Blackwater / Xe / IDS / Academi - R2

[Loopster]

Corrijo una información anterior, tras la salida de las tropas de Iraq el Departamento de Estado no va a pasar de 2.000 a 3.000 contratistas para seguridad, sino a entre 6.000 y 7.000 contratistas entre estadounidenses y TCNs, y ojo que al parecer en menos de 20 días habrá un buen vacio de filipinos y nepalíes.

Además el listado de las misiones que recaerán entre los contratistas del WPS en Iraq ya se ha publicado, y no es moco de pavo ya que algunas tareas hay pocas PMCs que puedan ponerse a hacerlo de buenas a primeras:

Recovering killed and wounded personnel
Recovering damaged vehicles
Recovering downed aircraft
Clearing travel routes
Operations-center monitoring of private security contractors (PSCs)
PSC inspection and accountability services
Convoy security
Explosive-ordenance disposal
Counter-rocket, artillery, and mortar notification
Counter-battery neutralization response
Communications support
Tactical-operations center dispatch of armed response teams
Policing Baghdad’s International Zone
Maintaining electronic counter-measures, threat intelligence, and technology capabilities

Los cursos de Triple Canopy en Al Asad van a ser de órdago a partir de octubre....

[Loopster]

Movimiento (nunca mejor dicho) en el gran despacho de Moyock.... ¿se llevara ese cuadro con dos Challenge Coin y una placa grabada?

WASHINGTON — Erik Prince, whose company, Blackwater Worldwide, is for sale and whose former top managers are facing criminal charges, has left the United States and moved to Abu Dhabi, according to court documents.

Mr. Prince, a former member of the Navy Seals and an heir to a Michigan auto parts fortune, left the country after a series of civil lawsuits, criminal charges and Congressional investigations singled out Blackwater or its former executives and other personnel. His company, now called Xe Services, has collected hundreds of millions of dollars from the United States government since 2001.

Current and former colleagues said Mr. Prince hoped to focus on security work from governments in Africa and the Middle East. They also said he was bitter about the legal scrutiny and negative publicity his company had received.

“He needs a break from America,” said one colleague, speaking only on the condition of anonymity about Mr. Prince’s long-rumored move.

Mr. Prince does not face any criminal charges, but five former top company executives have been indicted on federal weapons, conspiracy and obstruction charges. Two guards who worked for a Blackwater-affiliated company face murder charges from a 2009 shooting in Afghanistan, and the Justice Department is trying to revive its prosecution of five former Blackwater guards accused of killing 17 Iraqi civilians in 2007.

Over the past several years, Congress has also conducted a series of investigations of Blackwater’s activities in Iraq and Afghanistan, including an inquiry by the House Intelligence Committee into the company’s involvement in a proposed Central Intelligence Agency assassination program.

Mark Corallo, a spokesman for Mr. Prince, declined to comment about Mr. Prince’s move. Richard L. Beizer, a Washington lawyer representing Mr. Prince in a civil case, did not respond to requests for comment.

In documents filed last week in a civil lawsuit brought by former Blackwater employees accusing Mr. Prince of defrauding the government, Mr. Prince sought to avoid giving a deposition by stating that he had moved to Abu Dhabi in time for his children to enter school there Aug. 15. In the documents filed in federal court in Virginia, Mr. Prince’s lawyers describe Abu Dhabi as Mr. Prince’s place of residence. His deposition is now scheduled to take place there next week, lawyers involved in the case said.

Mr. Prince made a name for himself during the height of the war in Iraq, when Blackwater became the most recognizable brand name in the booming field of private security contracting. The company, which Mr. Prince founded in 1997, expanded rapidly, winning a series of contracts with the State Department, the C.I.A. and the Defense Department.

But Blackwater personnel in Iraq soon gained a reputation for cowboy tactics and the use of excessive force while guarding convoys of United States diplomats, leading to complaints from Iraqis and friction with the United States military.

