Short Introduction
Xe is a private security company founded by Al Clark and Erick Prince and refered as black water. It is agency to provide security to governament as well as to private companies. 90% of their income is coming from governament and mostly from USA.
They are also being used in Iraq having an expired license. They are present in Iraq to provide security to US forces illegaly. It was founded with the name of Black Water but in 2009 it was changed to Xe. Xe is training more than 60,000 people a year.
US ambassador L. Paul Bremer (front L) and Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh (front R) guarded by private US security company personnel at the Baghdad International Airport. The Iraqi government revoked the license of Blackwater USA, one of the most prominent private US security firms operating in Iraq, after a firefight left eight civilians dead on 16 September 2007. EPA/STF. SGT. D. MYLES CULLEN/POOL
U.S. security contractor Blackwater has been involved in at least 195 shooting incidents in Iraq since 2005 and, in eight of 10 cases, their forces fired first, a leading U.S. lawmaker said on Monday, reported Reuters.
State Department contractor Blackwater is under investigation for the shooting deaths of 11 Iraqis on September 16, they will answer questions about that incident and its performance in Iraq at a Congressional hearing on Tuesday.
Senior State Department officials will also be grilled by the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform examining whether the growing use of military contractors is undermining U.S. efforts in Iraq.
Committee chair Rep. Henry Waxman, a vocal critic of the Iraq war, released details from Blackwater's own reports of multiple incidents involving Iraqi casualties.
The memorandum also deeply criticized the State Department's oversight of the company.
Reuters claims it contains reports of 195 shooting incidents from the start of 2005 until September 12 of this year, an average of 1.4 per week.
"In 32 of those incidents, Blackwater were returning fire after an attack while on 163 occasions (84 percent of the shooting incidents), Blackwater personnel were the first to fire," Waxman said.
Blackwater, which has been paid a little over $1 billion by the U.S. government since 2001, declined to comment on Waxman's memorandum.
"We look forward to setting the record straight on this and other issues" when Erik Prince, Blackwater's chief, testifies before the committee, spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell said, reported Reuters.
Waxman also criticized the State Department's handling of several incidents involving Blackwater and incidents of paying off victims' families, rather than investigating.
"It appears that the State Department's primary response was to ask Blackwater to make monetary payments to put the 'matter behind us' rather than to insist upon accountability or to investigate Blackwater personnel for potential criminal liability," said the memorandum.
In a shooting incident on December 24, 2006, a security guard for Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdul-Mahdi was killed by an allegedly drunken Blackwater contractor, who was then flown out of the countryand faced no charges.
One incident allegedly claimed Blackwater shooters killed an "innocent Iraqi."
Waxman said the State Department requested only a $5,000 payment to "put this unfortunate matter behind us quickly."
Blackwater protects U.S. embassy convoys in Iraq and, along with two other contractors, DynCorp and Triple Canopy, has a worldwide lucrative security deal with the State Department.
Waxman said reports provided by Blackwater show the North Carolina-based firm was involved in more shooting incidents in Iraq than the other two companies combined.
Xe in Pakistan
Islamabad - US private security outfit Blackwater has begun to expand its presence in Karachi port city in the backdrop of the Peshawar debacle last month when Craig Davis a suspected operative of the US company was caught red handed involved in objectionable activities.
Well-placed sources told The Nation on Monday that Blackwater, which has been operating in the region including in Afghanistan and Pakistan under different names, is believed to have hired on rent at least seven private houses in posh Defence area of Karachi port city.
Sources were not sure whether the move to hire houses was part of any long-term strategy or as a stopgap arrangement because plans were afoot to hire services of retired personnel of Pakistani law enforcement agencies to oversea various operations including logistical support to handle consignments of the US private security company.
It was further learnt from knowledgeable sources that Blackwater had acquired hundreds of acres of land near Pataro in Sindh in order to launch a supposedly Agriculture Research Institute.
Craig Davis along with some other US citizens came into spotlight in Peshawar after their Pakistani neighbours wrote a letter to the Interior Ministry demanding a thorough probe into their dubious activities.
Later Craig Davis was identified as operative of Creative Associates International Inc; a Washington- based US firm believed to be one the wings of Blackwater, now renamed Xe Worldwide. Davis, who had to leave Pakistan, is learnt to have returned again and resumed his “official” activities.
However, despite frequent attempts, it was not immediately possible to contact the US Embassy to confirm the status of Craig Davis.
BlackWater started its operations in 2007 in Pakistan. Since then, it has been involved in many under cover operations and establishment of offices in Pakistan. After changing its name to XE Worldwide, the mercenary army has penetrated in Peshawar, Islamabad and Karachi. This report reveals the covert operations that Blackwater is performing in Pakistan.
Xe Company or Black Water was founded in 1997 from a clear vision developed from an understanding of the need for innovative, flexible training and operational solutions to support security and peace, and freedom and democracy everywhere.
Xe Company founder is a former U. S. Navy SEAL. He created Blackwater on the belief that both the military and law enforcement establishments would require additional capacity to train fully our brave men and women in and out of uniform to the standards required to keep our country secure.
Blackwater USA consists of five separate business units: Blackwater Training Center (the largest private firearms and tactical training center in the U. S.), Blackwater Target Systems, Blackwater Security Consulting, Blackwater Canine, and Raven Development Group. We also have relationships with our strategic partners, Aviation Worldwide Services and Greystone Ltd.
