The Truth About Blackwater (video)

By Dana Hedgpeth
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 3, 2007; A01

First it became a brand name in security for its work in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now it's taking on intelligence.

The Prince Group, the holding company that owns Blackwater Worldwide, has been building an operation that will sniff out intelligence about natural disasters, business-friendly governments, overseas regulations and global political developments for clients in industry and government
.

The operation, Total Intelligence Solutions, has assembled a roster of former spooks -- high-ranking figures from agencies such as the CIA and defense intelligence -- that mirrors the slate of former military officials who run Blackwater. Its chairman is Cofer Black, the former head of counterterrorism at CIA known for his leading role in many of the agency's more controversial programs, including the rendition and interrogation of al-Qaeda suspects and the detention of some of them in secret prisons overseas.

Its chief executive is Robert Richer, a former CIA associate deputy director of operations who was heavily involved in running the agency's role in the Iraq war.

Total Intelligence Solutions is one of a growing number of companies that offer intelligence services such as risk analysis to companies and governments. Because of its roster and its ties to owner Erik Prince, the multimillionaire former Navy SEAL, the company's thrust into this world highlights the blurring of lines between government, industry and activities formerly reserved for agents operating in the shadows.

Richer, for instance, once served as the chief of the CIA's Near East division and is said to have ties to King Abdullah of Jordan. The CIA had spent millions helping train Jordan's intelligence service in exchange for information. Now Jordan has hired Blackwater to train its special forces.

"Cofer can open doors," said Richer, who served 22 years at the CIA. "I can open doors. We can generally get in to see who we need to see. We don't help pay bribes. We do everything within the law, but we can deal with the right minister or person."

Total Intel, as the company is known, is bringing "the skills traditionally honed by CIA operatives directly to the board room," Black said. Black had a 28-year career with the CIA.

"They have the skills and background to do anything anyone wants," said RJ Hillhouse, who writes a national security blog called The Spy Who Billed Me. "There's no oversight. They're an independent company offering freelance espionage services. They're rent-a-spies."

The heart of Total Intel operations is a suite on the ninth floor of an office tower in Ballston, patterned after the CIA counterterrorist center Black once ran, with analysts sitting at cubicles in the center of the room and glass offices of senior executives on the perimeter.

A handful of analysts in their 20s and 30s sit hunched over Macintosh computers, scanning Web sites, databases, newspapers and chat rooms. The lights are dimmed. Three large-screen TVs play in the background, one tuned to al-Jazeera.

The room, called the Global Fusion Center, is staffed around the clock, as analysts search for warnings on everything from terrorist plots on radical Islamic Web sites to possible political upheavals in Asia, labor strikes in South America and Europe, and economic upheavals that could affect a company's business.

"We're not a private detective," Black said. "We provide intelligence to our clients. It's not about taking pictures. It's business intelligence. We collect all information that's publicly available. This is a completely legal enterprise. We break no laws. We don't go anywhere near breaking laws. We don't have to."

Total Intel was launched in February by Prince, who a decade ago opened a law enforcement training center in Moyock, N.C., that has since grown into a half-billion-dollar business called Blackwater Worldwide. Prince has nine other companies and subsidiaries in his Prince Group empire, offering a broad range of security and training services. (One, Blackwater Security Consulting, is under scrutiny because of a Sept. 16 shooting incident in Iraq that involved some of its armed guards and in which 17 Iraqi civilians were killed.) Prince built Total Intel by buying two companies owned by Matt Devost, the Terrorism Research Center and Technical Defense, and merging them with Black's consulting group, the Black Group. Devost, a cyber security and risk management expert, is now president of Total Intel.

Devost runs day-to-day operations, overseeing 65 full-time employees. At the Global Fusion Center, young analysts monitor activities in more than 60 countries. They include a 25-year-old Fulbright scholar fluent in Arabic and another person with a master's degree in international affairs, focused on the Middle East, who tracks the oil industry and security in Saudi Arabia.

Black and Richer spend much of their time traveling. They won't say where. It's a CIA thing. Black called at midnight recently to talk about Total Intel from "somewhere in the Middle East."

"I don't spend a lot of time telling people where I am as part of my business," he said. "I am discreet in where I go and who I see. I spend most of my time dealing with senior people in governments, making connections."

Black, who also serves as vice chairman of Blackwater Worldwide, said he also does "a lot more mundane things like go to conferences and trade shows," looking for business opportunities. "I'm going to have to go," he said. "My guy is motioning for me. I have to go meet people."

Who?

People.

Government people? Business people?

All kinds.

The company won't reveal its financial information, the names of its customers or other details of its business. Even looking at an analyst's screen at its Global Fusion Center wasn't allowed.

"No, no," Richer said, putting his hands up. "There may be customers' names on there. We don't want you to see."

In their conference room overlooking the Global Fusion Center, Total Intel executives fired off a list of some of their work. Are some recent bombings at major cities in India isolated incidents or should you pull your personnel out? What are the political developments in Pakistan going to mean for your business? Is your company popping up on jihadist Web sites? There's been crime recently in the ports of Mexico, possibly by rogue police officers. Is the government going to be able to ensure safety?

