MoJo Blog: Is Blackwater Leaving the Security Biz?

[laststeamtrain]

Is Blackwater Leaving the Security Biz?

If his controversial company exits the private security business, Blackwater president Gary Jackson wants you to know exactly who's to blame: "If you could get it right," he told the AP, referring to the journalists covering Blackwater, "we might stay in the business." According to the AP, which recently visited the company's Moyock, North Carolina headquarters, Blackwater is planning to refocus its operations on aviation, logistics, and training, moving away from the security work that has earned the firm hundreds of millions of dollars in federal contracts since 9/11. "The experience we've had would certainly be a disincentive to any other companies that want to step in and put their entire business at risk," Erik Prince, the company's founder and CEO, told the wire service.

<snip>

If Blackwater does ease out of the protection biz, bad PR likely has little to with it. While other of Blackwater's competitors have focused almost exclusively on security, Prince has anticipated the day when the security boom created by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan inevitably begins to dry up. He has spent recent years diversifying his operations, branching out into manufacturing (of, among other things, armored vehicles), testing the waters in the humanitarian aid sector, and opening a private intelligence firm that caters to corporate clients. Security work currently makes up about 30 percent of Blackwater's business, but according Gary Jackson, "If I could get it down to 2 percent or 1 percent, I would go there.”

With headlines like this one in today's Washington Post—"Iraq Points to Pullout in 2010"—Prince and Jackson probably see the writing on the wall and are plotting a graceful exit strategy, though not necessarily a prompt one. After the AP story went out on the wire, Blackwater spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell told the Virginia-Pilot that the company is not leaving the security business—or Iraq—in the near term. “As long as we’re asked, we’ll do it,” she said.

<more>

http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2008/07/9081_is_blackwater_exiting_the_security_business.html