Now working as US Training Center and Xe Company Worldwide
Peshawar - Fear is spreading across University Town, an upmarket residential area in Pakistan's north-western city of Peshawar, due to the overt presence of the controversial US private security contractor Blackwater.
Sporting the customary dark glasses and carrying assault rifles, the mercenaries zoom around the neighbourhood in their black-coloured armoured Chevy Suburbans, and shout at motorists when occasionally stranded in a traffic jam.
The residents are mainly concerned about Blackwater's reputation as a ruthless, unbridled private army whose employees face multiple charges of murder, child prostitution and weapons smuggling in Iraq.
'Sometimes, these guys stand in the streets and behave rudely with the passers-by, sometimes they point guns at people without provocation' said Imtiaz Gul, an engineer, whose home is a few hundred metres from the US contractor's base on Chanar Road in University Town.
'Who rules our streets, the Pakistani government or the Americans? They have created a state within the state,' he added.
Repeated complaints to the authorities have been to no avail since, according to residents.
Blackwater provides security to the employees of Creative Associates International Inc (CAII), an American company carrying out multi-million-dollar development projects in the country's Islamic militancy-plagued Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).
Founded in 1997 by Erik Prince, a former US Navy SEAL officer and a major contributor to Republican Party candidates, Blackwater has hired thousands of former military personnel from Western countries as well as other mercenaries from the Third World.
It emerged as the largest of the US Department of State's private security companies, winning multi-million-dollar contracts globally, but attracted a lot of media attention in September 2007 when its personnel killed 17 civilians in an unprovoked shooting while escorting a convoy of US State Department vehicles to a meeting in Baghdad.
The firm is now facing a civil lawsuit filed in the US state of Virginia by those who were injured and who lost family members in the massacre.
The company faces charges of human rights violations, child prostitution and possible supply of weapons to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, an Iraqi group designated by United Nations, European Union and NATO as a terrorist organization. It has been declared persona non grata in Iraq.
To conceal its bad reputation, the shadowy company renamed itself Xe Worldwide in February 2009 and Prince resigned as its chief executive officer the following month.
In Pakistan, the Interior Ministry asked the regional governments of all four provinces to keep an eye on the activities of Blackwater in early 2008, immediately after it was believed to have been hired by CAII, according to a media report.
CAII works locally under the name of FATA Development Programme Government to Community (FDPGC).
Lou Fintor, a spokesman for the US embassy in Islamabad, said that Blackwater-Xe was not in any way associated with its missions in Pakistan. But the denial does not include the possibility that the security firm was working for a private US company.
Blackwater has recruited dozens of retired commandos from Pakistan's army and elite police force through its local sub-contractors, said an intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Some Pakistani security officials suggested that besides providing security to the aid workers, Blackwater was carrying out covert operations.
Among these were buying the loyalties of influential tribal elders and tracking the money flowing to al-Qaeda and Taliban through the national and international banks, something which perhaps goes far beyond the mandate of a private security firm.
Taliban and al-Qaeda militants who use the tribal regions to attack civilian and government targets inside Pakistan and NATO-led international forces in Afghanistan are also watching Blackwater's moves.
On June 9, suicide bombers drove an explosive-laden vehicle into Peshawar's sole five-star hotel, the Pearl Continental, after shooting the security guards, and detonated it at the side of the building where some Blackwater guards were staying.
Sixteen people died including four of the security firm's personnel - two Westerners and the same number of locals. Four more guards were injured.
The dead bodies and injured were moved quietly. Neither the Pakistani government nor any foreign official admitted these deaths, apparently at the request of US officials.
'Absolutely no comments,' Qazi Jamil, the senior superintendent of police in Peshawar said abruptly when German Press Agency dpa asked him about the Blackwater deaths.
But a minister in the North-West Frontier Province government, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he knew that some US private guards died but did not know how many and which firm they were from.
'The provincial government was not directly dealing with the issue. It's the federal intelligence agencies that handled it,' said the minister.
The possibility that Islamist militants might be plotting more attacks on the contractors is also a source of concern for many residents in University Town.
'In the first week of July we requested the interior minister in a letter that targets like Blackwater should be kept away from the residential areas,' said Ihsan Toro, a trader and member of council of citizens in University Town.
Police allege that the weapons were not licencedThe offices of the Inter-Risk company were entered and around 70 weapons were seized and two personnel arrested.
Officials in Pakistan allege that the haul of 61 assault riffles, nine pistols and ammunition were unlicensed.
It follows allegations that the US is using the security firm once known as Blackwater. The US embassy in Islamabad denies it has any contract with them.
The media in Pakistan have reported that the US embassy in Islamabad was involved in hiring the firm Xe services, formerly known as Blackwater, a company which was embroiled in allegations of civilian killings while hired to protect US diplomats in Iraq.
A spokesman for the US embassy, Rick Snelsire, has confirmed a contract with Inter-Risk exists and said that “It is our understanding they [Inter-Risk] obtained licenses [for] whatever they brought into the country to meet their contractual needs.”
The US has denied it uses Xe services in Pakistan.
A senior police official, Rana Akram, said that two Inter-Risk employees were detained and are being questioned. They were now seeking the company’s owner, a retired Pakistani army captain, the official added.
Police have denied any connection between the raid on Inter-Risk and the US embassy, but said they were working to protect foreigners living in the Islamabad and increasing vigilance ahead of the Muslim feast which marks the end of Ramadan.
More Soon
0 comments:
Post a Comment