Report: Blackwater Guards Used in Secret CIA Raids
Christopher Weber
Correspondent
Posted:
12/11/09
Private guards from the security firm Blackwater Worldwide participated in secret CIA raids against militants and helped transport detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan, it was reported Friday.
Intelligence officials and former Blackwater employees told The New York Times the guards regularly took part in so-called "snatch and grab" operations to capture or kill insurgents from 2004 to 2006. Their involvement "became so routine that the lines supposedly dividing the Central Intelligence Agency, the military and Blackwater became blurred," the paper reported.
The guards, who were hired to provide security for CIA agents, acted more like partners, according to the Times:
Intelligence officials and former Blackwater employees told The New York Times the guards regularly took part in so-called "snatch and grab" operations to capture or kill insurgents from 2004 to 2006. Their involvement "became so routine that the lines supposedly dividing the Central Intelligence Agency, the military and Blackwater became blurred," the paper reported.
The guards, who were hired to provide security for CIA agents, acted more like partners, according to the Times:
The secret missions illuminate a far deeper relationship between the spy agency and the private security company than government officials had acknowledged. Blackwater's partnership with the C.I.A. has been enormously profitable for the North Carolina-based company, and became even closer after several top agency officials joined Blackwater.
Blackwater changed its name to Xe in February.