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WASHINGTON: The Central Intelligence Agency has terminated a contract with the security company formerly called Blackwater Worldwide that allowed the company to load bombs on CIA drones in Pakistan and Afghanistan, intelligence officials said. The contract gave employees with the company an operational role in one of the CIA’s most significant covert programs, which has killed dozens of militants with Predator and Reaper drones. The company’s involvement highlighted the extent to which the CIA had outsourced critical jobs to private companies since the 9/11 attacks. The contract with the company, now called Xe Services, was canceled this year by Leon...

If you would like to, I posted a link to sign a petition to Cease and Desist any and all charges brought against the 3 United States Navy Seals . So far there is 22,454 signatures

Blackwater Guards Tied to Secret Raids by the C.I.A. By JAMES RISEN and MARK MAZZETTI WASHINGTON — Private security guards from Blackwater Worldwide participated in some of the C.I.A.’s most sensitive activities — clandestine raids with agency officers against people suspected of being insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan and the transporting of detainees, according to former company employees and intelligence officials. The raids against suspects occurred on an almost nightly basis during the height of the Iraqi insurgency from 2004 to 2006, with Blackwater personnel playing central roles in what company insiders called “snatch and grab” operations, the former employees...

Secretary of Defense The Pentagon Washington, DC Dear Secretary Gates: We, the editors and staff of HUMAN EVENTS, and the many Americans who have attached their signatures to this petition, hereby request your personal intervention to dismiss the charges against Navy SEAL operators SO2 Jonathan Keefe, SO1 Julio Huertas and SO2 Matthew McCabe. These three men are charged with abusing a terrorist they captured in a daring nighttime raid on or about 1 September 2009. On that night, they -- as part of a platoon from SEAL Team 10 -- captured and detained Ahmed Hashim Abed, one of the most...

Law: American heroes are arraigned for allegedly punching a terrorist in wartime. What happens to Tiger Woods isn't vital to our country's future. What happens to Matthew McCabe, Julio Huertas and Jonathan Keefe is. People are more likely to recognize the names of Tiger's alleged bimbo eruptions than the names of these three Navy SEALs we sent into battle. They are not household names in a nation consumed with Climate Gate, the public option and the antics of billionaire athletes. An administration consumed with apologies has said the architect of 9/11's massacre, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, must be given all the...

In May 2009, NBC News aired David Gregory’s interview with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari in which Mr. Zardari said that “we knew” that Osama bin Laden was “your operator” in the 1980s. He also said that he believed Osama bin Laden was working on behalf of the U.S. government to destabilize Pakistan and to “overthrow the first woman elected in an Islamic country.” Zadari claimed to have gotten that information from his late wife, Benazir Bhutto, who was the prime minister of Pakistan at the time. But perhaps the most outrageous allegation came just last month, from Pakistan’s Taliban...

"Government Has Yet to Provide Evidence to Support Its Prosecution of Navy Seals for Alleged Punching of Terrorist" SNIPPET: "Norfolk, Va. (CNSNews.com) – Though trial dates have been set for mid-January, defense attorneys for three Navy SEALs charged with offenses arising from the alleged punching a terror suspect in the mid-section said at an arraignment on Monday in Norfolk, Va., that the government still had not provided any evidence in the case. If defense attorneys do not get the evidence soon enough to review it, it might raise the need for a delay in the trial date, said Monica Lombardi,...

RICHMOND, Va.—Two Navy SEALs are scheduled to be arraigned Monday in military court on charges that they mistreated an Iraqi suspect in the gory slayings of four U.S. contractors in Fallujah. One of the SEALs is accused of punching the detainee after his September arrest, while the other is accused of lying to investigators. A third SEAL also accused of lying to investigators about the episode will be arraigned later. All three men have men have received an outpouring of support from people who view them as heroes. A Facebook page created to support the SEALs had more than 45,000...

