Did Blackwater Sneak Silencers Into Iraq?
Security firm under investigation for allegedly sidestepping export controls
WASHINGTON - Federal agents are investigating allegations that the Blackwater USA security firm illegally exported dozens of firearms sound suppressors - commonly known as silencers - to Iraq and other countries for use by company operatives, sources close to the investigation tell NBC News.
Investigators from various federal agencies, including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the State Department and the Commerce Department, are digging into the allegations that the company exported the silencers without getting necessary export approval, according to law enforcement sources, who spoke to NBC News on condition of anonymity. The sources said the investigation is part of a broader examination of potential firearms and export violations.
Coincidentally, the company’s main responsibility in Iraq is protecting officials of the State Department, the agency that regulates exports of arms. The firm had more than $500 million in federal contracts in 2006.
Anne Tyrrell, a Blackwater spokeswoman, refused to comment on any specific allegations of the firearms investigation but said that “of course we would cooperate as we do in any investigation.”
The sources tell NBC News that Blackwater purchased the silencers legally from SWR Manufacturing, formerly of Georgia and now located in Pickens, S.C. SWR manufactures the devices for pistols, rifles and machine guns. The purchases took place over several years, the sources say.
Ex-official confirms Blackwater a customer
A former official at SWR Manufacturing of South Carolina, also speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that Blackwater had been a customer. The former SWR official would not say how many suppressors Blackwater purchased, but another source said law-enforcement officials have been told that the number was more than 100.
The former SWR official said he faxed copies of all paperwork relating to Blackwater’s business with SWR to the ATF more than a year ago after federal investigators contacted him. The former official said investigators told him that Blackwater sent the silencers overseas with its employees without getting the necessary export approval.
Maarten Sengers, an expert on arms export compliance in Washington, who is not involved in the investigation, said the criminal penalties for exporting silencers without proper paperwork can be stiff - up to 10 years in prison and fines up to $1 million per count.
While silencers are rare in America because their possession is highly restricted, they are common props in movies and television programs, used by actors playing hit men or members of the special forces. The military uses them for covert action and nighttime tactical assaults where stealth and surprise are required, but experts say it is not clear why Blackwater guards would need them for missions such as personal protection of diplomats.
Details of case slow to emerge
It has been reported that two former Blackwater employees who pleaded guilty to firearms violations earlier this year are cooperating with federal investigators in a firearms investigations, but the specifics of the case, including the details about the silencers, have not previously been disclosed.
Getting permission from the State Department to export such items is extremely difficult. Several sources involved in the investigation said that in the rush to prepare for war and execute federal contracts, private security companies sometimes have overlooked the requirements for their licenses.
Blackwater has been at the center of an outcry over its conduct since a major shootout in Iraq on Sept. 16, which left 17 Iraqis dead. The company claimed its guards were fired on first, but witnesses and the Iraqi government say that Blackwater operatives fired without provocation. That incident is now under FBI investigation.
The export investigation is separate from that case. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina, the district where Blackwater is based, refused to comment on the matter.
Aram Roston is an investigative producer with NBC News.
© 2007 MSNBC News
You don’t need (or want) a silencer, if your mission is to provide protection to a public official. The silencer makes your weapon harder to conceal, slower to deploy, less powerful and less accurate. In fact, you want any attacker against whom you’re returning fire to KNOW they’re being fired on, because it tends to fluster them. (This is a major tenet of combat training — be cool under fire, and trust that your opponent is less well trained/less unflappable than you are.)
What you need a silencer for is safely to conduct “black” ops, such as assassinating a (possibly suspect) Shiite official and blaming it on “foreign fighters, al-Quaeda inspired insurgents and Baathist dead-enders”.
Just an observation, of course.
Jack London wrote over a hundred years ago in IRON HEEL: “Another great institution that had taken form and was working smoothly was the Mercenaries. This body of soldiers had been evolved out of the old regular army and was now a million strong, to say nothing of the colonial forces. The Mercenaries constituted a race apart. They dwelt in cities of their own which were practically self-governed, and they were granted many privileges. By them a large portion of the perplexing surplus was consumed. They were losing all touch and sympathy with the rest of the people, and, in fact, were developing their own class morality and consciousness.”