Blackwater’s biggest public crisis came in September 2007, when its guards on a convoy in Nisour Square in Baghdad opened fire with machine guns, grenade launchers and other weapons, killing 17 Iraqi civilians. Five guards were indicted in the United States on manslaughter charges, but the charges were dismissed late last year by a federal judge. The Justice Department is appealing that ruling.

The Nisour Square killings ultimately led the State Department to drop Blackwater from its diplomatic security contract in Iraq. But the Justice Department has been investigating whether Blackwater sought to bribe Iraqi government officials to allow the firm to operate in the country after the Nisour Square killings.

In 2009, with scrutiny of Blackwater’s activities intensifying, Mr. Prince changed the company’s name and overhauled the management. He sold the company’s aviation arm early this year, and finally placed the whole company, including its huge headquarters and training complex in Moyock, N.C., up for sale in June.

[Loopster]

Web renovada... http://www.xeservices.com/Home.aspx

[kue]

Noticia aparecida el sabado:

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/internac ... uint_3/Tes

Blackwater paga una multa por exportar armas a Afganistán
La empresa de seguridad vendía ilegalmente sus productos y servicios a varios países

La empresa de seguridad Xe Services, antes conocida como Blackwater, ha alcanzado un acuerdo con el Gobierno de Estados Unidos por el que abonará 42 millones de dólares a cambio de evitar un proceso judicial por violar en cientos de ocasiones las leyes comerciales estadounidenses. Las violaciones comprendían exportaciones ilegales de armas a Afganistán, propuestas subrepticias de entrenar tropas en Sudán y formaciones de francotiradores para la policía taiwanesa.

Para determinados productos como armas o la transferencia de componentes tecnológicos, EE UU impone una serie de controles que la firma de seguridad se saltó sistemáticamente. También está probado que intentó ocultar sus malas prácticas, por ejemplo cuando introdujo armas en Irak ocultas en cajas de comida para perros. El acuerdo, que aún no ha sido anunciado oficialmente pero que adelanta el diario New York Times, permitirá que la empresa evite cargos criminales. Aun así, no resuelve varios problemas legales que arrastra, como son el proceso contra su ex presidente y otros cuatro antiguos ejecutivos por tráfico de armas y obstrucción a la Justicia; una investigación en curso por intento de soborno a miembros del Gobierno iraquí; y el arresto de dos guardias de la firma acusados de asesinar a dos afganos el año pasado.

La principal ventaja que obtiene Blackwater con el pago de una multa respecto a un proceso judicial, es que podrá continuar obteniendo contratos gubernamentales. La polémica empresa perdió ya el año pasado su principal fuente de ingresos cuando la embajada estadounidense en Bagdad rompió el acuerdo para que agentes privados se ocuparan de la seguridad en sus instalaciones. La causa de la rescisión fue un tiroteo en el que los agentes liquidaron a 17 iraquíes. Aun así, Blackwater continúa trabajando con el Departamento de Estado y la CIA en Afganistán. En junio de este año firmó un acuerdo de 120 millones de dólares con el primero y de 100 con la segunda.

¿Pagarán la multa o se quedará en un buen descuento por sus sevicios?

[kapy-ranger-]

de momento lo que si que ha hecho el fundador de esta empresa es salir a toda leche de USA con toda su familia a una nueva residencia en Arabia saudi...y no precisamente a pasar unas vacaciones estivales jeje. De todas maneras, estaba forrado al empezar esto de las PMC y ahora ya es que no sabe ni la pasta que tiene...y por lo que se ve, tampoco es que deje de llevarse nuevos contratos(aqui loopster nos pone al dia echando leches..) asi que por muchos pleitos que le salgan...
Me viene a la memoria un ejercicio curioso de matematicas parecido a lo de Xe: cuando se adjudicó la famosa operación chanchullo de "pongame un vigilante a mi barco de pesca made in spain" a favor de la empresa Segurib.. alguien se percató que el equivalente de pasta del contrato de los barcos era directamente proporcional al agujero que le reclamaban a esta empresa por una presunta estafa nada menos que al departamento de interior por servicios de vigilancia de ciertos edificios publicos, es que no falla jaja.