<p>It was reported this week that Holland native Erik Prince is severing ties to Blackwater, the controversial international security firm he founded, complaining that he had been "thrown under the bus."</p> <p>In that context, Vanity Fair's profile of Prince is a compelling read. Prince invited the magazine to tour the headquarters of Blackwater (now called Xe) in North Carolina and examine its operation in Afghanistan, presumably to clear the air.</p>

The Navy Seals facing court martial for the alleged abuse of a terror suspect arrested for killing four Americans face up to a year in military confinement, discharge for bad conduct, and forfeiture of two-thirds of their pay for a year, if convicted, according to defense attorneys.

The Navy Seals facing court martial for the alleged abuse of a terror suspect arrested for killing four Americans face up to a year in military confinement, discharge for bad conduct, and forfeiture of two-thirds of their pay for a year, if convicted, according to defense attorneys. Further, their attorneys said that the possibilty that they would not be able to cross-examine their clients' accuser would be grounds for dismissing the case. The accuser, Ahmed Hashim Abed, is the alleged architect of the murder of four Blackwater USA security guards in Fallujah, Iraq, in 2004. The bodies of the four...

The fact that this case has come this far shows an astonishing lack of perspective. While these three patriotic young men stand before a military judge to answer a terrorist complaint about an alleged thrown punch, CIA- and Air Force-operated drone aircraft rain hellfire missiles on terror suspects, killing them and anyone who happens to be nearby, whether or not they have the right target. Fighting a war is dirty business. As George Orwell is reputed to have said, "we sleep soundly in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would...

Dec 7 Navy SEALs Courts-Martial PROTEST - Norfolk Virginia SUPPORT OUR TROOPS! Type: Causes - Protest Network: Global Date: Monday, December 7, 2009 Time: 8:00am - 6:00pm Location: Naval Station Norfolk City/Town: Norfolk, VA Description As most of you already know, some of our military’s most elite, the Navy SEALs are under fire from the US Government for none other than bloodying the lip of one of the most wanted terrorists in Iraq, the alleged mastermind of the murder and mutilation of four Blackwater USA security guards in Fallujah in 2004. Matthew McCabe, Petty Officer Jonathan Keefe & Petty Officer...

War On Terror: As Khalid Sheikh Mohammed receives the benefits of U.S. justice, three Navy SEALs face court-martial for allegedly punching a captured terrorist who hanged Americans from a bridge in Fallujah. Apparently our efforts to impress the world about the marvels of our criminal justice system require us to give foreign terrorists such as Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the man who invented the manned cruise missiles that flew into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and plowed into a Pennsylvania field on its way to the Capitol Building, the full rights and protections of the American citizens he conspired...

The military is throwing the book at three terrorist-hunting Navy SEALs who captured one of the most wanted in Iraq. It seems one of the commandos may have punched Ahmed Hashim Abed, who intelligence reports said planned the bloody ambush of four Blackwater USA security guards in Fallujah, Iraq, five years ago. Instead of plaudits, three SEALs face court-martial in January. And conservatives are expressing outrage to HUMAN EVENTS. Abed, whom the U.S. command designated "Objective Amber," was nabbed in darkness Sept. 3 by a platoon of commandos from SEAL Team 10, based in Norfolk. The next few hours proved...

The SEALs took down Ahmed Hasim Abed, the alleged mastermind of a ghastly 2004 incident in which four American contractors who worked security for Blackwater USA, were murdered in Fallujah and two of the bodies were hung from a bridge over the Euphrates River. But instead of being praised as heroes, the SEALs are all facing charges and have hired lawyers, FoxNews.com reported.

Navy SEALs have secretly captured one of the most wanted terrorists in Iraq — the alleged mastermind of the murder and mutilation of four Blackwater USA security guards in Fallujah in 2004. And three of the SEALs who captured him are now facing criminal charges, sources told FoxNews.com.

