Infamous security firm gets €80m CIA deal

The CIA has signed a $100 million (€80m) contract with the private security firm formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide, to guard its facilities in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

The Washington Post, quoting an anonymous industry source, wrote that the classified contract with the renamed Xe Services “is for protective services . . . guard services, in multiple regions.”

The daily reported that two other security contractors, Triple Canopy and DynCorp International, put in losing bids for the Central Intelligence Agency’s business.

The CIA contract award comes after the US State Department last week awarded Xe a security services contract worth some $120 million (€97m) for work in Afghanistan.

Under the contract, Xe will provide “protective security services” at the US consulates in Herat and Mazar-e-Sharif.

The controversial and secretive Blackwater was thrown into the spotlight after five of its guards were accused of killing 17 unarmed Iraqis in a gun and grenade attack, and wounding some two dozen others during a September 2007 incident at the busy Nisur Square in Baghdad.

Earlier this month, Iraq expelled 250 former employees of the security firm.

The North Carolina-based firm lost its contract to provide security for US embassy diplomats in Baghdad in May 2009 after Iraqis and others repeatedly accused it of adopting a cowboy mentality.