Latest Blackwater Bombshells Target Iran, Arab Spring

They’ve scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed. Cleanliness had been pounded into their brains as ex-military - in their bunker or a sensitive area - and a persistent re-branding campaign displays marks of this repetition. Some stains can’t be washed away though, and labels such as Xe, US Training Center, Jellyfish and Reflex Responses remain mere formalities.

No matter how many times Blackwater sheds its skin, its ruler will always find Blackwater underneath.

On May 4th USTC Holdings made waves by announcing its new Independent Director: former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft. Selected to chair the company’s Subcommittee on Governance, Ashcroft has been tapped to, “focus on the company’s efforts to maximize governance, compliance and accountability, continuing to build and promote the highest degrees of ethics and professionalism within the private security industry.” The hiring provoked ridicule beyond liberal quarters, as the controversial Ashcroft appears a perfect fit for the Blackwater offshoot.

USTC Holdings, LLC, an investor consortium that acquired Xe Services in December 2010, now operates the U.S. Training Center, “a leading provider of training and security services focused on worldwide operations in support of the United States Government and other customers.”

Perhaps in the spirit of corporate competition, Keith Mahoney announced his new offspring the very next day: Jellyfish. As the former director of Total Intelligence Solutions, an early venture with Blackwater founder Erik Prince, Mahoney is now offering patches of Blackwater’s global network to the world’s largest corporations. Jellyfish’s press release headlined, "Operation Jellyfish Takes Intelligence Operatives to Frontlines of Fortune 500 Companies."

"We want to get away from image of guns and guards doing government contracts," says Jellyfish Intelligence president Michael Bagley. "We offer CEOs of Fortune 500 companies advice from the battlefield to the boardroom to make sense of the chaos in places like the Middle East."

After revamping their business model, Blackwater’s business sounds like it’s booming again.

However the more money its tentacles bring in, the more difficult avoiding the spotlight becomes. One must also change below the surface to have a real chance of convincing people, but Blackwater cannot run from what it is. Its members only want to get away from “the image of guns and guards doing government contracts” - not actually get away. Now Prince’s new bubble has been popped by The New York Times, which provides ample documentation of his fledgling army in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Nearly a year before the Arab Spring erupted, “a small team of Blackwater and American military veterans” found themselves debating strategy in the lobby of the Park Arjaan by Rotana Hotel. Led by Ricky Chambers, a former FBI agent and confidant of Prince, the team had been tasked to train a foreign battalion for the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheik Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan. The prince needed an off-grid emergency response team, a unit that could foil a terror attack, seize islands from Iran and quell domestic protests at the push of a button.

The other Prince was happy to oblige.

Despite the trouble Blackwater had caused in Iraq and later Afghanistan, Prince never could believe that the U.S. government “threw him under the bus,” as he told Vanity Fair last year. He felt underappreciated. So Prince decided to take every detail into his own hands, a dream that would plot the blueprint for a private army. This army, much like the UAE’s vision, could be summoned by any foreign government (“other customers”) in need of extra muscle, and included a logistic network of air and seacraft. Prince struggled to lift the entire operation off the ground, but he eventually found a willing test subject in al-Nahyan.

Abu Dhabi’s crown prince set Prince up at the aptly named Zayed Military City, a walled desert complex where U.S. and European trainers toiled to mold a functioning battalion. Chambers had previously run an Afghan training program for a Blackwater subsidiary called Paravant, and the new operation started bringing in theater veterans to train foreign ex-military. Colombians, other Latin Americans and South African were drilled by retired U.S. soldiers, British and Germany Special Forces, and the French Foreign Legion.

Adhering to Prince’s law, Muslims soldiers “could not be counted on to kill fellow Muslims.”

In all, Prince received an estimated $529 million from al-Nahyan, along with a substantial quantity of arms and military essentials. For now the battalion itself may be little more than a white elephant. The project already lagged behind schedule by November 2010, leading to a force reduction from 800 to 600, and some Western trainers have quit after realizing they had to fight as well. Although UAE officials have promised to fund a brigade of several thousand, they want to the test battalion prove itself in “a real world mission.”

