Xe aiming for Afghan police training deal

[unhappycamper]

Xe aiming for Afghan police training deal
By Richard Lardner - The Associated Press
Posted : Saturday Jan 9, 2010 12:18:01 EST

WASHINGTON — Blackwater Worldwide’s legal woes haven’t dimmed its prospects in Afghanistan, where the company is a contender to be a key part of President Barack Obama’s strategy for stabilizing the country.

Now called Xe Services, the company is in the running for a Pentagon contract potentially worth $1 billion to train Afghanistan’s troubled national police force. Xe has been shifting to training, aviation and logistics work after its security guards were accused of killing unarmed Iraqi civilians more than two years ago.

Yet even with a new name and focus, the expanded role would seem an unlikely one for Xe because Democrats have held such a negative opinion of the company following the Iraqi deaths, which are still reverberating in Baghdad and Washington.

During the presidential campaign, then-Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, now Obama’s secretary of state, backed legislation to ban Blackwater and other private security contractors from Iraq.

Xe eventually lost its license to operate as guardian of U.S. diplomats in Iraq and the State Department, with Clinton at the helm, elected not to rehire the company when the contract expired in 2009. Delays in getting a new company in place led to a temporary extension of the State contract.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/01/ap_blackwater_xe_contract_010910/



unhappycamper comment: I'm sure the Afghanis will understand that we must use contractors. Not... I don't understand it.