Blackwater Open For Business and the State Department is Buying

In the market for a private army? You can probably purchase Blackwater — yes, the infamous team of private military contractors employed by the U.S. government in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq — for very cheap.

That's because the company's owner, Erik Prince, announced earlier this month that the firm is up for sale. Sources close to the company claim that Prince intends to sell the company quickly, in a "fast move within a couple of months," after which he plans to leave the country and relocate to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

In its statement to the public announcing the planned sale earlier this month, Blackwater stated, "Xe's new management team has made significant changes and improvements to the company over the last 15 months, which have enabled the company to better serve the U.S. government and other customers, and will deliver additional value to a purchaser."

But, it is altogether unclear how much value a company that is at the center of a host of pending civil lawsuits in U.S. courts for crimes in Iraq could hold for potential buyers.

The list of alleged crimes is extensive: Prince is currently being sued in North Carolina by the family of the 9-year-old Iraq boy, Ali Kinani, who was allegedly shot in the head and killed by company operatives in the Nisour Square massacre in Baghdad in 2007. Two former employees also have alleged in sworn declarations filed last August that the company transported "illegal" weapons into Iraq on Prince's private planes. One suggested that the company attempted to cover-up its actions by destroying documents and even killing sources, stating that "it appears that Mr. Prince and his employees murdered, or had murdered, one or more persons who have provided information, or who were planning to provide information, to the federal authorities about the ongoing criminal conduct."

Not to mention that five senior company officials — including former president Gary Jackson — have been indicted by a federal grand jury on bribery, weapons, conspiracy, and obstruction of justice charges, and the company has been indicted for killing innocent civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan.

With the company at the center of such deep and widespread allegations of wrongdoing, it should come as no surprise that Prince is trying to cut his losses in the face of controversy. Indeed, Prince intimated that such a move was coming back in December 2009, when he told Vanity Fair magazine that he was "through" with private military contracting.

What is notable, however, is Prince's planned relocation to the UAE, a small American-ally nation at the center of the U.S. military efforts in the Middle East with no extradition treaty with the United States. Such a move would make it extremely difficult to prosecute Prince for criminal charges in U.S. courts. According to international law expert Scott Horton, "If Prince were not living in the U.S., it would be far more complicated for U.S. prosecutors to commence an action against him." The UAE would be a jurisdiction where "Prince could count on it not being simple for the U.S. to pursue him legally."

One courageous step that President Obama could take to put a damper in Prince's plans would be to make it more difficult for Prince to swiftly sell his company, by canceling Blackwater's millions of dollars worth of contracts to provide diplomatic security and train Afghan forces in Afghanistan. But, the Obama administration evidently has little problem with continuing to employ the company, as the State Department recently announced that it has awarded United States Training Center — another name for Blackwater — yet another lucrative security contract worth $120 million dollars to protect U.S. officials in Afghanistan.

Fortunately, there is an effort in Congress led by Representative Jan Schakowsky and Senator Bernie Sanders to phase out the use of private security contractors by the government, with a bill called the Stop Outsourcing Security Act. Schakowsky immediately opposed the State Department's decision to award a new contract to Blackwater stating, "Instead of punishing Blackwater for its extensive history of serious abuses the State Department is rewarding the company with up to $120 million in taxpayer funds."

Sign the petition to support the effort to ban the government from employing Blackwater and other private military contractors in America's wars abroad, before Erik Prince has the chance to sell his company and ride off into the Arabian sunset.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons