Yep. They won it alright, and if anyone at all doubts how desperate the US government is for manpower in this war, this is proof positive. The only reason why a company like this, wins this kind of contract, is because they can deliver.
Obviously Xe is disliked by the government, but the government dislikes dead federal employees or losing the war even more. Plus time is not on their side. The administration has to show success in Afghanistan, and part of that strategy involves the civilian surge.(along with this military surge) Xe and the rest of my community are essential for that civilian surge to happen. The war strategists know this, DoS and DoD knows this, and that is just the way it is.
While big military is out killing the Taliban and doing the heavy lifting, who do you think will be doing the convoy, static and PSD work for all of these civilians? The Afghan companies? (wait, we are investigating them for their dealings with the Taliban-yikes) We could initiate the draft? (Oh, now that is even more politically unacceptable–election killer) We could use the National Guard and IRR? (wait, we are using them for the border or gulf spill clean up) Congress could vote for more troops to be sent to Afghanistan? (that would make the venture even more of a re-election killer for a congress and administration already on the ropes) We could put the call out to more countries to send troops? (wait, no one can afford to send any more–something about a world wide recession) How about some Ugandans? (already using them in Iraq) Any others?…. We could contract with DynCorp or Triple Canopy instead of Xe for this job? (we will and are already using them for this work, and DoS has already made their choice as to who is more capable at this time and for this contract/location–best value)
I guess my point is, is that using security contractors and companies like Xe is essential to the war effort at this time. That is the best way I can spell it out for the reader. How are we not, if the DoS is willing to bite it’s lip and contract with this company? How is it not if we are now in the quarter million range as far as contractor numbers in both Iraq and Afghanistan? How are we not after close to 2,000 dead and well over 40,000 injured?
For the protection of federal employees and property in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, the best forces available right now, are the ones the companies have to offer. That is this war, and that is the politics of this event. –Matt
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Firm once known as Blackwater gets Afghan contract
June 19, 2010
KABUL, Afghanistan — Part of the company once known as Blackwater Worldwide has been awarded a more than $120 million contract to protect new U.S. consulates in the Afghan cities of Herat and Mazar-e-Sharif, the U.S. Embassy said Saturday.
The United States Training Center, a business unit of the former Blackwater, now called Xe Services, was awarded the contract Friday, embassy spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said.
The company won the contract over two other American firms — Triple Canopy and DynCorps International, she said. The one-year contract can be extended twice for three months each for a maximum of 18 months.
Under the name Blackwater, the Moyock, North Carolina-based company provided guards and services to the U.S. government in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere but came under sharp criticism for its heavy-handed tactics in those missions.
It has been trying to rehabilitate its image since a 2007 shooting in Baghdad’s Nisoor Square that killed 17 people, outraged the Iraqi government and led to federal charges against several Blackwater guards.
The accusations later were thrown out of court after a judge found prosecutors mishandled evidence. The Justice Department has appealed that ruling.
In the wake of the ruling, Iraq ordered hundreds of private security guards linked to Blackwater to leave the country. Iraqi officials said the order applied to security guards who were working for Blackwater at the time of the Nisoor Square shooting.
Xe eventually lost its license to operate as protector of U.S. diplomats in Iraq and the State Department when its contract expired last year. Nine months later, the State Department temporarily extended a contract with a Xe subsidiary known as Presidential Airways to provide air support for U.S. diplomats.
Story here.
Blackwater deal puts officials on hot seat
By Jeff Stein | June 21, 2010
State Department officials struggled to explain Monday why they have awarded a new $120 million contract to a private security firm that was kicked out of Iraq four months ago amid charges that its personnel gunned down unarmed civilians.
Xe Services, formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide, was awarded an 18-month contract to provide security at two new consulates the State Department is building in Afghanistan, it was reported Friday night.
On Monday members of the federal Commission on Wartime Contracting hammered a State Department official about the contract, but failed to elicit information about how the firm's conduct in Iraq figured into the decision to give it new work in Afghanistan.
Commissioners repeatedly asked Charlene Lamb, assistant director of the State Department’s International Programs, how much weight would be given to federal charges that Blackwater's guards killed unarmed civilians in Iraq.
Lamb repeatedly tried to avoid answering the question, at first saying, “It’s an ongoing court case so I don’t want to comment, please.”
Later, pressed further on the criteria for evaluating contractors, Lamb contradicted herself.
She said the three factors the State Department used to evaluate a firm’s bid — “their technical plan to move forward, their past performance and price” — were “weighted equally.”
But after conferring with an unidentified official sitting behind her, Lamb retracted the statement.
“I apologize…They are not weighted equally….” she said.
Panel member Clark Kent Ervin, a former acting inspector general at the Homeland Security Department, then asked Lamb for an informal, “best answer” on “the relative weight” of Xe’s Iraq record.
Lamb again conferred with her colleague and demurred.
“Let us get back to you,” she finally said. “We were not prepared to answer that today, and this is out of my ballpark.”
