Blackwater Worldwide, formerly Blackwater USA, is a private military company founded in 1997 by Erik Prince and Al Clark. It has alternatively been referred to as a security contractor or a mercenary organization by numerous reports by the U.S. and international media. Interestingly, in October 2007, Blackwater USA renamed itself Blackwater Worldwide, basing themselves in the U.S. state of North Carolina, where it operates a tactical training facility (36°27′19″N 76°12′09″W / 36.455359, -76.202545) claiming to be the world’s largest. The company undertakes training of more than 40,000 people a year, mostly from U.S. or foreign military and police services. The training consists of military offensive and defensive operations, as well as smaller scale personnel security. However, technologies used and techniques trained are not limited by U.S. domestic law, although it is unclear what legal status Blackwater Worldwide operates under in the U.S. and other countries, or what protection the U.S. extends to Blackwater Worldwide operations globally.
Blackwater Worldwide is currently the largest of the U.S. State Department’s three private security contractors. Of the 987 contractors Blackwater provides, 744 are U.S. citizens. At least 90 percent of its revenue comes from government contracts, two-thirds of which are no-bid contracts. Blackwater Worldwide is currently contracted by the United States government to provide security services in the Iraq War.
On March 31, 2004, four Blackwater Security Consulting (BSC) employees were ambushed and killed in Fallujah, and their bodies were hanged on bridges.
On September 16, 2007, Blackwater employees in Nisour Square, Baghdad shot and killed 17 Iraqis, at least 14 of whom were killed “without cause” according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. No charges have been laid.
In the late 1990s, Erik Prince spent part of his inherited wealth to purchase about 6,000 acres (24 km2) of the Great Dismal Swamp, a vast wetland area on the North Carolina/Virginia border, now mostly a national preserve. Here he created his state-of-the-art private training facility, and his contracting company—Blackwater—is named for the peat-colored water of the swamp. Blackwater USA was formed in 1997 to provide training support to military and law enforcement organizations. In 2002 Blackwater Security Consulting (BSC) was formed. It was one of several private security firms employed following the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. BSC is one of over 60 private security firms employed during the Iraq War to guard officials and installations, train Iraq’s new army and police, and provide other support for occupation forces. Blackwater was also hired during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina by the Department of Homeland Security, as well as by private clients, including communications, petrochemical and insurance companies. Overall, the company has received over US$1 billion in government contracts. Blackwater consists of nine divisions, and a subsidiary, Blackwater Vehicles.
Blackwater is a privately held company and does not publish much information about internal affairs. Blackwater’s owner and founder Erik Prince, a former Navy SEAL, attended the Naval Academy, graduated from Hillsdale College, and was an intern in George H.W. Bush’s White House. Prince is a major financial supporter of Republican Party causes and candidates. Blackwater’s president, Gary Jackson, is also a former Navy SEAL.
Cofer Black, the company’s current vice chairman, was director of the CIA’s Counter-terrorist Center (CTC) at the time of the September 11, 2001 attacks. He was the United States Department of State coordinator for counter-terrorism with the rank of ambassador at large from December 2002 to November 2004. After leaving public service, Black became chairman of the privately owned intelligence gathering company Total Intelligence Solutions, Inc., as well as vice chairman for Blackwater. Robert Richer was vice president of intelligence until January 2007, when he formed Total Intelligence Solutions. He was formerly the head of the CIA’s Near East Division. Black was senior advisor for counter-terrorism and national security issues for the 2008 Presidential election bid of Mitt Romney.
Blackwater’s primary training facility, located on 7,000 acres (28 km2) in northeastern North Carolina, comprises several ranges; indoor, outdoor, urban reproductions; a man-made lake; and a driving track in Camden and Currituck counties. Company literature says that it is the largest training facility in the country. In November 2006 Blackwater USA announced it recently acquired an 80-acre (30 ha) facility 150 miles (240 km) west of Chicago, in Mount Carroll, Illinois to be called Blackwater North. That facility has been operational since April 2007 and serves law enforcement agencies throughout the midwest. Blackwater is also trying to open an 824-acre (3.33 km2) training facility three miles north of Potrero, a small town in rural east San Diego County, California located 45 miles (72 km) east of San Diego, for military and law enforcement training. The opening has faced heavy opposition from local residents, residents of nearby San Diego, a local Congressmember Bob Filner, and environmental and anti-war organizations. Opposition focused on a potential for wildfire increases, the proposed facility’s proximity to the Cleveland National Forest, noise pollution, and opposition to the actions of Blackwater in Iraq. In response, Brian Bonfiglio, project manager for Blackwater West, said “There will be no explosives training and no tracer ammunition. Lead bullets don’t start fires.” In October 2007, when wildfires swept through the area, Blackwater made at least three deliveries of food, water, personal hygiene products and generator fuel to 300 residents near the proposed training site, many of whom had been trapped for days without supplies. They also set up a “tent city” for evacuees. On March 7, 2008, Blackwater withdrew its application to set up a facility in San Diego County.
n October 2007, Blackwater USA began a process of altering its name to Blackwater Worldwide, and unveiled a new logo. A Blackwater representative stated that the decision to change the logo was made before the September 16, 2007 Nisoor Square shootings, but was not changed officially until after. Many referred to the change as having eliminated the previous “cross hair” theme, replaced by a reticle instead.
