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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.
The man who built Blackwater USA into one of the world's most respected and reviled defense contractors feels that he was thrown under the bus after serving the nation's security interests for years.
The State Department said Wednesday it has extended a contract for protecting U.S. diplomats in Iraq with a subsidiary of the security firm once known as Blackwater USA even though the company doesn't have a license to operate in the country.
When the CIA revived a plan to kill or capture terrorists in 2004, the agency turned to the well-connected security company then known as Blackwater USA.
The CIA hired private contractors from Blackwater USA in 2004 as part of a secret program to kill top-level members of al-Qaida, but a spokesman says it never resulted in the capture or killing of any terrorist suspects.
Federal prosecutors intend to charge a former security contractor for Blackwater USA in the killing of an Iraqi guard in 2006, his lawyer said Tuesday.
Amid investigations into fatal shootings of civilians and allegations of tax violations, Blackwater USA's multimillion-dollar contract to protect diplomats in Baghdad has been renewed, the State Department said Friday.
Limited immunity has been routinely offered to private security contractors involved in shootings in Iraq, State Department officials said Tuesday, denying such actions jeopardized criminal prosecution of Blackwater USA guards accused of killing 17 Iraqi civilians.
The State Department promised Blackwater USA bodyguards immunity from prosecution in its investigation of last month's deadly shooting of 17 Iraqi civilians, The Associated Press has learned.
A United Nations expert said Friday he plans to study whether members of the U.S. military or government contractors such as Blackwater USA violate international law when they kill civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The U.S. ambassador said Thursday he still held Blackwater USA bodyguards in "high regard," even as he labeled the killing of 17 Iraqis by the company's security contractors a "horrific" incident that prompted him to call for an FBI investigation.
The State Department's embattled security chief stepped down under pressure on Wednesday as the fallout from last month's deadly Blackwater USA shooting of 17 Iraqis in Baghdad claimed its first political casualty.
The government has upheld the findings of an official investigation of the alleged shooting death of 17 Iraqis by employees of Blackwater USA and is pressing the U.S. Embassy to expel the private security company from Iraq, officials said Wednesday.
The Iraqi government remains determined to expel the Blackwater USA security company and is searching for legal remedies to overturn an American-imposed decree that exempts all foreign bodyguards from prosecution under local laws, officials said Wednesday.
Heavier guns and sturdier trucks would not have saved a team of Blackwater USA guards brutally killed in March 2004 after being lured by corrupt Iraqi forces into a well-planned ambush, the embattled private security contractor contends in a report to Congress.
The Democratic chairman of a House watchdog committee said Monday that Blackwater USA violated tax laws and may have defrauded the government of millions of dollars, a charge the embattled security firm said is groundless.
Blackwater USA tried to take at least two Iraqi military aircraft out of Iraq two years ago and refused to give the planes back when Iraqi officials sought to reclaim them, according to a congressional committee investigating the private security contractor.
A State Department review of private security guards for diplomats in Iraq is unlikely to recommend firing Blackwater USA over the deaths of 17 Iraqis last month, but the company probably is on the way out of that job, U.S. officials said Wednesday.
An insurgent threw a hand grenade into a school compound in central Basra Thursday, wounding six boys, one seriously, according to police.
U.S. and Iraqi officials are negotiating Baghdad's demand that security company Blackwater USA be expelled from the country within six months, and American diplomats appear to be working on how to fill the security gap if the company is phased out.
Blackwater USA has ended an inquiry into the private security contractor's performance by withdrawing from an industry group that initiated the review after the company's guards were accused of killing 17 Iraqis in Baghdad last month.
The Pentagon has paid more than $100 million in bonuses to veteran Green Berets and Navy SEALs, reversing the flow of top commandos to the corporate world where security companies such as Blackwater USA are offering big salaries.
Families of Iraqis who died in a shooting involving Blackwater USA contractors in Baghdad sued the company Thursday, saying the firm violated U.S. law and fostered a culture of lawlessness among its employees.
The State Department may phase out or limit the use of private security guards in Iraq, which could mean canceling Blackwater USA's contract or awarding it to another company in line with an Iraqi government demand, The Associated Press has learned.
Three black GMC Suburbans — each fitted with armored plates and bulletproof windows — made up the heart of the convoy. The front and rear were protected by Blackwater USA gun trucks, known as Mambas, each mounted with two 7.62 mm machine guns.
Letter From KabulReturning to Washington this week, after a whirlwind tour in Afghanistan, I am dizzy, not from delight but from the overwhelming disconnect between rhetoric stateside and reality Asia-side.
ALERT: Blackwater Recruiting Agents Fluent In Urdu & Punjabi For PakistanReport Suggests Pakistani Envoy In Washington Has Issued 360 Visas To Americans In One Month Without Consulting Islamabad...
