Private Security Company Blackwater (Later Xe or Craft Intl) is Formed - History Commons June 1997-May 1998

7/28/2019 Private Security Company Blackwater (Later Xe or Craft Intl) is Formed - History Commons June 1997-May 1998

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June 1997-May 1998: Private Security Company Blackwater Is

Formed

Blackwater logo. [Source:Blackwater]

2002: Blackwater Wins No-Bid CIA Contract

April 2002: Blackwater Deploys First Team to Afghanistan

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Context of 'June 1997-May 1998: Private Security CompanyBlackwater Is Formed'

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1997-May 1998: Private Security Company Blackwater Is Formed. You cannarrow or broaden the context of this timeline by adjusting the zoom level. Thelower the scale, the more relevant the items on average will be, while the higherthe scale, the less relevant the items, on average, will be.

In June 1997, three months after having beendischarged from active duty, ex-Navy Seal Erik Princeincorporates the Blackwater Training Center. Hepurchases more than 4000 acres in Currituck County,North Carolina, for $756,000, and nearly one thousandacres in Camden County for $616,000. The newcompound is built near the Great Dismal Swamp. The

stated idea behind Blackwater was “to fulfill theanticipated demand for government outsourcing of firearms and relatedsecurity training.” In May 1998, Blackwater opens for business. It is suggestedthat the early years of Blackwater are slow going, but the volume of secretcontracts makes that difficult to verify. [SCAHILL, 3/1/2007]

Entity Tags: Blackwater USA, Erik PrinceTimeline Tags: Iraq under US Occupation

Blackwater wins a no-bid contract worth $5.4 million from the CIA. The

nature of the contract is unknown, but it is reportedly obtained afterBlackwater head Eric Prince telephones the CIA’s Executive Director A. B.“Buzzy” Krongard. [HARPER'S, 9/12/2006]

Entity Tags: A.B. (“Buzzy”) Krongard, Blackwater USA, Central Intelligence Agency, ErikPrinceTimeline Tags: Misc Entries

A small team of contractors from the private security firm Blackwater isdeployed inside Afghanistan, as a result of a $5 million contract betweenBlackwater and the CIA (see 2002 and 2002). The contractors provide security

for the CIA at the agency’s station in Kabul and at “The Alamo,” a mudfortress in Shkin, along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. In May, Blackwaterfounder and owner Erik Prince, a former Navy SEAL, will fly to Afghanistan tohelp expand operations. The Kabul and Shkin deployments are the first in a

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5



2004: CIA Program to Assassinate and Capture Al-Qaeda Leaders

Terminated, then Revived and Outsourced to Blackwater

long, profitable relationship between the CIA and Blackwater. The relationshipstems from a long friendship between Prince and Alvin “Buzzy” Krongard, theCIA’s executive director. Prince formed another part of the Blackwater group,Blackwater Security Consulting, in early 2002 along with former CIA operativeJamie Smith; Krongard provided the firm with one of its first governmentcontracts. In 2006, Krongard will explain: “Blackwater got a contract becausethey were the first people that could get people on the ground. The onlyconcern we had was getting the best security for our people. If we thought

Martians could provide it, I guess we would have gone after them.” Therelationship between Krongard and Blackwater will deepen after the firstAfghanistan deployment, with Krongard making repeated visits to theBlackwater headquarters in North Carolina and even bringing his childrenalong to use Blackwater’s firing range. Prince was denied a position with theCIA, but will maintain a close relationship with the agency, and will receive“green badge” access to most CIA stations around the world. Krongard willjoin Blackwater’s board of directors in 2007. [NATION, 8/20/2009]

Entity Tags: Jamie Smith, A.B. (“Buzzy”) Krongard, Blackwater USA, Central IntelligenceAgency, Erik PrinceTimeline Tags: War in Afghanistan

A CIA program to kill and capture al-Qaeda leaders (see Shortly AfterSeptember 17, 2001) is terminated, and then revived under a new code nameand surreptitiously outsourced to the private military corporation Blackwater.[WASHINGTON POST, 8/20/2009; NEW YORK TIMES, 8/20/2009]

