On Replacing Blackwater
WSJ – Quite frankly, given the focus on security clearances, there isn’t anyone else.
Blackwater’s security work for the State Department in Baghdad is up for renewal in May, and U.S. officials say it would take at least that long to arrange for another private contractor to take over. Even a new company would have to rely heavily on hires from Blackwater’s employee base of about 1,000 in Iraq. Hiring and training new guards, all of whom must be Americans with classified-security clearance, would otherwise take months.
To build competition into the American PMC ecosystem, you would have to blow it wide open. Which can’t happen because of security clearances. Convenient “competition” ensues:
Blackwater and two other U.S. security companies, DynCorp International and Triple Canopy Inc., are working under a global contract with the State Department that gives them a total of $571 million a year to protect officials in countries like Israel, Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq. Iraq alone accounts for $520 million.
-Shlok
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