Diving Deep into Blackwater: Press pushes ahead on the CIA assassination storySo it turns out there was more to that story about the secret CIA assassination program that made waves five weeks ago.
Founder, CEO of Blackwater Steps Aside, 'Worn Out' Erik Prince, who founded security contractor Blackwater Worldwide and remained defiant after the company became embroiled in controversy following a deadly 2007 shooting incident in Baghdad, is stepping down as chief executive of the parent company. [Erik Prince] Erik Prince
How Blackwater Serves America; Think of our staff as soldiers who re-enlist.How Blackwater Serves America Think of our staff as soldiers who re-enlist.
Blackwater Sees Treasure in PiratesBlackwater Sees Treasure in Pirates October 20, 2008 The Virginian-Pilot VIRGINIA BEACH -- Blackbeard, meet Blackwater. Worldwide. The Moyock, N.C., company has a ship in Hampton Roads ready to begin patrolling the Gulf of Aden to protect merchant vessels against pirates.
Blackwater's new California battlegroundIt is here, on this derelict 824-acre chicken and cattle ranch 45 miles east of San Diego, that Blackwater Worldwide wants to establish a West Coast beachhead - a proposal that has stirred up one of Blackwater's biggest battles yet.
Blackwater in running for Pentagon 'War on Drugs' ContractsThe Moyock, N.C., company, which was involved in a September shooting in Baghdad that left 17 Iraqis dead, is one of five military contractors competing for as much as $15 billion over five years to help fight a narcotics trade that the government says finances terrorist groups.
Respect Blackwater: The firm's operations in Iraq are not sordid -- they're just business. By Roger Roland 10:00 PM PST Monday, November 5, 2007The frenzied debate over the role of Blackwater USA in Iraq has resulted in more misconceptions than truths....
Al-Qaeda Hires BlackwaterWhile the United States continues to wage its war on terror in locations where terrorists are not originally present, Al-Qaeda (also known as: al-Qaida or al-Qa'ida or al-Qa'idah or al-¿Que?duh) has been stretched to its limits sending terrorists and trainers to assist locals fi …
Blackwater Mounts a Defense With Top Washington TalentThe security company, its reputation in tatters and its government contracts in jeopardy, has begun a legal, political and public relations counterstrike.
Immunity Deals Offered to Blackwater GuardsOfficials said that State Department investigators lacked the authority to offer the deals.
Immunity Deals Offered to Blackwater GuardsOfficials said that State Department investigators lacked the authority to offer the deals.
Immunity Deals Offered to Blackwater GuardsState Department investigators offered Blackwater USA security guards immunity during an inquiry into last month's deadly shooting of 17 Iraqis in Baghdad — a potentially serious investigative misstep that could complicate efforts to prosecute the company's employees involv …
To Know Contractors, Know GovernmentWhatever the possible sins of the Blackwater firm, the overall problem is not private contracting in itself; contractors do not set the tone but rather reflect the sins and virtues of their customers, namely their sponsoring governments.
Nestled in the hills of Potrero, California in a box canyon typical of the border region near San Diego is a former chicken ranch that is as innocuous as just about any other stretch of this largely scruffy rural area.
Under Siege, Blackwater Takes On Air of BunkerThe secretive world of the Blackwater compound in Baghdad is fraying under scrutiny from the F.B.I., the American military and the Iraqi government.
Pentagon Sees One Authority Over ContractorsWASHINGTON, Oct. 16 — Defense Secretary Robert M.
Blackwater USA Is Sued by IraqisA wounded survivor and relatives of three people killed when employees of Blackwater USA opened fire on Iraqis last month in Baghdad sued the firm in an American court on Thursday.
Blackwater Withdrawal Ends InquiryWASHINGTON (AP)-- Blackwater USA has ended an inquiry into the private security contractor's performance by withdrawing from an industry group that initiated the review after the company's guards were accused of killing 17 Iraqis in Baghdad last month.
Blackwater faces war crimes inquiry after killings in Iraq The American firm Blackwater USA has been served notice that it faces investigations for war crimes after 17 unarmed Iraqi civilians were killed in a hail of bullets by its security guards in Baghdad.
U.S. Military and Iraqis Say They Are Shut Out of InquiryAmerican military officials and Iraqi investigators say the F.B.I. and State Department are refusing to share information with them on their investigation into the Blackwater killings.
Private security contractors in Baghdad kill two Iraqi womenBlackwater USA has acknowledged involvement in 195 shootings since 2005. Eighty percent of these were "escalation of force incidents" in which they fired without provocation.
2 Iraqi Women Killed in Shooting by Security ConvoyA convoy opened fire on a sedan carrying four people in Baghdad, witnesses and police officials said.
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