Blackwater USA security Free Essays

string(47) " to provide security services in the Iraq War\." Blackwater Worldwide in the past called Blackwater USA Security-Blackwater is the name for the peat-colored water of the swamp, is the U. S. government has inaudibly hired to maneuver in international war zones and on American soil. We will write a custom essay sample on Blackwater USA security or any similar topic only for you Order Now The contacts run from deep within the military and intelligence agencies to the upper echelons of the White House. This company that is a self-described private military company founded in 1997 by a man named Erik Prince and Al Clark which is also the same company also referred to as the security contactor or mercenary organization by the international reporters, the founder Erik Prince a former Navy SEAL. Prince attended the Naval Academy, graduated from Hillsdale College, and was an intern in George H. W. Bush’s White House. Prince is a major financial supporter of Republican Party causes and candidates emerged from ancestors that was one of the top reservoir rollers of, not only the â€Å"Republican revolution† of the 1990s that brought Newt Gingrich and the Contract with America to authority, but also the growing of what the spiritual accurate or the Christian conventional lobby group. Erik Prince’s family gave the kernel money for Gary Bauer to found the Family Research Council. The founder Erik Prince of the Blackwater USA security is a major bank roller of President Bush, his cronies, and the Christian conservative movement in this nation and in 2002 Blackwater Security Consulting (BSC) was formed. It was one of several private security firms employed following the U. S. invasion of Afghanistan. BSC is one of over 60 private security firms employed during the Iraq War to guard officials and installations, train Iraq’s new army and police, and provide other support for occupation forces. Blackwater was also hired during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina by the Department of Homeland Security, as well as by private clients, including communications, petrochemical and insurance companies in Overall; the company has received over US$1 billion in government contracts. In administration Blackwater’s president Gary Jackson, is also a former Navy SEAL and Cofer Black, the company’s current vice chairman, was director of the CIA’s Counterterrorist Center (CTC) at the time of the September 11, 2001 attacks. He was the United States Department of State coordinator for counterterrorism with the rank of ambassador at large from December 2002 to November 2004. After leaving public service, Black became chairman of the privately owned intelligence gathering company Total Intelligence Solutions, Inc. , as well as vice chairman for Blackwater. Joseph E. Schmitz holds an executive position in Blackwater’s holding company, Prince Group. He was previously inspector general of the Department of Defense, an appointment of George W. Bush. Robert Richer was vice president of intelligence until January 2007, when he formed Total Intelligence Solutions. He was formerly the head of the CIA’s Near East Division. [20][21] Black is presently senior advisor for counterterrorism and national security issues for the 2008 Presidential election bid of Mitt Romney. Blackwater is based in the U. S. A in the state of North Carolina, where it operates a tactical training facility that it said to be the world’s largest. The company trains more than 40,000 people a year, from U. S. A or foreign military and police services, as well as other U. S. A government agencies. The training consists of military offensive and defensive portioning and in smaller scale human resources security. Expertise and modus operandi trained are not limited by U. S. domestic law although we are not yet sure what legal status Blackwater operates in the U. S. and other countries and the fortification of the U. S. extends to Blackwater which is operations globally. Blackwater is the mysterious story of the ascending of a powerful mercenary army, ranging from the blood-soaked streets of Fallujah to rooftop firefights in Najaf to the hurricane-ravaged US gulf to Washington DC, where Blackwater executives are hailed as new conquerors in the war on terror. Blackwater USA Security has massive of about 6,000 acres of the Great Dismal Swamp acre training facility as part of its headquarters, Moyock in North Carolina (just south of the Virginia border). The firm has additional offices in Baghdad, Iraq, and Kuwait City this is according to The â€Å"About Blackwater† section of its website states: â€Å"Blackwater Training Center which was founded in 1996 to fulfill the anticipated demand for government outsourcing of firearms and related security training. Blackwater has the finest private firearms training facility in the U. S. Blackwater has set a new standard for firearms and security training and is recognized as the industry leader in providing government outsource solutions in training, security, canine services, aviation support services, range construction and steel target equipment. Since its inception however, the main work of Blackwater has been deploying its own mercenary army– recruited from elite U. S. military forces especially from Navy SEALS and Marine Recon, SWAT police forces, and international â€Å"soldiers of fortune. † In February it started training former Chilean commandos–some of whom served under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet–for use in Iraq. Blackwater has trained over 50,000 military and law enforcement personnel and provided solutions to hundreds of satisfied customers. This is an extraordinary delineation by one of America’s most exciting young radical correspondents called Jeremy Scahill the undercover journalist in his new book â€Å"Blackwater† talks about The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army where he says that Blackwater is the honored Praetorian Guard for the global war on terror with its own military base. Blackwater is presently the largest of the U. S. State Department’s three private sanctuary contractors, providing a total of 987 contractors. The correspondent in his book writes that Blackwater mercenary firm vehemently demonstrates the grave jeopardy of outsourcing the government’s cartel on the use of force many of which are U. S. citizens. At least 90 percent of its proceeds come from government contracts, two-thirds of which are no-bid contracts. Blackwater Worldwide is currently contracted by the United States government to provide security services in the Iraq War. You read "Blackwater USA security" in category "Papers" In October 2007, Blackwater USA rebranded them as Blackwater Worldwide. Blackwater Worldwide has played a substantial role during the Iraq War, as a contractor for the United States government, especially in 2003; Blackwater received its first high-profile contract when it received a $21 million no-bid contract for guarding the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, L. Paul Bremer. Since June 2004, Blackwater has been paid more than $320 million out of a $1 billion, five-year State Department the financial statement for the Worldwide Personal Protective Service, which protects U. S. officials and some foreign officials in conflict zones. In 2006, Blackwater won the remunerative contract to protect the U. S. embassy in Iraq, which is the largest American embassy in the world. It is anticipated by the Pentagon and company representatives that there are 20,000 to 30,000 armed security contractors working in Iraq. Of the State Department’s dependence on private contractors like Blackwater for security purposes, U. S. ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, told the U. S. Senate: â€Å"There is simply no way at all that the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security could ever have sufficient full-time personnel to staff the security occupation in Iraq. There is no unconventional except through contracts. According to the republicans of early this year 2008, Blackwater USA security will leave the bureau armed and dangerous because Blackwater is the absolutely mesmerizing an explosive story of how the Bush Administration has spent hundreds of millions of public dollars edifice a comparable corporate army, an army enthusiastic to grounds it constitutes nothing less than a Republican Guard which is the most imperative and unnerving book about the death throes of U. S. egalitarianism in the estimative coverage about how insane Bush privatization efforts, not an iota is more worrisome than the corporatizing of military struggle forces. Jeremy Scahill admirably exposes a overwhelming example of this baleful scheme, the writer says that the only person interested in the privatization of the military is president Bush due to the advantages that we will gain from keeping the military force in the course of the Iraq fight. This engrossing investigative piece exposing, in shocking detail, a U. S. government-outsourced Frankenstein replete with helicopter gunships may leave you unconvinced. But you better believe it, for it poses a grave and gathering danger to the future of our Republic. According to Ray McGovern, CIA veteran and former intelligence briefer for George H. W. Bush, in this terrorizing and thrillingly written book, Jeremy Scahill initiates us to the shape of things to come, and to the kind of people and conglomerates apt to preside over our lives if we don’t do something marvelous about it promptly. According to research from the writer Jeremy Scahill’s comprehensive research and reporting elevates the shroud off the ever-tightening relationship between the federal administration and unaccountable private military corporations such as Blackwater USA. This type of mercenary army has no whatsoever reason to have this type of civilian military organization due to its relationship with the US government which is considered to be of intrinsic danger and moral conflicts involved in the using of public funds to engage a clandestine corporation which exists to generate profit to supplement and to supersede the military in its role to endow with for the common defense. Alarming issues leap to mind like a panther springing upon its prey. Moreover the Social Darwinists sitting atop the food chain in the wealthiest, most powerful nation in humanity’s history now have access to their own paramilitary force. They can unleash their private army on the unfit when the need arises, whether it be within America’s borders or otherwise. New Orleans is a prime example. 150 highly trained Blackwater quasi-military professionals openly armed with assault weapons descended on a tragedy-stricken city. As hurricane victims taking necessities were called â€Å"looters† and shoot to kill orders were in effect, those who value property over people saw to it that their interests were well-protected. Thankfully, Blackwater was there to protect the patrician class from the â€Å"savages† from the Lower Ninth Ward who had the audacity to attempt survival; also Blackwater’s global presence includes Iraq, where the murder of four of their employees triggered the US military’s revengeful attack on Fallujah in which it committed scandalous war crimes and mayhem against hundreds of Iraqi civilians. Why the four Blackwater contractors were near Fallujah the day of their deaths remains unclear. The mainstream media, Blackwater and the US government claim that they were on security detail shielding a food delivery. However, some suggest that the claims of protecting a food caravan were a ruse to cover the fact that Blackwater employees were completing a military operation. While the facts remain ambiguous, it is certain that the conventional media’s description of the Blackwater victims as civilian contractors was significantly inaccurate, this led to the Blackwater’s license to operate in Iraq being revoked by the Iraqi Government on September 17, 2007, resulting from a highly contentious incident that occurred the previous day during which seventeen (initially reported as eleven) Iraqis were killed. The fatalities occurred while a Blackwater Private Security Detail (PSD) was escorting a convoy of U. S. State Department vehicles en route to a meeting in western Baghdad with United States Agency for International Development officials. The US State Department has said that â€Å"innocent life was lost. An anonymous U. S. military official was quoted as saying that Blackwater’s guards opened fire without provocation and used excessive