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Blackwater Wants to Surge Its Armed Force in Afghanistan
A newly released State Department audit of Blackwater praises the firm’s work as the US government weighs expanding Blackwater’s operations in Afghanistan.
A just-released US State Department Inspector General's report [PDF] on Blackwater's work in Afghanistan reveals that Blackwater is proposing increasing its private armed forces in Afghanistan, particularly in Mazar-e-Sharif and Herat where the US is opening consulates. Blackwater is currently in the running for a $1 billion contract to train Afghanistan's national police force.
In general, the report praises Blackwater's work in protecting US diplomats and aid officials, saying its "personal protective services have been effective in ensuring the safety of chief of mission personnel in Afghanistan's volatile and ever-changing security environment." The Inspector General, however, criticized Blackwater for providing "inappropriate" training for its Afghanistan personnel pre-deployment, saying "before arriving in the country, personal security specialists did not receive a specific type of security training unique to operating in the Afghanistan environment," saying that "rather than taking courses in cultural awareness for Afghanistan, the specialists had been trained in Iraq cultural awareness."
The IG's report, which was completed in August, makes no mention of the May 2009 incident where Blackwater operatives allegedly killed two Afghan civilians sparking their arrest in the US on murder charges. That could be because those men worked on a Department of Defense training contract (not a State Department diplomatic security contract) for Blackwater subsidiary Paravant. Blackwater works for multiple federal agencies in Afghanistan. The IG's report focuses on the work of Blackwater's recently renamed US Training Center (USTC). "No one under U.S. Training Center's protection has been injured or killed, and there have been no incidents involving the use of deadly force," according to the report. The report was released before the December 30 suicide bombing of the CIA station in Khost, Afghanistan where at least two Blackwater operatives were killed while reportedly doing security for the CIA.
Since 2006, the State Department has spent $110 million on 119 Blackwater personnel in Afghanistan. It notes that earlier this year, 54 additional Blackwater personnel were added. Blackwater "has conducted missions in 24 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces," according to the report. As of April 2009, Blackwater had 94 Americans and 20 Colombians working on the State Department contract. Most of the Americans, according to the IG, had a special forces background.
According to figures provided to the Inspector general by Blackwater, in 2008 the company "conducted 2,730 personal protection missions in support of staff from the Department of State, including the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, USAID, and various Congressional delegations."
In March 2009, the State Department decided to deploy 14 Foreign Service Officers to the new consulates in Herat and Mazar-e-Sharif. Blackwater subsequently submitted a proposal to add 67 personnel to each location, which seemed to raise some eyebrows at the State Department. The Regional Security Officer in Kabul, according to the IG report, "has reported that the security threat in Mazar-e-Sharif and Herat is considerably lower security than in Kabul."
In a revelation that should certainly spark another audit, the IG found that the State Department's Diplomatic Security (DS) division is not independently verifying Blackwater's invoices for the labor of its forces. "DS does not review or verify the accuracy of personnel rosters (muster sheets) prepared by USTC before they are submitted to USTC program management and subsequently to DS in the United States to ensure that contractor charges for labor are accurate." These "muster sheets" are "the basis for the [State] Department's payment" to Blackwater.
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15 Comments so far
Show All"Blackwater is currently in the running for a $1 billion contract to train Afghanistan's national police force."
From Muhajedeen to Taliban again, compliments of Americons.
Thank you Jeremy for tirelessly following Blackwater activities. Without you, I would not have known they changed their name to Xe.
And now, I find (not surprisingly) that they are using subsidiaries, (as noted above) like Paravant.
What other subsidiaries and shell corporations are under the Blackwater umbrella? I hope somebody is keeping track in order to be able to 'follow the money.'
IowaIrish sez: "What other subsidiaries and shell corporations are under the Blackwater umbrella?"
***
The State Department, for one.
I'm never sure whether Blackwater is the American SA or the SS. Both were considered faithful servants of the Nazi government.
The SA was so lawless that eventually Hitler emasculated them in the "Night of the Long Knives." The SS continued to gain power and ruthlessness.
I guess SS will do.
As excerpted from a recent Scahill report:
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence is preparing to introduce legislation aimed at ending the US government’s relationship with Blackwater and other armed contracting companies.
“In 2009, the U.S. government employed well over 20,000 armed private security contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, and there is every indication that these figures will continue to rise in 2010,” Schakowsky wrote in a “Dear Colleage” letter asking for support for her Stop Outsourcing Security (SOS) Act. “These men and women are not part of the U.S. military or government. They do not wear the uniform of the United States, though their behavior has, on numerous occasions, severely damaged the credibility and security of our military and harmed our relationship with other governments.”
Schakowsky's January 07, 2010 "Dear Colleague" letter began: PHASE OUT PRIVATE SECURITY CONTRACTORS - Become an Original Cosponsor of a Bill to Return Security Functions to Government Personnel
___________________________________
Since even I occasionally get tired of my own nay-saying, if not nay-thinking, when the above-quoted article was published here I refrained from commenting "Um, we all know this is going Exactly Nowhere, don't we?"
Late last year, the State Department somehow didn't get around to publishing a legal report on Honduras reflecting badly upon a coup that Team Obama praised with faint damns.
Yet they rush to give Blackwater a gold star.
I'll stay tuned for the next progress report on Schakowsky's proposed legislation. My hunch is that if the subject is even raised in the future, it'll be on a "Democracy Now" segment in which the congresswoman will ruefully admit that the measure just didn't get any "traction" in Congress.
Then she'll tack on some half-full silver-lining stuff, possibly assuring the public that both she and President Obama remain Deeply Concerned about the problematic necessity to rely upon corporate mercenaries... er, "contractors".
I hope Jeremy will be present, for whatever good it will do. I love Amy, but she's not one to be confrontational with her guests.
· Yr Obd't Servant
How can we believe our "government" when they allocate only 100 million dollars to Haitian relief, yet send 2 1/2 million (or is it billion?) to Israel every month?
It actually totals over 5 BILLION, as it includes free military hardware too.
Nothing noteworthy in predatory corporations wanting to drive US foreign policy.
What'd be news is a government that says to them: F--K-you, you demented ghouls.
Blackwater is a mercenary force. They don't get to 'want'.
They are not a mercenary force. They are really a US funded Christian Terrorist Organization!
Damned right they want to surge. The organized crime that controls our government wills it. What a pot of gold?
Using mercenaries, at $100K per year, plus govt-backed life insurance at another $100K, is a costly way to avoid the draft that would have put a very different face on this venture.
Hoo Boy!!! I really want Xe to be totally in control of all that HEROIN!!!
Wer'e gonna be paying them? Shit! They should be paying US for the franchise!
Just wait until they take over for the FBI and the US Marshal Service!
A public relations coup no doubt. Especially in Afghanistan where Blackwater (Xe?) has done so much to win hearts and minds.
Not to beat a dead horse, but are all you loyal Democrats so very overjoyed that this administration is making so many Bush-like moves?