Outsourcing Kidnappings and Assassinations - The public will not learn of theprogram until 2009 (see August 19-20, 2009). The reason for the move is thatkey officials leave the CIA’s Counterterrorist Center, which had run theprogram, and go to work for Blackwater. A retired intelligence officer

intimately familiar with the assassination program will say of the reason forusing Blackwater, “Outsourcing gave the agency more protection in casesomething went wrong.” According to the Washington Post, the contract goesto Blackwater “in part because of its close ties to the CIA and because of itsrecord in carrying out covert assignments overseas.” [WASHINGTON POST, 8/20/2009]

Blackwater is given operational responsibility for targeting terroristcommanders, including planning and surveillance, and is awarded millions ofdollars for training and weaponry. Blackwater executives help the CIA inplanning, training, and surveillance exercises for team members. It remainsunclear whether Blackwater’s role is merely for training and surveillance, or ifBlackwater employees are slated to actually carry out kidnappings and

assassinations. A former official will say that the Blackwater phase involves“lots of time spent training,” mostly in the US. The teams reportedly simulatemissions that often involve kidnapping. “They were involved not only in tryingto kill but also in getting close enough to snatch,” the official will say.Blackwater does not have an official contract with the CIA; instead, individualexecutives, such as its founder and CEO Erik Prince, have contracts with theagency. [WASHINGTON POST, 8/20/2009; NEW YORK TIMES, 8/20/2009]

Program Never Implemented - Although the CIA spends several million dollarson the program, no one is actually captured or killed, and most of theprogram’s elements are never implemented. According to a former official,there is “much frustration” among team members at this. [WASHINGTON POST,

8/20/2009]Program Termination - The assassination program began in 2002, after the9/11 attacks, and will continue until 2009, when then-CIA Director LeonPanetta will terminate it. Blackwater’s role in the program will be terminatedmuch sooner (see (2005-2006)). In 2009, government officials will tell the New

5



Shortly Before September 12, 2006: CIA Official Says Blackwater

Boss Visits Agency Once a Month

August 19-20, 2009: Media Learns of CIA Assassination Contract

with Blackwater

Xe logo. Xe is the name

for the firm that

York Times that the CIA’s efforts to use what the newspaper calls“paramilitary hit teams” to kill al-Qaeda operatives “ran into logistical, legal,and diplomatic hurdles almost from the outset.” [NEW YORK TIMES, 8/20/2009; TIME,

8/21/2009] Despite an initial prohibition from Vice President Dick Cheney (see2002), the program will later be briefed to Congress (see June 24, 2009). Thefact that Blackwater became involved in it is one of the reasons Congress isnotified. The New York Times will report that “government officials said thatbringing outsiders into a program with lethal authority raised deep concerns

about accountability in covert operations.” In addition, a private contractorinvolved in an operation would not have the same diplomatic immunity as aUS government employee. [NEW YORK TIMES, 8/20/2009]

Former CIA Agent: Director 'Horrified' at Use of Mercenaries - In 2009, formerCIA agent Robert Baer will write: “Panetta must have been horrified that theCIA turned to mercenaries to play a part in its dirty work. It’s one thing,albeit often misguided, for the agency to outsource certain tasks tocontractors. It’s quite another to involve a company like Blackwater in eventhe planning and training of targeted killings, akin to the CIA going to themafia to draw up a plan to kill [Cuban dictator Fidel] Castro.” Baer believesthat the Blackwater contracts were more about “bilking the US taxpayer

than… killing Osama bin Laden or other al-Qaeda leaders.… [A]s soon as CIAmoney lands in Blackwater’s account, it is beyond accounting, as good asgone.” Baer will note that Blackwater is involved in a number of highlyquestionable actions, including the apparent murder of several Iraqi andAfghan civilians, and will ask “what the CIA saw in Blackwater that the publicstill has not.” Baer will conclude by speculating, “Even more troubling, I thinkwe will find out that in the unraveling of the Bush years, Blackwater was notthe worst of the contractors, some of which did reportedly end up carryingout their assigned hits.” [TIME, 8/21/2009]

