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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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August 20th,
2010 - Blackwater Reaches Deal on U.S. Export Violations |
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Blackwater Reaches Deal on
U.S. Export Violations By James Risen New York Times August 20, 2010 Washington - The private
security company formerly called Blackwater Worldwide, long plagued by
accusations of impropriety, has reached an agreement with the State
Department for the company to pay $42 million in fines for hundreds of
violations of United States export control regulations. The violations included
illegal weapons exports to Afghanistan, making unauthorized proposals to
train troops in south Sudan and providing sniper training for Taiwanese
police officers, according to company and government officials familiar with
the deal. The settlement, which has
not yet been publicly announced, follows lengthy talks between Blackwater,
now called Xe Services, and the State Department that dealt with the
violations as an administrative matter, allowing the firm to avoid criminal
charges. A company spokeswoman confirmed Friday that a settlement had been
reached. The State Department spokesman, Philip J. Crowley, said he could not
immediately comment. The settlement with the
State Department does not resolve other legal troubles still facing
Blackwater and its former executives and other personnel. Those include the
indictments of five former executives, including Blackwater’s former
president, on weapons and obstruction charges; a federal investigation into
evidence that Blackwater officials sought to bribe Iraqi government
officials; and the arrest of two former Blackwater guards on federal murder
charges stemming from the killing of two Afghans last year. But by paying fines rather
than facing criminal charges on the export violations, Blackwater will be
able to continue to obtain government contracts. While the company lost its
largest federal contract last year to provide diplomatic security for United
States Embassy personnel in Baghdad, where the Iraqi government was incensed
by killings of Iraqis in one highly publicized case, it still has contracts
to provide security for the State Department and the C.I.A. in Afghanistan. Blackwater, its reputation
tainted in part because of the excessive use of force by some of its
personnel in Baghdad, sought for years to extend its reach far beyond the war
zones of Iraq and Afghanistan. For a time, the company’s
founder, Erik Prince, had ambitions to turn Blackwater into an informal arm
of the American foreign policy and national security apparatus, and proposed
to the C.I.A. to create a “quick reaction force” that could handle
paramilitary operations for the spy agency around the world. He had hopes
that Blackwater’s military prowess could be an influential force in regional
conflicts around the world. Mr. Prince, a former Navy
Seals member and the heir to an auto parts fortune, took an interest in
Africa, particularly Sudan, and he is said to have wanted Blackwater to step
in to help the rebels in southern Sudan, which is predominantly Christian and
animist, fight the Sudanese government and the Muslim north, despite United
States economic sanctions. Blackwater’s ambitions in
Sudan were described in detail by McClatchy newspapers in June. The settlement with the
State Department, involving practices from the days before Blackwater was
rebranded as Xe Services, comes as Mr. Prince is trying to shed his ties to
Blackwater and its past activities. He overhauled the company’s
management in 2009, changed its name, and has now put the privately held
company up for sale. He has just moved with his family to Abu Dhabi from the
United States, a move that colleagues say was a result of his deep anger and
frustration over the intense scrutiny he and his firm have received in recent
years. The State Department export
controls require government approval for the transfer of certain types of
military technology or knowledge from the United States to other countries.
But Blackwater began to seek training contracts from foreign governments and
other foreign organizations without adhering closely to American regulations. The company also shipped
automatic weapons and other military equipment for use by its personnel in
Iraq and Afghanistan in violation of export controls, and in some cases
sought to hide its actions, according to the government. In one incident,
Blackwater shipped weapons to Iraq hidden inside containers of dog food. A federal investigation into
the company’s weapons shipments to Iraq led to guilty pleas on criminal
charges by two former Blackwater employees who are believed to have
cooperated with a broader federal inquiry. Investigators reportedly
looked into whether some of the weapons that were shipped to Iraq were sold
on the black market and ended up in the hands of a Kurdish rebel group, the
Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or P.K.K., which Turkey considers a terrorist organization.
Turkish officials reportedly complained to the United States about American
weapons seized from the group. In 2008, after a federal
investigation of Blackwater’s actions was begun, the company admitted
“numerous mistakes” in its adherence to export laws and created an outside
board of experts to supervise the firm’s compliance. Current and former
government officials say that the government’s inquiry into some of
Blackwater’s export control violations began as part of a federal grand jury
investigation in North Carolina, where Blackwater is based. But the matter
was apparently shifted to the State Department when the criminal
investigation in North Carolina narrowed its focus. That grand jury handed down
the indictments of the five former Blackwater executives earlier this year.
That indictment includes charges that Blackwater executives sought to hide
evidence that they had given weapons as gifts to King Abdullah of Jordan. Despite the fines and
investigations that have plagued Blackwater, the firm has continued to win
contracts from the State Department and the C.I.A. In June, the State
Department awarded Blackwater a $120 million contract to provide security at
its regional offices in Afghanistan, while the C.I.A. renewed the firm’s $100
million security contract for its station in Kabul. At the time, the C.I.A.
director, Leon E. Panetta, defended the decision, saying that the company had
offered the lowest bid and had “cleaned up its act.” External link: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/21/world/21blackwater.html |