C.I.A. Said to End Blackwater Contract

[Turborama]

Source: AP

CIA Director Leon Panetta has canceled a contract with the former Blackwater security firm that allowed the company's operatives to load missiles on Predator drones in Pakistan.

Panetta canceled the contract earlier this year and the work is being shifted to government personnel, a person familiar with the contract said Friday. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the classified program.

Blackwater is now known as Xe Services. A spokesman was not immediately available for comment on the contract cancellation. The New York Times first reported the contract's existence in August.

The CIA's Predator program targets senior al-Qaida operatives and Taliban in Pakistan's tribal area along the border with Afghanistan, but the agency has never publicly confirmed its role in the operation.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/12/11/us/AP-US-CIA-Blackwater.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

[EFerrari]

1. LOL

[PM Martin]

2. Is this true?

[Mithreal]

3. What about all the other contracts with Xe? I suppose it's a start?

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. I for one always believe what the CIA tells me.

Don't you?

[provis99]

6. the CIA is evil, but

I have faint, probably unrealistic hope that Panetta will do some small thing to correct the depravity of the CIA and its mercenary hounds.

[No Elephants]

32. Sure, I also trust Nixonites to put the CIA on the straight and narrow.

On edit: And I had not even gotten to Reply # 12 when I wrote this post.

[Fire1sKid]

5. Which contract lol?

[Doctor_J]

11. Who?

Who's Blackwater?

[boppers]

7. Too much press coverage.

Xe's penchant for self promotion (likewise with their employees who want to think they're movie-quality-spies) is their ultimate undoing when it comes to working on classified contracts.

[L. Coyote]

8. RM: Blackwater - CIA assassins - Afghanistan - Erik Prince's licensed to kill

Blackwater's Erik Prince to step down, reveals CIA role
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7157786

RM: Blackwater - Erik Prince - CIA assassins - Afghanistan
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x409975

Licensed to Kill
BY Scott Horton - Oct 6, 2007
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/10/hbc-90001367

The Bush Justice Department does have an essential law enforcement mission, though sometimes it seems to behave much more like a criminal syndicate...... In the view of the Bush Administration, a number of curious footnotes have been introduced into the concept of murder. One of them appears to be that certain persons are given a license to kill, freely, with full and unquestioned discretion. They need fear neither criminal investigation nor negative repercussions for their crimes. They will be protected.

Of course this sort of license does not come cheaply. It would appear that you get this license by having a close, nurturing relationship with the Republican Party ..............

[boppers]

12. This isn't a Bush thing.

This is a Church Committee (1975-1976) thing.... it's that old. We made up a bunch of rules about what government agencies could legally do, and not legally do.

So, the agencies stopped doing it themselves.... and contractors started doing it.

If the contractors were "too close", they'd hire subcontractors, who could hire others, or freelancers would pick up gigs, and so on. Of course, as contractors and front agencies become compromised/publicized, they lose their value.

Thus, the CIA can legally claim that they're not in the extra-judicial assassination business, or drug-running business, or domestic wiretap business... because it's private industry doing all these things.

[JDPriestly]

21. If you hire a professional assassin to kill someone, you are still guilty of murder.

It's a conspiracy. If you conspire to do something illegal, you are guilty of the crime, just as if you committed the crime. So, hiring a private contractor to do something because it would be illegal for you to do it doesn't give you a home-free license to commit a crime.

If the law prohibits these acts, then the person who authorized a private party to do them conspired with that party and committed a crime. If, on the other hand, the private party did the acts without authorization, then the private party can be tried for the crime. That's the way I think this would work.

[boppers]

31. Scenario:

CIA: "Will nobody rid me of this turbulent priest?" (not actual quote, just a side reference for history buffs)

Priest is then murdered.

CIA: "I didn't authorize killing him!"

Killers: "But we thought it was authorized!"

US Courts: "It didn't happen here, we don't have jurisdiction".

Foreign courts: "The US won't extradite them".

[JDPriestly]

36. Excellent post, boppers.

[cory777]

9. ridiculous! A (singular) contract!

http://www.kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2009/11/04/11157.shtml

[Doctor_J]

10. Tee-hee

umm....sure

[pfitz59]

13. you can change the name...

but its still the same old tune!

[RedCloud]

14. expect morphing to occur.

