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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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August 8th,
2009 - Congresswoman: U.S. Ties With Xe, Formerly Blackwater, Must End |
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Congresswoman: U.S. Ties With
Xe, Formerly Blackwater, Must End By Charley Keyes Cable Network News August 8, 2009 Washington - A member of
Congress Friday called on the State Department to stop doing business with
Xe, the North Carolina-based security company formerly known as Blackwater
Worldwide. Rep. Jan Schakowsky,
D-Illinois, asked Secretary of State Hillary Clinton whether the State
Department had just signed a new $20 million dollar contract with Xe for
Iraq, saying she is "very concerned" that the State Department may
be signing new security contracts with Xe, both in Iraq and Afghanistan. "I urge you not to
enter into further contracts with Xe and to immediately review any existing
contracts," the letter said, according to a copy provided to CNN.
"The behavior and actions of both the company's leadership and a number
of individuals employed by the company have harmed our mission in Iraq and
Afghanistan and endangered the lives and welfare of our troops and diplomatic
personnel serving overseas." The State Department decided
in January not to renew a personnel protection contract with Blackwater, as
the company was then known, when it expired in May. That decision came amidst
an investigation by both U.S. and Iraqi authorities of a 2007 shooting
involving Blackwater guards in Baghdad in which 17 Iraqis were killed. The
company has repeatedly denied any wrong-doing. The State Department did not
immediately respond to a request Friday for reaction to Schakowsky's
questions and criticism. The State Department had said that it would continue
a Blackwater air-support contract after the much-larger personnel protection
contract ended. Xe spokeswoman Stacy DeLuke
told CNN that, "Right now we have no contracts with the State Department
in Iraq." DeLuke said the company
would review calls for bids to provide security for U.S. officials in
Afghanistan. "The thing is we are
totally open to bidding on some of the contracts that may come up in
Afghanistan just like anyone else," DeLuke said in a telephone
interview. The Nation magazine released
an article Friday that said the State Department had signed a new contract
for Iraq with Xe for $20 million to extend an earlier aviation contract. "The State Department
contract is scheduled to run through September 3. In May, the State
Department announced it was not renewing Blackwater's Iraq contract, and the
Iraqi government has refused to issue the company an operating license,"
the article said. The controversy over the
role of Blackwater in Iraq was revived earlier this week by a lawsuit filed
in Virginia by two former employees accusing Blackwater guards of smuggling
weapons and using excessive force in Iraq. And the lawsuit claims Blackwater
founder Erik Prince "views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with
eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe." Xe said in a statement that
it would respond "to the anonymous unsubstantiated and offensive
assertions put forward by the plaintiffs," in a brief to be filed August
17. Blackwater changed its name
to Xe in February. External link: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/US/08/07/iraq.blackwater.xe/ |