Post by unlawflcombatnt on Dec 11, 2009 22:49:30 GMT -6
from Yahoo/AP
Blackwater Predator missile-load contract ending
By PAMELA HESS and ADAM GOLDMAN,
Fri., Dec. 11, 2009
"CIA Director Leon Panetta has canceled a contract with the former Blackwater security firm that allowed the company's operatives to load missiles on Predator drones in Pakistan.
Panetta canceled the contract earlier this year and the work is being shifted to government personnel, a person familiar with the contract said Friday. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the classified program.
Blackwater is now known as Xe Services....
The CIA's Predator program targets senior al-Qaida operatives and Taliban in Pakistan's tribal area along the border with Afghanistan, but the agency has never publicly confirmed its role in the operation.
Since Jan. 28, 2008, there have been at least 67 suspected U.S. missile strikes into Pakistan, according to Pakistani intelligence officials and witnesses interviewed by The Associated Press after each strike.
There was a fresh strike Tuesday, according to Pakistani officials. The target of that attack was identified Friday by a U.S government official as Saleh al-Somali, a senior al-Qaida operations planner....
News of the cancellation of the contract came on the heels of published reports late Thursday that Blackwater security operatives joined CIA agents in "snatch and grab" raids that took place regularly between 2004 and 2006, when violence from the insurgency in Iraq was escalating.
A U.S. official confirmed to AP on Thursday that Blackwater provided security and traveled with CIA teams on missions in war zones, but emphasized they were not hired to directly participate in sensitive CIA missions.
CIA Director Leon Panetta ordered a review several months ago of the company's contracts to be sure its guards only perform security-related work, the official said....
Xe Services said Friday that Blackwater was not under contract for involvement in the secret raids....
The firm, based in Moyock, N.C., changed its corporate name this year after a series of use-of-force controversies, including a September 2007 shooting in Baghdad by 5 company security guards that left 17 civilians dead.
The CIA's paramilitary forces are small, and often borrow from U.S. military special forces to fill out their ranks. They rely on companies like Blackwater to provide drivers, convoy security, and perimeter protection on sensitive CIA operations.
The central question, according to the reports in The New York Times and The Washington Post, was whether private security guards crossed the line into direct participation in the CIA operations. Blackwater's role in providing security to CIA missions in war zones is already known on Capitol Hill....
If true, the company's involvement would point to a much deeper connection between the company and the spy agency than has been previously disclosed. And it would raise concerns over the legalities of involving contractors in the most sensitive intelligence operations conducted by the U.S. government....
The House Intelligence Committee is still probing at least 5 incidents in which Congress believes it may have been deliberately misled or kept in the dark about significant intelligence programs.
One of those included a contract with Blackwater founder Erik Prince to target al-Qaida figures....Panetta informed Congress about the program in June, a day after terminating the 8-year on-again, off-again effort.
Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., an outspoken critic of Blackwater, is heading one part of the committee's probe.
"I have long opposed the outsourcing of inherently governmental responsibilities to for-profit companies who are outside the official chain of command, especially Blackwater (Xe)," she said. "What appears to be a deep relationship between Blackwater and the CIA should cause all Americans to take pause. It is extremely dangerous for the U.S. to become dependent on private contractors for military or intelligence operations."
As of August 2008, more than a 1/4 of the U.S. intelligence agencies' employees were outside contractors, hired to fill in gaps in the military and civilian work force."
news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091212/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_cia_blackwater
Blackwater Predator missile-load contract ending
By PAMELA HESS and ADAM GOLDMAN,
Fri., Dec. 11, 2009
"CIA Director Leon Panetta has canceled a contract with the former Blackwater security firm that allowed the company's operatives to load missiles on Predator drones in Pakistan.
Panetta canceled the contract earlier this year and the work is being shifted to government personnel, a person familiar with the contract said Friday. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the classified program.
Blackwater is now known as Xe Services....
The CIA's Predator program targets senior al-Qaida operatives and Taliban in Pakistan's tribal area along the border with Afghanistan, but the agency has never publicly confirmed its role in the operation.
Since Jan. 28, 2008, there have been at least 67 suspected U.S. missile strikes into Pakistan, according to Pakistani intelligence officials and witnesses interviewed by The Associated Press after each strike.
There was a fresh strike Tuesday, according to Pakistani officials. The target of that attack was identified Friday by a U.S government official as Saleh al-Somali, a senior al-Qaida operations planner....
News of the cancellation of the contract came on the heels of published reports late Thursday that Blackwater security operatives joined CIA agents in "snatch and grab" raids that took place regularly between 2004 and 2006, when violence from the insurgency in Iraq was escalating.
A U.S. official confirmed to AP on Thursday that Blackwater provided security and traveled with CIA teams on missions in war zones, but emphasized they were not hired to directly participate in sensitive CIA missions.
CIA Director Leon Panetta ordered a review several months ago of the company's contracts to be sure its guards only perform security-related work, the official said....
Xe Services said Friday that Blackwater was not under contract for involvement in the secret raids....
The firm, based in Moyock, N.C., changed its corporate name this year after a series of use-of-force controversies, including a September 2007 shooting in Baghdad by 5 company security guards that left 17 civilians dead.
The CIA's paramilitary forces are small, and often borrow from U.S. military special forces to fill out their ranks. They rely on companies like Blackwater to provide drivers, convoy security, and perimeter protection on sensitive CIA operations.
The central question, according to the reports in The New York Times and The Washington Post, was whether private security guards crossed the line into direct participation in the CIA operations. Blackwater's role in providing security to CIA missions in war zones is already known on Capitol Hill....
If true, the company's involvement would point to a much deeper connection between the company and the spy agency than has been previously disclosed. And it would raise concerns over the legalities of involving contractors in the most sensitive intelligence operations conducted by the U.S. government....
The House Intelligence Committee is still probing at least 5 incidents in which Congress believes it may have been deliberately misled or kept in the dark about significant intelligence programs.
One of those included a contract with Blackwater founder Erik Prince to target al-Qaida figures....Panetta informed Congress about the program in June, a day after terminating the 8-year on-again, off-again effort.
Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., an outspoken critic of Blackwater, is heading one part of the committee's probe.
"I have long opposed the outsourcing of inherently governmental responsibilities to for-profit companies who are outside the official chain of command, especially Blackwater (Xe)," she said. "What appears to be a deep relationship between Blackwater and the CIA should cause all Americans to take pause. It is extremely dangerous for the U.S. to become dependent on private contractors for military or intelligence operations."
As of August 2008, more than a 1/4 of the U.S. intelligence agencies' employees were outside contractors, hired to fill in gaps in the military and civilian work force."
news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091212/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_cia_blackwater