Blackwater's Private Services In Espionage And The Drug War.

[G_j]

The notorious Blackwater mercenary agency is now expanding its operations, it is not just operating in Iraq now, but becoming heavily involved in espionage for corporate interests and the drug war. Blackwater might soon be seen deployed to countries like Colombia and Bolivia as part of the U.S.'s supposed "anti-drug" operations when in fact, Blackwater could just be another piece in placing mechanisms to keep the growing leftist tilt in the Americas at bay.



http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080623/scahill

Blackwater's Private Spies

By Jeremy Scahill.



This past September, the secretive mercenary company Blackwater USA found its name splashed across front pages throughout the world after the company's shooters gunned down seventeen Iraqi civilians in Baghdad's Nisour Square. But by early 2008, Blackwater had largely receded from the headlines save for the occasional blip on the media radar sparked by Congressman Henry Waxman's ongoing investigations into its activities. Its forces remained deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and business continued to pour in. In the two weeks directly following Nisour Square, Blackwater signed more than $144 million in contracts with the State Department for "protective services" in Iraq and Afghanistan alone and, over the following weeks and months, won millions more in contracts with other federal entities like the Coast Guard, the Navy and the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center.



Blackwater's Iraq contract was extended in April, but the company is by no means betting the house on its long-term presence there. While the firm is quietly maintaining its Iraq work, it is aggressively pursuing other business opportunities.



In September it was revealed that Blackwater had been "tapped" by the Pentagon's Counter Narcoterrorism Technology Program Office to compete for a share of a five-year, $15 billion budget "to fight terrorists with drug-trade ties." According to the Army Times, the contract "could include antidrug technologies and equipment, special vehicles and aircraft, communications, security training, pilot training, geographic information systems and in-field support." A spokesperson for another company bidding for the work said that "80 percent of the work will be overseas." As Richard Douglas, a deputy assistant secretary of defense, explained, "The fact is, we use Blackwater to do a lot of our training of counternarcotics police in Afghanistan. I have to say that Blackwater has done a very good job."

..more..

[Vincardog]

1. Anyone want to bet who will be manning the detention camps here?

[supernova]

2. Any chance they could do an Enron?

*sigh* just when you need a company to go belly up.

[niyad]

3. when jeremy was on amy's show the other night, he was talking about

a new armoured vehicle that bw has produced that can supposedly withstand rpg's and ied's, and can go 65 on a HIGHWAY. they want approval to run this thing on OUR roads. and there is that surveillance blimp too.

no, no question about what they are up to.

looks like when martial law is declared, we know who will be in charge.

[G_j]

4. we all need to keep a vigilant eye

on Blackwater, this is very serious business.

[leftchick]

5. you are exactly right

a quick look through their website is frightening.

:scared: