Blackwater trains mercenaries in Philippines

Sun, 30 Aug 2009, Press TV

The notorious US private security contractor, formerly known as Blackwater, uses a Philippines location to train mercenaries for Iraq and Afghanistan operations.

The company has been lent a former US naval base, northwest of the Manila Bay, “where they can train up to one thousand private military contractors,” Washington-based journalist Wayne Madsen told Russia Today on Friday.

They train people from India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Fiji and the Philippines for operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and other location where they operate, according to Madsen..

The company was denied lease of the base three years ago and was reportedly operating there via a proxy. “We have also been told about a Blackwater subsidiary called Satelles Solutions,” the investigative journalist added.

The group’s stated mission is to provide security for US diplomats and diplomatic facilities as part of the State Department’s Worldwide Personal Protection Program.

The company, which has changed its name to Xe Services, LLC, however, is notorious for misusing its State Department-issued gun license as an excuse for trigger-ready atrocities, namely the killing of 17 civilians in Iraq in 2007. The Department, however, has refused to waive its permission to carry arms in Iraq.

The company also continues to be extensively involved in Afghanistan where 70,000 US-commissioned contractors almost doubly outnumber the US troops.

One of the licentiate’s staff workers has recently filed a sworn testimony in a US federal court against the security firm that may lead to new revelations and scandals. The employee has reportedly alleged that Blackwater’s president, Eric Prince may have murdered or commissioned the murder of the telltales on the company.

The Pentagon is, meanwhile, accused of trusting avoidable deeds with the contractors.

The private firms “are far removed from inspectors general, from the general Government Accountability Office and other people who look into their functions. Because they can claim, off course, that their information is proprietary…they are a private company,” Madsen concluded.

“It is a way to get around a lot of the oversight regulations in the government. So we find them training border patrol agents, we find them training US military special forces and what not.”