Since 2000, the Terrorism Research Center portion of the company has done $1.5 million worth of contracts with the government, mainly from agencies like the Army, Navy, Air Force, Customs and the U.S. Special Operations Command buying its data subscription or other services.

To Black and Richer, one of the most surprising things about being in the private sector is finding that much of the information they once considered top secret is publicly available. The trick, Richer said, is knowing where to look.

"In a classified area, there's an assumption that if it is open, it can't be as good as if you stole it," Richer said. "I'm seeing that at least 80 percent of what we stole was open."

As he's no longer with the CIA, Richer said he's found that people are more willing to share information. He said a military general in a country he would not name told him of the country's plan to build its next strike fighter. "I listened," Richer said.

"We talked business and where we could help him understand markets and things like that." At the end of the conversation, Richer said, he asked the man, "Isn't that classified? Why are you telling me this?"

Richer said the man answered, "If I tell it to an embassy official I've created espionage. You're a business partner."

Staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.
 
Jesus Christ mwana wa muumba...hawa jamaa ni kama wameanzisha CIA Ltd..hivi tutapona kweli wakina sie. Hebu imagine CIA miaka ya 60 na 70 ilivyofanya uharibifu duniani kwa sababu walikuwa wanamihela kutoka serikali ya USA. Sasa leo hii hawa jamaa wako tayari kufanya kazi hiyo [kama ilivyo CIA] Worldwide ili mradi wanalipwa MALIPO wanayotaka...

Huko Iraq tumejua kwa sababu maovu yao yalikuwa mchana kweupe na mashahidi wameona; lakini hili biashara ya Intelligence by the time mnajua, kuna uovu umefanyika is too late...na sisi waAfrica tunavyopenda hela...I am scared.

 
Jesus Christ mwana wa muumba...hawa jamaa ni kama wameanzisha CIA Ltd..hivi tutapona kweli wakina sie. Hebu imagine CIA miaka ya 60 na 70 ilivyofanya uharibifu duniani kwa sababu walikuwa wanamihela kutoka serikali ya USA. Sasa leo hii hawa jamaa wako tayari kufanya kazi hiyo [kama ilivyo CIA] Worldwide ili mradi wanalipwa MALIPO wanayotaka...

Huko Iraq tumejua kwa sababu maovu yao yalikuwa mchana kweupe na mashahidi wameona; lakini hili biashara ya Intelligence by the time mnajua, kuna uovu umefanyika is too late...na sisi waAfrica tunavyopenda hela...I am scared.


Kinachonitisha mimi isijetokea Bilionaire mmoja ana uchu wa madaraka kwenye nchi zetu maskini akaamua kuwatumia hawa jamaa kuingia Ikulu, kwa mwendo huu wa (if the price is right we can do the job) sijui.
 
Kinachonitisha mimi isijetokea Bilionaire mmoja ana uchu wa madaraka kwenye nchi zetu maskini akaamua kuwatumia hawa jamaa kuingia Ikulu, kwa mwendo huu wa (if the price is right we can do the job) sijui.


Hicho ndicho ninachoogopa mkuu....
 
Dutiful and intense, son of a self-made billionaire, Erik Prince is an adventure seeker and conservative true believer. An exclusive.
By Evan Thomas and Mark Hosenball
NEWSWEEK


Erik Prince likes to point out that in Lafayette Park, across from the White House, stand the statues of four military officers who helped whip the ragtag Continental Army into shape to defeat the British in the Revolutionary War. Prince can quote the inscription under the statue of Gen. Wilhelm von Steuben, who trained George Washington's troops at Valley Forge, Pa.: "He gave military training and discipline to the citizen soldiers who achieved the independence of the United States." The private soldiers employed by Prince's company, Blackwater USA, to protect American officials in Iraq are in a "noble tradition," Prince tells NEWSWEEK. Indeed, at Blackwater, Lafayette Park is jokingly called "Contractor Park."

But don't call the Blackwater men "mercenaries." That's a "slanderous term" used by Blackwater's detractors, "an inflammatory word they use to malign us," says Prince. Mercenaries, he says, are professional soldiers who work for a foreign government. Blackwater's men are "Americans working for the American government." (Never mind that von Steuben was Prussian, and that the other three statues—of the Marquis de Lafayette, Comte de Rochambeau and Thaddeus Kosciuszko—honor two Frenchmen and a Pole.) If Prince seems a little defensive, it is not hard to understand why. Described in the press as "secretive," in part because he has in the past put his hands over his face around photographers, Prince has been in focus lately. A month ago, Blackwater guards protecting an American diplomat killed 17 apparently unarmed Iraqis in a chaotic scene in a Baghdad square. (After the incident, the company said it had "acted lawfully and appropriately in response to a hostile attack.") A recent book, "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army," by Jeremy Scahill, strongly suggests that Prince is a "neo- crusader," a "Theocon" with a Christian-supremacist agenda.