So far no opportunities have surfaced, but Prince still believes he can secure contracts for additional battalions in order to fund a larger training complex in the UAE. Here he would train units for foreign governments, presumably to deploy against their own people. This must be part of USTC’s pledge to uphold “the highest degrees of ethics.” The New York Times reports that Prince, “knowing that his ventures are magnets for controversy,” has “masked his involvement” in the UAE by working under the code-name “Kingfish.”

Yet his attraction to guns, guards and government contracts is overpowering.

The damage of these leaks will range from moderate to severe, depending on how deep Blackwater sinks into the Arab Spring. The legality of Reflex Responses, formed by Prince in the UAE, remains ambiguous. However Washington will have to deal with the consequences of Prince’s exposure in more than one way, starting with Tehran. al-Nahyan is such a staunch opponent of the Iranian regime that the Obama administration appears to have tacitly approved the program.

“The gulf countries, and the U.A.E. in particular, don’t have a lot of military experience. It would make sense if they looked outside their borders for help,” said one Obama administration official with knowledge of the operation. “They might want to show that they are not to be messed with.”

The pairing of R2, as its members call it, and Jellyfish won’t sit lightly with Iran during the Arab Spring, as the latter was immediately singled out as a private spy agency. It’s hard to think otherwise. As Prince offers up hardened soldiers to the UAE, Mahoney and Bagley are working Wall Street with their image-laundering scheme, offering "over 200 intelligence assets" to prospective clients. These assets supposedly include, “people inside the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, clerical circles in Iran and tribal leaderships on the Pakistani side of the Afghan-Pakistan border region.”

In what could be the scariest part of this shadowy web, Jellyfish believes that, “corporate executives and government bureaucrats still needs someone to help them navigate the brave new world that is dawning after the revolutions in Tahrir Square and the turmoil in countries like Libya and Syria.”

What assets Jellyfish controls within the Egyptian Brotherhood or Iran’s religious circles remains unknown, but this is a disturbing revelation in its own right. Blackwater offers endless fodder for conspiracies, so is Prince offering insider information or could he actually be offering the prospect of influence? It seems impossible that Blackwater has positioned any decision-makers in foreign countries, and this bait is likely nothing more than a lure. Advising Fortune 500 companies during the Arab Spring is bad enough as it is.

Yet one certainty exists to fix onto: Prince will stop at nothing until his power is absolute.

Blackwater Sighting

Bashir Bilour, senior minister of Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province NWFP, has confirmed the presence of Blackwater security guards.

“Yes, Blackwater is responsible for providing security to the international non-governmental organisations and the US embassy staff in the province,” he said.

He then doubled his confirmation by amending his statement to a “Blackwater-type US contractor,” athough there’s no reason why both realities can’t be true. The US government could hire Blackwater while it still operates independently for other contractors, providing a “legal” entrance for them. Washington could also hire non-Blackwater PMC's.

The possibilities are unlimited.

Bilour said that, “law and order situation in the country is poor and the security arrangements are not satisfactory, therefore, foreign companies that are doing work in the province have hired foreign guards who are working in their limits.”

Thus Blackwater's operations extend across the country, from Peshawar and Islamabad to Karachi and Quetta, under a constant blanket of denial and retraction. And US officials wonder why Pakistanis are anti-American.

Blackwater's Rogue Wave

Vice President Joe Biden was just about landing in Baghdad as Secretary of Defense Robert Gates touched off from Islamabad.

Biden had come to Iraq with promises that the White House would appeal the dismissed case of five Blackwater guards accused of killing up to 17 Iraqis in 2007. Gates, in his attempt to hit a home run for Pakistani hearts and minds, confessed to a boiling political issue - that Blackwater is operating in their country.

Except he disowned Blackwater as soon as he outed it.

“They’re operating as individual companies here in Pakistan, in Afghanistan and in Iraq because there are theaters of war involving the United States,” he replied to a question on XE, formerly known as Blackwater.

His admission unleashed an immediate uproar in Pakistan’s government and media, and a flummoxed Gates reacted with mechanical denial. The next day he held a press conference to categorically announce, “Department of Defense (DoD) does not use Blackwater in Pakistan. We have no connection with Blackwater in Pakistan.”

