# Blackwater USA Conducting Ops in New Orleans



## Cloud Cover (17 Sep 2005)

I thought this was an interesting article, particularly the part about providing the helicopter gratis to the coast guard. I know we have had discussions on the board before wrt the role of security contractors, but it seems like this may have been a fairly good opportunity to examine the responsiveness and utility of the use private military contractors in domestic ops. 


Blackwater employees create a stir in New Orleans
By BILL SIZEMORE, The Virginian-Pilot
© September 15, 2005 
Last updated: 5:08 PM

Blackwater USA, the North Carolina-based security firm best known for supplementing U.S. troops in Iraq, is now attracting international attention patrolling the flooded streets of New Orleans. 

Accounts of Blackwater personnel carrying M-16s and other assault weapons around the devastated city have appeared on dozens of Web sites, including sites in Europe, Canada and Australia. Many of the reports compare Blackwater's presence in New Orleans to the company's work in Iraq, where it has been a major provider of private security guards for the U.S.-led coalition.

Anne Duke, a Blackwater spokeswoman, said Wednesday that the company has about 200 personnel in the hurricane-ravaged area. The vast majority - 164 employees - are working under a contract with the Federal Protective Service, a division of the Department of Homeland Security, to protect government facilities. The 30-day contract can be extended indefinitely, she said.

Under a separate contract, the company supplied an airplane to the Coast Guard, Duke said, and also provided a helicopter at no charge to support Coast Guard rescue missions. As of Monday, Blackwater air crews had moved more than 11 tons of supplies and rescued 121 people, she said.

In addition, the company has other employees working for a number of private clients in the hurricane zone, Duke said, including communications, petrochemical and insurance companies.

Jeremy Scahill, a correspondent for the national radio and TV program "Democracy Now!", reported from New Orleans in a Web posting Monday that two Blackwater employees told him they had been "deputized" by the governor to make arrests and use lethal force. If that is what they said, they misspoke, Duke said.

"They were not deputized. They are not law enforcement," she said. "They were hired much like any other security guard is hired, to protect a place or people."

She said Blackwater has a letter from Louisiana authorities authorizing its personnel to carry loaded weapons. Initially, some of them were heavily armed, she said, but now that the threat has been determined to be more "benign" than originally thought, they are carrying only handguns.

Blackwater burst onto the world scene in March 2004, when four of its men were killed in Fallujah and two of the charred bodies were hung from a bridge. In April 2005, seven more Blackwater workers died in a helicopter crash and a bomb explosion in Iraq.

Blackwater is based at a sprawling 6,000-acre compound in Moyock, just over the state line from Chesapeake. Formed in 1996 by two former Navy SEAL commandos, it employs 330 permanent workers and 5,000 independent contractors.

The company has become a lightning rod for critics of the Bush administration, at home and abroad. A Canadian online report describes Blackwater personnel "rumbling through the New Orleans streets, armed to the teeth and in full battle gear." A French Web site carried the headline "Overkill: Feared Blackwater Mercenaries Deploy in New Orleans."

Several accounts compared the federal presence in New Orleans to the U.S. invasion force in Iraq, such as this Monday Web posting in The Nation magazine:

"It's almost as if the Tigris - rather than the Mississippi - had flooded the city. The place feels like a sick theme park - Macho World - where cops, mercenaries, journalists and weird volunteers of all sorts are playing out a relatively safe version of their militaristic fantasies."

Many reports refer to the Blackwater personnel as "mercenaries," but Duke took issue with that characterization.

The United Nations defines a mercenary as someone who fights in an armed conflict for private gain and is not a citizen of a party to the conflict.


Reach Bill Sizemore at (757) 446-2276 or bill.sizemore@pilotonline.com 




© 2005 HamptonRoads.com/PilotOnline.com


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## wongskc (17 Sep 2005)

> It seems 'Private Military Company' has become the new 'f word', say it and people start getting upset.



PMC is just the latest euphemism for mercenary, regardless of Duke's rebuttal.  Since mercenary itself is a dirty word there's not much surprise in the negative connotation.


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## Scoobie Newbie (17 Sep 2005)

Private Military Company ARE NOT mercenaries.  Mercenaries conduct offensive operations, PMC's do not.


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## wongskc (17 Sep 2005)

Thanks CFL, I stand corrected.  However, my mistake only points out how the general public views them.


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## Cliff (17 Sep 2005)

wongskc said:
			
		

> PMC is just the latest euphemism for mercenary, regardless of Duke's rebuttal.



No it isn't.


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## paracowboy (17 Sep 2005)

Cliff said:
			
		

> No it isn't.


 *we* know that, but I think this thread illustrates very clearly that, to the general public, it is the same dirty word 'mercenary' was. How often on this site alone has this same topic come up? The majority of the public think that PMCs are mercenary armies, doing "wet work" and "black Ops" and all that pseudo-military jargon.


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## Cloud Cover (17 Sep 2005)

whiskey601 said:
			
		

> I thought this was an interesting article, particularly the part about providing the helicopter gratis to the coast guard. I know we have had discussions on the board before wrt the role of security contractors, but it seems like this may have been a fairly good opportunity to examine the responsiveness and utility of the use private military contractors  in domestic ops.



And there I go off, using different terms. I guess they refer to themselves as Blackwater Security Consultants: http://www.blackwaterusa.com/securityconsulting/ 

Seems like they continue to have openings. I think I'll order a sweatshirt from them and wear it to work -  scare the shit out of the boss.


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## KevinB (17 Sep 2005)

For what it is worth - ONE of the reasons Canadian have a next to impossible job getting hired in Iraq is due to the UN definition of a mercenary.

Since BlackWater etc hire personnel from countires that are party to a conflict, EVEN IF (which they don't) they conducted offensive operations, they would not legally be considered Mercenaries by the UN.

 The biggest problem with the public's perception of PMC's as a whole and their roles and employees in specific, is that people are stupid.  As far as the majority goes, they rarely look into issues themselves and simply accept some other laymans (who purports to be a subject matter expert) comments.

 Which when you look at the recent spat of people (reporters specifically) who believe themselve to be a SME on world affairs, and military operations in specific, its not hard to see how easily they screw it up and pass it along to others.


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## Cliff (19 Sep 2005)

whiskey601 said:
			
		

> I think I'll order a sweatshirt from them and wear it to work -   scare the crap out of the boss.



That way, maybe the CSIS will pay you a little visit. Can't have those ex-military types on the loose, doncha know?


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## Cloud Cover (19 Sep 2005)

Meh... they like me, so do their southern compadre's. It's Blackwater that is the opn question ...


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