It is true that the Blackwater Web site has a "Chaplain Corner" with a distinctly evangelical message. In the past 15 years, Prince says, he has attended "one or two" meetings of the Council for National Policy, a Christian right organization founded by the Rev. Tim LaHaye, author of the "Left Behind" series. But Prince plays down any connection between his religion and his business. "Look," he says, "I'm a practicing Roman Catholic, but you don't have to be Catholic, you don't have to be a Christian to work for Blackwater." A more telling criticism of the company may come from the State Department officials whom Blackwater protects. Certainly, they are grateful to be guarded by former Navy SEALs and other Special Forces veterans, rather than green, young National Guardsmen. Blackwater likes to boast, accurately, that it has never lost a client. Still, some American diplomats—and not a few professional soldiers in the U.S. military—look askance at the heavy-handed swagger of the Blackwater guards, who often sport goatees and tattoos, wear wraparound shades, brandish their weapons and have been known to run anyone off the road who gets in their way. One State Department official, who spoke anonymously so as not to offend any guardians, tells NEWSWEEK, "It was one step forward in a meeting with Iraqis and two steps back as cars were getting bumped off the road on the ride home."

In his NEWSWEEK interview, Prince, 38, wanted to rebut the suggestion that he is building a private army that is beyond the control of the American government and answerable only to him. He argues that his thousand-odd men in Iraq are not trigger-happy, and blames trial lawyers and congressional staffers for hyping false stories. But his own story suggests a restless search for higher forces and powers, for a kind of martial and religious purity that is not sullied or bogged down by bureaucrats and nosy reporters. In his occasional public utterances at security conferences, his vision emerges. He was once quoted by a defense-industry newsletter describing why his private contractors could provide better—more effective, more efficient—"relief with teeth" in a dangerous environment than international aid organizations or even the U.S. military: "Everybody carries guns, just like Jeremiah rebuilding the Temple in Israel, a sword in one hand, a trowel in the other." Prince, a weapons expert and adventure seeker since he outgrew playing with lead soldiers as a boy, has seen the promised land, and it is righteous and well armed.

Prince's father set a standard that was impossible to live up to. (Prince tells NEWSWEEK he is "not as smart as my dad was.") A self-made billionaire (he invented an illuminated mirror widely used in cars), Edgar Prince spearheaded efforts to save his hometown of Holland, Mich., from the scourge of modernism. While other fading Michigan auto towns were being hollowed out by strip malls and Wal-Mart, Prince Senior restored Holland's downtown to its Victorian charm. Today, seven bronze footsteps cast from Ed Prince's shoes lead to a statue of children singing while nearby bronze musicians play instruments. WE WILL ALWAYS HEAR YOUR FOOTSTEPS, reads the engraved memorial to the patriarchal Prince. (Other bronze statues show children pledging allegiance to the flag and Ben Franklin reading the Constitution.) Edgar was befriended by Christian leaders Gary Bauer and James Dobson and partially financed the Family Research Council, which both men helped lead. When Prince died in 1995, Bauer wrote, "Ed Prince was not an empire builder. He was a Kingdom Builder."

Hard work, family and God were the elder Prince's core beliefs. Old friends whom NEWSWEEK interviewed described Erik as dutiful and intense, but with a taste for practical jokes and danger. Obtaining a pilot's license before a driver's license, Prince wanted to fly Navy jets. He went from Holland Christian High School to the U.S. Naval Academy but transferred to Hillsdale College, an institution with an almost Ayn Rand-like faith in free markets, in the middle of his second year at Annapolis. Prince says he chafed at the Naval Academy's petty rules for new midshipmen, like chewing no more than three times before swallowing when questioned by an upperclassman at mealtime. Prince's former history professor from Hillsdale, John Willson, tells NEWSWEEK Prince found the Naval Academy to be insufficiently tough and conservative. (Prince denies saying this.)

The Prince family gave heavily to GOP candidates. Erik donated his first $15,000 to the Republican Party when he was 19. (Though Prince has since given more than $250,000 to GOP candidates, he denies the money had any influence on Blackwater's obtaining government contracts.) In 1990 he got a six-month internship in George H.W. Bush's White House. Prince says the experience was an "eye opener," but declined to elaborate. At the time, he told the Grand Rapids Press, "I saw a lot of things I didn't agree with— homosexual groups being invited in, the budget agreement [which raised taxes], the Clean Air Act [which was expensive for business] …" Back at Hillsdale, Prince was a volunteer firefighter who liked to dive into the icy waters of inland lakes looking for cars or snowmobiles that had fallen through the ice. In 1992, he joined the Navy SEALs.

There can be few more-grueling experiences, but Prince apparently thrived. Jack Lynch, president of a national SEALs association, says, "He was a good operator. Guys liked going in the water with him." Deployed to Haiti, Bosnia and the Middle East, Prince saw no actual combat, though, he says, "I've certainly been mortared and rocketed a few times" in war zones since then. Prince left the SEALs in 1996 after his father died and Prince needed to figure out what to do with the family company. (The family sold it for more than $1 billion.) Prince received a double shock when his wife, Joan, was diagnosed with breast cancer when she was pregnant with their second child.