But the hole in Gates’ logic is obvious: DoD wouldn’t be in charge if the State Department or the CIA is the contractor. The reality remains that Blackwater is operating in Pakistan under US command and/or in a private capacity.

Now Gates just tore down the last of its shield, took three steps to the left, and acted like he never said anything. A day later Biden throws another presidential punch at Prince. America’s highest officials, in front of the global media, are ganging up on the secret backbone of the US military to make themselves look better.

Sound like a wise plan?

“I put myself and my company at the C.I.A.’s disposal for some very risky missions,” Erik Prince, Blackwater’s founder, opens in his Vanity Fair profile. “But when it became politically expedient to do so, someone threw me under the bus.”

Venting on The New York Times article C.I.A. Sought Blackwater’s Help to Kill Jihadists in fall 2009, Prince blames “Democrats in Congress” for covering their own necks by leaking information against him. Fumed that his hard earned money goes to legal fees instead of R&D to “serve the US government,” he has no doubts about a liberal double-standard. Compared to outed CIA operative Valerie Plame, “what happened to me was worse.”

If Prince has been “royally steaming” for years, getting ran over by both Biden and Gates within 48 hours must have made the pot boil over.

The White House and Congress are right to treat Blackwater personnel in combat like US soldiers, not a shadowy, extra-judicial force skirting international law. The military advantages Blackwater affords are often outweighed by political, propaganda, and moral costs. On another level, legal cases involving private military companies (PMCs) should be treated within a comprehensive counterinsurgency, not isolated in a US court room.

In turn Blackwater cannot be used as a political scapegoat where US policy collapses - like Pakistan.

PMCs exist to provide a layer of protection between the US government and its covert operations, a barrier that becomes vulnerable and unstable when exposed or unmonitored. For this reason Prince favors increasing regulations and oversight, searching for all the legal security he can find from his political opponents.

But clarifying the law and administering justice is only half the battle and overlooks a more pressing concern - PMC chain of command is in dire need of restructuring.

In the mold of Goldwater and Nicholas, PMCs require reintegration into the overall military structure to meet the demands and trends of 21st century warfare. PMC organization and authorization is predicated on the days of Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney's quest for cheaper costs and less accountability. The White House, Congress, and Pentagon together must unravel the web spun by the Bush administration to keep them blind of each other.

And they should hurry.

Prince doesn’t sound like a man who take punches lying down or goes quietly into the night. Insisting “I’m through” after he retires from Blackwater, Prince entertains the idea of teaching with a straight face. “Hey, Indiana Jones taught school, too,” he says, raising the exact analogy.

Mild mannered history professor by day, global black-ops commander by night.

From his headquarters in North Carolina, or a new HQ, Prince can track targets for assassination, provide security for US diplomats, and oversee logistics transports from his airstrip to private installations in Afghanistan. He admits to funding private projects for years, penetrating “denied areas” and “hard target” states where US forces have trouble entering for political reasons.

“We were building a unilateral, unattributable capability,” he explains. “If it went bad, we weren’t expecting the chief of station, the ambassador, or anyone to bail us out... I’m painted as this war profiteer by Congress. Meanwhile I’m paying for all sorts of intelligence activities to support American national security, out of my own pocket.”

In a twisted way Gates speaks the truth. Blackwater could conceivably operate in Pakistan of its own accord, intuitively flocking to America’s next battlefield. So where to next?

Blackwater dominates Afghanistan, probably operates in Yemen and Somalia, rumored to be in Nigeria, could be anywhere in Asia or South America. Prince has entertained the idea of private training forces and a complete paramilitary brigade to be rented out to foreign governments. Expanding his air-fleet and deep-water naval capabilities would be a natural progression.

And why not launch a satellite? Prince’s cash should be good in Russia. Anything seems possible after the rise of private military corporations.

So visualize, in 10, 20, 30 years, a Blackwater training or running operations to the highest bidder, American or foreign, and holding all types of secrets. What will stop Prince, a man of loyalty, if his loyalty is broken? Now isn’t the time to make an example out of Blackwater - make an example out of America.

