US embassy clarifies position on Blackwater (Pakistan)

[sabra]

Source: APP

ISLAMABAD, Jul 13 (APP): A spokesman of the United States (US)embassy denied an article published in a national daily newspaper on Tuesday on its front-page alleging that the private contractor known as “Xe Services,” formerly “Blackwater,” is active in Islamabad and renting several houses to its missions in Pakistan on behalf of the US government.

The US embassy spokesman in a statement said, “the article further alleges that NGOs are facilitating the arrival of US ‘humanitarian workers’ in Pakistan implying that “Blackwater” contractors or US military personnel are posing as humanitarian workers.”
The spokesman said,” these accusations are entirely false. Neither the US State Department nor the US Department of Defence has any contracts with “Xe Services” (or “Blackwater”) in Pakistan”.
“ Contrary to the article’s fictitious claims, no U.S. Embassy personnel or contractors are renting houses or facilities in Islamabad for any “notorious enterprise” or falsely posing as humanitarian workers”, he added.
He said US military personnel assigned to the U.S. Embassy’s Office of the Defence Representative to Pakistan (ODR-P) were here at the invitation of the Government of Pakistan to support security assistance programmes and deepen the cooperative relationship with Pakistan.

Read more: http://www.app.com.pk/en_/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=109122&Itemid=2

[dipsydoodle]

1. As his nose

grew longer and longer.

[Solly Mack]

2. This is what Gates said about Blackwater in Pakistan in January of this year

http://www.defense.gov/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=4542

" Q All right. And I want to talk, of course, about another issue that has come up and again -- (inaudible) -- about the foreign security companies that have been operating in Iraq, in Afghanistan and now in Pakistan. Xe International, formerly known as Blackwater or Dyn Corp. Under what rules are they operating here in Pakistan?



SEC. GATES: Well, they're operating as individual companies here in Pakistan. In Afghanistan and in Iraq, because they are theaters of war involving the United States, there are rules concerning the contracting companies. If they're contracting with us or with the State Department here in Pakistan, then there are very clear rules set forth by the State Department and by ourselves."