One of Joan's close friends, who declined to be identified discussing private matters, tells NEWSWEEK a doctor recommended Joan terminate the pregnancy before the cancer could be fed by the further rush of estrogen. Joan, a devout Catholic, had the baby—and then had two more. She died of cancer in 2003. Prince, who remarried in 2004, converted to Roman Catholicism at Easter time in 1992. His family had been members of the Calvinist Dutch Reform Church, though with an evangelical bent. No one seems to have been shocked or upset by Prince's embrace of Rome. Several knowledgeable friends, who did not wish to be identified discussing private conversations, say Prince talked about his reverence for the continuity of the Catholic Church, his desire to go to mass every morning and his appreciation of confession.

With a portion of his inherited wealth, Prince bought some 6,000 acres of land in the Great Dismal Swamp of North Carolina to create a state-of-the-art private training ground for shooters and security operators. Located near SEAL and Delta Force bases, the Blackwater (named after the swamp's peat-colored bogs) facilities are rented out to federal and local government agencies training soldiers and SWAT teams. (One testing ground: a mocked up "RU Ready High School" to simulate school shootings, complete with taped screams.) Business boomed after 9/11. "The phone is ringing off the hook," Prince told Fox News host Bill O'Reilly two weeks after the Qaeda attacks. Prince himself went to Afghanistan with Blackwater operators on a security contract with the CIA. According to some accounts, he sought to join the agency but stumbled during a polygraph test. "All I can tell you is I have a very high security clearance," Prince says. But did he want to join the CIA? "I think everybody wanted to help the U.S. government in some way after 9/11," says Prince. (A CIA spokesman would not comment.)

Prince has added some colorful characters to his executive suite. He hired Cofer Black, a former counterterror chief at the CIA (who promised to run down Qaeda leaders until there were "flies on their eyeballs"), and Joseph Schmitz, a former Pentagon inspector general who was so impressed with von Steuben's legacy that he put the Prussian general's family motto ("Always Under the Protection of the Almighty") on the IG's official seal. Since 9/11, Blackwater has reportedly scored $1 billion in government contracts (the figures are exaggerated, says Prince, though he acknowledges that the total "could add up" to a billion). He says Blackwater is thoroughly audited and that it does nothing without government authorization. Though diplomats complain about the cowboy tactics of Blackwater guards, it should be noted that Blackwater is only carrying out State Department orders to keep the roads clear for diplomats on the move.

Prince says his company is being hounded by "trial lawyers" working in cahoots with Democratic congressional staffers. In 2004, four Blackwater contractors were killed, and two were dismembered and burned, in Fallujah, Iraq. When evidence surfaced that their mission (prosaically, to pick up and deliver kitchen equipment) was underarmed and probably ill conceived, the families of the dead soldiers sued Blackwater. After the Fallujah slaughter, Prince reached out to some family members ("He's not a monster," one tells NEWSWEEK), but then Blackwater turned icily unresponsive. Prince has hired some heavy-duty defense lawyers, including former independent counsel Ken Starr, and countersued the families for $10 million.

Prince now plays down some of his earlier rhetoric about creating a private battalion that could be dropped into a trouble spot anywhere around the world (he has mentioned Darfur in the past). His focus seems to be more on developing the latest high-tech gadgetry to sell to the govern-ment. Blackwater has a prototype of a spy blimp—an unmanned dirigible that could hover for days. Though he despises doing media interviews, Prince felt his company had been so maligned he was compelled to speak out. The interview with NEWSWEEK OVER, the reporter was ushered out, past a large portrait of George Washington, on his knees in the snow beside a white horse, praying. Fox News played on the TV screen. On the door of the suite of the offices in the faceless building in the corporate sprawl of northern Virginia, there is no name.
 
Erik Prince made it clear he doesn't like talking to the press. But the Blackwater founder also tells NEWSWEEK's Mark Hosenball he doesn't want "what we do" to be "completely misrepresented." So he spoke—about himself and his controversial company—in an at-times prickly hourlong interview in his offices in northern Virginia. Excerpts:

Hosenball: Rep. [Henry] Waxman has charts claiming that [from '01 to '06, your company got] more than $1 billion in contracts. That correct? [If so], how did you grow so rapidly?
Prince: Our first big growth as a defense contractor started after the bombing of the [USS] Cole, October of 2000. You had two fanatics in a boat packed with explosives that blew up a billion-anda-half-dollar ship while it was refueling.

[You helped train] Navy security to protect the ship?
Yes, sir. Exactly.

Is Waxman's figure correct?
Over that many years, it's possible they could add up to a billion.