Entity Tags: Robert Baer, Leon Panetta, Erik Prince, Central Intelligence Agency,Al-Qaeda, Blackwater USA

Timeline Tags: Complete 911 Timeline

A CIA source tells Harper’s journalist Ken Silverstein that Blackwater ownerErik Prince makes regular visits to CIA headquarters. According to Silverstein,Prince is “very tight” with top agency officials and has a green badge, asecurity pass for contractors who have access to CIA installations. “He’s overthere [at CIA headquarters] regularly, probably once a month or so,” says thesource. “He meets with senior people, especially in the [National ClandestineService, formerly the directorate of operations].” [HARPER'S, 9/12/2006]

Entity Tags: Erik Prince, Central Intelligence Agency, Ken Silverstein, Blackwater USA,National Clandestine ServiceTimeline Tags: Misc Entries

Both the New York Times and Washington Post reportthat in 2004, the CIA hired outside contractors fromBlackwater USA, a private security firm, to take part ina secret program to find and kill top al-Qaeda operativesin Afghanistan, Pakistan, and elsewhere (see 2004). Both

stories highlight the fact that a program to assassinateor capture al-Qaeda leaders that began aroundSeptember 2001 (see Shortly After September 17, 2001)was terminated and then revived and outsourced toBlackwater in 2004 (see 2004 and (2005-2006)). CIA

5



previously called itself Blackwater USA and later

Blackwater Worldwide.[Source: Public domain]

Director Leon Panetta alerted Congress to the secretprogram in June 2009 (see June 24, 2009), but the publicis just now learning of its existence. Government

officials say that bringing contractors into a program that has the authority tokill raises serious concerns about accountability in covert operations.Blackwater’s role in the program ended years before Panetta took over theagency, but senior CIA officials have long questioned the propriety and thewisdom of using outside contractors—in essence, mercenaries—in a targeted

killing program. [NEW YORK TIMES, 8/20/2009; NEW YORK TIMES, 8/20/2009; WASHINGTON

POST, 8/20/2009] A retired intelligence officer described as “intimately familiarwith the assassination program” says, “Outsourcing gave the agency moreprotection in case something went wrong.” [NATION, 8/20/2009] The assassinationprogram is just one of a number of contracted services Blackwater providedfor the CIA, and may still provide, including guarding CIA prisons and loadingmissiles on Predator drones. The agency “has always used contractors,” says aformer CIA official familiar with the Predator operations. “You have to be anexplosives expert,” and the CIA has never sought to use its own personnel forthe highly specialized task. “We didn’t care who put on the munitions as longas it wasn’t CIA case officers.” [LOS ANGELES TIMES, 8/21/2009]

No Laws Broken? - Former CIA general counsel Jeffrey Smith says thatBlackwater may not have broken any laws even by attempting to assassinateforeign nationals on the CIA’s orders. “The use of force has been traditionallythought of as inherently governmental,” he says. “The use of a contractoractually employing lethal force is clearly troublesome, but I’m not sure it’snecessarily illegal.” [LOS ANGELES TIMES, 8/21/2009]

Mixed Reactions from Congress - Some Congressional Democrats say that thesecret assassination program is just one of many secret programs conductedby the Bush administration, and have called for more intensive investigationsinto Bush-era counterterrorism activities. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) says: “Ihave believed for a long time that the intelligence community is over-reliant

on contractors to carry out its work. This is especially a problem whencontractors are used to carry out activities that are inherentlygovernmental.” Conversely, some Congressional Republicans are critical ofPanetta’s decision to terminate the program, with Representative PeterHoekstra (R-MI), the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee,accusing Panetta of indulging in too much “drama and intrigue than waswarranted.” Officials say that the program was conceived as an alternative tothe CIA’s primary assassination method of missile strikes using drone aircraft,which have killed many innocent civilians and cannot be used in heavilypopulated urban areas. [NEW YORK TIMES, 8/20/2009; LOS ANGELES TIMES, 8/21/2009] JanSchakowsky (D-IL), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, says that

