Xe aims for a piece of expanding Afghan contracts

[Blue_Tires]

Source: The Virginian-Pilot

As the United States builds up its military presence in Afghanistan, private contractors are flocking there in even greater numbers. And Xe, the company formerly known as Blackwater, is in the hunt to get a share of the new work.

According to a report last week from the Congressional Research Service, there were about 64,000 uniformed U.S. troops in Afghanistan in September and 104,101 military contractors - 62 percent of the Defense Department work force there.

The Obama administration's planned deployment of 30,000 more troops in the coming months could require as many as 56,000 more contractors, the report estimated.

Xe, the Moyock, N.C.-based private military company, is already on the ground in Afghanistan despite its controversial history in Iraq, and is in the running for additional contracts.

A company executive faced skeptical questioning Friday at a hearing of the Commission on Wartime Contracting, a bipartisan fact-finding panel created by Congress.

Fred Roitz, executive vice president, told the commission that Xe has security and training contracts in Afghanistan. Among other duties, he said, the company trains and mentors the Afghan border police, teaching such things as rifle skills, arrest procedures and narcotics interdiction.

Xe also is one of five pre-qualified companies competing for a new Defense Department contract to train the Afghan national police.

Read more: http://hamptonroads.com/2009/12/xe-aims-piece-expanding-afghan-contracts

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ugh...like roaches -- you never really seem to ever get rid of them

[jonnyblitz]

1. k & r.

[msongs]

2. the Bush/Obama military welfare war, the gift that keeps on giving to war profiteers nt

[gateley]

3. Oooh -- is this new?

Xe also is one of five pre-qualified companies competing for a new Defense Department contract to train the Afghan national police.

[Solly Mack]

4. K&R

[nightrain]

5. It's very distressing that Obama escalates war in Afghanistan but Congress

can't find the money for real healthcare for all. Obama's priorities are skewed. Plenty of money for the war corporations and insurance, and big pharma, but not for regular people and their healthcare.

[LiberalFighter]

6. They need to be barred from any countries that have been occupied by the USA for at least 10 years.

Preferably barred from any foreign country period. And barred from owning owning or leasing specific military type weapons or being limited in the quantity they can own or lease.

[Blue_Tires]

7. you would think so; but they have gotten so big to the point where

no one else can do what they do...

also, what people keep forgetting is just how many buddy-buddy former pentagon brass sit on the boards of these merc firms -- keeping them insulated and politically protected...

[Mari333]

8. knr for exposure , more torture and underhanded dealmaking

no wonder Obama admin dumped the Nuremberg protocols. covering their own arse.

[mbperrin]

9. This country is building up a karmic debt that I shudder to consider.

I've got about 20 years left, and I bet I live to see (and experience) it.

Wonder what kind of people you get in an education system that stresses standardized test scores rather than critical thinking skills? That's where we've been since the early 80's, and the crop of kids from then are in their 40's now. Mindless grubbers of money and instant gratification junkies, that's what you get at all levels, including universities that formerly worried about it, but no more.

[OnyxCollie]

10. K&R. nt

[Doctor_J]

11. I can't believe my fucking tax dollars are going to a crime syndicate

let's be ready when the government turns them on us.

[Heddi]

12. .

[cory777]

13. Xe Services aiming for Afghan police training deal

Source: Rawstory

Reviled by Democrats, Xe (formerly Blackwater) aims to be part of Obama's Afghanistan strategy

RICHARD LARDNER
AP News

Jan 09, 2010 06:24 EST

Blackwater Worldwide's legal woes haven't dimmed the company's prospects in Afghanistan, where it's 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.

Read more: rawstory.com/2010/01/xe-angles-role-obamas-afghan-strategy/

[jwirr]

14. Well that aught to work out really good. Murderers training cops how

to "control" the people. Just what we are fighting for - right?

[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

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