Why did you get into [the military-training business]?
I laid it out in a letter home to my wife in 1995, while I was deployed [as a Navy SEAL]. The Special Operations Units had been going to private facilities since the late '70s—individual shooting schools—and no one had done it on a large, industrial scale.

Explain why you don't like the word "mercenary."
It's just not accurate to call us mercenaries because you have Americans working for the American government. That in no way meets the definition of a mercenary. So I think "mercenary" is a slanderous term … kind of an inflammatory word [used] to malign us.

You went to Annapolis.
Did you—I went there for a year and a half.

[Did you leave because] you didn't think the people there were actually serious enough?
I found the Academy to have a lot of extra rules and regulations, and it kind of chafed me. So I left, and I went to school. I was a fireman.

Did you guys find that out?
Yeah, we did.

A great time. I dove for the county sheriff's department doing body recoveries.

To be a SEAL, and to be part of a small unit, it's even more regimented than [what] you had in Annapolis.
The one time I got a safety violation … I didn't have my flare attached to my knife correctly. You have to have the right end down. Why does that matter? Because if it's in the dark and you're in trouble, you need to get that flare off. Those kind of small rules save lives.

[It's been] reported that you're involved with conservative religious groups like the Institute for World Politics, Christian Freedom International.
The Institute of World Politics is a graduate school that teaches Foreign Service officers and military officers. A friend of mine started it. I'm proud to be on that board because they do great work. Christian Freedom International, I don't think I've been to a board meeting in probably a year and a half or two years, and they provide some help to folks that were persecuted in Sudan and Burma and places like that.

The Council for National Policy promotes evangelical candidates.
I went to some of those meetings in high school, in college, with my parents and in the last, let's see, 15 years, I've probably been to one or two of those meetings.

Do you worry about the lack of transparency of your business?
I think we're very transparent. We have been audited many times by the Defense Contract Management Agency … We invite neighbors onto the property. Members of Congress or staff, if they want to come down, we let them. We invite military officers.

On recent allegations and events, Blackwater [has been accused of] a higher civilian casualty rate than other contractors and a higher per-convoy casualty rate.
We operate … in Baghdad, which is where you also find the vast majority of U.S. military casualties, death, attacks. … There's 170-some security companies operating in Iraq. Many [don't have] the screening, vetting, training, oversight requirements we do.

Where do you go from here?
Like any business, we have tried to diversify … We went and hired smart people to [develop products] and innovate, and we have a lighter-than-air persistent-surveillance platform, which is just about done. There's a big rush in UAVs, unmanned air vehicles—but they have wings. This is a helium-filled blimp that will give us two to three days of persistent surveillance.

Up until now, you've had a reputation for secretiveness. If you had your druthers —Secretiveness?
I disagree with that. I speak at educational forums. I have spoken at various conferences. As much as I don't like doing media appearances now, I love Blackwater more, and I love our team, and I want to [be sure not to] let what we do be completely misrepresented as it has been to the media.
URL: http://www.newsweek.com/id/43364
 
Blackwater wanajaribu kujisafisha?


Mr. VanderMey said he paid a $3,500 charter fee for the single-engine airplane, but Blackwater charged him nothing for its services, adding that Mr. Prince, a former Navy Seal who founded the firm in 1997, "wouldn't hear of it."...



As Masai warriors guarded the Kenyan orphanage where sisters Brittanie and Aubrie Vander Mey and friend Jamie Cook worked, the three wondered how they would make it back to West Michigan.

They had planned to spend two months caring for orphans affected by HIV or AIDS at the Omwabini Centre in Kimilili, but post-election violence cut short their stay.

Newscasts told them the violence was coming closer each day to the orphanage, about 180 miles from Nairobi and 45 miles from Eldoret, where 35 people died when a church filled with women and children was burned last week.

Today, the women - Aubrie, 19, Jamie, 20, and Brittanie, 21 - were to return to Grand Rapids after a weekend rescue, reportedly with the help of Blackwater Worldwide personnel.

Dean Vander Mey, of Byron Township, Brittanie and Aubrie's father, said he credits their return to God's intervention and the private security firm.

"My daughter (Brittanie) told me today, 'Every town around us has been ripped apart,'" he said. "Their little town was the only safe town. ... I have to attribute (their safety) to the Lord."

Vander Mey said he learned of the conflict Dec. 28. He was enjoying a quiet weekend in his cottage up north when Brittanie called.

"She said, 'I'm OK,' and I asked, 'What are you talking about?'" he recalled. "'Haven't you heard the news?' she told me."

He learned of buses being stopped by militias, of corpses appearing on roadsides, of hundreds of Kenyans fleeing west, of stopped aid caravans, of the burned church, of the ethnic slayings.

The violence followed Dec. 27 elections. Kenya's electoral commission said President Mwai Kibaki had won the vote, but opposition leader Raila Odinga claims the election was rigged. International observers have said it was flawed.

The turmoil has left 486 dead and more than 75,000 people homeless, according to government figures.

"We didn't really realize the severity," Vander Mey said. "Then, I started to see how much mayhem was beginning to happen, and then it got very scary.