On July 21, 2008 Blackwater Worldwide stated that they would shift resources away from security contracting because of extensive risk in that sector. “The experience we’ve had would certainly be a disincentive to any other companies that want to step in and put their entire business at risk,” company founder and CEO Erik Prince told The Associated Press during a daylong visit to the company’s North Carolina compound.
Blackwater Worldwide has played a substantial role during the Iraq War as a contractor for the United States government. In 2003, Blackwater attained its first high-profile contract when it received a $21 million no-bid contract for guarding the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, L. Paul Bremer. Since June 2004, Blackwater has been paid more than $320 million out of a $1 billion, five-year State Department budget for the Worldwide Personal Protective Service, which protects U.S. officials and some foreign officials in conflict zones. In 2006, Blackwater won the renumerative contract to protect the U.S. embassy in Iraq, the largest American embassy in the world. It is estimated by the Pentagon and company representatives that there are 20,000 to 30,000 armed security contractors working in Iraq, and some estimates are as high as 100,000, though no official figures exist. Of the State Department’s dependence on private contractors like Blackwater for security purposes, U.S. ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker told the U.S. Senate: “There is simply no way at all that the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security could ever have enough full-time personnel to staff the security function in Iraq. There is no alternative except through contracts.”
For work in Iraq, Blackwater has drawn contractors from their international pool of professionals, a database containing “21,000 former Special Forces operatives, soldiers, and retired law enforcement agents,” overall. For instance, Gary Jackson, the firm’s president, has confirmed that Bosnians, Filipinos, and Chileans “have been hired for tasks ranging from airport security to protecting Paul Bremer, the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority.” Between 2005 and September 2007, Blackwater security staff was involved in 195 shooting incidents; in 163 of those cases, Blackwater personnel fired first. 25 members of staff have been fired for violations of Blackwater’s drug and alcohol policy and 28 more for weapons-related incidents.
There are a variety of ongoing controversies involving Blackwater Worldwide that are not in direct relation to their specific and individual operations for the U.S. government. However, their role in their work is the factor of these controversies. Critics consider Blackwater’s self-description as a private military company to be a euphemism for mercenary activities. Jeremy Scahill points out that Chilean nationals, mostly former soldiers, whose country of origin does not participate in hostilities in Iraq, work for Blackwater in that country, thus those Chileans meet the definition of “mercenary.”At least 60 Chilean Blackwater employees were trained during dictator Augusto Pinochet’s regime. Author Chris Hedges wrote about the establishment of mercenary armies, referring to Blackwater as an example of such a force, asserting its existence as a threat to democracy and a step towards the creation of a modern day Praetorian Guard in a June 3, 2007 article in the Philadelphia Inquirer.
In March 2006, Cofer Black, vice chairman of Blackwater USA, allegedly suggested at an international conference in Amman, Jordan, that the company was ready to move towards providing security professionals up to brigade size (3,000–5,000) for humanitarian efforts and low-intensity conflicts. Critics have suggested this may be going too far in putting political decisions in the hands of privately owned corporations. The company denies this was ever said.
In December 2006, an Iraqi politician, Ayham al-Samarie, escaped from a prison in Iraq, where he was awaiting trial for 12 criminal corruption cases. Black water, which he had hired for protection before his arrest, allegedly helped him escape. He said from Dubai he would return to the United States as he hadn’t broken any U.S. laws and had fled Iraq because he feared he would be killed or kidnapped. He arrived in Chicago on January 9, claiming that an Iraqi judge had ordered his release, he feared being killed if he stayed in jail, and U.S. officials had assured him he would not be extradited to Iraq.
On September 22, 2007, U.S. federal prosecutors announced an investigation into allegations that Black water employees may have smuggled weapons into Iraq, and that these weapons may have been later transferred to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a Kurdish nationalist group designated a terrorist organization by the United States, NATO and the EU. The U.S. government was investigating Blackwell for these alleged crimes. On October 4, 2007, the FBI took over the investigation.
According to Prince, he stated in September 2007 that there was a “rush to judgment” about Black water, due to “inaccurate information”.
In January 2008, Marshall Adame, a Democrat running for Congress in North Carolina’s 3rd District, took part in a live question-and-answer forum where he was asked a question about Black water. Adame, who had served as a State Department official in Iraq recounted, “I saw them shoot people, I saw them crash into cars while I was their passenger. There was absolutely no reason, no provocation whatsoever.” He then stated, “There is no place in the American force structure, or in American culture for mercenaries, they are guns for hire; No more, no less.”This led Black water executive vice president Bill Mathews to send an internal corporate email to staff:
There is a man named Marshall Adame who is running for congress in our district. He just put a quote online which says he wants this company and all of us to cease to exist. Do you like your jobs? Are you sick and tired of the slanderous bullshit going on in DC? If so, would you all mind joining me in reminding Mr. Adame that he is running for office in our backyard. Tell all your friends and family too. We welcome their assistance in making this point very clear to Mr. Adame.
Anyone who wants to send a letter may do so at the following address…….
His email is ….
He was too cowardly to put a phone number on the web. I ask that you keep your comments to Mr. Adame professional (well, mostly professional). We help him if our comments get threatening or too crass. Let’s run this goof out of Dodge….!
As a result of the letter writing campaign Adame stated, “I feel very strongly about how extensively organized Black water has become, and I will do everything I can as a congressman to look into that, to find out whether or not the things they’re doing are even legal.”] Ultimately however, Adame was defeated in the 2008 Democratic primary by Craig Weber.
Source: Wikipedia
