State Dept. tried to hide Blackwater’s piece of $10 billion contract: report

Contract comes despite Sec. Clinton's pledge to ban 'private mercenary firms'
The State Department has awarded part of a $10-billion embassy protection contract to the company formerly known as Blackwater, but you wouldn't know it by looking at government documents.
On Thursday, the State Department announced the winners of a tender to protect security services to diplomatic missions around the world, including the US's massive embassy in Iraq. The name Xe Services – Blackwater's current name -- doesn't appear in the contract, but the name International Development Solutions does.

www.rawstory.com...

The corruption runs deep in Congress, someone owes big time.
I’m really no fan of Sec. Hillary Clinton, however she see through these radical security groups.
“Hillary Clinton said in a statement. "These private security contractors have been reckless and have compromised our mission in Iraq. The time to show these contractors the door is long past due."

I would love to know who in Congress is pulling the strings and hopefully expose these criminals. This is an outrage It sure feel like George Bush is still in office and running the adminastration.

I wonder if, a part of congress is deliberately helping Backwater to grow by funding their operation though deceptive contracts, so in return if there ever were marshal laws declared in the US, the government will have their own private army to take control of the American citizens, where else our military would not. One must wonder what’s in it for congress?

Does it seem that more and more corruption is being exposed in Congress, and what should be done?
I think it is about time the American people set up an outside council of none political investigators and lawyers granted with subpoena power to investigate these fraudulent matters.

What are your thoughts?

reply to post by impressme


Star & Flag impressme, & thanks for sharing...

I served more than 3 years worth of deployments to warzones in my military career that lasted more than a decade.

My AFPC was fire protection, as well as emergency medical technician. Fighting wasn't my thing, but due to fire fighting requirements I was/am a physically fit individual. I do not care for fighting, but once had the pleasure of communicating via full contact sign language with a black water merc who I had a slight disagreement with

Americans are/were at war with Al-Qaeda, who American tax payers spent billions training and arming to fight as freedom fighters during the Afghan-Soviet Union war.


Here are some of my concerns:
1 -What happened to the freedom fighters after America was done training and arming them?
They waged war on America.

What will happen when we are done training, arming, and funding mercinaries formally known as Black Water?

2 - What is our justification for keeping "enemy combatants" in prison in Cuba?
They do not wear any identifying clothing that associates them with a nations armed forces.

3 - The Geneva Convention LOAC, Laws Of Armed Conflict are abided by or punished when broken by Americans' armed forces members. But ... not seem illusively distributed when applied to Corporate Entities' mercenaries.

So, if there are not enough "volunteers" for multinational wars .... we simply pay more money per head for those willing to do what the military cannot do under the international LOAC Geneva Convention Laws?

4Their casualties are not included in the "official" statistics of dead and wounded.

5...

What the hell does a corporation that benefits from war have with employing lobbyists to lobby for their agenda$, and why are they getting paid more than congressmen or senators?

America has issues...

This planet has issues, too.

These are some of my thoughts concerning this particular issue,
ET

(cutting & pasting from a similiar thread discussing same subject matter in another forum)
Sorry for not noticing your thread which was authored a couple hours earlier impress...

Let me share some personal experiences and knowledge I garnered during my deployments....

Subsidiaries of Halliburton and other "no bid contract" winners pay TCNs (Third Country Nationals) who are not indigenous to the host nation (ie: Iraq & Afghanistan) the equvelent of less than $100 dollars a month to train and employ more expendable assets in warzones under hazardous conditions and exploiting under dubious measures less fortunate and developed nations, ie "Third World Nationals" aka "Third Country Nationals".

SOURCE:HalliburtonWatch.org

For decades, the U.S. tax code has encouraged companies like Halliburton to transfer the location of its subsidiaries from the United States to foreign countries. This is one reason why only thirty-six of Halliburton's 143 subsidiaries are incorporated in the United States and 107 subsidiaries (or 75 percent) are incorporated in 30 different countries.

