Blackwater USA

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Blackwater USA

Type	Private military company
Founded	1997
Founder	Erik Prince
Headquarters	Moyock, North Carolina, USA
Key people	Gary Jackson Bill Mathews Chris Taylor
Industry	Government Services
Divisions	Blackwater Training Center Blackwater Security Consulting Blackwater Canine Blackwater Armor & Targets Blackwater Logistics Blackwater Airships Raven Development Blackwater North(Illinois)
Subsidiaries	Blackwater vehicles
Website	blackwaterusa.com

Blackwater USA is a a private military company (PMC), and security firm founded in 1997 by Erik Prince and based in North Carolina. The company describes itself as a "military, law enforcement, security, peacekeeping, and stability operations company." Their services are for-hire.

1 Corporate structure
2 History
3 Controversy and criticism
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Corporate structure

Blackwater USA consists of nine companies:

Blackwater Training Center
Blackwater Target Systems
Blackwater Security Consulting (Moyock, North Carolina)
Blackwater Canine
Blackwater Presidential Airways (PAWS)
Blackwater Airships, LLC
Blackwater Armored Vehicle
Blackwater Maritime
Raven Construction

Blackwater North (Illinois)

Blackwater's president, Gary Jackson, as well as Executive Vice President Bill Mathews and other business unit leaders are former Navy SEALs. Chris Taylor, VP for Strategic Initiatives is a former Force Recon Marine. Blackwater was founded and is owned by Erik Prince.

[edit] Facilities

Company literature claims the company runs "the largest privately owned firearms training facility in the nation". The facility, located in North Carolina, is composed of several ranges, indoor, outdoor, urban reproductions and has over 7000 acres (24 km²) of land spanning Camden and Currituck counties.

In November 2006 Blackwater USA announced it recently acquired an 80-acre facility 150 miles west of Chicago, in Mount Carroll, Illinois to be called Blackwater North.

[edit] Training

Blackwater offers several open-enrollment courses periodically throughout the year, from hand to hand combat (executive course) to precision rifle marksmanship. Furthermore one could opt to enroll in Blackwater Academy, a program that will train recruits, provided they can meet strict background and criminal checks, physical fitness tests, and can pass a clinical psychological test. Blackwater may ask recruits to enter a rather restrictive contract that would place them exclusively in the service of the company.

[edit] Grizzly APC

Blackwater recently introduced its own line of Armored personnel carriers.^[1]

[edit] History

Blackwater USA was formed in 1997 to provide additional support to military and law enforcement organizations. It was one of several private security firms employed following the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan .

Blackwater Security Consulting was formed in 2002 and initially operated by Jamie Smith, who became the first Director of Blackwater Security Consulting. Smith left in late 2002 and formed SCG International Risk. 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.^[2]

The crowds mob the bridge on which two corpses are hanged

On March 31, 2004 - Iraqi insurgents in Fallujah ambushed a convoy containing four American private military contractors from Blackwater USA who were conducting delivery for food caterers ESS.^[3] The four armed contractors, Scott Helvenston, Jerko Zovko, Wesley Batalona and Michael Teague, were killed with grenades and small arms fire, their bodies dragged from their vehicles, beaten and set ablaze. Their burned corpses were then dragged through the streets before being hung over a bridge crossing the Euphrates.^[4]

Photos of the event were released to news agencies worldwide, causing a great deal of indignation and moral outrage in the United States, and prompting the announcement of an upcoming pacification effort in Fallujah.

In April 2005 six Blackwater independent contractors were killed in Iraq when their Mi-8 helicopter was shot down. Also killed were three Bulgarian crewmembers and two Fijian gunners. Initial reports indicate the helicopter was shot down by rocket propelled grenades. The six Americans killed have been identified as:

Robert Jason Gore, of Nevada, Iowa
Luke Adam Petrik of Conneaut, Ohio
Jason Obert of Fountain, Colorado
Steve McGovern of Lexington, Kentucky
Erick Smith of Waukesha, Wisconsin
David Patterson of Havelock, North Carolina

The three Bulgarians have been identified as:

Lyubomir Kostov
Georgi Naidenov
Stoyan Anchev

Blackwater USA was employed to assist the Hurricane Katrina relief efforts on the Gulf Coast. According to a company press release, it provided airlift services, security services, humanitarian support services, and logistics and transportation services. Unofficial reports claim that the company also provided law enforcement services, such as securing neighborhoods and confronting criminals.^[5]

On January 23, 2007, five Blackwater contractors were killed in Iraq when their Hughes H-6 helicopter was shot down. The incident happened in Baghdad, Haifa street. Three Iraqi insurgent groups claimed responsibility for shooting down the helicopter, however, this has not been confirmed by the US.^[6] A US defense official has confirmed that four of the five killed were shot execution style in the back the head, but did not know whether the four were still alive when they were shot.^[7] Robert Young Pelton (the only writer who has been allowed to live, work and travel with Blackwater in Iraq) broke the full details of the crash on his site. Pelton also met and flew with the Little Bird pilots.^[8]

[edit] Controversy and criticism

In March 2006, Cofer Black, vice chairman of Blackwater USA, allegedly suggested at an international conference in Amman, Jordan, that the company is ready to move towards providing security professionals up to brigade size for humanitarian efforts and low intensity conflicts. Critics have suggested this may be going too far in putting political decisions in the hands of privately owned corporations.^[9] The company denies this was ever said.^[10]

Blackwater USA is sometimes chided by its critics for being "mercenaries" or "soldiers of fortune". In this sense, Blackwater often receives the labeling of being a disaster capitalism corporation. Private security contractors aroused anger in Iraq when it was claimed that they were made immune to Iraqi legal prosecution due to laws in effect dating from Iraq's Coalition Provisional Authority signed by L. Paul Bremer.^[11]

The documentary film Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers suggests that the company has been partially responsible for the Abu Ghraib scandal.

Blackwater is currently being sued by the families of the four contractors killed in Fallujah in March, 2004. The families allege that they are not suing for financial damages, but rather for the details of their sons' and husbands' deaths. They claim that Blackwater has refused to supply these details, unless the families sue. Four family members testified in front of the House Government Reform Committee on February 7, 2007. They asked that Blackwater be held accountable for future negligence of employees' lives, and that Federal legislation be drawn up to govern contracts between the Department of Defense and the defense contractor. [1]

On April 19, 2006, The Nation published an article concerning the lawsuit against Blackwater brought by some of the families of four deceased employees.^[12] The article discusses the removal of the word "armoured" from already signed contracts and other allegations of wrongdoing. The author of the article, Jeremy Scahill, has also published a book criticizing Blackwater USA.^[13]