.



posted on Jan, 30 2009 @ 11:58 PM
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Well, blackwater might be tainted somewhat by Iraq now but our government still pays them alot of money. Blackwater has been trying to spread its wings into different areas of expertise for a long time too. They have become so engrained in their corporate "niche" of our economy that regardless of what happens from this point on Blackwater is not about to go away.

Yet in all the economic hard times we have been witnessing our government continues to somehow justify paying these companies many orders of magnitude over what military personnel are paid to do the same kinds of jobs.. With this kind of government mentality, security contracting will only be the beginning.

Last year our government began allowing blackwater to bid on extremely lucrative private intelligence gathering for the government.... Intelligence gathering for what? Don't we have multiple agencies that are already designed for this purpose? Pretty soon companies will be competing for human torture/interrogation contracts (which they probably already have).

The only justifiable reason for all of this private sector spending by our government (that I can see) is that when the $&i+ hits the fan the corporation with the contract is the fall guy instead of government agencies involved in such questionable activity.. The government then has a scapegoat for why everything went horribly wrong but the contractor can still get paid. All the contractor has to do is fire some people, maybe even put the blame on guys just doing their jobs, all in order for the contractor to get it behind them as quickly as possible yet still put the blame on their own people.

The sphere of private contracting in our country is designed to interface with government spending so that people can make money and also put money back into the economy (at least that is the basic idea for all the corporate risk-taking). But it is not the company that puts its neck on the line necessarily.. Yes, the company does take the financial risk... But It is the people who work for that company who are willing to put their lives on the line to make the big bucks who make private security firms like Blackwater so successful.

Any internal problems/personnel situations can usually be dealt with by either firing people or threatening to fire people... They are not constained by the UCMJ or any other federal laws (other than perhaps what is within the stipulations and clauses of the contract). Therefore there is no clear method on what to do when security contractors get accused of killing innocent civilians in an overseas warzone. I was surprised that this lawsuit was not thrown out as fast as it was filed.. We'll have to see how it all pans out. But the issue of no clearly defined ways of holding security contractors (in an overseas warzone theater) legally accountable for their actions NEEDS to be addressed or this kind of thing will continue to happen and continue to be allowed by the same government that writes Blackwater those big checks.

-ChriS

[edit on 31-1-2009 by BlasteR]



posted on Jan, 31 2009 @ 12:05 AM
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Originally posted by Hal9000


Well this comes as no surprise after the five BW employees that were charged with manslaughter for the shooting in Iraq where 17 Iraqis were killed.
www.cnn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)


I think it's a big surprise actually, a lot of the hawks in Washington were defending the actions of Blackwater, they lasted far too long out there as it was. Should have been recalled ages ago.

But this is a bit too much good news for me, and when I get good news I get suspicious. If they're recalling Blackwater, it's probably because the company has split some of it's guys off to form a separate company, ostensibly nothing to do with Blackwater, but receiving the same pay slips.

Blackwater itself didn't do anything unusual as far as mercenaries go, it's just that the US is having problems keeping the media quiet. Not the embedded media, but the internet connected Iraqi media.



posted on Jan, 31 2009 @ 03:35 AM
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Originally posted by daddyroo45
reply to post by drwizardphd
 


The problem being Doc.is if they aren't over there doing merc.work.They will be back home doing God knows what for their government masters.



couldnt have said it better myself

like many others i dont want to be paying them to do their dirty work in iraq and overseas

but if they arent over there

theyre gonna be doing it over here

maybe im wrong, but i just dont see a company like that completely going away just because it leaves iraq

what we really need to worry about is what are they going to do next


CX

posted on Jan, 31 2009 @ 03:54 AM
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I don't think Blackwater will be worrying too much about this, as people have already said, the government will have more than enough for them to do back home.

Give it a little while, and they'll be assisting with martial law no doubt.

CX.



posted on Feb, 1 2009 @ 01:21 AM
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Originally posted by CX
I don't think Blackwater will be worrying too much about this, as people have already said, the government will have more than enough for them to do back home.

Give it a little while, and they'll be assisting with martial law no doubt.

CX.