There are two methods by which Halliburton lowers its tax liability on foreign income: (1) By establishing a "controlled foreign corporation" and (2) By establishing a subsidiary inside a low tax, or no tax, country known as a "tax haven."
Halliburton Watch

I have personally witnessed stupid beyond any measure my wildest imagination and critical thinking skills can permit me to process in any perceivable way.

What has been going on over there is a kin to the wild west, lawlessness. And furthermore, there is a reason why the M.S.M. (Mind System Manipulators) Have been covering it less than 2% of their total air coverage time for the past few+ years!!

I witnessed firsthand KBR, a subsidiary of Halliburton, not honoring a government contract at Balad Air Base, Iraq (Camp Anaconda for the Army) to service and replace all portable fire extinguishers.

My position was NCOIC of Fire Alarm Communication Center. It was during a four month tour. I sat in on Staff meetings, and saw first hand the contract. It was a contract for more than 2 million dollars annually, yet the KBR representatives at the base were sending everyone who needed service to or new portable fire extinguishers to the fire department, where we did not have the equipment necessary to provide such a service and were purchasing new fire extinguishers from ... you guessed it... a subsidiary of Halliburton. This was mid 2006. They had been doing this for three years, and pocketed what looks like nearly 7 million dollars profit from just a portable fire extinguisher deal, not to mention we were buying new ones because we did not have the proper equipment to service existing extinguishers. And how much money is unaccounted for in Iraq?


Later that tour, oh yes we firefighters were pissed already after 9-11, anyways... later that tour a very real hazardous materials spill took place with real green smoke coming from a trailer. Our (military firefighters) average annual salary was less than $40,000. Now, the KBR shipping yard in which this incident occurred was under the Civilian contractors; HAZMAT guru getting paid mucho money to do a job he physically and mentally was unable to do. We got ... scratch that, he got his own dumb ass fired, but he was just a pawn. He was making in ecxess of $130,000 annually, tax free, easily. He kept no records, could not tell us what was in the containers, and this is the funny part...
When he tried to take command and tell our fire chief (a chief master sergeant) what was what and who was who, our fire chief threw a HAZMAT suit at him (the guy was 300 lbs+ and did not fit into a HAZMAT suit, which was part of his job description to be able to do so) and told him to go into the hot zone and not come out until he could report on what substance it was we were actually dealing with. The man tried to intimidate our chief, he tried to scare a career military firefighter with less than a two months left. Our chief was not there for a paycheck, nor did he seem intimidated in the least. Our response was professional, and we ended up finding out it was some of the worst stuff that we could have been dealing with. I'll (out of respect for the chief) refrain from sharing details of how the incident concluded with that certain individual losing his job that day and ending up needing medical attention and being arrested

Example of pay for a similiar position:

Immediate Job Openings
Salary: $129,000 all inclusive ($43,000 July 1st, August 10th, and September 15th)

Requirements:

•Must have Fire Officer I, II & III, Fire Inspector I & II, Fire Instructor I & II, Hazardous Material Incident Commander & Hazardous Material-Train-the-Trainer. All Certification must be IFSAC or Pro Board approved.

My personal feelings towards the civilian contractors stem not from their blatent disregard for the rules and their exploitation for monetary gain in this nations time of need, but rather from their adverse and detrimental affects on national and international relations and best interests, they are threat to national and international security, unless there are fundamental variables to the equasion I am ignorant of which justify such measures. It is my personal and professional opinion that their presence in warzones have adversely had direct influences on our image and put our troops further in harms way, and also had a drastic and devastating effect on troops morals in ways people cannot fathom.

The ONLY way this thing that makes sense to me .... is if we are under some measure of martial law, not just as a nation, maybe global, perhaps even more than global.

I've shared enough with this post, and think I'll wrap it up for now.

Thanks for taking the time to read what I shared,
ET

reply to post by Esoteric Teacher


Great posts Esoteric Teacher. You make some excellent points.

