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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Blackwater’s New Sugar Daddy: The Obama Administration

The CIA says it can't live without Blackwater. The State Department too. Could any of this be related to the big money Blackwater spends on Democratic lobbyists?

Blackwater has spent heavily on Democratic lobbyists in 2010 and clearly it has paid off. Despite the investigations, the indictments, the trail of dead bodies, George W Bush’s favorite mercenary company is thriving under the Obama Administration. After its original sugar daddy left town, Blackwater has happily remarried. Over the past two weeks, the Administration has awarded nearly a quarter billion dollars in new US government contracts to Blackwater to work for the State Department and CIA in Afghanistan and other hot zones globally.

In an interview Sunday on ABC’s "This Week," CIA Director Leon Panetta made it clear that the Agency is dependent upon private security companies to operate globally. But, not just any private security companies. Specifically, Panetta said, the CIA needs Blackwater.

"I have to tell you that in the war zone, we continue to have needs for security. You’ve got a lot of forward bases. We’ve got a lot of attacks on some of these bases. We’ve got to have security. Unfortunately, there are a few companies that provide that kind of security," Panetta told Jake Tapper. "So we bid out some of those contracts. [Blackwater] provided a bid that was underbid everyone else by about $26 million. And a panel that we had said that they can do the job, that they have shaped up their act. So there really was not much choice but to accept that contract." While Tapper specifically asked Panetta about Blackwater’s work in Afghanistan, the CIA contract is not limited to Afghanistan–it is a global contract.

https://www.thenation.com/article/blackwaters-new-sugar-daddy-obama-administration/

Really? Did you not know this?
[/quote]

The same Blackwater that Erik Prince had to sell and rebrand because they were persona non grata?

Keep smoking that pipe, buddy. He made the vast majority of his fortune under Republicans. [/quote]

What we are seeing clearly is the Obama administration not only using Blackwater in sensitive operations globally, but actively defending the company’s continued existence as a government contractor in good standing. Just look at the report about Blackwater and Sudan. According to McClatchy‘s investigation, two former senior U.S. officials said Blackwater "at one point proposed a broad defense package [for Southern Sudan’s Christian forces] that would have required the south to pledge as much as half its mineral wealth to pay for Blackwater’s services." According to McClatchy, "Had the company been indicted, it could have been suspended from doing business with the U.S. government, and a conviction could have brought debarment from all government contracts, including providing guard services for the CIA and State Department in war zones." Instead of indicting the company, the Justice Department protected Blackwater and opted for a settlement rather than a criminal prosecution thus ensuring the company could continute to work for the US government.

No one is paying any attention to what should be a major part of the story of Blackwater’s thriving second marriage to the current Administration: the money trail. Blackwater has spent heavily this year on lobbyists—particularly Democratic ones. In the first quarter of 2010, the company spent more than $500,000 for the services of Stuart Eizenstat, a well-connected Democratic lobbyist who served in the Clinton and Carter administrations. Eizenstat heads the international practice for the powerhouse law and lobbying firm Covington and Burling.

https://www.thenation.com/article/blackwaters-new-sugar-daddy-obama-administration/

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