Read from today's:
This article can be found on the web at
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20051010/scahill
Blackwater Down
by JEREMY SCAHILL
[from the October 10, 2005 issue]
The men from Blackwater USA arrived in New Orleans right after Katrina
hit. The company known for its private security work guarding senior US
diplomats in Iraq beat the federal government and most aid organizations
to the scene in another devastated Gulf. About 150 heavily armed
Blackwater troops dressed in full battle gear spread out into the
chaos of New Orleans. Officially, the company boasted of its forces
“join[ing] the hurricane relief effort.” But its men on the ground told
a different story.
Some patrolled the streets in SUVs with tinted windows and the
Blackwater logo splashed on the back; others sped around the French
Quarter in an unmarked car with no license plates. They congregated on
the corner of St. James and Bourbon in front of a bar called 711, where
Blackwater was establishing a makeshift headquarters. From the balcony
above the bar, several Blackwater guys cleared out what had apparently
been someone's apartment. They threw mattresses, clothes, shoes and
other household items from the balcony to the street below. They draped
an American flag from the balcony's railing. More than a dozen troops
from the 82nd Airborne Division stood in formation on the street
watching the action.
Armed men shuffled in and out of the building as a handful told stories
of their past experiences in Iraq. “I worked the security detail of both
Bremer and Negroponte,” said one of the Blackwater guys, referring to
the former head of the US occupation, L. Paul Bremer, and former US
Ambassador to Iraq John Negroponte. Another complained, while talking on
his cell phone, that he was getting only $350 a day plus his per diem.
“When they told me New Orleans, I said, 'What country is that in?'” he
said. He wore his company ID around his neck in a case with the phrase
Operation Iraqi Freedom printed on it.
In an hourlong conversation I had with four Blackwater men, they
characterized their work in New Orleans as “securing neighborhoods” and
“confronting criminals.” They all carried automatic assault weapons and
had guns strapped to their legs. Their flak jackets were covered with
pouches for extra ammunition.
When asked what authority they were operating under, one guy said,
“We're on contract with the Department of Homeland Security.” Then,
pointing to one of his comrades, he said, “He was even deputized by the
governor of the state of Louisiana. We can make arrests and use lethal
force if we deem it necessary.” The man then held up the gold Louisiana
law enforcement badge he wore around his neck. Blackwater spokesperson
Anne Duke also said the company has a letter from Louisiana officials
authorizing its forces to carry loaded weapons.
“This vigilantism demonstrates the utter breakdown of the government,”
says Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights.
“These private security forces have behaved brutally, with impunity, in
Iraq. To have them now on the streets of New Orleans is frightening and
possibly illegal.”
Blackwater is not alone. As business leaders and government officials
talk openly of changing the demographics of what was one of the most
culturally vibrant of America's cities, mercenaries from companies like
DynCorp, Intercon, American Security Group, Blackhawk, Wackenhut and an
Israeli company called Instinctive Shooting International (ISI) are
fanning out to guard private businesses and homes, as well as government
projects and institutions. Within two weeks of the hurricane, the
number of private security companies registered in Louisiana jumped from
185 to 235. Some, like Blackwater, are under federal contract. Others
have been hired by the wealthy elite, like F. Patrick Quinn III, who
brought in private security to guard his $3 million private estate and
his luxury hotels, which are under consideration for a lucrative federal
contract to house FEMA workers.
A possibly deadly incident involving Quinn's hired guns underscores the
dangers of private forces policing American streets. On his second night
in New Orleans, Quinn's security chief, Michael Montgomery, who said he
worked for an Alabama company called Bodyguard and Tactical Security
(BATS), was with a heavily armed security detail en route to pick up one
of Quinn's associates and escort him through the chaotic city.
Montgomery told me they came under fire from “black gangbangers” on
an overpass near the poor Ninth Ward neighborhood. “At the time, I
was on the phone with my business partner,” he recalls. “I dropped the
phone and returned fire.”
Montgomery says he and his men were armed with AR-15s and Glocks and
that they unleashed a barrage of bullets in the general direction of the
alleged shooters on the overpass. “After that, all I heard was moaning
and screaming, and the shooting stopped. That was it. Enough said.”
Then, Montgomery says, “the Army showed up, yelling at us and thinking
we were the enemy. We explained to them that we were security. I told
them what had happened and they didn't even care. They just left.” Five
minutes later, Montgomery says, Louisiana state troopers arrived on the
scene, inquired about the incident and then asked him for directions on
“how they could get out of the city.” Montgomery says that no one ever
asked him for any details of the incident and no report was ever made.
“One thing about security,” Montgomery says, “is that we all
coordinate with each other–one family.” That co-ordination
doesn't include the offices of the Secretaries of State in Louisiana and
Alabama, which have no record of a BATS company.