I have always had a gut feeling about Mercenaries that wasn't good. Your experience help shed light in practical way on what the problems with them are. I have read the book on Blackwater by Jeremy Scahill and would highly recommend it to anyone.
I believe their real purpose is to keep the war going. They do so through false flag ops that further enrage the populace to take up arms in the mistaken belief that American troops had just done something to them. Their penchant for overkill (Nissour square massacre) further alienates our troops from the people of these occupied nations.
We can't expect natives to differentiate between regular US troops and the contractors that are employed in tandem with them.
Blame Erik Prince all you want but he is just taking advantage of rules that were put in place by Donald Rumsfeld, in the name of "economy and efficiency".
Our armed forces performed just fine without military contractors for nearly 2 centuries, we need to go back to that same model. Employing military contractors has proven to be a disaster and needs to be stopped.
If we cannot prosecute a war without them then we should never be starting them to begin with,

reply to post by Esoteric Teacher


You bring up some good issues, I have worked with Halliburton and KBR on the oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico and I do understand what you are talking about. These two companies look for the cheapest way of doing business, while screwing the American tax payers.

As for Black Water goes I do not understand why this company still in business.
It certainly appears that the American tax payers have no say so anymore. When I read Black Water was hiding behind a shell company I realized these greedy corrupt mercenaries will stop at nothing to con the government out of billions in contracts. You better believe these sleazy Congressmen who gave these contracts to these mercenaries knew they were hiding behind a shell company that is why there is little to no paper work or paper trail. One has to ask, what do these congress men get once these contracts are awarded? There something in it for them.

I think what Americans are getting tired of, is the lack to no accountability when corruption has been discovered, and in many cases, these corrupt organization seem to continue to be rewarded while our government turns a blind eye to their corruption, this alone tells me that our government is in bed with them. Look who’s interest our government officials (congressmen) really have; their own, not the tax payers. Washington politics has become a cesspool of greed, liars and cover-ups.

reply to post by impressme


Either these people are not playing fair ... or we common folk do not know the real rules of engagement.

There are few conditions that can exist in my mind to justify some decisions being made by a few that are having direct effects on the standard of living for individuals in the multinational arena.

I can only speculate, and my imagination and empathy only take me so far.

These people don't seem people friendly,
ET

So... what's the problem with mercenaries, again?

They are far more cost-effective than the military is. The amount of bloat and waste within the military is criminal in and out of itself - the contract awarded to Xe Services LLC pays for itself. Most of the people employed are former military and special ops who know what they are doing and usually have a better idea of how to conduct military operations than our own military.

Most of the contracts these guys get are for security and not direct combat operations. Others are for surveillance and similar missions. Of course, they are also used in the capacity of plausible deniability - the "trouble" Blackwater got into in Iraq was most likely a result of botching an operation assigned to them that no one else wanted to touch (Low probability of success and nasty fallout should they not succeed).

I actually do not see large government military complexes lasting for much longer. Even now - much of the military is integrated with civilian contractors. Most of the maintenance on aircraft and vehicles is done by civilian contractors. Most of the data systems in the military are built, administered, and serviced by civilian contractors. The lunch line is maintained by civilian contractors (spare for the galley aboard a ship or in forward deployed locations).

Corporations have the advantage of being multinational. Xe Services can contract defense with the U.S., U.K., Australia, Korea, etc - and all countries mutually benefit from the defense investment of the other. Furthermore, Xe Services could contract with other corporations - such as an Iranian or Russian shipping company. The revenues of this company (based in the U.S.) are then taxable, and the investments of these corporations in their defense allow Xe to improve their service for other customers, as well (which would include the U.S. and her allies).

In today's age, all-out wars between countries are becoming rare or so polarized and interleaved as to assure mutual destruction. The threats are now terrorist groups and pirates threatening corporate investments more than national borders and boundaries. It is more cost-effective to delegate these responsibilities to corporate affairs and to utilize them when necessary and/or appropriate in other capacities alongside government-employed military personnel.

I see the trend increasing - and welcome it.