SecDef Gates finally questions use of Blackwater for military training

[RamboLiberal]

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has ordered a top-level review of the Pentagon’s use of private security contractors, including the controversial Moyock, N.C.-based Blackwater Worldwide, to train American troops.

“Why have we come to rely on contractors to provide combat or combat-related security training … Are we comfortable with this practice?” Gates asked in a July 10 memo to Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The defense boss also requested more detail on how much each of the military branches is spending on contractor-supplied training and whether the services have established “appropriate red lines” governing “what types of security training are permitted to be contracted out.”

He expects initial answers sometime this week, Gates said in a letter Friday to Virginia Sen. Jim Webb. A Mullen spokesman confirmed that a response is in the works.

Blackwater’s security services to the State Department in Iraq – its employees have been implicated in several incidents that resulted in the deaths of Iraqi civilians – have made the firm a lightning rod for critics of the Bush administration’s management of the war.

http://hamptonroads.com/2008/07/defense-chief-questions-use-contractors-training

Also glad to see that Sen. Jim Webb is out in front of this. I really like Webb and what he's done so far. He's had a big impact IMHO. Too bad he's ruled himself out for VP.

[babylonsister]

1. And that's why Blackwater changed their mission. Go figure.

I hear they're no longer into security details. :eyes:

[ColbertWatcher]

3. I heard that Condi "Tanker" Rice folded them into the State Dept. n/t

[ColbertWatcher]

2. CYA.

This is more typical GOP ass-covering.

They proclaim their shock (SHOCK!) about something, declare to hold an investigation, then conduct said investigations themselves into their own wrong-doing.

This serves to provide the TV-watching public with a show of "Somethings Happening" and when that episode is through, the one where the inevitable "OK" is given airs and everyone feels better that something happened and everything is OK again.

Thus providing an excuse to continue doing what they were doing before the "investigation" began.