State Department Struggles To Oversee Private Army

[cal04]

Source: Washington Post

The State Department Turned to Contractors Such as Blackwater Amid a Fight With the Pentagon Over Personal Security in Iraq

Last Christmas Day in Baghdad, U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad received a furious phone call from Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdul Mahdi. An American -- drunk, armed, wandering through the Green Zone after a party -- had shot and killed one of his personal bodyguards the night before, Mahdi said. He wanted to see Khalilzad right away.

At the vice president's home, Khalilzad found the slain guard's family assembled. Mahdi demanded the names of the American and his employer. And he wanted the man turned over to the Iraqi government.

After consulting with the embassy's legal officer, Khalilzad identified the shooter as Andrew J. Moonen, an employee of Blackwater USA, the company that provides security for U.S. diplomats in Baghdad. But he would not deliver Moonen himself. Within 36 hours of the shooting, Blackwater and the embassy had shipped him out of the country.

"As you can imagine," the embassy's Diplomatic Security office said in an e-mail to its Washington headquarters the day of Moonen's departure, "this has serious implications."

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/20/AR2007102001325.html?hpid=topnews

[monktonman]

1. Isnt this same guy now working in Kuwait? n/t

[Drum]

2. Recommended.

Let's end this dangerous mercenary bullshit....

[Gin]

3. I Wonder how much of the Defense budget goes toward Blackwater

contracts.

[starroute]

5. You can find that sort of information at fedspending.org

Here's the Blackwater page for the most recent complete fiscal year, which was 2006: http://www.fedspending.org/fpds/fpds.php?reptype=r&detail=-1&sortby=f&datype=T&reptype=r&database=fpds&database=fpds&parent_id=38113&fiscal_year=2006&record_num=f500

By changing the search criteria, you can get other years and contract-by-contract detail, but here are some of the summary figures. You'll see that the Department of State is by far their largest customer -- since it uses Blackwater for bodyguard services -- followed by the immigration guys (which is pretty scary in itself.) The military pays comparatively small amounts, mainly for use of Blackwater's training facilities.

Top 5 Contracting Agencies Purchasing from Contractor(s)
STATE, Department of $489,208,052
Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement $73,152,050
NAVY, Department of the $14,067,651
AIR FORCE, Department of the (Headquarters, USAF) $7,250,186
U.S. Special Operations Command $4,884,426

2000 $204,911
2001 $736,906
2002 $3,415,884
2003 $25,395,556
2004 $48,496,902
2005 $201,010,119
2006 $593,075,845
2007 2Q* $187,297,239
*Note: FY 2007 only includes up through second and part of third quarter.

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. Somebody said, "serious implications?"

SOMEBODY SAID "SERIOUS IMPLICATIONS!"

Get that person's name. He's either the next person to be fired, or to be suicided.

[reinhardt]

6. They used to be called Hessians..

.. this is when the House of Windsor was known as the House of
Saxe/Coburg/Gotha