[EFerrari]

15. Jeremy Scahill says they have more brands than Clint Eastwood.

[Octafish]

27. Ssss-ouch!

http://www.mocpages.com/user_thumbnails/[e-mail]/

(with apologies to Tuco Benedito Pacifico Juan Maria Ramirez, The Rat, or any other alias he may have).

[Purveyor]

16. Took damn near a year to make that call...impressive? NOT! eom

[alp227]

17. Anyone watch today's ABC World News? Brian Ross did an investigative report on the mercenaries

Charles Gibson's leaving soon too! But on topic, Ross did a damn detailed expose on the illegal military use of mercenaries. He also interviewed good ol' Jonathan Turley too.

But anyway, isn't it really too late for the CIA to have divorced with Blackwater/Xe after all the damage it'd done? I heard that Blackwater actually killed some Iraqi civilians, is that true? Pardon my lacking knowledge, but final exams have distracted me from other stuff.

[global1]

18. If The Work Is Being Shifted To Government Personnel To Load Missiles On Predator Drones In Pakistan

then we must be closing in on Osama Bin Laden and the government wants to take credit for the kill and not let it go to Xe (formerly called Blackwater).

Really - I'm one of those that believe that this escalation in Afghanistan is all about getting OBL and this ending of the Blackwater contract is just another sign to me that we're close.

[JDPriestly]

22. I do think we are close, provided that Osama Bin Laden is not already dead.

There is a good possibility that he is dead. But if they think these guys are guilty, they need to arrest them and hold trials for the 9/11 terrorism. Trials would send a message to the world that we really don't tolerate this business and that Al Qaeda really is responsible for it. Without trials conspiracy theories with alternative explanations for 9/11 will continue to spread. So, we have to have real trials of these people, especially the top people. Of course 9/11 is not the only terrorist act that the Al Qaeda is suspected of sponsoring or planning. So, they could be tried for other acts also. But only trials will provide definitive answers and end the false conspiracy theories (assuming the conspiracy theories are false).

One of the important things about the Nuremburg Trials was that they established a record for future generations about the atrocities of the NAZIs and assured that movement would not regain power. So, trials of terrorists and others who commit war crimes and crimes against humanity are essential.

[truthisfreedom]

19. Ok, lemme get this straight... an ANONYMOUS source at the CIA tells us it's going to stop using Xe?

Oh, I so believe that.

[Solly Mack]

20. Ack

hairball

[defendandprotect]

23. Wouldn't that be good news . . . !!

[Cirque du So-What]

24. I just remembered something about Erik Prince & Blackwater

that I read a few years back.

Prince had a display in the lobby of Blackwater HQ - practically a shrine - to the weapons used by those who assassinated four of the Presidents of the United States. It's only tangentially related to the OP, but for some reason I was reminded of it, making me wonder if any of Prince's CIA handlers approved of his fascination with the political assassination of US leaders.

[No Elephants]

33. Who do you think sold him the weapons?

j/k

Maybe.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

25. The new contract will go to Xe.

[AlphaCentauri]

30. exactly n/t

[mcablue]

26. Only after being caught

How convenient.

[Vidar]

28. That only means they've found someone even slimier.

[upi402]

29. Xe, new and improved! n/t

[No Elephants]

34. As soon as the media exposes another Blackwater scandal, our governement acts.

Until then, not so much.





"Representative Rush D. Holt, a New Jersey Democrat who is chairman of the House Select Intelligence Oversight Panel, said in an interview that “the use of contractors in intelligence and paramilitary operations is a scandal waiting to be examined.” While he declined to comment on specific operations, Mr. Holt said that the use of contractors in such operations “got way out of hand.” He added, “It’s been very troubling to a lot of people.”

Blackwater, now known as Xe Services, has come under intense criticism for what Iraqis have described as reckless conduct by its security guards, and the company lost its lucrative State Department contract to provide diplomatic security for the United States Embassy in Baghdad earlier this year after a 2007 shooting that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead.

Blackwater’s ties to the C.I.A. have emerged in recent months, beginning with disclosures in The New York Times that the agency had hired the company as part of a program to assassinate leaders of Al Qaeda and to assist in the C.I.A.’s Predator drone program in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Leon E. Panetta, the C.I.A. director, recently initiated an internal review examining all Blackwater contracts with the agency to ensure that the company was performing no missions that were “operational in nature,” according to one government official."

Entire article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/11/us/politics/11blackwater.html?_r=2&hp

[laylah]

35. Which one? nt