Blackwater is the largest of the U.S. State Department's three private security contractors. At least 90 percent of Blackwater's revenue comes from American government contracts, two-thirds of which are no-bid. This broke yesterday:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/11/world ... anted=1&hp

Blackwater Said to Pursue Bribes to Iraq After 17 Died

WASHINGTON — Top executives at Blackwater Worldwide authorized secret payments of about $1 million to Iraqi officials that were intended to silence their criticism and buy their support after a September 2007 episode in which Blackwater security guards fatally shot 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad, according to former company officials.

THE GOVERNMENT IS TRYING TO CONTROL MY HEALTH CARE!!!

this firm and "curveball"

thus US govt should really stop trusting people and companies with suspicious sounding name

Blackwater is nothing compared to ACORN, though.

Blackwater has changed their name to something less suspicious: Xe

No shit.

Nothing to see here... http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090817/scahill

I think you have it the other way around.

Maybe if you try to make it even more of a schtick, more people will listen.

Acorn should be mocked for actually having an Acorn as their logo though.

like ohio state

yeah also they're fucking assholes

For the record, Buckeyes (the fruit/nut of the tree, whatever it is) smell like semen. We had a few on my college campus, and at certain times of year they reeked. We called them "the jizz trees".

I find it mildly amusing that you will insinuate that this is actually more important and substantive than the government trying to control the healthcare system of America.

Blackwater pays really well for some jobs. You could earn ~$15k/month for computer/security tasks in Iraq a couple years ago. I'm just saying...

Is there any particular reason why the military or some other specialized agency doesn't protect diplomats?

b/c our country doesn't have enough soldiers to do it.

Because there is a lot of money to be made giving huge contracts to friends private companies.

i could be wrong here, maybe lw or bhed can confirm:

private firms arent held to the same standard as our military forces

Xe sounds Orwellian

There are two parts, the first part, as noted, is that contractors do not play by the same rules. But thankfully things are starting to level off. The actions of Blackwater, particularly in Baghdad, were having seriou s negative consequences to the broader mission.

The second part is politics. It's better politically to have news reports say you have 120,000 troops there with 60,000 secret unadvertised contractors on the ground filling in combat rolls and another 120,000 KBR employees than it is to have 300,000 troops on the ground.

yeah, much better.