Levin asks for DoJ investigation into Blackwater contract

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Levin asks for DoJ investigation into Blackwater contract
By Roxana Tiron - 03/04/10 12:54 PM ET


The Senate’s top Democrat on military matters is pressing the Department of Justice to investigate whether the company formerly known as Blackwater and Raytheon Co. made false or misleading statements when bidding for an Army contract in Afghanistan.

A Senate Armed Services Committee investigation, spurred by chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.), recently found that Xe Services’ (formerly Blackwater) contractors had no regard for policies and rules in Afghanistan. The panel found multiple irresponsible acts by the contractors and troubling gaps in government oversight.

The Senate Armed Services panel has been looking into the overall issue of contractors in Afghanistan for about eight months. The Blackwater examination is one facet of that investigation.

The committee gathered thousands of pages documenting that Blackwater personnel recklessly used weapons and disregarded the rules governing the acquisition of weapons in Afghanistan. Additionally, the weapons ended up in the hands of people who should have never possessed them.

Raytheon Technical Services Co. subcontracted to a company called Paravant to perform weapons training for the Afghan national army. Paravant was created in 2008 by Erik Prince Investments, the parent company of Blackwater Worldwide.

During a Feb. 24 hearing, the Senate Armed Services Committee heard testimony that Paravant was a shell company that Blackwater had set up in 2008 to avoid the "baggage" that the name Blackwater carried and in order to gain a government contract, Levin wrote in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder a day after the hearing. Levin publicly released the letter on Thursday.

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http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/85005-levin-asks-for-doj-investigation-into-blackwater-contract

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