In yet another exercise in flaunting its “sensitivity”, the Navy is prosecuting three of our extraordinary Navy SEALS for slugging a terrorist. Not just any terrorist, mind you. Ahmed Hashim Abed was the mastermind of the annihilation and mutilation of four Blackwater security guards whose mission on that day was to transport supplies for a catering company. “The Fallujah atrocity came to symbolize the brutality of the enemy in Iraq,and the degree to which a homegrown insurgency was extending its grip over Iraq.” Little Abed was considered a high value target whose capture should be feted. Three of our elite...

Navy SEALs have secretly captured one of the most wanted terrorists in Iraq — the alleged mastermind of the murder and mutilation of four Blackwater USA security guards in Fallujah in 2004. And for their trouble, three of the SEALs, members of the Navy's elite commando unit, are now facing criminal charges, sources told FoxNews.com. The three have refused non-judicial punishment — called an admiral's mast — and requested a trial by court-martial. Ahmed Hashim Abed, whom the military code-named "Objective Amber," told investigators he was punched by his captors — and he had the bloody lip to prove it....

The Justice Department intends to drop manslaughter and weapons charges against one of the Blackwater Worldwide security guards involved in a deadly 2007 Baghdad shooting, prosecutors said in court documents Friday. The shooting in busy Nisoor Square left 17 Iraqis dead and inflamed anti-American sentiment abroad. It touched off a string of investigations that ultimately led the State Department to cancel the company's lucrative contract to guard diplomats in Iraq. Iraqis have said they're watching closely to see how the U.S. judicial system handles the five men accused of unleashing an unprovoked attack on civilians with machine guns and grenades....

Pakistan Bloggers Expose Blackwater and U.S Covert Ops in Pakistan Pakistanis Angered over U.S. Security Forces Antics University Town of Peshawar Center of Blackhawk Activies, U.S. to Employ 1,000 Marines to Guard U.S.'s Largest Embassy in Islamabad If you asked the average American what they knew about the war on terror and the U.S. military and Pakistan, they might tell you that the U.S. military involvement is a "small one", that the U.S. "involvement" is in the form of aid, or that the military is using drones to combat al-Qaeda based on reports by CNN and the MSM. While the...

Lawyers for five former Blackwater contractors facing manslaughter charges over an alleged massacre in Iraq are demanding that the U.S. government arrange armed security for the defense team as it heads into the dangerous streets of Baghdad to gather evidence and interview witnesses. The Obama administration could soon face a stark choice: Order U.S. commanders in Iraq to give the defense attorneys a military escort for their trip, or throw into jeopardy the prosecution of one of the worst alleged atrocities of the Iraq war. The defense lawyers complain that U.S. prosecutors and FBI agents had military help to gather...

A U.S. district judge closed the Blackwater manslaughter pretrial hearings to the public, he said, to enable a fair trial by shielding witnesses and potential jurors from a flurry of media reports. -DB The Washington Post October 15, 2009 By Del Quentin WilberA federal judge blocked the public Wednesday from attending a critical set of pretrial hearings in the prosecution of five U.S. security contractors accused of killing 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians in 2007.The hearings, which are expected to last through next week, will examine whether the government improperly used immunized statements by the Blackwater Worldwide security guards in its...

Article in Leading Pakistani Daily: Blackwater 'Is Funded and Operated by the Global Zionists... Bent on Wreaking Havoc'   http://www.memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD258209 In an article in the Pakistani newspaper The Frontier Post, Pakistani writer Zaki Khalid calls the Blackwater private security firm a Crusader force operating as part of the global Zionist plan to destabilize Pakistan.Following are some excerpts from the article, entitled "Blackwater and Affiliates: History and Intentions," in the original English. [1] Bush Was Referring to Blackwater When He Said, After 9/11: "This Is Not a War, But a Crusade""Blackwater! This is the name of one of the world's...

In the name of fighting terror, anything is permitted: FEMA camps, merc takeover of American towns, enemies of the state lists, the harassment of citizens, roadblocks, making lists of gun owners. The American people continue to support anything as long as it is branded with the “anti-terror” bumper sticker. People need to wake up. The excuse called “terror” will only last so long – until it is too late to regret. Our constitutional government is OVER. It is time that we stop trying to revive the corpse and start waking up to the reality that we need to stick together...

