US awards new security contract to replace Blackwater

[oldiebutgoodie]

The State Department said Wednesday it has awarded a contract to a new security firm to protect US diplomats on the ground in Baghdad after dropping the controversial Blackwater Worldwide, renamed Xe.

The department awarded the contract on Tuesday to the private firm Triple Canopy, which will start the transition immediately even if Xe will fill gaps until its contract ends in May, said Gordon Duguid, a department spokesman.

[...]

Duguid said no decision has been made yet to replace Presidential Airways, which is part of the former Blackwater, to fly helicopters for secure air travel. He added he did not know when Presidential Airways' contract ends.

But he said "we recognize that based on the government of Iraq's decision, the department has had to notify Xe in writing that it did not renew the company?s task order for the air order."

The firm, which made hundreds of millions of dollars protecting State Department officials in war zones, was banned from working in Iraq earlier this year because of a 2007 incident in Baghdad.

An Iraqi investigation found that 17 civilians were killed and 20 wounded then when Blackwater guards opened fire with automatic weapons while escorting an American diplomatic convoy through the Iraq capital.

US prosecutors say 14 civilians were killed in the incident. Five former Blackwater guards pleaded not guilty in January to manslaughter charges.

LINK

[WhiskeyGirl]

Is Triple Canopy, Inc. an improvement?   

The State Department said Wednesday it has awarded a contract to a new security firm to protect US diplomats on the ground in Baghdad after dropping the controversial Blackwater Worldwide, renamed Xe.

The department awarded the contract on Tuesday to the private firm Triple Canopy, which will start the transition immediately even if Xe will fill gaps until its contract ends in May, said Gordon Duguid, a department spokesman.

[...]

Duguid said no decision has been made yet to replace Presidential Airways, which is part of the former Blackwater, to fly helicopters for secure air travel. He added he did not know when Presidential Airways' contract ends.

But he said "we recognize that based on the government of Iraq's decision, the department has had to notify Xe in writing that it did not renew the company?s task order for the air order."

The firm, which made hundreds of millions of dollars protecting State Department officials in war zones, was banned from working in Iraq earlier this year because of a 2007 incident in Baghdad.

An Iraqi investigation found that 17 civilians were killed and 20 wounded then when Blackwater guards opened fire with automatic weapons while escorting an American diplomatic convoy through the Iraq capital.

US prosecutors say 14 civilians were killed in the incident. Five former Blackwater guards pleaded not guilty in January to manslaughter charges.

LINK

Whistleblowing lawsuit

A lawsuit filed in the Circuit Court of Fairfax County by two former Triple Canopy employees in July 2006 claims that their shift leader (later identified as Jacob Washbourne) deliberately fired at vehicles and civilians in two incidents, saying that it was his last day in Iraq and that he was determined "to kill someone today."...

Honduras

La Tribuna revealed in its headlines of September 18, 2005...Your Solutions, a Triple Canopy subsidiary...Approximatively 700 Peruvians, 250 Chileans and 320 Hondurans work in Baghdad’s Green Zone. La Tribuna also confirmed that the monthly pay was $1,000, with an additional $500 for English-speaking men.[6] The media revelation developed into a scandal, in particular concerning the illegal entry into Honduras and the high wage differential between South American personnel and US personnel working for Triple Canopy. US employees are paid between $400 to $700 USD a day.[5]...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_Canopy,_Inc.

JEREMY SCAHILL: Well, I’m starting to call a series of pieces I’m doing “Operation Rebranded,” because what we’re seeing unfold with the Obama administration’s foreign policy is basically continuing many of the worst parts of Bush’s foreign policy and sort of repackaging these policies. So, for instance, the Obama administration has dropped the use of the term "global war on terrorism” and uses phrases like “contingency operations” to describe the US occupation of Iraq. The latest news we have is that the Obama’s administration has decided on its mercenary firm of choice. Clearly, Obama did not want to continue at least a public relationship with Blackwater.

...Obama picked this firm Triple Canopy, which interestingly was founded in Chicago, in the home state of Barack Obama. And then in 2005, they changed their location to Herndon, Virginia, so that they’d be closer to the epicenter of US war contracting, though on the Israeli contract, that I’m going to talk about in a moment, they list their Lincolnshire, Illinois address as their primary address for the contract.

The news that I’m breaking on Triple Canopy, though, is that I obtained federal contracts that were signed in February and March by the Obama administration with Triple Canopy to act as a private paramilitary force operating out of Jerusalem. And this is also part of a very secretive State Department program called the Worldwide Personal Protective Service, which was started under the Clinton administration as a privatized wing of the State Department’s Diplomatic Security division. Triple Canopy was paid $5 million in February, March by the Obama administration to provide, quote, "security services” in Israel.

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/4/2/obamas_blackwater_jeremy_scahill_on_triple

Lot's of good reading.

[oldiebutgoodie]

WhiskeyGirl, I guess I just don't understand why, in dangerous combat areas, the U.S. Marines are not used to provide security for U.S. personnel. Civilian contractors' first priority is to the financial bottom line of their company. U.S. military's first priority is the security of the United States. Hello...