Treat the system, not the symptom. Clarify political and military command of PMCs and undergo transparent legal reform to expunge them from Washington’s political agendas. Keep foreign civilians safe and protect relationships with foreign states through organized accountability.

And prevent US-founded PMCs like Blackwater from going rogue, before our own waves hit us in the future.

Counterinsurgency Injustice

To those outraged by U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina’s dismissal of criminal charges against Blackwater for killing 17 Iraqi civilians, try finding solace in the fact that the case will be appealed. Though the previous case rested on a legal foundation, however shaky, a new case could transcend the US legal system.

So long as Iraqis keep venting like they are.

Shortly after the announcement Ali al-Dabbagh, the Iraqi government spokesman, released a statement saying, "The Iraqi government will follow up on this issue in strength and resolution to bring those murderers of Blackwater to accountability in order to return the rights of Iraqi people who are the victims of this crime."

But since a negative reaction to the dismissed case was known beforehand, a repeat offense is certainly possible. If appealing to “justice,” friendly alliances, and human rights wasn’t persuasive enough, America should hold up a mirror and focus on itself. Any means to get the message through.

Blackwater’s perceived immunity does injustice to US counterinsurgency operations worldwide and underscores the necessary inclusion of the judicial dimension.

Iraqi human rights minister, Wejdan Mikhail, was "astonished" by the US move and lamented, “There was so much work done to prosecute these people and to take this case into court and I don't understand why the judge took this decision.”

But to be fair Judge Urbina isn’t the problem, instead an unwitting failure in President Obama’s strategy to engage Muslims and counter Islamic militants. Urbina was presented with compromised testimony built on prosecution blunders possibly encouraged by the Bush administration. Even if true Obama still had a year to intervene in the flawed process, extraordinary as that step would've been.

Now he’ll have to speak out during the appeal process, a dangerous political move at home, or risk losing respect in the Muslim world.

"The message is these people are protected by the American administration," said Kurdish lawmaker Mahmoud Othman. "These people were backed by the State Department... We are entering the new year with a bad message. People won't be satisfied on the political or popular level."

“The Iraqi government regrets and is disappointed by the U.S. court's decision,” Dabbagh said in one of many telephone interviews of his day. “The investigations carried out by the specialized Iraqi authorities confirmed with no doubt that the guards of Blackwater company have committed a criminal murder act and they have violated the combat environment rule to use force while there was no threat against them.”

So Iraqis are outraged, big deal. But America isn’t withdrawing its main force from Iraq for another two years and plans to leave a substantial residual force - possibly 50,000 troops - behind. A legal case that should have been included within Iraq’s overall counterinsurgency was allowed to operate independently. Not surprisingly US troops have been put in danger.

This single event may not prove cataclysmic; Blackwater’s shooting was followed by a general de-escalation of violence in 2008. But self-inflicted wounds to US perception are unacceptable in a global war where efficient counterinsurgency is the grand prize. Today's ruling has created enormous friction, as Clauswitze would say.

Saad al-Muttalibi, an adviser to the Iraqi council of ministers, said the issue would complicate relations between Iraq and the United States: "This matter will be appealed in the American court and if not resolved correctly, this will definitely add another strain on the relationship between Iraq and the United States."

General Ray Odierno, commander of US forces in Iraq, agreed that the court's decision could spawn local resentment against US troops and other security firms operating in the country. Reuters quoted him as saying, "Of course we're upset when we believe that people might have caused a crime and they are not held accountable. I worry about it because clearly there were innocent people killed in this attack.”

Yet Odierno still felt compelled to obey his superiors even if he disagrees, backtracking, “Of course people are not going to like it, because they believe that these individuals conducted some violence and should be punished for it, but the bottom line is, using the rule of law, the evidence is not there.”

al-Muttalibi directly attacks this logic; counterinsurgency could care less about “American legality.” These Blackwater guards admitted to the crimes they committed, causing the case to be dismissed on purely legal grounds. This may be well and good in a vacuum, and Urbina can’t be faulted for ignorance, but his ruling is a direct contradiction to counterinsurgency.

Population is the prize and perception can mean everything in a foreign land.

“The legality or the procedures of the court case should not stop the criminals from facing justice and receiving a just sentence,” said al-Muttalibi. "This is very bad for the overall look of the United States outside its borders. It's very important for the Americans to realize that this will work against their interests in Iraq and other places."

Pakistan, for instance, where Blackwater rumors already have the country on edge. Again, the perception is one of Blackwater hovering above the law - US, international, Iraqi, or Pakistani, it doesn't matter. What good is this perception supposed to do for Obama?

Executive and Congressional oversight must establish a legal framework for private contractors in US war-zones; rulings like Urbina's must be decided within a counterinsurgency, not outside. America cannot keep fostering the impression that those it employs, soldier or civilian, are above the law, which leads to the theory that America deliberately uses private contractors to subvert the law in foreign countries.

“They came and they went, as they should have," said Rihab Abdul Karim, whose nephew was killed in Nissour Square. "They were arrogant with the power they had. They thought they answered to no one. And with this verdict, maybe they were right."

But described thus far, a legal system to handle private contractors employed in US war-zones assumes a passive role, correcting injustices as they occur. In theory, punishment will take on a proactive counterinsurgency role by stopping crimes from occurring in the first place, preventing local resentment at its source.

If Iraqis and Americans are feeling like Blackwater is invincible, how is Blackwater feeling? One must assume its members will lie low, at least for now, rather than test their new found Teflon with the case subject to appeal and so fresh in memory. But in the back of their minds they must realize how large their room for error is, and this feeling will spread to other private contractors.

And why not? They don't take the fall when they get caught anyway - that's America's problem. Just observe the behavior in Kabul and Karachi, where US security guards act without any fear of local law enforcement, knowing full well that US embassy officials will bail them out of trouble.

Any such notion must be forever washed away by delivering due punishment to those who commit crimes in foreign countries. Retrying the Blackwater guards would be a good start, but the case is likely too tainted at this point. That means Obama must come down hard on the next incident to set a precedent for his surge in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Yemen, or wherever he sends PMC’s next.

They aren’t above the law, nor can they be allowed to hijack America's image in the Muslim world or strain relations with individual countries where US troops operate.

This is proper counterinsurgency, not yesterday's injustice.

Black Out

The Western media is spinning Pakistan’s Supreme Court ruling against the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) as a further blow to President Zardari’s relationship with Washington. The opposite is true.

One can’t assume this developing legal battle, up to 8,000 graft and other cases in total, will have no effect on Pakistan’s ability wage war against the TTP. War waged as a national enterprise is waged more effectively in unison, and divided leadership can lead to a divided battlefield. But this concern should be minimal in Pakistan.

The army is already in charge. Whatever becomes of Zardari should have little impact on war in the FATA. The military will keep engaging the targets and invading the territories that it sees fit regardless of what occurs in court. Now, Zardari’s resignation or impeachment is another subject that will be addressed later on.

The immediate point is that Zardari’s high disapproval connects to US policy, extreme pressure to expand Pakistan and US military operations in the FATA. Zardari could ultimately sink President Obama's strategy for Afghanistan, but for now Obama is sinking him.

Pakistan’s Supreme Court was a match in a warehouse of methane, the “primary” of a nuclear warhead. Energy was already built up waiting to be unleashed. Zardari clearly has a laundry list of problems, not all of them America’s fault. But consider what news broke in the same 24 hours.

President Obama’s day started with a three-page letter from Zardari, who “resisted a direct appeal from President Obama for a rapid expansion of Pakistani military operations in tribal areas.” Only yesterday Vice President Joe Biden called for Pakistan to "move on our mutual interests, which includes the Haqqani network and includes the Taliban in Pakistan.”

Zardari said America shouldn’t expect an operation into North Waziristan any time soon. The Post quotes one anonymous Pakistani officials as saying, “We're committed to this war, but we'll fight it on our terms... We will prioritize targets based on our interests. We don't want them to be dictated to us.”

Said another official, “Unfortunately, the Americans are arrogant. They think of themselves as omnipotent. That’s how they come across.”