Blackwater involved in Bhutto and Hariri hits: former Pakistani army chief Tehran Times Political Desk TEHRAN - Pakistan’s former chief of army staff, General Mirza Aslam Beg (ret.), has said the U.S. private security company Blackwater was directly involved in the assassinations of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto and former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri. Blackwater later changed its name and is now known as Xe. General Beg recently told the Saudi Arabian daily Al Watan that former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf had given Blackwater the green light to carry out terrorist operations in the cities of Islamabad, Rawalpindi,...

An American newspaper has revealed a new scandal committed by Blackwater (actually it was Armor Group - foreign 3rd world personnel) security guards protecting the American Embassy in the Afghan capital city of Kabul. The newspaper published a report titled ‘This is what our children are doing abroad’. The report said, “They are drinking vodka and peeing on themselves like animals. They intentionally run outside naked and then pour vodka over each other’s asses.” The newspaper wondered, “What makes the Pentagon deal with these ‘special companies’ that cause harm and kill in a criminal way?” The newspaper noted, “Their ‘gay...

I posted the following message on the CBS message board yesterday and also sent the same message to Fox News' Bill O'Reilly. If you agree with my message, I would appreciate it if you would forward this e-mail to others in your address book. I believe this is very important and a "grass roots" effort may be the only way to force Dan Rather, CBS, and others to accept the responsibility of their careless and destructive actions: "I think all American citizens should be outraged at CBS for making the "abuse" pictures public. CBS has done serious damage to the...

WASHINGTON — From a secret division at its North Carolina headquarters, the company formerly known as Blackwater has assumed a role in Washington’s most important counterterrorism program: the use of remotely piloted drones to kill Al Qaeda’s leaders, according to government officials and current and former employees. The division’s operations are carried out at hidden bases in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where the company’s contractors assemble and load Hellfire missiles and 500-pound laser-guided bombs on remotely piloted Predator aircraft, work previously performed by employees of the Central Intelligence Agency. They also provide security at the covert bases, the officials said. The...

News of 'Targeted Killing' Program Precedes Interrogation Report, Possible Probe The disclosure Wednesday of the CIA's decision five years ago to let a private security contractor help manage its sensitive effort to kill senior al-Qaeda members drew congressional criticism Thursday on the eve of key decisions by the Obama administration that current and former intelligence officials fear could compound the spy agency's political troubles. Those decisions include the expected release Monday of newly declassified portions of a 2004 CIA report that questions the legality and effectiveness of the agency's harsh interrogations at secret prisons. Additionally, Attorney General Eric H. Holder...

The Central Intelligence Agency in 2004 hired outside contractors from the private security contractor Blackwater USA as part of a secret program to locate and assassinate top operatives of Al Qaeda, according to current and former government officials. Executives from Blackwater, which has generated controversy because of its aggressive tactics in Iraq, helped the spy agency with planning, training and surveillance. The C.I.A. spent several million dollars on the program, which did not successfully capture or kill any terrorist suspects. The fact that the C.I.A. used an outside company for the program was a major reason that Leon E. Panetta,...

Blackwater tied to CIA assassination plot Firm's officials were recruited in effort to kill top al-Qaida operatives By MARK MAZZETTI WASHINGTON - The Central Intelligence Agency in 2004 hired outside contractors from the private security contractor Blackwater USA as part of a secret program to locate and assassinate top operatives of Al Qaeda, according to current and former government officials. Executives from Blackwater, which has generated controversy because of its aggressive tactics in Iraq, helped the spy agency with planning, training and surveillance. The C.I.A. spent several million dollars on the program, which did not capture or kill any terrorist...

he Nation is claiming to have information from informants that Blackwater founder Erik Prince is some sort of delusional latter-day Templar Knight, ordering murders to cover up his plot to wage war against the Islamic world. If it sounds a bit far-fetched … well, it should. Without going into the specific allegations being made in the consolidated civil cases, logic and factual errors in claims made in the article are troubling. See this claim from a man who claims to be a former member of the Blackwater management team, identified as John Doe #2: "Using his various companies, [Prince] procured...

