Blackwater loads Hellfire for killing al Qaeda

NY Times:


From a secret division at its North Carolina headquarters, the company formerly known as Blackwater has assumed a role in Washington’s most important counterterrorism program: the use of remotely piloted drones to kill Al Qaeda’s leaders, according to government officials and current and former employees.


The division’s operations are carried out at hidden bases in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where the company’s contractors assemble and load Hellfire missiles and 500-pound laser-guided bombs on remotely piloted Predator aircraft, work previously performed by employees of the Central Intelligence Agency. They also provide security at the covert bases, the officials said.

The role of the company in the Predator program highlights the degree to which the C.I.A. now depends on outside contractors to perform some of the agency’s most important assignments. And it illustrates the resilience of Blackwater, now known as Xe (pronounced Zee) Services, though most people in and outside the company still refer to it as Blackwater. It has grown through government work, even as it attracted criticism and allegations of brutality in Iraq.

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For its intelligence work, the company’s sprawling headquarters in North Carolina has a special division, known as Blackwater Select. The company’s first major arrangement with the C.I.A. was signed in 2002, with a contract to provide security for the agency’s new station in Kabul, Afghanistan. Blackwater employees assigned to the Predator bases receive training at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada to learn how to load Hellfire missiles and laser-guided smart bombs on the drones, according to current and former employees, who asked not to be identified for fear of upsetting the company.

The C.I.A. has for several years operated Predator drones out of a remote base in Shamsi, Pakistan, but has secretly added a second site at an air base in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, several current and former government and company officials said. The existence of the Predator base in Jalalabad has not previously been reported.

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I am sure the Taliban and al Qaeda appreciate the intelligence briefing and heads up from the NY Times. What I am not sure of is why the Times wanted to disclose this information to the public and the enemy.

My speculation is that they want to help liberal Democrats stop a program to kill the enemy and make it easier for the enemy to find our forces operating in Pakistan.

They also are embarrassing our Pakistani allies and making it harder for them to deny cooperation. The editorial judgment is strange at best, but the Times continues to be the best source of enemy intelligence. Al Qaeda does not need its own CIA, it just needs access to the Times web site.

I don't see anything wrong with the arrangement. I wish them continued success in operations against the Taliban and al Qaeda.