A few miles away from the French Quarter, another wealthy New Orleans
businessman, James Reiss, who serves in Mayor Ray Nagin's administration
as chairman of the city's Regional Transit Authority, brought in some
heavy guns to guard the elite gated community of Audubon Place: Israeli
mercenaries dressed in black and armed with M-16s. Two Israelis
patrolling the gates outside Audubon told me they had served as
professional soldiers in the Israeli military, and one boasted of having
participated in the invasion of Lebanon. “We have been fighting the
Palestinians all day, every day, our whole lives,” one of them tells me.
“Here in New Orleans, we are not guarding from terrorists.” Then,
tapping on his machine gun, he says, “Most Americans, when they see
these things, that's enough to scare them.”
The men work for ISI, which describes its employees as “veterans of
the Israeli special task forces from the following Israeli
government bodies: Israel Defense Force (IDF), Israel National Police
Counter Terrorism units, Instructors of Israel National Police
Counter Terrorism units, General Security Service (GSS or 'Shin
Beit'), Other restricted intelligence agencies.” The company was formed
in 1993. Its website profile says: “Our up-to-date services meet the
challenging needs for Homeland Security preparedness and overseas combat
procedures and readiness. ISI is currently an approved vendor by the US
Government to supply Homeland Security services.”
Unlike ISI or BATS, Blackwater is operating under a federal contract to
provide 164 armed guards for FEMA reconstruction projects in Louisiana.
That contract was announced just days after Homeland Security Department
spokesperson Russ Knocke told the Washington Post he knew of no federal
plans to hire Blackwater or other private security firms. “We believe
we've got the right mix of personnel in law enforcement for the federal
government to meet the demands of public safety,” he said. Before the
contract was announced, the Blackwater men told me, they were already on
contract with DHS and that they were sleeping in camps organized by the
federal agency.
One might ask, given the enormous presence in New Orleans of National
Guard, US Army, US Border Patrol, local police from around the country
and practically every other government agency with badges, why private
security companies are needed, particularly to guard federal projects.
“It strikes me…that that may not be the best use of money,” said
Illinois Senator Barack Obama.
Blackwater's success in procuring federal contracts could well be
explained by major-league contributions and family connections to the
GOP. According to election records, Blackwater's CEO and co-founder,
billionaire Erik Prince, has given tens of thousands to Republicans,
including more than $80,000 to the Republican National Committee the
month before Bush's victory in 2000. This past June, he gave $2,100 to
Senator Rick Santorum's re-election campaign. He has also given to House
majority leader Tom DeLay and a slew of other Republican candidates,
including Bush/Cheney in 2004. As a young man, Prince interned with
President George H.W. Bush, though he complained at the time that he
“saw a lot of things I didn't agree with–homosexual groups being
invited in, the budget agreement, the Clean Air Act, those kind of
bills. I think the Administration has been indifferent to a lot of
conservative concerns.”
Prince, a staunch right-wing Christian, comes from a powerful Michigan
Republican family, and his father, Edgar, was a close friend of former
Republican presidential candidate and antichoice leader Gary Bauer. In
1988 the elder Prince helped Bauer start the Family Research Council.
Erik Prince's sister, Betsy, once chaired the Michigan Republican Party
and is married to Dick DeVos, whose father, billionaire Richard DeVos,
is co-founder of the major Republican benefactor Amway. Dick DeVos is
also a big-time contributor to the Republican Party and will likely be
the GOP candidate for Michigan governor in 2006. Another Blackwater
founder, president Gary Jackson, is also a major contributor to
Republican campaigns.
After the killing of four Blackwater mercenaries in Falluja in March
2004, Erik Prince hired the Alexander Strategy Group, a PR firm with
close ties to GOPers like DeLay. By mid-November the company was
reporting 600 percent growth. In February 2005 the company hired
Ambassador Cofer Black, former coordinator for counterterrorism at the
State Department and former director of the CIA's Counterterrorism
Center, as vice chairman. Just as the hurricane was hitting,
Blackwater's parent company, the Prince Group, named Joseph Schmitz, who
had just resigned as the Pentagon's Inspector General, as the group's
chief operating officer and general counsel.
While juicing up the firm's political connections, Prince has been
advocating greater use of private security in international operations,
arguing at a symposium at the National Defense Industrial
Association earlier this year that firms like his are more efficient
than the military. In May Blackwater's Jackson testified before Congress
in an effort to gain lucrative Homeland Security contracts to train
2,000 new Border Patrol agents, saying Blackwater understands “the value
to the government of one-stop shopping.” With President Bush using the
Katrina disaster to try to repeal Posse Comitatus (the ban on using US
troops in domestic law enforcement) and Blackwater and other security
firms clearly initiating a push to install their paramilitaries on US
soil, the war is coming home in yet another ominous way. As one
Blackwater mercenary said, “This is a trend. You're going to see a lot
more guys like us in these situations.”
