Over at Danger Room, Spencer Ackerman has been doing some stellar reporting on the who's who among the private security contractors that have gotten a share of the State Department's $10 billion Worldwide Protective Services contract. Eight firms got a slice: DynCorp, Triple Canopy, EOD Technology, SOC, Aegis Defense Services, Global Strategies Group, Torres International Services and International Development Solutions LLC.
Wondering if dem franchise boys at Blackwater missed out on wetting their beak? Well, remember the last name on the list above and wonder no more:
Don't see any of Blackwater's myriad business names on there? That's apparently by design.
Blackwater and the State Department tried their best to obscure their renewed relationship. As Danger Room reported Wednesday, Blackwater did not appear on the vendors' list for Worldwide Protective Services. And the State Department confirms that the company, renamed Xe Services, didn't actually submit its own independent bid.
Instead, they used a blandly named cut-out, "International Development Solutions," to retain a toehold into State's lucrative security business. No one who looks at the official announcement of the contract award would have any idea that firm is connected to Blackwater.
Look, it's not like this little bit of prestidigitation has snowed anybody in the government, they just do not care. And there's plenty more that lawmakers just do not care about. Today, Spencer returns with a full report on all of the shady things that a private security firm can do and still walk away with a wheelbarrow full of your tax dollars. They include killing civilians, lying to investigators, retaliating against whistle-blowers, stealing guns, running guns, shooting those guns for no reason, and getting yourself juiced on steroids so that you can get through a day of stealing and running and shooting guns, sometimes at civilians, killing them.
Of course, I see that DynCorp is on the list, so here's a thing-you-can-do-and-still-get-awarded-contracts that Spencer missed: you can run prostitution rings out of a war zone. Here's DynCorp, running a prostitution ring in Iraq. Here they are, doing the same thing in Bosnia. You know the line that really, really haunts me? It's "My girl's not a day over 12." But your lawmakers, they just simply do not care.
Obviously, the good news is that these private contractors have every incentive in the world to help bring America's long wars to an end, right?
RELATED:
Exclusive: Blackwater Wins Piece of $10 Billion Mercenary Deal [Danger Room]
You Can Shoot People, Run Guns, and Still Win Big Gov't Contracts [Danger Room]
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