While Zardari made no mention of Quetta, Prime Minister Gilani did his best to thanks, but no thanks to drones in Balochistan. Zardari once against advised Obama on a regional approach with Pakistan's neighbors. Sound advice for sure, but Zardari is starting to play the India card directly on Obama. He’s under pressure from the military to speak out on America’s silence on India in Balochistan and especially Kashmir.

But the biggest news is “American diplomat harassment,” if that’s what Blackwater is called these days.

Again the disinformation comes furiously. A US diplomat ran out in front of the story, telling Geo TV, “It seems as if all this is happening to calm down people’s anti-US sentiments in Pakistan. These might be temporary actions from Pakistan government.”

Temporary actions these may be, but all of this isn’t happening all of a sudden and it won't calm people down. Pakistani oppose US military expansion into their country. Checkpoints have been stopping almost every Pakistani in the major cities for months searching for weapons, explosives, and drugs. And at least a few of the smugglers are suspected of being Indian in origin, possibly CIA, maybe Blackwater.

Mix reports of "US diplomats” ignoring checkpoints, which the US embassy denies, and you create monstrous rumors. The Pakistani media has reasoned that these checkpoints are as much for the Taliban as America, as much for friends as enemies.

Biden is the second US official, the first being Secretary Gates, to insinuate that Pakistan might "do more" to fight the Afghan Taliban if the country faces more attacks.

"Are they doing enough?" he asked aloud in a MSNBC interview. "No. But it's amazing, how reality has a way of intruding on people's plans. And when they (Taliban) went and took the Swat Valley, all of a sudden the Pakistanis went, whoa! They're 60 clicks from Islamabad."

Pakistan’s reactions today have one thing in common - Blackwater. Operations in North Waziristan supported by Blackwater, Quetta drones loaded by Blackwater, US diplomats hiding Blackwater personal or even acting as decoys for other arms runners. Is this how Obama plans to win Pakistani “hearts and minds?”

Piling on their state's destabilization?

Pakistan's reaction is met by another commonality in the American media. While the Pakistani media puts India and Blackwater at the top, the NYT, WSJ, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, NPR and the like put a few paragraphs at the bottom, if any. "Burying the story" frees space to examine in detail how Zardari will affect the war in Afghanistan.

It's a blackout on Blackwater.

Knee Deep in Blackwater

Posing for Vanity Fair in a black leather chair posing is the last place Erik Prince anyone expected to turn up. The story itself is based on how unusual this occurrence is, unthinkable until last summer when Blackwater, the company he founded in 1997, was dragged through the mud yet again. He argues that Congress turned him into a scapegoat after Blackwater's support of CIA operations in Pakistan was outed by the New York Times.

“I put myself and my company at the C.I.A.’s disposal for some very risky missions,” says Prince. “But when it became politically expedient to do so, someone threw me under the bus.” Now he, “wants to vent. And he wants you to hear him vent.”

A good source of information on the general workings of America’s covert operations, he’s the prime source on Blackwater. Access into his world gives a staggering perception of Blackwater marching across Afghanistan and into any future hot spot counterinsurgency analysts can dream of.

Prince’s heavily fortified, 7,000-acre compound in rural Moyock, North Carolina acts as the flagship for a network of facilities that train roughly 30,000 attendees a year, some 125,000 navy personnel through its programs. Revenues topped $600 million in 2008. A fleet of planes, helicopters, and boats is ready to transport men, weapons, ammunition, and high-tech.

Blackwater is likely the most advanced private security organization on earth.

From his compound Prince projects his power, claiming he and a team of foreign nationals found and fixed a target in October 2008. “In Syria,” he says, “we did the signals intelligence to geo-locate the bad guys in a very denied area.” A U.S. Special Forces team then launched a helicopter assault to hunt down al-Qaeda middleman Abu Ghadiyah.

He also shines in Afghanistan, where the Blackwater network is expanding at a rapid pace. During his visit, Prince travels in a beat-up “native” minivan - animal pelts on the dashboard, prayer card dangling from the rearview mirror.

Prince protects every major American diplomat, most CIA officials, many Afghan officials, and is building forward operating bases on the border with Pakistan. He brags, “Who else has built a fob along the main infiltration route for the Taliban and the last known location for Osama bin Laden?”