[Loopster]

La noticia de que Prince se ha ido a Emiratos (no a Arabia Saudí) la tienes tres mensajes más arriba. Y era más rico antes de fundar Blackwater en el 96 que ahora mismo, otra cosa es que las participaciones que tiene en todas las empresas del Prince Group le vayan a seguir manteniendo a ese nivel año tras año... que tonto no es.

[kilo009]

Operaciones clandestinas, contratos de la CIA, red de espionaje

30 False Fronts Won Contracts for BlackwaterBy JAMES RISEN and MARK MAZZETTI
Published: September 3, 2010

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/04/world ... &ref=world

WASHINGTON — Blackwater Worldwide created a web of more than 30 shell companies or subsidiaries in part to obtain millions of dollars in American government contracts after the security company came under intense criticism for reckless conduct in Iraq, according to Congressional investigators and former Blackwater officials.

Document: Senate Armed Services Committee Hearing Testimony: Contracting in a Counterinsurgency (PDF)
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/p ... middleeast

Times Topic: Blackwater WorldwideWhile it is not clear how many of those businesses won contracts, at least three had deals with the United States military or the Central Intelligence Agency, according to former government and company officials. Since 2001, the intelligence agency has awarded up to $600 million in classified contracts to Blackwater and its affiliates, according to a United States government official.

The Senate Armed Services Committee this week released a chart that identified 31 affiliates of Blackwater, now known as Xe Services. The network was disclosed as part of a committee’s investigation into government contracting. The investigation revealed the lengths to which Blackwater went to continue winning contracts after Blackwater guards killed 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad in September 2007. That episode and other reports of abuses led to criminal and Congressional investigations, and cost the company its lucrative security contract with the State Department in Iraq.

The network of companies — which includes several businesses located in offshore tax havens — allowed Blackwater to obscure its involvement in government work from contracting officials or the public, and to assure a low profile for any of its classified activities, said former Blackwater officials, who, like the government officials, spoke only on condition of anonymity.

Senator Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who is chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said in a statement that it was worth “looking into why Blackwater would need to create the dozens of other names” and said he had requested that the Justice Department investigate whether Blackwater officers misled the government when using subsidiaries to solicit contracts.

The C.I.A.’s continuing relationship with the company, which recently was awarded a $100 million contract to provide security at agency bases in Afghanistan, has drawn harsh criticism from some members of Congress, who argue that the company’s tarnished record should preclude it from such work. At least two of the Blackwater-affiliated companies, XPG and Greystone, obtained secret contracts from the agency, according to interviews with a half dozen former Blackwater officials.

A C.I.A. spokesman, Paul Gimigliano, said that Xe’s current duties for the agency were to provide security for agency operatives. Contractors “do the tasks we ask them to do in strict accord with the law; they are supervised by C.I.A. staff officers; and they are held to the highest standards of conduct” he said. “As for Xe specifically, they help provide security in tough environments, an assignment at which their people have shown both skill and courage.”

Congress began to investigate the affiliated companies last year, after the shooting deaths of two Afghans by Blackwater security personnel working for a subsidiary named Paravant, which had obtained Pentagon contracts in Afghanistan. In a Senate hearing earlier this year, Army officials said that when they awarded the contract to Paravant for training of the Afghan Army, they had no idea that the business was part of Blackwater.

While Congressional investigators have identified other Blackwater-linked businesses, it was not the focus of their inquiry to determine how much money from government contracts flowed through the web of corporations, especially money earmarked for clandestine programs. The former company officials say that Greystone did extensive work for the intelligence community, though they did not describe the nature of the activities. The firm was incorporated in Barbados for tax purposes, but had executives who worked at Blackwater’s headquarters in North Carolina.

