Obama Administration Keeping Blackwater Armed and Dangerous in Afghanistan

[IndianaGreen]

Published on Sunday, June 20, 2010 by The Nation

Obama Administration Keeping Blackwater Armed and Dangerous in Afghanistan

by Jeremy Scahill

Blackwater is up for sale and its shadowy owner, Erik Prince, is rumored to be planning to move to the United Arab Emirates as his top deputies face indictment for a range of alleged crimes, yet the company remains a central part of President Obama's Afghanistan war. Now, Blackwater's role is expanding.

On Friday, the US State Department awarded Blackwater another "diplomatic security" contract to protect US officials in Afghanistan. CBS News reports that the $120 million deal is for "protective services" at the US consulates in Herat and Mazar-e-Sharif. Blackwater has another security contract in Afghanistan worth $200 million and trains Afghan forces. The company also works for the CIA and the US military and provides bodyguards for US Ambassador Karl Eikenberry as well as US lawmakers and other officials who visit the country. The company has four forward operating bases in Afghanistan and Prince has boasted that Blackwater's counter-narcotics forces have called in NATO airstrikes.

The new security contract was awarded to one of Blackwater's alter egos, the United States Training Center, despite the indictments of five senior company officials on bribery, weapons and conspiracy charges. Its operatives in both Afghanistan and Iraq have been indicted for killing innocent civilians. The Senate Armed Services Committee has called on the Justice Department to investigate Blackwater's use of a shell company, Paravant, to win training contracts in Afghanistan. Despite these and numerous other scandals, the State Department once again awarded the company a lucrative contract.

"Under federal acquisition regulations, the prosecution of the specific Blackwater individuals does not preclude the company or its successive companies and subsidiaries from bidding on contracts," a State Department spokesperson told CBS. "On the basis of full and open competition, the department performed a full technical evaluation of all proposals and determined the US Training Center has the best ability and qualifications to meet the contract requirements."

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/06/20

Calling Hillary, calling Hillary! Please explain this contract! :wtf:

[Overseas]

1. K&R. I still hope for an end to all connections with Bush Gang war profiteers.

I wanted a clean break and gradual deprivatization of our military and national security services.

Privatization was initiated on the pretense that government in-house operations could be more wasteful and lead to corruption. Now that the opposite has proven true time and time again, and we've gone through 8 years of Bush Gang super-amped war profiteering, I was hoping we would detach, not re-engage.

[madrchsod]

2. the state departments Varangian Guard......