Blackwater Strikes Again

The Gods have their own rules.

-Ovid, Metamorphoses

One
of the many nice things about being a United States Senator is that you
can ask just about anyone in government to explain actions being taken
and anticipate a response and, in many cases, a change in conduct. Here
is one example of how a United States Senator was able to influence
policy. It pertains to Blackwater.

On February 25, 2010 Senator Carl Levin, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee sat down and wrote
a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder asking him to investigate
whether Xe Services, (formerly known as Blackwater) had made false or
misleading statements when it bid for an Army contract in Afghanistan.
The reason for his letter was that he had just finished conducting a
hearing reviewing the results of an investigation of Blackwater. In his
opening statement
at the hearing Senator Levin said that: "Blackwater operated in
Afghanistan without sufficient oversight or supervision and with almost
no consideration of the rules it was legally obligated to follow. The
means by which Blackwater acquired weapons for its contractor personnel
in Afghanistan showed just how little regard company personnel had for
those rules." Senator Levin did not limit his letter writing to writing
the Attorney General. He also sent a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

In
the letter to Secretary Gates he said the Pentagon should consider
deficiencies in Blackwater's past performance before awarding it
additional contracts. He said: "[W] e received evidence that Blackwater
may have: used a front company for the contract; made false official
statements and misled Department of Defense officials in its proposal
documents; misappropriated government weapons and carried weapons
without authorization; and hired unqualified personnel with backgrounds
that included assault and battery, larceny and misappropriation of
property, insubordinate conduct, and drug and alcohol abuse; and
violated CENTCOM's movement control policies." He concluded saying the
Department of Defense "should review the transcript of this hearing and
consider the deficiencies in Blackwater's performance . . . before a
decision is made to award the police training work to Blackwater."

The
investigations Senator Levin requested may be ongoing. So is the
awarding of lucrative contracts to Blackwater. Jeff Stein who writes
"Spy Talk", reported
on June 21, 2010 that the State Department gave Xe Services a $120
million contract for providing "protective security services" at new
U.S. consulates in Herat and Mazar-e-Sharif. Two days later he reported
that the Central Intelligence Agency had hired the company to guard CIA
facilities in Afghanistan and other places. Xe was not the only
contractor interested in obtaining the work. In connection with both of
those contracts DynCorp and Triple Canopy had bid on the jobs but lost
out to Blackwater.

Senator Levin's reaction to these awards
has not been reported. Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky's have. They are
hardly surprising. She was outraged. Her outrage was prompted by her
familiarity with Blackwater and its performance. In November 2009 she
learned that the government had given Blackwater an indefinite
extension of a contract to provide "Aviation Services" in Iraq and
said: "Given the company's history of massive abuses and misconduct, I
believe it is inappropriate for the United States government to
continue doing business with this firm." Upon hearing of the newest
contracts in Afghanistan she said, speaking to ABC news: "I'm just
mystified why any branch of the government would decide to hire
Blackwater, such a repeat offender. We're talking about murder . . . .
A company with a horrible reputation that really jeopardizes our
mission in so many different, different ways."

For all we
know, the Justice Department may be conducting an investigation of
Blackwater's conduct in both Afghanistan and Iraq in response to the
letter it received from Senator Levin. For all we know the CIA may be
investigating Blackwater's prior conduct even though it has just agreed
to pay the company $125 million for its services. For all we know, the
State Department may be conducting its own independent investigation in
response to Senator Levin's letter. Here is what we know for sure,
however. The mystery to which Ms. Schakowsky was referring has been
unraveled by CIA Director Leon Panetta.

In a June 27 interview
on ABC News Mr. Panetta said that in a war zone "we continue to have
needs for security. . . . Unfortunately, there are a few companies that
provide that kind of security. The State Department relies on them, we
rely on them to a certain extent. So we bid out some of those
contracts. They . . . . outbid everyone else by about $26 million. And
a panel that we had said . . . that they have shaped up their act. So
there really was not much choice to but accept that contract.." That
explains it all. Sort of.