Facing Backlash, Blackwater Has a New Business Pitch: Peacekeeping

[babylonsister]

Facing Backlash, Blackwater Has a New Business Pitch: Peacekeeping
By Sharon Weinberger Email 12.18.07 | 4:20 PM


Hoping to get into the peacekeeping business, the private Blackwater security firm is acquiring a fleet of aircraft, ships and ground vehicles. Here are a pair of bomb-proof Grizzlies, parked outside the company's headquarters.


Facing a growing backlash over its operations in Iraq, the private security firm Blackwater is formulating a new business pitch -- to expand into U.N.-style peacekeeping and humanitarian aid.

The company is buying a fleet of aircraft and is building its own ground vehicles and airships, hoping to win contracts to secure failed states before the U.N. arrives.

"We can give what we call one-stop shopping, turnkey solutions," says John Wrenn, who heads Global Stability Initiatives at the newly re-branded Blackwater Worldwide.

Linked to several violent incidents in Iraq, including the Sept. 16 shootings in Baghdad that sparked an international media furor and congressional hearings, the company over the past few months has attempted a public relations overhaul, modifying its name, revamping its logo, and engaging in a massive PR counter-assault to defend against its "cowboy" image.

Blackwater is one of dozens of private companies providing security services in Iraq and other war zones. It is part of a growing military outsourcing industry that exploded during the Iraq conflict and is only likely to get bigger. Proponents believe private security companies, or PSCs, are the future of military operations -- and peacekeeping.

As Blackwater fights to keep its State Department security contracts in Iraq, the company is expanding into areas where its competitors have not. Blackwater recently purchased the McArthur, a naval vessel intended for disaster response and training, but that can also be used as a "mothership" for launching peacekeeping operations.

more...

http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2007/12/blackwater#

[LakeSamish706]

1. I bet there peace keeping will include euthanasia! n/t

[peacetalksforall]

2. Did you see that? The bear paw now looks like a CROWN - a CROWN for a KING - KING CHENEY brought .

you by Blackwater. Protected by Blackwater for the benefit of the corporations, barons, reverends, mil-intel, wardens - the guys who made him KING!!!!

[peacetalksforall]

3. Reminds me also of post 9-11 - when all that advertising hit our screens - for

The Kingdom (I think that was it - Saudi Arabia consortium of investments - Bandar's doing?

[HysteryDiagnosis]

4. So how is it smaller government when billions are meted out to

private corporations that can donate to political faves of course, just how is this smaller government?? Simply put it is not, it is just morphing into something more hideous than its former self.

[AlCzervik]

5. yeah cause when i think "Blackwater" i think "Peace".

unreal.

[peacetalksforall]

6. Full circle - a couple of years ago when people started getting upset with

all the caskets coming back from Iraq - no photos, just the start of a significant count .... George includes in a speech - a comment about using Africans for peace keeping in situations such as post wars or whatever setting he used. Told us that it could also mean jobs for Africans or something like that. First thing I thought was this - Iraq is quite dangerous, our kids are getting killed - Africans are dispensible. Anyone have Lexus?

So here we are - peacekeeping, using expensively paid foreigners - for example, Chileans formerly
loyal to Pinochet. Definitely Chileans - Pinochet connection - no link.

Did certain peole in the U.S. hire foreign nationals to pull the triggers on Kennedy, King, Kennedy?

Is this another step up for one world RULE as in RULING US? More fancy black steps to control us?

Only the mil-intel community see the value of using foreigners - purchased loyalty and ignorance about our values.

On second thought - what values? Values we think we had? That some have smashed with their agendas? The ones that make us rise up to defend and protect - against wealthy participating corporations?

[Solly Mack]

7. they gonna keep the peace by killing everybody?