The former company officials say that Erik Prince, the business’s founder, was eager to find ways to continue to handle secret work after the 2007 shootings in Baghdad’s Nisour Square and set up a special office to handle classified work at his farm in Middleburg, Va.

Enrique Prado, a former top C.I.A. official who joined the contractor, worked closely with Mr. Prince to develop Blackwater’s clandestine abilities, according to several former officials. In an internal e-mail obtained by The New York Times, Mr. Prado claimed that he had created a Blackwater spy network that could be hired by the American government.

“We have a rapidly growing, worldwide network of folks that can do everything from surveillance to ground truth to disruption operations,” Mr. Prado wrote in the October 2007 message, in which he asked another Blackwater official whether the Drug Enforcement Administration might be interested in using the spy network. “These are all foreign nationals,” he added, “so deniability is built in and should be a big plus.”

It is not clear whether Mr. Prado’s secret spy service ever conducted any operations for the government. From 2004 to 2006, both Mr. Prado and Mr. Prince were involved in a C.I.A. program to hunt senior leaders of Al Qaeda that had been outsourced to Blackwater, though current and former American officials said that the assassination program did not carry out any operations. Company employees also loaded bombs and missiles onto Predator drones in Pakistan, work that was terminated last year by the C.I.A.

Both Mr. Prince and Mr. Prado declined to be interviewed for this article.

The company is facing a string of legal problems, including the indictment in April of five former Blackwater officials on weapons and obstruction charges, and civil suits stemming from the 2007 shootings in Iraq.

The business is up for sale by Mr. Prince, who colleagues say is embittered by the public criticism and scrutiny that Blackwater has faced. He has not been implicated in the criminal charges against his former subordinates, but he has recently moved his family to Abu Dhabi, where he hopes to focus on obtaining contracts from governments in Africa and the Middle East, according to colleagues and former company officials.

After awarding Blackwater the new security contract in June, the C.I.A. director, Leon E. Panetta, publicly defended the decision, saying Blackwater had “cleaned up its act.”

But Rep. Jan Schakowsky, an Illinois Democrat and a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said she could not understand why the intelligence community had been unwilling to cut ties to Blackwater. “I am continually and increasingly mystified by this relationship,” she said. “To engage with a company that is such a chronic, repeat offender, it’s reckless.”

It is unclear how much of Blackwater’s relationship with the C.I.A. will become public during the criminal proceedings in North Carolina because the Obama administration won a court order limiting the use of classified information. Among other things, company executives are accused of obtaining large numbers of AK-47s and M-4 automatic weapons, but arranging to make it appear as if they had been bought by the sheriff’s department in Camden County, N.C. Such purchases were legal only if made by law enforcement agencies.

But defense lawyers say they hope to argue that Blackwater had a classified contract with the C.I.A. and wanted at least some of the guns for weapons training for agency officers.

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“We have a rapidly growing, worldwide network of folks that can do everything from surveillance to ground truth to disruption operations,” Mr. Prado wrote in the October 2007 message, in which he asked another Blackwater official whether the Drug Enforcement Administration might be interested in using the spy network. “These are all foreign nationals,” he added, “so deniability is built in and should be a big plus.”

kilo, ¿recuerdas lo que te dije respecto a que en operaciones clandestinas lo que se usa es gente de fuera?

Es curioso, pero en 2005-2006 la entonces Select Programs Group tuvo a muchos de sus reclutadores e instructores residiendo en cuatro países europeos. Uno empieza por A, otro empieza por F, otro por C y otro por E

[kilo009]

Sip, muchas gracias.

¿El de E era para Operaciones Clandestinas en Sudamérica?

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El E era por varios motivos.

El primero que había bases americanas en ese país.
El segundo que tenían una infraestructura funcionando sin problemas, debido a la existencia de una red comercial y logística muy buena (aeropuertos pequeños, principalmente).
El tercero era la bajísima percepción que se tenía de ellos, con una prensa que ni conocía la existencia de esta gente.
Y el cuarto era la cercanía de una zona de alto interés al sur de E.