Blackwater is accused of killing Iraqis in cold blood, they're awarded $92 mil. contract

[ProSense]

Pentagon Issues Blackwater New $92 Million Contract

Earlier this month, Blackwater USA was involved in the fatal shooting of 11 Iraqi civilians. While the Iraqi government swiftly condemned the contractor, the Bush administration has continued to back Blackwater’s story that it was “defensive fire.”

Last Thursday, Gen. Peter Pace told reporters, “Blackwater has been a contractor in the past with the department and could certainly be in the future.” The next day, that future was already here. The Pentagon had issued a new list of contracts, including one worth $92 million to Presidential Airways, the “aviation unit of parent company Blackwater.” From the release:

Presidential Airways, Inc., an aviation Worldwide Services company (d/b/a Blackwater Aviation), Moyock, N.C., is being awarded an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) type contract for $92,000,000.00. The contractor is to provide all fixed-wing aircraft, personnel, equipment, tools, material, maintenance and supervision necessary to perform passenger, cargo and combi Short Take-Off and Landing air transportation services between locations in the Area of Responsibility of Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan. This contract was competitively procured and two timely offers were received. The performance period is from 1 Oct. 2007 to 30 September 2011.

Government officials have repeatedly ignored Blackwater’s transgressions. Senior Iraqi officials “repeatedly complained to U.S. officials” about Blackwater’s “alleged involvement in the deaths of numerous Iraqis, but the Americans took little action to regulate the private security firm.”

more

As Crocker and Petraeus testified before Congress, Blackwater guards shot 43 people, 16 have died

[babylonsister]

1. I wonder if this was a no-bid contract? And too bad this commission

took their time and won't deliver a report until 2009.


Wartime Contracting Commission (Finally) Created

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004324.php

Wartime Contracting Commission (Finally) Created
By Spencer Ackerman - September 28, 2007, 11:59AM

It only took, oh, seven years and up to $6 billion in potentially-criminal contracting fraud, but Congress is finally set to create an independent, bipartisan commission to investigate contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Last night, the Senate unanimously approved an amendment to the defense authorization bill (not the appropriations bill, as I mistakenly wrote earlier this week) drafted by freshman Democratic Senators Jim Webb and Claire McCaskill that creates an eight-member commission studying a plethora of contractor-related issues. Waste, fraud and abuse is only the start. The commission will also look at how the federal government contracts for "security and intelligence functions" in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some defense experts believe that the overreliance on contract security is counterproductive to U.S. counterinsurgency efforts.

The commission will deliver a report after the 2008 election -- on January 15, 2009 -- containing "specific recommendations" for improvements to the contracting process. It will seek to determine which functions contracted out are "inherently governmental" -- a key concern for critics of outsourced security and intelligence priorities. While the primary product from the commission will be its report, it has the authority to refer potential criminal charges resulting from its inquiry to the Attorney General for prosecution.

However, the commission no longer has subpoena power, which was provided in an earlier version of the amendment, and which had drawn concern from Sen. John Warner (R-VA). In the final version, if the commission has difficulty acquiring information from any federal agency, it's to report that difficulty to Congress, and rely on Congressional subpoena power to resolve any deadlock. The bill doesn't contain language specifying what should happen if the commission can't get information from a contractor, however, making it difficult to know what recourse the commission has in the event that it needs information from a recalcitrant company.

President Bush is likely to sign the defense authorization into law, but concerns have been raised over the inclusion of a hate-crimes amendment, which might attract the president's veto.