“Except for their language,” his men, “appear indistinguishable from Afghans. They have full beards, headscarves, and traditional knee-length shirts over baggy trousers.” The same trend is occurring in Pakistan.

And Prince’s reach stretches beyond South Asia. Though he refuses to explain in detail, he spoke generally of opening intelligence roads into hostile countries where CIA presence was minimal or non-existent.

Among the ideas that haven’t gotten off the ground: “a pre-positioning ship—complete with security personnel, doctors, helicopters, medicine, food, and fuel—and stationing it off the coast of Africa to provide ‘relief with teeth’ to the continent’s trouble spots,” and a rapidly deployable brigade rentable by foreign governments.

Unfortunately for Prince and America, his message misses its mark and does little to clear the air. Restoring Blackwater's image is improbable largely because of the above testimony, which multiplies the suspicions of military-industrial complex. Prince’s account of how America ran its covert operations under Bush also puts President Obama in a hole.

When Leon Panetta says he canceled Blackwater’s contract to load missiles onto drones in Pakistan, how do we know he really did?

Blackwater’s contracts have been “canceled” before, according to Prince. Most are top secret, unknown to Congress. Why would this time be any different? When US ambassador Anne Patterson denies that any Blackwater employs operate in Pakistan when they clearly do, she has all the more reason to lie about its activities in Karachi. Or she may not know.

In a classified hit list drawn up by Bush’s team, Pakistani nuclear scientist Dr. AQ Khan was tracked by Blackwater agents to Dubai. Thankfully Washington aborted the assassination, as the political scandal would have lasted a generation. But if Khan had been killed, Prince wouldn’t have been at fault for the uproar in Pakistan. That would be his handlers who kept the program from Congress.

The source familiar with the Khan mission said, “They say the program didn’t move forward because they didn’t have the right skill set or because of inadequate cover. That’s untrue. The operation continued for a very long time in some places without ever being discovered. This program died because of a lack of political will.”

With Blackwater in demand more than ever now that Obama's surge in Afghanistan is underway, its programs have all the will they need. The definition and legality of private military contractors (PMCs) must be somehow be reconciled with the need to maintain secrecy. President Obama must push this task to the forefront of his agenda - he can’t be caught sleeping and awoken by an atrocity.

How America fights wars has an enormous impact on its future, and private contracting is all the rage. What are PMCs? Mercenaries? Vigilantes? In what situations can they be used? How will they be policed by the government and military?

Prince hates the term mercenary, but he's being payed to fight wars. There's nothing inherently wrong with this, but the terms must be indisputably defined and the law properly enforced. Prince doesn’t like being a villain, but he knows he'll keep getting paid.

Though he considers himself the fall guy, it's America who falls when “Blackwater contracted to assassinate AQ Khan” hits the headlines, when they get caught in Karachi.

President Obama must keep PMC's in check and not overly rely on them if he becomes desperate. Blackwater is tempting, but it's spreading fear in Pakistan (defined by the West as terrorism) under America's name. Geopolitical implications have been forgotten.

Obama’s going to be in Afghanistan and Pakistan until the end of his presidency, one term or two, and Blackwater will be right behind. He must be vigilant that his asset doesn’t turn into a liability. Iraq proved that 99 successful missions can be wiped out by a single civilian death.

Obama must reign in Blackwater, not be controlled by it.

Flooded System

The American people are being inundated with allegations surrounding Blackwater, and more accusations are likely to follow given how belated the currant charges are. But beyond a media circus and witch hunt, the circumstances of Blackwater provide America the opportunity to review and clarify the use of private military contractors (PMCs) in future war zones.

Ambiguity is dangerous in counterinsurgencies, where Blackwater and other PMCs are most likely to find themselves in the coming decades.

Blackwater recently took a one-two punch from the New York Times. First broke the news that Blackwater assembles and loads Hellfire missiles onto Predator drones in Pakistan, a task outsourced by the CIA. Blackwater guards also provide security to both secret air-bases in Shamsi, Pakistan and Jalalabad, Afghanistan. Then, several months after CIA director Leon E. Panetta cancelled a secret assassination project against al-Qaeda, CIA officials admitted contracting Blackwater in 2004, “to begin collecting information on the whereabouts of Al Qaeda’s leaders, carry out surveillance and train for possible missions.”