Compare to stories in 2004 Virginia Pilot-Ledger where Blackwater is headquartered:
Angry and ex-military seek jobs with Blackwater
By JOANNE KIMBERLIN,
The Virginian-Pilot
© April 10, 2004
Last updated: 1:04 AM
After four of its
employees were killed and their bodies mutilated in Iraq last week,
Blackwater Security Consulting could hardly have expected this:
Job applications are up. Way up.
Chris Bertelli, a
spokesman for the Moyock, N.C.-based company, said the number of
applications has increased “considerably” since the March 31 ambush in
Fallujah. He said former military men are behind most of the spike.
“They’re angry,” Bertelli said, “and they’re saying, 'Let me go over.’ ”
Age is no barrier to the itch for action.
“We’re hearing from guys who are ready to grab their gear from Korea,” Bertelli said.
Revenge, however,
does not belong to Blackwater. Private security forces in Iraq – or
private contractors, as they’ve come to be known – are not allowed to
start a fight, Bertelli said.
By law, they are
only allowed to defend. They can exchange shots if first fired upon. If
the enemy runs, the private contractors are not allowed to chase.
That’s the
difference between the contractors and commandos or mercenaries, as
Blackwater’s forces are often mistakenly called. Commandos or
mercenaries usually operate on the offensive, moving forward,
initiating action.
“We’re only allowed
to hold the fort,” Bertelli said. “And in a place like Iraq, that can
be really difficult when you have to let the enemy make the first
move.”
The grisly images from Fallujah will likely hike the cost of doing business in Iraq, Bertelli said.
“It’s too soon to
really tell,” he said, “but it’s natural to assume that the visibility
of the dangers could drive up salaries for the folks who have to stand
in the path of the bullets.”
Salaries currently range from $100,000 to $200,000 annually.
and
Inside Blackwater USA
By MATTHEW JONES,
The Virginian-Pilot
© May 3, 2004
Last updated: 8:31 AM
 |
A Blackwater
instructor picks a participant in the executive protection class to
serve on an advance team for an exercise to protect a VIP from an
ambush. Photos by Steve Earley/The Virginian-Pilot. |
MOYOCK, N.C. — There’s no big secret here.
Just cross the state line at Chesapeake and take the highway toward the coast.
Turn at a
residential street that segues from brick ranches to vinyl colonials.
Pass through the front gate, by tractors ready for spring planting.
Follow the narrow road as it winds four miles through swamp and fields, a small stream shadowing it much of the way.
Pass under a wooden
archway and there it is: a series of drab aluminum buildings and
trailers the color of file cabinets. People move in and out, carrying
luggage and paperwork.
The sporadic pop of small-arms fire can be heard from nearby shooting ranges, walled in by high earthen berms.
Nothing mysterious – just business as usual at Blackwater USA .
The world knew
little about Blackwater before March 31, when four of its contractors
were killed in Fallujah, Iraq, their bodies mutilated and hung from a
bridge over the Euphrates River.
Since then, the
world has learned little more about the company and its 6,000-acre
facility. Mercenaries? Militia? The world’s largest private army?
No, say Blackwater’s directors.
“Everybody looks at this industry and thinks we’re something we’re not,” said President Gary Jackson .
What they are, say
company leaders, is a group dedicated to preparing military, police and
security personnel to deal with the sometimes deadly surprises of a
chaotic world. Founded in 1996 by former Navy SEALs and financed by a
family fortune, Blackwater scraped along its first few years.
Then came global
attacks and the war on terrorism. Suddenly, agencies in the United
States and abroad needed to modify their approach. Many came to
Blackwater.
The company says it
has trained more than 50,000 people , including military, local and
federal law enforcement, and private executive protection groups. It
also trains foreign nationals under sponsorship of the U.S. State
Department.
Locally, the Navy, Coast Guard and city police departments routinely train here.
Today, the company is at or near capacity 50 weeks a year, said director Chris Taylor .
What started as a
training operation has blossomed. Blackwater USA consists of Blackwater
Training Center , Blackwater Target Systems , Blackwater Security
Consulting , Blackwater Canine and Blackwater Aviation .
The company’s
success can be tied to how it operates, Taylor said. Employees
constantly monitor national and international news, gleaning
information above and below the radar. It then designs programs or
provides facilities for groups to tailor to their own needs.
For example, the
R.U. Ready High School , a series of buildings set up to resemble
classrooms and corridors, was built after the 1999 shootings at
Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo.
