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Battle Lines Drawn: Who is Blackwater USA?
By Miriam Raftery
The Alpine Sun
Editor’s note:
This is the third in a three part-series on Blackwater USA’s
proposed military-style training camp in rural Potrero. Parts
one and two documented Potrero residents’ concerns and their
battle with local governing boards to block the proposal.
POTRERO — It is a question on the mind of nearly every
resident in rural Potrero.
“Who is this new neighbor who is coming to Potrero?”
asked Duncan McFetridge, speaking at a town hall meeting in
nearby Descanso this month.
McFetridge, an Army veteran and environmental leader of
Save Our Forests and Ranchlands, is spearheading opposition to
Blackwater USA’s proposal to build a private military-style
training camp in Potrero.
He spoke recently at a showing of “Iraq For Sale: The
War Profiteers,” a documentary film by Robert Greenwald. The
film raises serious concerns about America’s use of private
contractors in Iraq – including Blackwater.
Blackwater’s Web site describes the company as “the
most comprehensive professional military, law enforcement,
security, peacekeeping and stability operations in the world.”
At its headquarters in Moyock, North Carolina, the company
maintains a 6,000-acre base where it claims to have trained over
50,000 military, law enforcement and civilian personnel.
Blackwater personnel have provided security for U.S.
ambassador Paul Bremer in Iraq, patrolled streets in New Orleans
after Hurricane Katrina, and provided weapons/tactical training
for members of foreign governments deemed friendly to the U.S.,
among other assignments. Recently, the company has sought to
market its “peacekeeping” services to halt genocide in war-torn
Darfur.
But award-winning journalist Jeremy Scahill, author of
“Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary
Army,” paints a darker picture. A blurb for his book, which was
slated to hit bookstores March 21, describes Blackwater USA as
“the powerful private army that the U.S. government has made its
Praetorian Guard for the `global war on terror.’”
Blackwater has the world's largest private military
base, a fleet of 20 aircraft, and 20,000 soldiers at the ready,
according to Scahill, who added, “Run by a multimillionaire
Christian conservative who bankrolls President Bush and his
allies, its forces are capable of overthrowing governments, and
yet most people have never heard of Blackwater.”
Founded in 1996 to provide support to military and law
enforcement, Blackwater now consists of nine companies,
including divisions specializing in training, target systems,
security consulting, canines, air (AWS), airships, armored
vehicles, maritime, and construction. Most recently, the company
announced plans to branch into private intelligence services.
A spotlight was placed on Blackwater in March 2004,
when grisly images of four of its employees who were killed,
burned and hanged off a bridge in Iraq were broadcast around the
world. The event sparked a major escalation in the war. In
retaliation for the killing of Blackwater employees by
insurgents, the U.S. military launched the siege of Fallujah,
resulting in deaths of thousands of Iraqis and U.S. soldiers as
well as displacement of tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians.
The killers of Blackwater’s employees were never
apprehended. But serious questions have arisen about
Blackwater’s own potential culpability — and the accountability
of private contractors in Iraq.
Family members of the slain employees filed a wrongful
death lawsuit against Blackwater, accusing the company of
cutting corners to save money and failing to provide armored
vehicles and other protections for its employees. In Iraq for
Sale, the mother of slain Blackwater employee Scott Halveston
called for accountability and said of the company, “Right now
they are getting away with murder.”
Fallujah was a no-go zone for the U.S. military at the
time, because it was considered so volatile. “Why did these
Blackwater guys end up in the most dangerous city in the world
in an unarmored vehicle, short tow men — and they didn’t have a
heavy saw machine gun?” Scahill asked. “They were sitting
ducks.”
The men were sent to pick up kitchen supplies, he
added. “The families of these men all believed that their loved
ones were going over to Iraq to protect Paul Bremer — and what
they died for were pots and pans in the service of a private
contractor.”
Blackwater has denied wrongdoing and filed a
countersuit against an attorney representing the families,
alleging that the lawsuit breached a contract signed by the
employees. The firm has retained Ken Starr, who led impeachment
investigations against President Bill Clinton.
After attempts to have the case thrown out of state
court failed, Blackwater Security LLC appealed to the U.S.
Supreme Court, which denied a request to hear Blackwater’s case.
The family’s lawsuit will be heard in a North Carolina state
court. (Blackwater declined to comment on pending litigation for
this article.)
After the Fallujah massacre, Blackwater hired the
Alexander Strategy Group (ASG) to lobby on its behalf. ASG was
founded by the Chief of Staff of Tom DeLay, who resigned as
House majority leader after he was indicted on money laundering
and conspiracy charges. ASG closed its doors in 2006 following
disclosure of its ties to DeLay and disgraced lobbyist Jack
Abramoff, the targets of state and federal investigations.
According to “Iraq for Sale,” after the Fallujah
killings, ASG lobbyists “went to Washington and stopped any
investigation from taking place.” According to the News
Observer, in the days after the Fallujah slayings, Blackwater
founder/owner Erik Prince held private meetings with DeLay and
with top Republican committee leaders – including Congressman
Duncan Hunter, then chair of the House Armed Services Committee.
