Firm tied to Blackwater gets Afghan contract

[spanone]

:puke: :puke:

Washington (CNN) -- A firm affiliated with the former Blackwater security company has been awarded a contract to provide protection to U.S. consulates and diplomats in the Afghan cities of Herat and Mazar-e Sharif, a U.S. State Department official confirmed on Saturday.

The official said U.S. Training Center got the contract on Friday. It is part of Xe, the new name of Blackwater Worldwide.

Blackwater became the target of widespread outrage in Iraq after its contractors were involved in the September 2007 shooting at Baghdad's Nisoor Square that left 17 civilians dead and 24 wounded, straining relations between Iraq and the United States.

The deal is a one-year contract with an option to extend up to 18 months. If the contract is fulfilled for that entire period, it would be more than $120 million.

The State Department official, insisting on anonymity, said past history with Blackwater did not prevent U.S. Training Center from bidding on contracts and that in this case the company was the best qualified for the work in Afghanistan.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/06/19/blackwater.afghanistan/index.html?hpt=T2

[asjr]

1. Dick Cheney must still be pulling the strings

behind the scenes. Maybe he saw to it he was "grandfathered" in.