The head of Blackwater and his employees may have killed or ordered the killing of people suspected of cooperating with federal investigators probing their activities, according to an anonymous affidavit filed in federal court Monday. The affidavit, one of two filed Monday, makes an extraordinary bundle of claims about the former Blackwater CEO, Erik Prince, and his employees. The existence of the documents was first reported by the Nation magazine Tuesday. They were filed as part of a civil suit against Prince and Blackwater by several Iraqis, which accuse the firm and owner of war crimes, wrongful death and more....

BAGHDAD (AFP) — US security firm Blackwater ended its operations in Iraq on Thursday, closing a controversial era for the company whose guards shot dead 17 civilians in Baghdad in 2007. "The task order for security protection operations held by Blackwater comes to an end today in Baghdad," American embassy spokeswoman Susan Ziadeh said, adding that Triple Canopy will replace it. The US State Department on March 31 awarded Virginia-based Triple Canopy a contract reportedly worth nearly a billion dollars to take over protection of US government personnel in Iraq. Linked agreements such as that for Presidential Airways, part of...

In September, Somali pirates captured a Ukrainian ship bound for Kenya that had a cargo of 33 T-72 tanks and other military equipment. Despite the presence of a number of U.S. Naval vessels, the pirates have refused to return the ship until they receive a $35 million ransom. The brazen assault made headlines around the world, but it was simply the highest-profile attack in the region of late. More than 70 shipping vessels have been attacked off the coast of Somalia in the past year. Eleven of those ships and 200 crew members are still being held for ransom by...

WASHINGTON — A leading U.S. security firm, whose officers have been charged with killing Iraqis, has been replaced. The State Department has replaced Blackwater Worldwide as a leading security contractor in Iraq. Blackwater, now known as Xe, has been replaced by Triple Canopy a month before the contract with the former was scheduled to expire. "The department awarded Triple Canopy the ground task order for protective security details in Baghdad after a thorough evaluation of proposals from each company that had submitted bids," State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid said. In a briefing on April 1, Duguid said Triple, based in...

FBI scientists were unable to match bullets from a deadly 2007 Baghdad shooting to guns carried by Blackwater Worldwide security guards, according to laboratory reports that leave open the possibility that insurgents also fired in the crowded intersection. Five Blackwater guards face manslaughter and weapons charges for their role in the shooting, which left 17 Iraqis dead and inflamed anti-U.S. sentiment abroad. Prosecutors say the contractors launched an unprovoked attack on civilians using machine guns and grenade launchers. The guards maintain their convoy was ambushed by insurgents. The FBI lab reports, obtained by The Associated Press from someone not involved...

Days after the Baghdad government decided it no longer wanted the company then known as Blackwater in Iraq, the State Department signed a $22.2 million deal in February to keep the embattled contractor working there through most of the summer, contract records show. The decision keeps Blackwater - since renamed Xe - in Iraq months longer than anyone has suggested publicly, while raising questions about why the U.S. would pay a contractor for work in Iraq if it may not be able to operate there legally. The State Department has been under pressure from Blackwater critics, including several in Congress,...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- A senior U.S. official says the State Department will not renew Blackwater Worldwide's contract to protect American diplomats in Iraq when it expires in May.

Iraq said Thursday it will bar Blackwater Worldwide from providing security protection for U.S. diplomats because its contractors used excessive force, sanctioning a company whose image was irrevocably tarnished by the 2007 killings of 17 Iraqi civilians. The move will deprive American diplomats of their main protection force in Iraq. The decision not to issue Blackwater an operating license was due to "improper conduct and excessive use of force," ...

Iraq will not allow Blackwater Worldwide to continue providing security protection for U.S. diplomats in the country, Iraqi and U.S. officials said Thursday. (snip) The decision not to issue Blackwater an operating license was due to "improper conduct and excessive use of force," said Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf.

