Blackwater

About

Blackwater refers to a company originally formed as "Blackwater USA" and currently known as "Academi". Blackwater is a mercenary training company based in Moyock (Currituck County), North Carolina, United States. The company owns 6,000 acres in Currituck and neighboring Camden County.

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Blackwater appears to be part of the growing privatization of the US military.

Names

• 1997: founded as "Blackwater USA"
• 2002: new subdivision: "Blackwater Security Consulting" (BSC)
• 2009: changed name to "Xe Services LLC"
• 2010: acquired Greystone Limited
• 2011: changed name to "Academi" in an attempt to "sound more boring"
• (date unknown) subdivision: "Blackwater Vehicles"

Monsanto

A 2010 article in Pravda (and reposted here), citing a 2010 report in The Nation by Jeremy Scahill, claimed that Blackwater had been sold to Monsanto. Scahill's article did not actually say this, but what it did say was almost as alarming:

...Blackwater, through Total Intelligence, sought to become the "intel arm" of Monsanto, offering to provide operatives to infiltrate activist groups organizing against the multinational biotech firm.

Issuepedia does not yet have any information about whether Blackwater was successful in their efforts.

Notes

• Blackwater was implicated in a 2007-09-16 attack in Baghdad in which 11 Iraqi civilians were reported killed. [1][2]
• Although Currituck County attempted to fine the non-profit owners of a lighthouse $100 per day in 2004 for failing to meet standards which were put into place two years after the nonprofit opened the lighthouse up to the public (which in turn took place after the County lost the battle for ownership of the site -- sounds like vindictiveness to me -W.), the County was more than happy to amend its development ordinance to allow Blackwater to expand firearms ranges, parachute landing zones and explosives training sites. [3]

Links

Reference

• Wikipedia
• Conservapedia no article as of 2007-10-01
• dKosopedia
• SourceWatch

to file

• 2007-11-01 Blackwater "Fire Relief" a PR Campaign to Win Hearts and Minds, Timed to Influence Voters: "It was Blackwater VP Brian Bonfiglio, aided by local politicians, who was able to get through the sheriff's blockade to enter area and hand out supplies and Blackwater-logo pins to hungry and newly homeless residents from the back of his white Hummer, all while community-based relief efforts were thwarted and delayed by local law enforcement."
• 2007-10-15 Blackwater Is Soaked by Rod Nordland and Mark Hosenball: 'The colonel was furious. "Can you believe it? They actually drew their weapons on U.S. soldiers." He was describing a 2006 car accident, in which an SUV full of Blackwater operatives had crashed into a U.S. Army Humvee on a street in Baghdad's Green Zone. The colonel, who was involved in a follow-up investigation and spoke on the condition he not be named, said the Blackwater guards disarmed the U.S. Army soldiers and made them lie on the ground at gunpoint until they could disentangle the SUV. His account was confirmed by the head of another private security company. Asked to address this and other allegations in this story, Blackwater spokesperson Anne Tyrrell said, "This type of gossip has led to many soap operas in the press."'
• 2007-10-05 The Blackwater Massacre: "Private" Contractors Terrorize Iraq by Justin Raimondo
• 2007-10-03 Religious Left (news briefs): "The Southern Life Community, a consortium of faith-based peace communities in the South, will gather in Virginia Beach, Va., Oct. 19-21. The weekend will include an Oct. 20 March and possible civil disobedience at the global headquarters of Blackwater USA in Moyock, N.C., the 7,000-acre private military base where the company trains a private security force."
• 2007-10-01 Report Depicts Recklessness at Blackwater: "Guards working in Iraq for Blackwater USA have shot innocent Iraqi civilians and have sought to cover up the incidents, sometimes with the help of the State Department, a report to a Congressional committee said today."
• 2007-01-08 Blackwater USA: Onward Christian Soldiers by Al Cronkrite: a rather rightwing-religious, anti-Israel, anti-religious-diversity perspective which seems to start arguing that commercializing the armed forces is a bad idea, and then gets completely caught up in doctrinal discussions about evangelism and other topics.
• 2004-07-21 Currituck's priorities, letter to the editor by Debbie L. Hill of Hillsborough, NC
• 2003-07-23 Soldiers of good fortune by Barry Yeoman: "They fly helicopters, guard military bases and provide reconnaissance. They're private military companies – and they're replacing U.S. soldiers in the war on terrorism."