"They were right there, in the middle of that."

He also learned escape by car wasn't an option for the women, as militias made sure no one took the two-hour ride to Nairobi.

He pleaded for more safety personnel to be sent to guard the orphanage, but the young women were becoming increasingly nervous.

"They were scared, and I said, 'Honey, I don't know what to do.'" he said.

Vander Mey said he started calling government officials, congressmen -- whomever he could think of to get his daughters and their friend home.

"I was not getting whole lot of answers," he said. "They said, 'Stay safe; don't move.' I wasn't satisfied with the 'stay put.' That's what they were telling us: 'You're in harm's way, but don't move.'"

Hiring a helicopter wasn't an option. Vander Mey said he was told it would $20,000 to rent one for 30 minutes, and news stations and the Red Cross had already rented most of those available.

Vander Mey said he recalled relatives were friends with the family of Blackwater founder and Holland native Erik Prince and decided to give the company a call.

"They had internal contacts and everything," Vander Mey said. "They had people who could help."

He said Blackwater lined up a 10-person plane, rescued the women and other international workers and flew them to Nairobi. The three women then began the trip to Grand Rapids on Sunday afternoon.

Uganda -- not Kenya -- had been his daughters' first destination choice, Vander Mey said.

"I said, 'No, Uganda is not safe enough,'" he said. "I thought Kenya was much more stable. Nothing like this has happened there; it was a very safe place."

But he's not complaining.

"It's been a nightmare and a miracle," Vander Mey said.

-- The Associated Press contributed to this report

a3girls.jpg
 
From: Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army, Jeremy Scahill, revised and updated 2008:

"In fiscal year 2001, Blackwater had $736,906 in federal contracts. By 2006, Blackwater had over $593 million in governmental contracts, an increase of more than 80,000%." -- Congressional Oversight Committee.

By 2008 Blackwater had over $1 billion in government contracts (an increase from 2001 of more than 135,000%).

These photos show the growth at the main Blackwater training site near Moyock, NC
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An entrance to the Blackwater Security Consulting Firearms Training Center in Moyock, N.C.

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A sign at the entrance to Blackwater USA, in Moyock N.C

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Two security guards stand at the gate of Blackwater Security Consulting facility in Moyock, N.C

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Blackwater USA employees receive instruction along a make-shift street scene before practicing a vehicle ambush response drill.

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Blackwater employees practice their reaction to a car ambush
 
This area of the country is teeming with intelligence agents, military special operations specialists and various other shadowy government figures employed in "other government agencies". The Special Operations communities at Fort Bragg, N.C. are not that far away. The CIA's Harvey Point special training area is in Edenton N.C. The Department of Homeland Security runs the Coast Guard air station at Elizabeth City, just down the road the road from Blackwater. Various SEAL Teams are headquartered at Little Creek, Virginia along with the Delta Force unit SEAL Team 6 which is stationed at Dam Neck in Virginia Beach. The CIA runs it's tradecraft school at Camp Peary, Virginia outside Williamsburg. Joint Forces Command which is the command component for U.S. and NATO forces operating in Afghanistan is in Norfolk, Virginia. These sites are all within a hundred miles of Blackwater Worldwide.

Literally right next door to the Blackwater complex are the listening posts, antennae, and radomes of the Naval Security Group Northwest which is the polite way of saying the spy group NSA. In addition to all of this, the CIA has been using front companies in several small rural airfields in Fayetteville, Smithfield and Kinston, North Carolina to run it's rendition program and "ghost flights". It seems the rural nature and seclusion of the swampy farmland found in northeastern North Carolina lends itself to anonymity.

Once in Moyock, I knew I was going to have to pull over and ask for directions, knowing only vaguely where the Blackwater compound was in relation to the town. It's basically everything to the west of town I later found out. The facility is that large.

Looking for a gas station I suddenly notice something with the Blackwater logo on it. Eureka! It's the Blackwater Pro Shop! Right here in town, with a large sign that says "Open to the Public". Hell, I'm the public. The Pro Shop seems to occupy what looks like a former residence. Maybe the Blackwater Pro Shop is behind the house and they are going to demolish the house at a later date. No, the Pro Shop is the house.
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Blackwater ProShop

As I pull into the driveway and approach the door I half expect a little gray haired old lady to walk up and greet me with a tray of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. There is still hope. I've seen private gun dealers in the country who operate out of their own home. Maybe this is the case with Blackwater. Maybe it's a ploy to throw off Al Qeada who is certainly operating in the very swamp that I just skirted to get down here. I can still pick up that M249 Bravo machine gun or a Mark 19 grenade launcher, a little bit of nerve gas, a Nuclear Biological Chemical warfare suit. I need some heavy duty armament and I know Blackwater can answer that call. At the very least, I want to look at some heavy munitions if not purchase them.

Blackwater's facility at the end of Puddin Ridge Road may be a state of the art facility and the finest private training facility in the world but the house that is the Blackwater Pro Shop looks as if the former occupants may have moved out as recently as a week ago. The home is typical of houses built in 1950s in rural Virginia and North Carolina. Brick construction, two bed rooms and a fire place. The mantle for the fire place now being used as a display area for little stuffed black bears wearing little T-shirts with the Blackwater logo.

As I enter the house I can already see a glass display counter with knives and a cash register sitting on top. There is a guy behind the counter and another guy with a clip board who looks like he's doing inventory. I greet them with the obligatory, "How's it going?" and begin to scan the room, looks like a living room, with the aforementioned fire place to the left of the entrance way. There are T-shirt racks and little stuffed animals and candy bars. All this stuff mind you has the Blackwater logo on it. But there are no guns and certainly no ammo lying about.

I begin interrogating the clerk behind the counter, I ask him if he is a Blackwater employee or a contractor. A little humor on my part. He replies that he works for Blackwater. I ask him if he had been to Iraq. He of course says "no", which I knew he would say, he didn't look the part, he is a little doughy. I tell him that I was going to try and buy a polo shirt at the main Blackwater facility and that I didn't even know that the Blackwater Pro Shop was out here, right on the highway. He says that they just opened up ten days ago and that they hadn't even had their grand opening yet. He also says that I would not have gotten very far at the Blackwater compound as they require a background check for everyone who enters the facility.

We exchange various pleasantries and I ask him if Blackwater is hiring, I'm interested in the "role players" that Blackwater employs in it's various war games and other training scenarios. He tells me that Blackwater does hire from time to time, that the employment opportunities are listed on the website, he adds that the role players are hired from the ranks of former Navy SEALS and various other retired special operators which seem to be plentiful in southeastern Virginia.

I notice that some of the logo items are using the old Blackwater USA logo which has the bear paw in the gun sight motif, the new logo employs the bear paw in globe pattern. With this he seems somewhat alarmed that I know so much about Blackwater. I then ask the clerk if he has ever met Erik Prince, he says he's seen him at various Blackwater functions but that he's never met him. The Blackwater clerk tells me about the future plans and expansion of the Pro Shop, how they are planning to sell beer, bait and tackle, towels and other sundry beach gear. It reminds me of the Brew-Thru chain of conveinence stores found on the Outerbanks which cater to tourists.

Iraq after all won't be around forever and it's certainly time for Blackwater to diversify before the last troop's boot lifts off from the desert. Blackwater now has it's own navy, it's own air force and with the addition of the Blackwater Pro Shop, it's own tourist trap. After a while I buy a couple of stickers and he actually gives me a few pens for free, all with Blackwater's logo. I thank him and depart.

I go out to the car and retrieve my camera. I'm taking pictures of the house from the parking lot when I decide to go back in and ask him if I might be able to take some shots of the interior. It's worth a try. He says, sure, but not to get him in any of the pictures.



As I'm taking pictures of the house it dawns on me that I was standing inside of a public relations operation, a carefully crafted one. Millions of people descend upon the Outer Banks of North Carolina each year and most of them arrive via the road I just drove down.

With the lawsuits filed by former Blackwater employee's families surrounding the deaths of four Blackwater contractors in Fallujah, Erik Prince testifying before Congress last year and various other entanglements including the arrest of protesters outside Blackwater's gates, Blackwater needed to win over some hearts and minds in the homeland. Cue the Blackwater stuffed bears and T-shirts.

The Blackwater Pro Shop's mission on the highway in Moyock is actually two-fold when it comes to public relations. It provides Blackwater with a friendlier face but it is also a forward position to divert people away from the scarier, paramilitary compound, with it's gunnery ranges, defensive driving courses, airfield, mock Iraqi villages and checkpoints with armed gunmen. Erik Prince certainly doesn't want nosy onlookers around his ultra secure facility.

In another effort to revamp it's image Blackwater changed it's logo from the bear paw caught in gunsight to the slightly different bear paw stamp on the globe, which I think is actually more menacing. Blackwater trying to take over the world? It would appear so, one franchise at a time.

It was now time to take a drive out to the Blackwaters facility at the end of Puddin Ridge road. There are about four stop lights in Moyock and Puddin Ridge Rd. is the second one. Off the highway, the countryside fades into a sea of mini mansions, some of which are surely occupied by Blackwater employees.
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The end of Puddin Ridge Road

The woman I got directions from at a gas station said to keep driving till it turns to a dirt road then keep going because the compound is further yet. Nearing the end of Puddin Ridge Road, I cross into Camden county from Currituck county and there in front of me is a large Blackwater Worldwide sign, no words, just the logo. There is also no dirt road, the road must have been improved by Blackwater since that woman had ever ventured out here. To the right of the large sign and just off the road is another sign that says, "Blackwater Worldwide: Welcome to the largest private training facility in the world. Train hard... Or don't train at all!" Which makes no sense to me, certainly a little bit of training, all be it half assed is better than no training at all.
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Close up of signs

Beyond is a very large field. In the southwest corner of the field right at the tree line I can see some activity, looks like some parked SUVs and a small hut. Looks like a check point. The traffic going into the facility is heavy. I notice license plates from all over the country, Michigan, Florida, Texas, Ohio, some of the occupants of these vehicles look like Secret Service agents, some are dressed in Marine issue desert camouflage, desert digital pattern.