Hunter took campaign contributions from Prince and from
Blackwater USA president Gary Jackson. After investigation into
its Iraq activities were squelched, Blackwater landed in June
2004 one of the most lucrative contracts of the Iraq War – a
$300 million deal to provide diplomatic protection for senior
officials in Iraq and elsewhere. Before then, Blackwater’s
contracts were limited to $21 million to guard U.S. ambassador
Paul Bremer and other comparatively modest contracts.
“This is a company that absolutely made a killing off
the Fallujah contracts,” said Scahill, who learned of the
lucrative deal through a Freedom of Information Act request.
Under the Bush administration, use of private
contractors for tasks formerly done by the U.S. military has
expanded to unprecedented levels. According to a CNN report, an
estimated 100,000 private contractors are now in Iraq, including
tens of thousands of mercenaries. Proponents of outsourcing jobs
such as security, meal preparation and water purification to
private contractors have argued that such actions would save
taxpayers money and free up U.S. military personnel for combat
or other critical duties.
Congressional oversight hearings conducted by the U.S.
Oversight and Government Reform Committee chaired by Democrat
Henry Waxman revealed massive contracting fraud and waste in
Iraq. Although Blackwater previously denied doing security work
under contract for a Halliburton subsidiary, the hearings
confirmed that Blackwater performed security work that the Army
was supposed to do. Work was performed under a four-company tier
with Halliburton at the top—and each intermediary padding the
bill paid by taxpayers. The Army has demanded that Halliburton
repay $20 million in overcharges. Further evidence alleged that
Blackwater was engaged in over-billing and double-billing the
government on other contracts.
Blackwater refused to answer press questions about the
alleged murder of an Iraq guard providing security for Iraq’s
vice president. But under oath before Congress, a Blackwater
spokesperson admitted that the company removed an off-duty
employee from Iraq immediately after the employee was accused of
shooting and killing an Iraqi guard before criminal charges
could be filed. Upon learning of the incident, Rep. Dennis
Kucinich concluded that private contractors in Iraq could
literally “get away with murder.”
A former CIA officer spoke to The East County
Californian about concerns over the Bush administration’s use of
Blackwater and other private contractors in Iraq and elsewhere.
“The government finds it expeditious to subcontract
mercenary work out to avoid this kind of oversight that normally
should attend military expenditures and routine military
operations,” said the ex-intelligence officer, who asked that
his identity not be disclosed. “It is also a very effective
means to obscure the true costs of something like Iraq, because
you have military-type operations being paid for out of separate
obligations and budgets from the standard military operations.
There is also the question of whether these kinds of contractors
are engaged in activities proscribed for conventional armed
forces governed by oversight, statues and regulations.”
Regulatory authority over contracted paramilitary activity is
“probably grossly inadequate,” he added.
The ex-CIA agent also expressed misgivings over
“mercenaries in Iraq paid many multiples of what our regular
military are paid,” noting that in instances of alleged
wrongdoing, contractors are whisked out of the country to avoid
prosecution. “In the meantime, our young military are put in an
impossible situation and then hung out to dry,” the source
added.
Blackwater objects to use of the term ‘mercenary’ to
describe its employees. The company’s website states that
“Blackwater is committed to the foot soldiers – the men and
women who stand on the frontlines of the global war on terror
and who believe in a peaceful future for their communities and
nations.”
Brian Bonfiglio, vice president of Blackwater West,
told The East County Californian that there will be no
mercenaries at the Potrero facility, which he said would be used
only for training law enforcement and military personnel – not
for operational activities. “No bombs, no mercenaries, no heavy
artillery,” he emphasized.
Bonfiglio takes issue with the characterization by
Scahill and others of Blackwater as a private mercenary army.
“I’m not a mercenary and I don’t represent a mercenary
company. You read the bad,” he noted, adding that positive
actions performed by Blackwater employees go unreported. “A
helicopter that was owned by Blackwater plucked people off the
rooftops of Katrina. The private army was a thought process by
the CEO of the company to go into Rwanda and stop 15 year old
boys and girls from getting their hands chopped off.”
A recent Wall Street Journal article makes a case for
using private mercenaries as peacekeeping forces, noting, “Many
also worry about abuses committed by mercenaries, who in some
cases have tried to plunder or even take over small states. But
the record of privateers compares favorably with that of U.N.
peacekeeping forces, which have been distinguished more by their
propensity for committing sex crimes than by any success in
keeping the peace.” To address potential abuses, the article
concludes, “private fighters could be hired under a contract
that would hold them liable for war crimes in the International
Criminal Court or some other jurisdiction. That would make them
more accountable than U.N. forces, which operate with almost
complete impunity.”
But the CIA expert remained skeptical of a potential
agenda among organizers of private security and military
businesses.
“Once you set up a resource of people for hire who are
literally `armed and dangerous’,” he observed, “I fear the
potential for something negative at the highest bidder.”
Military forces should be under close supervision and regulation
by the people through elected representatives, he added. “Armed
Islamic militias in Iraq illustrate the kind of problem we don’t
need here.”
Asked if he harbors concerns about Blackwater USA
setting up a West Coast training camp in Potrero, the veteran
intelligence officer concluded, “Does it worry me? You bet.”
 E-mail
Christy Scott
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