Jeremy Scahill, an investigative journalist long on the trail of Blackwater, said the recent allegations warrant “deep investigation.”

“The idea that you would have a private company headed by a man [Erik Prince the former head of Blackwater] who was a major bankroller of President Bush's campaign, potentially on the payroll for his company to provide hit-men to the Bush administration is quite an explosive allegation,” he said. “The Bush administration clearly used private contractors as a way of circumventing congressional oversight over these very sensitive US operations on the battlefield in Afghanistan and Pakistan.”

Americans are inclined to agree with an investigation after tales of Blackwater in Iraq. Pakistanis should perk their ears as well; aside from recent revelations, Blackwater has reportedly been contracted for America's new super-embassy in Karachi. Still, a greater challenge lies in focusing beyond real and potential wrong-doing. Blackwater is one of many PMCs, merely the highest profiled. As such, it can be used as the beach head for examining the process.

The bulk of concentration must be applied to reviewing the fundamental use of PMCs, divided into four areas: cost and capabilities of PMCs, accountability, defining a mercenary, and interpreting their legal status.

Convenience always comes with a price. A 2007 House oversight committee found the average Blackwater employee costs $440,000 annually, six times the cost of a US soldier. And though capable of protecting American officials and loading missiles onto drones, another House report released last June questioned the PMC effectiveness in training foreign security forces and building projects. Blackwater and other PMCs mostly do good work, but the odds of error and miscommunication increase with a code of conduct operating outside the uniform methods of the American military.

One mistake can ignite an insurgency.

Accountability came to overshadow performance after several high-profile incidents in Iraq. The 2007 House committee concluded, “Even in cases involving the death of Iraqis, it appears that the State Department’s primary response was to ask Blackwater to make monetary payments to ‘put the matter behind us,’ rather than to insist upon accountability or to investigate Blackwater personnel for potential criminal liability.”

This strategy runs contrary to counterinsurgency, where consideration, sympathy, and respect for the local population must be exercised at all times. The House passed a law subjecting all PMCs to prosecution by U.S. courts, a necessary step to demonstrating accountability in American warfare. However, ambiguity remained after the White House opposed the bill. Foreign countries, such as Iraq, will likely end up drawing the red line instead. Afghanistan may be next, where PMCs have been repeatedly criticized by the government.

Thus America must proactively establish explicit laws for governing PMCs on foreign soil so as to maintain their capabilities. Delaying forfeits the initiative to the host state, who could ban them outright.

But America must clarify the definition of a mercenary before an earnest debate can begin. Erik Prince, Blackwater's CEO, objects to the term to “mercenaries,” instead opting for “loyal Americans.” Mercenaries aren’t inherently wrong. While some desert in a flash to the highest bidder, others are loyal to the hand that feeds them. Blackwater is loyal to the US government, not just because of fat paychecks but because many Blackwater agents are former soldiers, or FBI and CIA agents.

Still, when you’re air-dropping out of your own CASA C-212’s in Afghanistan, hovering above Baghdad in your own MD 500 helicopters with flak jackets, machine guns, wired headsets and no American flag, or being paid a billion dollars for “security,” you’re a mercenary. A mercenary and a PMC, if there is any true difference, must be concretely defined so as to apply regulation.

America needs a new law dedicated solely to the use of mercenaries and their various forms. Legality is currently being decided by the Anti-Pinkerton Act of 1893, which outlawed private security companies from breaking strike lines. The US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals expanded this law in 1977 to ban the government’s use of mercenary and quasi-military forces. However, Comptroller General Elmer B. Staats reinterpreted an exemption in 1978 for “guard and protective services,” opening the door for Blackwater.

What then is Blackwater and the rest of PMCs? Are they mercenaries, quasi-military forces, or simple private security? What is their role in combat? How much does loading bombs differ from dropping them? Are PMCs static, or like Blackwater’s history suggests, does private security inevitably merge with a soldier’s duty? America must not delay the debate - private military contracting is a wave of the future.

America must do everything possible to prevent rogue waves.