Following the 2000
bombing of the destroyer Cole in Yemen, the company built a mock Navy
vessel out of shipping containers and rigged it with everything from
accurate lighting to “knee-knocker” doorways.
The facility also
includes a Military Operations on Urban Terrain site: shipping
containers stacked on asphalt that can be set up to resemble city
buildings and streets.
On Wednesday , several groups were training at Blackwater.
At one site,
students in an executive protection class learned how to guard their
boss. They began by covering him closely, assessing threats as he got
in and out of a sport utility vehicle in a parking lot.
Later, in a nearby
alleyway, an instructor posing as an ex-employee began yelling at the
group. No guns were drawn, but the students encircled their client,
gauging the danger level as they got him into a building.
The next round
turned violent after the ex-employee pulled a gun and everyone began
firing paint-filled “simunition” bullets. The client survived.
Participants
learn how to protect their client during an exercise at Blackwater USA
in Moyock. A firefight, however, is the last option, officials say. The
goal is a good defense; the mission, to keep the principal alive.
The goal there, Taylor said, is a good defense. The mission is to keep the principal alive. A firefight is the last option.
Across the access
road, instructors set up traffic cones in another parking lot and raced
old police cruisers across it. They were preparing for an
evasive-driving lesson, part of an upcoming ambush prevention course.
Nearby, officers from the Norfolk Police Department conducted firearms qualification training on outdoor shooting ranges.
At one, an officer
walked slowly forward, blasting steel silhouettes with a shotgun. At
another, an officer practiced drawing his pistol at close quarters and
firing at a paper target.
Each exercise,
Taylor said, teaches shooters to evaluate which threat is most
dangerous and how to best respond, both physically and mentally.
“We realize the value of being able to react in a split second.”
Virginia Beach
police visit Blackwater, too, and the city is considering a permanent
training facility here to replace the range in Creeds that closed in
2002.
Later this month,
the Beach Police Department and Blackwater will co-host the World SWAT
Challenge and Conference . The May 18-22 conference is open to
participants only, but 5,000 visitors can watch the challenge May 21-22
.
Sixteen military and
police teams, including two from abroad, will compete in eight events
drawing on real-life SWAT scenarios, among them hostage rescues, sniper
exercises and urban combat. Some things Blackwater officials simply
won’t talk about. Anything concerning Blackwater Security Consulting is
off limits. So are details of the March 31 ambush in Fallujah.
Blackwater’s directors realize their silence fuels mystery. They also realize that can lead to the M-word: mercenary.
It’s simply inaccurate, they say. A mercenary, Taylor said, serves a foreign government for money only.
“We only work for
the U.S. government,” he said, adding that “anyone coming in here
looking for money hits the No. 1 disqualifying criterion.”
Strangers with
certain perceptions periodically contact the company looking for
employment, he said. Blackwater politely turns them down.
Every hire is
heavily vetted and is generally someone whom the staff has worked with
or who can be vouched for by the close-knit community of special
operations and force protection, Taylor said.
A
driver in an old police cruiser navigates a course that will be used
for an evasive-driving exercise. In the background are other training
sites, including a simulated city, firing range and a tower used for
rappelling and high-angle shooting.
“This is an
unbelievable group,” with good values and a strong work ethic, he said.
This makes Blackwater a tightknit family. That’s why an incident like
Fallujah is never just business.
“No, no, no,”
Taylor said. “I hope I’m coming across as sincerely as you can possibly
take me in that regard. It’s a loss to the families. A loss to us. It’s
just horrible.”
While discreet on certain issues, company officials have no qualms dispelling some myths.
The name Blackwater? It comes from the swamp around the property.
The bear-claw logo?
A nod to the brown and black bears that roam the area. A large example
stands mounted in the lodge’s front room.
The guard at the front gate? He mainly keeps neighborhood children and others from wandering in and getting hurt.
Blackwater’s core
mission will always be training, Jackson said. While recent years have
presented golden opportunities to make a quick buck, Blackwater has
resisted, he said.
“We’re in it for the long haul.”
Taylor agreed, saying the company’s values will never change.
“There are plenty of good people out there who believe in a sense of service and duty to one’s family and one’s country.”
and this profile in 20003 May/June Mother Jones:
Soldiers of Good Fortune
 |
|
At a camp in North Carolina, a private firm called Blackwater USA is
training the U.S. Navy to fight terrorists, taking the place of
military officers who used to fill such roles.
|
News: The four Americans horrifically
killed on Wednesday by a mob in Fallujah, Iraq, worked for Blackwater
USA, a private military company profiled by Barry Yeoman in the May 2003 issue of Mother Jones.
By Barry Yeoman
May/June 2003 Issue
understandinggov.org