CIA, Bombs, Blackwater & SECRET OVERSEAS BASES

THE NEW YORK TIMES

CIA Outsources Work On Drones To Blackwater

C.I.A. Said to Use Outsiders to Put Bombs on Drones and provide security at secret overseas bases

By James Risen and Mark Mazzetti / New York Times

By JAMES RISEN and MARK MAZZETTI
Published: August 20, 2009

WASHINGTON — From a secret division at its North Carolina headquarters, the company formerly known as Blackwater has assumed a role in Washington’s most important counterterrorism program: the use of remotely piloted drones to kill Al Qaeda’s leaders, according to government officials and current and former employees.

The division’s operations are carried out at hidden bases in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where the company’s contractors assemble and load Hellfire missiles and 500-pound laser-guided bombs on remotely piloted Predator aircraft, work previously performed by employees of the Central Intelligence Agency. They also provide security at the covert bases, the officials said.

The role of the company in the Predator program highlights the degree to which the C.I.A. now depends on outside contractors to perform some of the agency’s most important assignments. And it illustrates the resilience of Blackwater, now known as Xe (pronounced Zee) Services, though most people in and outside the company still refer to it as Blackwater. It has grown through government work, even as it attracted criticism and allegations of brutality in Iraq.

Spokespeople for the CIA declined to comment on the article.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/21/us/21intel.html?_r=1&src=twt&twt=nytimes

They are working on it at a hangar in Weeksville, North Carolina.

the peripatetic Athenian mercenary who fought, at various time, for and against the Persians, the Athenians, the Spartans, and others. One highlight of his storied career was a long - ultimately futile - expedition against the Persians. His political philosophy was admired by Leo Strauss, of the University of Chicago and neo-conservative infamy.

Looks like a fit to me.

private organization intent on ruling the world. That's what appears to have inspired Blackwater or Xe. At this point they have plenty of money and can hire every thug, every crook, every psychopath in the world.

They are a tremendous threat to democracy. Where is our James Bond?

time to bust these mini-monopolies.