Blackwater to take on Big Defense Contractors for More Lucrative Contracts (Media Blitz)

*Prince is prepping his company for even more lucrative contracts than the billion dollars Blackwater has received from the U.S. government since 9/11

*Blackwater recently outbid big defense contractors for a 5 year, $15 billion contract to "fight terrorists with drug ties."



Today's Must Read
By Spencer Ackerman - October 15, 2007, 9:10AM
Blackwater's once-reclusive Erik Prince has launched a PR offensive, bringing the press to the private-security firm's Moyock, N.C. compound and showing up on TV chat shows. (More on that in a moment.) The strategy is clear enough: Prince wants to debunk Blackwater's image as out-of-control mercenaries in the wake of the Nisour Square shootings. And that's because Prince is prepping his company for even more lucrative contracts than the billion dollars Blackwater has received from the U.S. government since 9/11. As The Wall Street Journal reports today, Prince is looking to take on the biggest defense contractors in the country.

According to the Blackwater founder and CEO, private security -- guarding U.S. personnel in war-torn countries, as Blackwater does in Iraq -- shouldn't be what defines the company. "We see the security market diminishing," he told the paper. Instead, Blackwater wants to grow its training and logistics work, placing Blackwater in the center of what the WSJ terms "missions to which the won't commit American forces." For example, Blackwater recently outbid Lockheed Martin, Northrup Grumman and Raytheon for a five-year, $15 billion contract to "fight terrorists with drug ties." Get ready to see a lot of Blackwater in Colombia.

Signs of Blackwater's expansion -- even amidst the Nisour Square controversy -- are evident, the paper reports:

The company has a fleet of 40 aircraft, including small turboprop cargo planes that can land on runways too small or rough for the Air Force. The company's aviation unit has done repeat business with the Defense Department in Central Asia, flying small loads of cargo between bases.
Also in the North Carolina compound: an armored-car production line that Mr. Prince says will be able to build 1,000 of the brutish-looking Grizzly vehicles a year. The project arose out of a need for Blackwater to protect its security convoys in Iraq. Drawing on Mr. Prince's family history in the automotive industry, Blackwater made sure that the vehicles are legal to drive on U.S. highways.
Mr. Prince bought a 183-foot civilian vessel that Blackwater has modified for potential paramilitary use. Mr. Prince sees the ship as a possible step into worlds such as search-and-rescue, peacekeeping and maritime training.


http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004453.php

that can competitively bid for these jobs, or did they sole source themselves here with the help of this admin?

by rewarding them with these lucrative contracts, despite their absymal record.

Halliburton should be prosecuted as well.

I thought it was illegal to cash in on a war...Didn't they do this to Brown Bros Harriman during WWII..one of the Bushes were in on the money-making deal.

Senate Judiciary Holds Hearing on Combating War Profiteering
http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200703/032007.html

The 10 Most Brazen War Profiteers
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/41083/



more at............

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20030512/editors

So that means that every environmentalist activist who smokes a joint will be targeted.

Remember that Gulf Stream plane crash with tons of Coke and ties to CIA rendition flights?

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-snip

Still, some facts have come to light, thanks to reporting done mostly by the McClatchy News Service. (The Sun-Sentinel has failed to so much as mention the crash, and the McClatchy-owned Miami Herald has given it only brief attention.) O'Connor and Smith reportedly bought the Gulfstream from a pair of Brazilian businessmen on September 16. That same day, according to logs available on www.flightaware.com, the plane was flown from Clearwater to Fort Lauderdale Executive, which is operated by the city that bears its name.

Two days later, at 7:22 p.m. September 18, according to the logs, the 80-foot-long jet with tail number N987SA took off from Fort Lauderdale for Cancun. It's not clear precisely who piloted that flight. O'Connor has never been certified to fly a jet like the Gulfstream.

The plane picked up the cocaine in Colombia and was en route to El Chapo's gang when it ran into trouble over the town of Tixkokob, on the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexican authorities said. The Gulfstream apparently flew over Tixkobob for two hours before the Mexican military was notified and sent helicopters to chase it. That led to the crash in the countryside. There were no reported injuries. The pilot was arrested, as were two other men who allegedly tried to bribe officials at the crash scene.

The jet had its own mysteries. Between 2003 and 2005, it was flown from Guantanamo, the U.S. base in Cuba, to Washington, D.C., and Oxford, Connecticut, leading to speculation that the CIA might have used it for the "rendition" of terrorism suspects.

-snip

http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/2007-10-11/news/dogging-a-high-flying-bird/print

"

They're not going to Columbia, they're going to stay right here and fight evil terrorist pot smokers. That's much more profitable for everyone.