Hoa binh
One big problem that has arisen from actions of the 2 former Blackwater employees is the spread of late model U.S. weapons to the PKK terrorists and the Turkish Mafia.
Turkey is the government who alerted the U.S. to the fact that Blackwater weaponry was finding its way into the black markets of northern Iraq, thence to the PKK and the mafia.
Hey folks Mercenaries are in it for the bucks. What did you think they would do with all the extra guns and ammo. Save it??? It all boils down getting more of the the Great America Greenback . . . . Money Honey. Show me the money. Although that seems to be fading also. Have you checked out the value of the American dollar lately? Saddam’s biggest threat was that he wanted to switch to the EURO for trading in the oil market. That my friends is a little mentioned fact. I am sure Cheney and Friends did not appreciate that at all.
These guys are like the SS. The prized fighting units in Nazi Germany !!
Shoot, them Blackwater Bubbas got it made. Better’n turkey huntin’. Jest put out some bait and they’ll never hear what hit ‘em. No huntin’ license, no limit and yew git paid fer it good too! Gawd bless Ameraca.
“Gawd bless Ameraca.”
More like Americaca.
There has been some discussion about what happens when these sadistic killers get turned loose on American society after either they get too old to continue in service or get thrown out of where ever they happen to be. Then we have a well-armed and trained group of vicious dogs with no socially redeeming economic skills loose in the streets. I don’t know what to say about that, but there is something just as scary also going on below the radar screen.
I just read an article about the gangs in the service and how they are being used to train their members in weaponry and military tactics. There have been numerous accounts of gang members committing criminal acts against other soldiers and civilians, and there are some investigations going on. The biggest problem is that in order to attract enough recruits, the standards are dropped out of sight, and anyone able to walk and carry a weapon is accepted. Recruiters have the ability to make a recruit’s police record disappear, and being in the military is something that the gangs themselves are promoting. What happens when these people’s enlistments are up or when they are dishonorably discharged? Who is going to protect us, Blackwater?
does a bear shit in the woods?
the blackwaters will follow their predatorsessors to buy thai wives or boys and “live the good life?” They can’t be re-habed. Perhaps Georgie’s prisons are for the ones he don’t need for his own “security” as an “ex”: maybe one of them will make Georgie his bitch. This has hollywood written all over it.
As to the issue of gang members: “How can anyone defend a system that creates wealth by making the majority poor.” Henry C. K. Lui.
Why shucks, I’ll bet a silencer would bring forty or fifty times the amount of money that a little ol’ machine gun would, if you know the right market to flog it on. I’ll bet you could make more profit on a case of silencers than you could on a truckload of regular weapons.
Always remember, the bottom line is the only thing.
Not to be argumentative, but it would seem to me that there must be other professionals who have different views on the expediency of silencers than those as presented in the first post. For instance, in the context of Iraq the weapons are already on show so silencers being a retardation of deployment would not be a factor. If the silencer was grooved and matched to the weapon it shouldn’t affect accuracy and any loss of power (why would that be?) would be minimal. Also, I would think that it would be preferable that a gun was silent so that the guns of the targets could be heard and quickly located and if the opponent was unflappable then they shouldn’t be moving around so much and you could shoot them faster. Just a thought.
If Blckwater deems the use of silencers, 12 gage double 00 buckshot, poisonous needles, torture, or rabid dogs, they will use them. They do as they damn well please and kill at will for duty or just the fun of it.
I can see where a silencer would be benificial for any killer or any special forces unit. So why not believe they use them?
Observe carefully the photo above. That could soon be Anytown USA, instead of Anytown Iraq. So far, only New Orleans has received the gentle care of Blackwater, but “times they are a changin’”
Observe carefully the photo above. That could soon be Anytown USA, instead of Anytown Iraq. So far, only New Orleans has received the gentle care of Blackwater, but “times they are a changin’”
But the basic nature of the American people hasn’t changed. We are still the single largest population of ungovernables on the planet. We are atavistic and sociopathic in general and woe be upon our putative masters when they try to treat us like Germans in the 1930s. We will turn on them like a pack of rabid dogs and make them wish for “softees” like Tim McVeigh.