Mercenaries and assassins: The real face of Obama ’s “good war”

[Cees Binkhorst]

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Antid, je hebt hem een kopie gestuurd? ;).

Groet / Cees

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/12/us/politics/12blackwater.html
December 12, 2009
C.I.A. Drops a Contractor: Blackwater
By MARK MAZZETTI
WASHINGTON — The Central Intelligence Agency has terminated a contract
with the security company formerly called Blackwater Worldwide that
allowed the company to load bombs on C.I.A. drones in Pakistan and
Afghanistan, intelligence officials said Friday.

The contract gave employees with the company an operational role in one
of the Central Intelligence Agency’s most significant covert programs,
which has killed dozens of militants with Predator and Reaper drones.
The company’s involvement highlighted the extent to which the C.I.A. had
outsourced critical jobs to private companies since the 9/11 attacks.

The contract with the company, now called Xe Services, was canceled this
year by Leon E. Panetta, the C.I.A. director, according to a C.I.A.
spokesman. In August, The New York Times first revealed the existence of
the contract, which was run by a division of the company called
Blackwater Select, which handles classified contracts.

George Little, the C.I.A. spokesman, said that Mr. Panetta had ordered
that the agency’s employees take over the jobs from Xe employees at the
remote drone bases in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and that Mr. Panetta had
also ordered a review of all contracts with the company.

“At this time, Blackwater is not involved in any C.I.A. operations other
than in a security or support role,” Mr. Little said.

The disclosure about the terminated contract comes a day after The Times
reported that Blackwater employees had joined C.I.A. operatives in
secret “snatch and grab” operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Blackwater’s role in the raids grew out of contracts that the company
had with the spy agency to provide security for the C.I.A. in Kabul and
Baghdad.

The company had a dual role in the drone program, said current and
former employees and intelligence officials. Contractors on the secret
bases assembled and loaded Hellfire missiles and 500-pound laser-guided
bombs onto drones, and they also provided security at the C.I.A. bases.

The C.I.A. did not allow contractors to select targets for the drone
attacks or pull the trigger on the strikes. That work was done at the
C.I.A.’s headquarters in Langley, Va.

But Blackwater’s direct role in the drone operations sometimes led to
disputes between the contractors and C.I.A. employees, as the spy agency
sometimes accused Blackwater employees of poor weapon assembly if the
missile or bomb missed a target. In one instance last year, a 500-pound
bomb dropped off a Predator before the drone had launched its payload,
leading to a frenzied search along the Afghan-Pakistani border.

A company employee said the bomb was eventually found not far from the
intended target.




> Antid Oto schreef:
>
> Mercenaries and assassins: The real face of Obama’s “good war”
> By Bill Van Auken
> 12 December 2009
>
> Reports that mercenaries employed by the notorious Blackwater-Xe
> military contracting firm participated in CIA assassinations in Iraq
> and Afghanistan have further exposed the real character of so-called
> “good war” that is being escalated by the Obama administration.
>
> Citing former employees of the firm and US intelligence agents, the
> New York Times reported Friday that Blackwater gunmen, ostensibly
> contracted as security guards, “participated in some of the CIA’s most
> sensitive activities—clandestine raids with agency officers against
> people suspected of being insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan and the
> transporting of detainees.”
>
[restant weggelaten]
>
> http://wsws.org/articles/2009/dec2009/blac-d12.shtml

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