Justice: Once again, Americans asked to put their lives on the line go on trial. Their crime was doing the very job we asked them to do in Iraq. Will they now be sacrificed for an ungrateful Iraq?On Tuesday, five members of a tactical support team of Blackwater Worldwide security guards in Iraq made their first appearance in U.S. District Court on charges ranging from voluntary manslaughter to the use of automatic weapons. The "crime" was protecting State Department personnel under fire in a war zone and firing back. On Sept. 16, 2007, 18 members of the "Raven 23" team...

WASHINGTON ---- Radio logs from a deadly 2007 shooting in Baghdad cast doubt on U.S. government claims that Blackwater Worldwide security guards were unprovoked when they killed 14 Iraqi civilians. The transcripts of Blackwater radio reports, obtained by The Associated Press, describe a hectic eight minutes in which the guards repeatedly reported incoming gunfire from insurgents and Iraqi police. Five guards face manslaughter and weapons charges for their roles in the shootings. A sixth has pleaded guilty. Prosecutors said the men unleashed a gruesome attack on unarmed Iraqis, including women, children and people trying to escape. But the radio logs...

WASHINGTON — The five Blackwater Worldwide guards indicted for a deadly 2007 Baghdad shooting are all decorated military veterans who have served in some of the world's most dangerous hotspots.

WASHINGTON – Five Blackwater Worldwide security guards surrendered and were being held for a court appearance Monday in connection with an investigation into a deadly 2007 shooting at a busy Baghdad intersection. The five guards are charged with manslaughter and using a machine gun in a crime of violence. Though they are charged in a sealed indictment in Washington, they surrendered at a federal courthouse in Salt Lake City. The Justice Department is preparing to make the charges public later Monday. Seventeen Iraqis were killed in the September 2007 shooting. Witnesses said the heavily armed U.S. contractors opened fire unprovoked,...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Associated Press has learned that five Blackwater Worldwide security guards indicted in a deadly Iraqi shooting plan to surrender to the FBI on Monday in Salt Lake City. 1 of the men is from North Texas. A person close to the case described the decision on condition of anonymity because the indictment against the men remains sealed. The five guards are all military veterans charged in a 2007 shooting in Baghdad that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead. The shooting strained U.S. diplomacy and fueled anti-American sentiment abroad.

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- Five Blackwater Worldwide security guards have been indicted and a sixth was negotiating a plea with prosecutors for a 2007 shooting that left 17 Iraqis dead and became an anti-American rallying cry for insurgents, people close to the case said Friday. ...Six guards have been under investigation since a convoy of heavily armed Blackwater contractors opened fire in a crowded Baghdad intersection on Sept. 16, 2007. Witnesses say the shooting was unprovoked but Blackwater, hired by the State Department to guard U.S. diplomats, says its guards were ambushed by insurgents while responding to a car bombing.

Pirates beware -- Blackwater Worldwide may be looking for you, and soon. That prospect certainly would shiver Bartholomew Roberts, better known as "Black Bart," down to his timbers if the infamous pirate hadn't been dead for the past 285 years. The North Carolina-based security firm, which came under fire from Congress over a shooting incident in Baghdad last year that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead, announced in October that its 183-foot ship, the McArthur, stands ready to assist the shipping industry as it struggles with the increasing problem of piracy in the Gulf of Aden and elsewhere. "Billions of dollars...

Blackwater Worldwide guards involved in the deadly 2007 Baghdad shooting of Iraqi civilians could face mandatory 30-year prison sentences under an aggressive anti-drug law being considered as the Justice Department readies indictments, people close to the case said. Charges could be announced as early as Monday for the shooting, which left 17 civilians dead and strained U.S. relations with the fledgling Iraqi government. Prosecutors have been reviewing a draft indictment and considering manslaughter and assault charges for weeks. A team of prosecutors returned to the grand jury room Thursday and called no witnesses. Though drugs were not involved in the...