force, the incident has sparked at least 5 investigations, with the FBI now saying it will begin a probe. Blackwater helicopters were dispatched to evacuate the Polish ambassador following an insurgent assassination attempt. On October 2, 2007 Erik Prince was subject to a congressional hearing conducted by the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform following the controversy related to Blackwater’s conduct in Iraq and Afghanistan. Blackwater hired the public relations firm BKSH Associates Worldwide, a subsidiary of Burson-Marsteller, to help Prince prepare for his testimony at the hearing. Robert Tappan, a former U. S. State Department official who worked for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad, was one the executives handling the account. BKSH, a self-described â€Å"bipartisan† headed by Charlie Black, a prominent Republican political strategist and former chief spokesman for the Republican National Committee, and Scott Pastrick, former treasurer of the Democratic National Committee. The case went on until when testifying before Congress came and Prince complained about the lack of remedies his company has to deal with employee misdeeds. When asked why an employee involved in the killing of a vice-presidential guard incident had been â€Å"whisked out of the country† he replied, â€Å"We can’t flog him, we can’t incarcerate him. Asked by a member of Congress for financial information about his company, Prince declined to provide it. â€Å"We’re a private company, and there’s a key word there private, he later stated that the company could provide it at a future date if questions were submitted in writing when the term â€Å"mercenaries† was used to describe Blackwater employees, Prince objected, characterizing them instead as â€Å"loyal Americans†. A Committee on Oversight and Government Reform staff report based largely on internal Blackwater e-mail messages and State Department documents, describes Blackwater as â€Å"being staffed with reckless, shoot-first guards who were not always sober and did not always stop to see who or what was hit by their bullets. A staff report compiled by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on behalf of Representative Waxman questioned the cost-effectiveness of using Blackwater forces instead of U. S. troops. Blackwater charges the government $1,222 per day per guard, â€Å"equivalent to $445,000 per year, or six times more than the cost of an equivalent U. S. soldier,† the report alleged, during his testimony on Capitol Hill, Erik Prince disputed this figure, saying that it costs money for the government to train a soldier, to house and feed them, they don’t just come prepared to fight. â€Å"That sergeant doesn’t show up naked and untrained†, Prince stated. In the wake of Prince’s testimony before Congress, the US House passed a bill in October, 2007 that would make all private contractors working in Iraq and other combat zones subject to prosecution by U. S. courts and Senate Democratic leaders have said they plan to send similar legislation to President Bush as soon as possible. The legal status of Blackwater and other security firms in Iraq is a subject of contention, before he left Iraq; L. Paul Bremer signed â€Å"Order 17† giving all Americans associated with the CPA and the American government immunity from Iraqi law. A July 2007 report from the American Congressional Research Service indicates that the Iraqi government still has no authority over private security firms contracted by the U. S. government. On October 5, 2007 the State Department announced new rules for Blackwater’s armed guards operating in Iraq. Under the new guidelines, State Department security agents will accompany all Blackwater units operating in and around Baghdad. The State Department will also install video surveillance equipment in all Blackwater armored vehicles, and will keep recordings of all radio communications between Blackwater convoys in Iraq and the military and civilian agencies which supervise their activities. Also on September 23, 2007, the Iraqi government said that it expects to refer criminal charges to its courts in connection with a shooting involving Blackwater guards. However, on October 29, 2007, immunity from prosecution was granted by The U. S. State Department, delaying a criminal inquiry into the Sept. 16 deadly shooting of 17 Iraqi civilians. Immediately afterwards, the Iraqi government approved a draft law to end any and all immunity for foreign military contractors in Iraq, to overturn Order 17. The U. S. Department of Justice also said any immunity deals offered to Blackwater employees were invalid, as the department that issued them had no authority to do so. Legal specialists say that the U. S. government is unlikely to allow a trial in the Iraqi courts, because there is little confidence that trials would be fair. Contractors accused of crimes abroad could be tried in the United States under either military or civilian law; however, the applicable military law, the Uniform Code of Military Justice, was changed in 2006, and appears to now exempt State Department contractors that provide security escorts for a civilian agency. Prosecution under civilian law would be through the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, which allows the extension of federal law to civilians supporting military operations; however, according to the deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s criminal division Robert Litt, trying a criminal case in federal court would require a secure chain of evidence, with police securing the crime scene immediately, while evidence gathered by Iraqi investigators would be regarded as suspect. To conclude the Backwaters should not have this type of civilian military organization in any part of the world including in the U. S. A because it is too costly especially to the Government of president Bush including the civilians who get to pay a lot to taxes to keep the military running. The innocent people dying all over the world where the mercenary army controls is an abuse of the human rights especially in Iraq, Bagdad and Somalia. References: 1. www. blackwaterusa. com/new/btwarchive. html 2. Blackwater by Jeremy Scahill 2007 by Jeremy Scahill. How to cite Blackwater USA security, Papers