Blackwater Assassins Posing as Aidworkers?

Published November 24, 2009 @ 06:22AM PT

The Nation writer Jeremy Scahill dropped a journalistic bombshell on the aid community yesterday in a story about private security contractor Blackwater's covert work in South Asia: Blackwater assassins have been working undercover as aidworkers in Pakistan and elsewhere in the region.

The English language doesn't contain profanity strong enough to express the outrage that revelation deserves. "Nobody even gives them a second thought," Scahill's unnamed source close to the notorious company said of the mercenaries posing as aidworkers.

I so sincerely hope Scahill's source --his one source for the entire story-- wasn't lying, or carelessly mischaracterizing, because make no mistake about it, that information, now out for the world to read, is going to get real aidworkers killed and jeopardize real relief operations.

This is going to be ruinous. I'm so angry I'm literally at a loss for words now.

[Photo:http://www.flickr.com/photos/osbornb/ / CC BY 2.0]

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Comments (2)

This is so incredibly important. But I have a question for clarity. Contraversial contractor Blackwater (like the siren wailing DyneCorps and modest Triple Canopy) usually provides defensive security for diplomats and the more Washington-oriented aid agencies which hire them. And sometimes they do this in plain clothes, which distorts the image for "peaceful aid workers" when anti-American militias learn of armed security guards moving among them. But you're saying assassins? I've got to read this to see if Blackwater's also doing more than defensive security...Egad...I'm running a post today/tomorrow about US foreign aid reform legislation. Hopefully, this Bush-era blight can be one of the issues addressed...

Posted by Daniel J Gerstle on 11/24/2009 @ 08:09AM PT
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DELETED: Off-topic.

Posted by Jack Spratt on 11/24/2009 @ 01:44PM PT
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Author

Una Vera is an international development professional living in the northeast United States. Her blogging at Change.org focuses on the intersection of human security, governance, and armed conflict --primarily in Europe and Central Asia. You can follow Una on Twitter @Transitionland.