“So you don’t have an answer?” asked Ervin.
“I don’t want to guess,” Lamb said.
Frustrated panel members also expressed a mixture of astonishment and disgust with officials of the U.S. Agency for International Development who admitted under questioning that they had left the policing of private security subcontractors in Iran and Afghanistan in the hands of the primary contractors.
“You’d rather wash hands of it?” asked Robert J. Henke.
“It ain’t our job?” asked commissioner Grant Green.
“That would be correct…” the head of USAID’s Overseas Security Division, David Blackshaw, conceded under pressure.
But panel members repeatedly returned to the Xe contract, awarded to the Moyock, N.C.-based firm’s U.S. Training Center unit.
Lamb said competitors for the contract, DynCorp and Triple Canopy, weren’t as qualified, prompting the commissioners to refer to the deal as a “sole-source contract.”
Panel member Charles Tiefer, in particular, expressed his distress at the award.
Tiefer read from a 2009 Defense Department report saying that concerns over private security contractors “arose from earlier incidents. Most controversial incidents concerned Blackwater.”
“The spillover on DoD has been significant,” Tiefer continued, reading from the report.
“Would you agree?” he asked a Defense Department witness, Gary Motsek, assistant deputy undersecretary for program support.
“Yes, sir,” Motsek said.
“Would you have considered these incidents” in awarding Xe Services a new contract, Tiefer asked.
“It would have been taken into consideration, yes sir,” Motsek replied.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/spy-talk/2010/06/b…
Comment by headjundi — Monday, June 21, 2010 @ 12:13 PM
CIA gives Blackwater firm new $100 million contract
By Jeff Stein | June 23, 2010
The Central Intelligence Agency has hired Xe Services, the private security firm formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide, to guard its facilities in Afghanistan and elsewhere, according to an industry source.
The previously undisclosed CIA contract is worth about $100 million, said the industry source, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the deal, which is classified.
“It’s for protective services … guard services, in multiple regions,” said the source.
Two other security contractors, Triple Canopy and DynCorp International, put in losing bids for the CIA’s business, the source said.
The revelation comes only a day after members of a federal commission investigating war-zone contractors blasted the State Department for granting Blackwater with a new $120 million contract to guard U.S. consulates under construction in Afghanistan.
CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano stopped short of confirming the contract, saying only that Xe personnel would not be involved in operations.
“While this agency does not, as a rule, comment on contractual relationships we may or may not have, we follow all applicable federal laws and regulations,” Gimigliano said.
The spokesman added, “We have a very careful process when it comes to procurement, and we take it seriously. We’ve also made it clear that personnel from Xe do not serve with CIA in any operational roles.”
Mark Corallo, a spokesman for Xe Services president Erik Prince, said the company would have no comment.
?“Blackwater has undergone some serious changes," maintained a U.S. official who is familiar with the deal and spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss it freely.
"They’ve had to if they want to survive. They’ve had to prove to the government that they’re a responsible outfit. Having satisfied every legal requirement, they have the right to compete for contracts. They have people who do good work, at times in some very dangerous places. Nobody should forget that, either."
The Moyock, N.C.-based firm has been fighting off prosecutions and civil suits since a September 2007 incident in Baghdad, when its guards opened fire in a city square, allegedly killing 17 unarmed civilians and wounding 24.
In December a federal judge threw out charges against five of the alleged Blackwater shooters on procedural grounds, but the Justice Department is appealing the ruling.
Early this year German prosecutors launched a preliminary investigation into allegations that the CIA sent Blackwater operatives on an assassination mission against a suspected terrorist in Hamburg, Germany, in 2001.
In April, meanwhile, a federal grand jury indicted five of Prince's top deputies, including his legal counsel, on 15 counts of conspiracy, weapons and obstruction-of-justice charges.
Prince personally has not been charged with any crimes.
Members of the federal Commission on Wartime Contracting hammered a State Department official during a hearing Monday, repeatedly asking how much weight was given to Blackwater’s record when the decision was made to give the firm a new contract last week.
“I don’t want to guess,” said Charlene Lamb, the department’s assistant director of International Programs.
Apparently weary of all the controversy, Prince announced two weeks ago he was putting the company on the block.
“A number of firms” are interested in buying the company, a spokeswoman said, declining to elaborate.
Meanwhile, on June 15, The Nation magazine reported that Prince was considering moving to the United Arab Emirates.
“If Prince's rumored future move is linked to concerns over possible indictment,” wrote Jeremy Scahill, author of a book on Blackwater, “the United Arab Emirates would be an interesting choice for a new home — particularly because it does not have an extradition treaty with the United States.”
Prince's spokesman Corallo declined to discuss his client's plans, saying “his personal life is his own.”
?http://blog.washingtonpost.com/spy-talk/2010/06/cia_gives_blackwater_firm_new.html
Comment by headjundi — Wednesday, June 23, 2010 @ 2:27 AM