For years Blackwater has been trying to spread it's area of expertise into other areas (and spending millions to do so). They are also extremely eager to portray this image. All you have to do is look at their homepage....

www.blackwaterusa.com...


Innovation Begins with Experience
Blackwater Worldwide efficiently and effectively integrates a wide range of resources and core competencies to provide unique and timely solutions that exceed our customers’ stated needs and expectations.

We are guided by integrity, innovation, and a desire for a safer world. Blackwater Worldwide professionals leverage state-of-the-art training facilities, professional program management teams, and innovative manufacturing and production capabilities to deliver world-class, customer-driven solutions.

Our corporate leadership and dedicated family of exceptional employees adhere to essential core values- chief among these are integrity, innovation,excellence, respect, accountability, and teamwork.


Every time you see the website of these big security contractors (not to mention the ridiculous flash movies they use to portray themselves as righteous, life-saving cronies) the vague nature of how they describe their companies always obscures what they really do and where they do it.

Also..
ATS THREAD: ATS THREAD: Blackwater Now in The 'Private Intelligence' Business

This just makes things scarier... Especially without any legal precedent to hold Blackwater's leadership and employees to any level of accountability. What is scary is this..

It seems that the only reason this particular story about contractors killing innocent civilians turned into a massive corporate clusterf*** for Blackwater is because it involved dead civilians and by the time the media jumped on the bandwagon the truth was out (There was no time or room for any kind of coverup of what really happened at that point).. But what if the negligent acts involve bending the laws to fit, say, an intelligence gathering op? We probably wouldn't ever hear about it..especially if it involves sensitive information for an intelligence gathering program paid for by our government (for a variety of reasons)..

The other scary part is that the government could include wide ranging legal authority to private industry BY CONTRACT to conduct intelligence gathering operations here at home without having to adhere to any laws that would normally be a brick wall to organisations like the CIA or FBI.

The government officially allowed blackwater to bid on lucrative private intelligence contracts as of last year. We have no way of knowing whether or not Blackwater already has covert intelligence-gathering operations going on now (they probably do).. The entire scenario creates somewhat of a "smokescreen" to the public at large by allowing private contractors to conduct these kinds of operations without having to publicly announce their activities (secrecy is obviously essential to any intelligence gathering op in the first place).

Meanwhile, most people think that blackwater simply works as a security contractor when blackwater personnel could be reading your emails as we speak.. And even if they are found somehow breaking the law, they could already have a bulletproof vest just depending on what is within the stipulations and clauses of said contract. All of these potential unforeseen problems have probably already been accounted for and included within the clauses of the contract(s). The CIA, the FBI, they are federal organisations that fall directly under somewhat of a federally structured authority (they also answer directly to our government because they have to). This is different.

This entire idea of private industry conducting covert intel operations should make everyone think twice.. Not everyone really understands the severity of the implications and possibilities involved with such a move by our government to allow all of this under our watch.

At the time it appeared alot like yet another move by the Bush administration to give private industry more and more power and authority (somewhat of a transfer of authority/power from the public sector to the private sector).. Meanwhile, these contractors have god knows what on their hard-drives and they don't necessarily have to report that information to the government (probably only what is within the contract). We recently had stories about how VA laptops were stolen with millions of social security numbers and other information.. What happens when a blackwater employee has such information? Nothing.. Because they can claim it is part of their intelligence gathering operations..

But what happens when such a company refuses to release that information to the government? Or better yet, what would happen if blackwater, with all this information, was hacked? (We know the government has half-decent COMSEC. What about private companies?). All they would have to do is fake a fire or something, steel the hard drives, and claim everything was lost in the fire. Giving private industry this kind of wide-ranging authority raises all kinds of red flags that alot of people just aren't aware of.

-ChriS


[edit on 1-2-2009 by BlasteR]



posted on Feb, 1 2009 @ 01:29 AM
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Or they can do what other large companies with a bad image do.
Kick a few people to the curb to "prove" they are starting fresh, change the company name, invent a new logo and hire the best PR firm around to sprout their virtues.

New company with a new image.

And business just goes on as the old company fades into peoples memories.



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