Nothing like lawless mercenaries to brighten your international image and foreground your commitment to transparency, justice and the American Way.

Despite US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s campaign promise to no longer award military contracts to Blackwater – the now renamed notorious security contractor – the US state department has recently awarded the company another lucrative contract.

“Blackwater was renamed Xe after a string of legal cases against the company in the US and in Iraq.

Wired.com reports that while neither Xe nor Blackwater appear on the list of eight firms hired for the Worldwide Protective Services contract (a group of contracts combined into one), one of the company’s fronts, International Development Solutions LLC (IDS) is on the list.

In total, the contract for all eight companies is worth up to $10bn.”

Well, nothing wrong with a share of 10 billion dollars.  Wow, I bet a lot of schools could be build for 10 billion dollars.  But we cannot go around letting the evildoers win, so sorry little bobby, no schooling for you after all recruits are needed for the Army.

“A press officer from the state department returned Al Jazeera’s call, but was unable to say what specific services IDS could provide and why, given Blackwater’s tarnished reputation, (which lead to the company’s name change in 2009) it was still eligible for such a contract.

She did, however, read out a prepared statement, indicating that while the state department is aware of IDS’s ties to Blackwater, that that fact was not prohibitive in accepting its bid.

“The contract was competed in accordance with the Federal Acquisitions Regulations (FAR),” read the statement.
“The FAR allows any company that is not been debarred or suspended to submit a proposal in response to an acquisition process based on full and open competition.”

Oh hey, we certainly cannot infringe on the market.  That would be unseemly and more to the point, unethical.  Everyone needs a fair chance to get paid by Uncle Sam and deal death in foreign lands.  Nothing could go wrong with hiring out mercenaries to do your bidding…

“Two former Blackwater employees are currently on trial in the US on charges of murdering Afghan civilians and keeping human remains as trophies. The charges stem from a 2009 incident in Kabul.

In 2008, five Blackwater guards were charged in the deaths of 17 Iraqi civilians, who were shot in Baghdad’s al-Nisoor Square in 2007. Those charges were ultimately dismissed.

Another employee of Triple Canopy – another contractor included in the new Worldwide Protective Services contract – was charged with killing at least one Iraqi after he fired into a civilian vehicle for “sport.”

Whoops!  I guess things can go wrong, unless I’m getting the wrong “spin” on things but killing people for sport seems to be actions we like to attribute to official enemies as opposed to our own highly ethical and clean foreign slate.