she cannot confirm or deny that Congress was informed of Blackwater’sinvolvement in the program before the New York Times broke the story.However, she notes: “What we know now, if this is true, is that Blackwaterwas part of the highest level, the innermost circle strategizing and exercisingstrategy within the Bush administration. [Blackwater CEO] Erik Princeoperated at the highest and most secret level of the government. ClearlyPrince was more trusted than the US Congress because Vice President Cheneymade the decision not to brief Congress. This shows that there was absolutelyno space whatsoever between the Bush administration and Blackwater.”Schakowsky says the House Intelligence Committee is investigating the CIAassassination program and will probe alleged links to Blackwater. Former CIA

analyst Ray McGovern says: “The presidential memos (often referred to as‘findings’) authorizing covert action like the lethal activities of the CIA andBlackwater have not yet surfaced. They will, in due course, if knowledgeablesources continue to put the Constitution and courage above secrecy oaths.”[NATION, 8/20/2009]

5



Blackwater Employs Many Former CIA Officials - Author and reporter JeremyScahill notes that many former Bush-era CIA officials now work at Blackwater,including former CIA executive director Alvin “Buzzy” Krongard; former CIAcounterterrorism chief J. Cofer Black, who now operates Prince’s privateintelligence company, Total Intelligence Solutions (TIS); the CEO of TIS, RobertRicher, the former associate deputy director of the CIA’s Directorate ofOperations and second-ranking official in charge of clandestine operations;and Enrique “Ric” Prado, a former senior executive officer in the Directorate

of Operations. [NATION, 8/20/2009]

Loss of Control, Deniability - Former CIA field agent Jack Rice, who worked oncovert paramilitary operations for the agency, says, “What the agency wasdoing with Blackwater scares the hell out of me.” He explains: “When theagency actually cedes all oversight and power to a private organization, anorganization like Blackwater, most importantly they lose control and don’tunderstand what’s going on. That makes it even worse is that you then canturn around and have deniability. They can say, ‘It wasn’t us, we weren’t theones making the decisions.’ That’s the best of both worlds. It’s analogous towhat we hear about torture that was being done in the name of Americans,when we simply handed somebody over to the Syrians or the Egyptians or

others and then we turn around and say, ‘We’re not torturing people.’”[NATION, 8/20/2009]

Negative Publicity Led to Name Change, Prohibition from Operating in Iraq -Blackwater has since changed its name to Xe Services, in part because of araft of negative publicity it has garnered surrounding allegations of itsemployees murdering Iraqi civilians; Iraq has denied the firm a license tooperate within its borders. [NEW YORK TIMES, 8/20/2009] However, Blackwatercontinues to operate in both Iraq and Afghanistan, where it has contractswith the State Department and Defense Department. The CIA refuses toacknowledge whether it still contracts with Blackwater. [NATION, 8/20/2009]

Entity Tags: Obama administration, Total Intelligence Solutions, New York Times, Paul

Gimigliano, Peter Hoekstra, Robert Richer, Richard (“Dick”) Cheney, US Department ofState, US Department of Defense, Leon Panetta, Ray McGovern, Jeremy Scahill, SenateIntelligence Committee, Jan Schakowsky, Central Intelligence Agency, Bushadministration (43), Blackwater USA, A.B. (“Buzzy”) Krongard, Cofer Black, Enrique(“Ric”) Prado, Dianne Feinstein, Jack Rice, Erik Prince, Jeffrey H. Smith, HouseIntelligence CommitteeTimeline Tags: Complete 911 Timeline

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Private Security Company Blackwater (Later Xe or Craft Intl) is Formed - History Commons June 1997-May 1998