CIA-Blackwater assassination contract points to larger connections

CIA-Blackwater assassination contract points to larger connections

The 2004 deal was just one part of a revolving-door relationship between the agency and the private security firm. Use of outside contractors for such activities has come under widespread criticism.

By Greg Miller

August 21, 2009


Reporting from Washington - The CIA's decision to hire contractors from Blackwater USA for a covert assassination program was part of an expanding relationship in which the agency has relied on the widely criticized firm for tasks including guarding CIA lockups and loading missiles on Predator aircraft, according to current and former U.S. government officials.

The 2004 contract cemented what was then a burgeoning relationship with Blackwater, setting the stage for a series of departures by senior CIA officials who took high-level positions with the North Carolina security company.

The revolving door helped fuel a backlash against what many inside the agency and on Capitol Hill came to regard as an overuse of outside firms, many of which made millions of dollars after filling their staffs with former CIA employees.

"I have believed for a long time that the intelligence community is over-reliant on contractors to carry out its work," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. "This is especially a problem when contractors are used to carry out activities that are inherently governmental."

Her comment underscored how the Blackwater contract's disclosure has renewed questions about the sort of work the CIA has outsourced since the Sept. 11 attacks. In recent years, the agency has also faced criticism for using contractors to interrogate prisoners.

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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/washingtondc/la-na-cia-blackwater21-2009aug21,0,5468257.story

What concerns me most is that many of these private contractors work for private companies whose alliances are to the extreme right, they are and were run by people like Cheney and Rumsfeld (who ran these ops off the shelf) and who can operate with illegally obtained funds from money laundering ops globally.

They also have a profit based interest in keeping business and thus have a vested interest in false flag ops to blow up civilians and keep conflicts going.

Like firefighters who start fires to enjoy the fire and the thrill of putting the fires out or even becoming "heroes" in the process, these private mercenary corporations can be used for political purposes to undermine Obama and efforts to end wars. Over and over I find myself wondering WHY would islamist jihadists bomb marketplaces and civilian populations? It never made sense.

But like the film "The Quiet America" where the CIA was setting off bombs to get more funds for war and to blame these on the "reds" and "terrorists" it gets clearer and clearer that the modus operandi never ended and continues.

But now these can be run from private armies globally untouchable by Congress and probably even by Obama.

They are the real terrorists and threat to democracy and to humanity.

And how can we even begin to believe that Cheney et al would not do ANYTHING to hold onto their secret powers? Or to prevent their prosecutions.

Obama and Holder need to prosecute these treasonous bastards and war criminals. i mean the top guys who directed things.

his book come out on this subject?

A while back - a well known investigative reporter announced Cheney had assassination teams as well as left some people in government positions to feed him info. He reportedly had a book coming out on this subject. Is it out yet - if not - when?

have they murdered?
That's what I want to know.

ten of thousands (many soldiers will never recover from their psycholigical and physical wounds, many more will die from them than in the death rates and suicides are all direct causes of the fascist brutes)..

The head of these operations lied and fed our young people and soldiers to an insane slaughter.

Hundreds of thousands more died in those countries and others on the edges of those illegal and immoral wars.

Every single life is on the heads of those Nazis Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld. Others too, but they were the ones in charge at the very top and deserve a Nuremberg style prosecution. And sentences (although as a pacifist i oppose the death penalty, Life at hard labor would be too good for them - yet that is what i believe they deserve at the very least).

The revolving door to the private sector awaits the corrupt.

If they privatize assassination, there is no oversight of their "new" assignments.