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Guard checkpoint

The road makes a hard left hand turn at these two signs and proceeds for about a quarter mile where it makes another hard right hand turn. In another quarter mile lies the checkpoint. As I approach the checkpoint I notice that one guard who had been screening one of the vehicles takes great interest in me.

Before I get too close, I start to look for a place to turn around. He is now staring at me and speaking into his walkie-talkie. That's it, I'm out of here. I only made it to that point because I saw absolutely no signs that said "no trespassing" and no signs that said "private property".

Whatever this security guard's intentions were, I definitely was not going to let him detain me. I felt it best to simply avoid confrontation and turn around. Having returned to the relative safety of the entrance signs at the county line, I parked the car and proceeded to take pictures of the signage and the checkpoint from that position. To my relief the guard did not dispatch anybody to pursue me. I guess he figured I was just another curious tourist, probably one of several he encounters everyday.
 
blackwater wapewe dafur mtizame! watakufa watu kama kuku wa sadaka!
hawa watu sio mchezo.......wakifanya kazi zao wanahitaji close monitoring, na sitegemei kama itapatikana huko dafur. walichokifanya iraq pekee kinanifanya niwaogope.
 
kama kuna mtu anataka kujua technically jinsi hawa jamaa wanavyo operate basi soma hiki kitabu cha Naomi Klein...better than NO LOGO

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Hawa mabwana ni wahuni na wamewauwa wa-Iraqi kibao yet
serikali ya marekani bado inawapa immunity kiaina.

Five Blackwater Guards Indicted in Iraqi Shooting​

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Plainclothes contractors working for Blackwater USA take part in a firefight as Iraqi demonstrators loyal to Muqtada Al Sadr attempt to advance on a facility being defended by U.S. and Spanish soldiers in Najaf, Iraq


WASHINGTON — Five Blackwater Worldwide security guards have been indicted and a sixth was negotiating a plea with prosecutors for a 2007 shooting that left 17 Iraqis dead and became an anti-American rallying cry for insurgents, people close to the case said Friday.

Prosecutors obtained the indictment late Thursday and had it put under seal until it is made public, perhaps as early as Monday. All who discussed the case did so on condition of anonymity because the matters remain sealed.

Six guards have been under investigation since a convoy of heavily armed Blackwater contractors opened fire in a crowded Baghdad intersection on Sept. 16, 2007. Witnesses say the shooting was unprovoked but Blackwater, hired by the State Department to guard U.S. diplomats, says its guards were ambushed by insurgents while responding to a car bombing.

Young children were among the victims and the shooting strained relations between the U.S. and Iraq. Following the shooting, Blackwater became the subject of congressional hearings in Washington and insurgent propaganda videos in Iraq.

The exact charges in the indictment were unclear, but the Justice Department has been considering manslaughter and assault charges against the guards for weeks. Prosecutors have also been considering bringing charges under a law, passed as part of a 1988 drug bill, that carries a mandatory 30-year prison sentence for using a machine gun in a crime of violence.

The Justice Department has ordered five of the six guards to surrender Monday to the FBI, but details of where and precisely what time were still being worked out Friday, according to those people close to the case.

The remaining guard has been negotiating to reduce the charges against him in return for cooperation. If completed, such a deal could provide prosecutors with a key witness against the other five. Others in the convoy have already testified before a federal grand jury about the shooting.

Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd declined comment.

Blackwater spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell said, "We've consistently said that we do not believe the guards acted unlawfully. If it is determined they did, we would support holding them accountable."

Regardless of the charges they bring, prosecutors will have a tough fight. The law is unclear on whether contractors can be charged in the U.S., or anywhere, for crimes committed overseas. The indictment sends the message that the Justice Department believes contractors do not operate with legal impunity in war zones.

Based at a sprawling compound in Moyock, N.C., Blackwater itself is not a target of the FBI investigation. Company officials have cooperated with the investigation.

To prosecute, authorities must argue that the guards can be charged under a law meant to cover soldiers and military contractors. Since Blackwater works for the State Department, not the military, it's unclear whether that law applies to its guards.

Further complicating the case, the State Department granted all the Blackwater guards limited immunity in exchange for their sworn statements shortly after the shooting. Prosecutors will need to show that they did not rely on those statements in building their case.

The State Department declined to comment and referred questions to the Justice Department.
 
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Blackwater guards escort then Iraq administrator Paul Bremer on his arrival at U.S. Army 82nd Airborne Division headquarters in Ramadi


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The Iraqi Government says it plans to take legal action against the Blackwater security firm.

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Wa huko russia nao wanaitwaje vile.......hapo ndio mjue USA mchezo mwingine sasa hao ni kama KK Guard tuu kule kwao
 
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