Well that didn't take long. Just 4 months after Blackwater linked security guards were ordered to leave Iraq - providence and the state department has smiled upon our favorite mercenaries.
Private security firm U.S. Training Center, a business unit of the Moyock, N.C.-based Blackwater, now called Xe Services, was awarded the contract Friday, a State Department spokeswoman said Friday night.
Under the contract, U.S. Training Center will provide "protective security services" at the new U.S. consulates in Herat and Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan, the spokeswoman said. The firm can begin work "immediately" and has to start within two months. The contract lasts a year but can be extended twice for three months at a time to last a maximum of 18 months.
Should the firm fulfill all 18 months available in the contract, it will be paid a total of $120,123,293, the spokeswoman said.
So...even though the Justice Department is currently investigating whether Blackwater tried to bribe the Iraqi government to allow them to stay - they get a new contract in Afghanistan. Two other companies bid but, lost to Xe.
Speaking of the State Department, I'm reminded of Hillary Clinton being one of the few senators to support the the ban on using private contractors:
Back in February, Senator Hillary Clinton cosponsored legislation calling for the Secretary of State to ban the use of private contractors like Blackwater from guarding State Department employees -- a position that takes on new significance now that she is Secretary Of State designate.
It was about three weeks after Super Tuesday in the heat of the Democratic primary -- and five months after the killing of 17 Iraqi civilians at Nisour Square by now-indicted Blackwater employees working for the State Department -- when Clinton took an aggressive stand against the use of private forces. A strongly-worded statement issued by her office lashed out at "private mercenary firms":
From this war's very beginning, this administration has permitted thousands of heavily-armed military contractors to march through Iraq without any law or court to rein them in or hold them accountable. These private security contractors have been reckless and have compromised our mission in Iraq. The time to show these contractors the door is long past due.
I would strongly urge people to write the State Department and insist that at the very least there be zero dealings with Xe, or any firm associated with the old Blackwater moving forward. This group of murdering thugs will receive 120 million dollars and our FUBAR congress cannot extend unemployment benefits?