Blackwater's World of Warcraft

Blackwater's World of Warcraft
By Bruce Falconer and Daniel Schulman
Additional reporting by Casey Miner March 20, 2008

When blackwater founder Erik Prince took his seat before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform last October, in the midst of a firestorm over the killing of 17 civilians in Baghdad by his contractors the previous month, the 38-year-old was at the helm of a fast-growing global business—and had the confidence to match. Sporting a neatly pressed suit and a fresh military-style haircut that evoked his service as a Navy seal, Prince had been prepped by crisis-management specialists from the Beltway PR firm Burson-Marsteller, and throughout the tense four-hour hearing he leaned back frequently to confer with his lawyer. A private man who seldom gives interviews, he nevertheless seemed at ease in a room filled with politicians, cameras, and reporters. He extolled his men's professionalism — "I believe we acted appropriately at all times" — and bristled at the term most commonly used to describe his line of work. "The Oxford dictionary defines a mercenary as a professional soldier working for a foreign government," he said. "We have Americans working for America, protecting Americans."

The truth is a bit more complex. As profit margins in the private security industry have narrowed—Blackwater clears just 10 percent on its primary State Department contract, Prince testified—the ceo has increasingly looked beyond American shores. More and more of his foot soldiers now come from Third World countries, and his corporate network is aggressively pitching for business from foreign governments. (It has already trained naval commandos in Azerbaijan and has been hired to train special forces troops in Jordan.) In his most ambitious moments, Prince has set out a vision in which his companies would act as for-profit peacekeepers, working with the United Nations and other international organizations in conflict areas around the world. Even Blackwater's marketing materials are infused with the imagery of global humanitarianism; one of the company's recent ads shows a tiny malnourished infant being spoon-fed and proclaims the company's intention to "provide hope to those who still live in desperate times."

http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2008/03/blackwaters-world-of-warcraft.html

Democrats question value of Blackwater contract
By ELISE CASTELLI
October 03, 2007

http://www.federaltimes.com/index.php?S=3081888

The State Department spends six times more for its private security firms in Iraq than it would if it employed soldiers to protect diplomats and other civilians in the region, a House Democrat charged Tuesday.
During a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing examining the actions of embattled security firm Blackwater USA, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said Blackwater costs the government $1,222 per employee per day, a salary of $445,000 each year. The average Army sergeant earns between $50,000 and $70,000 per year, he said.

.........Overall spending on Blackwater has skyrocketed since its first contract in 2001, from $737,000 to $593 million last year.

(snip)

The department is establishing a joint commission with the Iraqi government to study the performance of security contractors in the field and make recommendations for policy changes on how to respond to incidents, Satterfield said.
Prince said the company has cooperated with the Justice and State departments in investigations of shooting incidents and employees dismissed for improper conduct. He noted the company does not have the power to detain personnel for criminal activity.

They changed their logo. They just opened a Blackwater Proshop on the highway going down to the Outerbanks in Moyock. T-shirts, little stuffed bears, candybars. The guy behind the counter said they were going to be selling bait and sun tan lotion soon too.

Who'd a thunk?

Just like some police and fire department vehicles in North America have teady bears to give little kids who might be traumatized at an accident scene or a fire, Bilgewater could carry some of these teddy bears in their armoured SUVs in Iraq. "Gosh Ahmed, sorry we just wasted Mom and Dad because Dad was following our SUV a bit too closely, but here you go, this nice Bilgewater teddy bear wants to give you a big hug to make you feel better."