Academi

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Academi

logo
legal form Limited Liability Company
founding 1997
Seat Moyock, North Carolina, United States
Branch military services (operations)
Website academi.com

Academi (until 2007 Blackwater USA , until 2009 Blackwater Worldwide , until 2011 Xe Services LLC [ ˈzi ], since 2014 part of Constellis Holdings ) is the largest US private security and military company . According to its own account, the company is a military service provider for government agencies, the judiciary and citizens. Academi also offers training and the implementation of strategic and one-off operations .

In 2014 Academi was bought with Triple Canopy and six other military service providers and merged under Constellis Holdings, Inc.

history

Blackwater USA logo , in use until 2007
Blackwater Worldwide logo , in use until 2009
Xe Services logo , in use until 2011
Paul Bremer , then civil administrator for Iraq, escorted by Blackwater employees in Baghdad in 2004
Blackwater MD-530F secures the site of a car bomb explosion in Baghdad, Iraq, during Operation Iraqi Freedom , 2004

The company was founded in 1997 by Erik Prince , a former member of the United States Navy Seals , and Al Clark.

When Blackwater USA was renamed Blackwater Worldwide in October 2007, the company made changes to its logo. This no longer contained the curved lettering "Blackwater". In February 2009, the company was renamed Xe Services after the Iraqi government failed to renew the company's diplomatic protection license in January.

In December 2010, company founder Prince Xe Services and the training center in North Carolina sold to a group of investors. Prince left the company.

At the end of 2011 it was renamed Academi again.

Corporate structure

The company is organized as a Limited Liability Company and consists of several subcontractors :

  • US Training Center Inc. (until February 2009 Blackwater Training Center Inc.)
  • Blackwater ammunition
  • Blackwater Target Systems
  • Blackwater Security Consulting
  • Blackwater Canine
  • Blackwater Aviation Worldwide Services
  • Raven Development Group
  • Greystone Limited
  • Terrorism Research Center
  • Total Intelligence Solutions

Academi's chairman is Gary Jackson, as is a former Navy SEAL like other senior executives. According to the company, the Blackwater Training Center is the largest private shooting training facility in the USA. It is located in Moyock ( Currituck County ) and covers 24 km² with over 40 shooting ranges. Blackwater offers a variety of courses, including hand-to-hand combat and sniper training. There is also a Blackwater Academy that provides extensive training for new recruits. This training will be funded by Blackwater when the new recruits sign up to work exclusively for Blackwater.

The company should employ a total of 40,000 people.

Blackwater in the media

Chronicle of important company events

On March 31, 2004, four employees of Blackwater Security Consulting , who accompanied a delivery of the hospitality company Eurest Support Services as security forces in Iraq , were attacked by insurgents in the city of Fallujah and killed by shell bombardment. The bodies were dragged from their cars by an angry crowd, mutilated and later two of them were hung from a bridge over the Euphrates . A video showing the two suspended Blackwater workers was shot by the insurgents and distributed in media reports. It was the first time that Blackwater, now the most powerful private army in the world, became known to a wider international public.

In January 2005, relatives of the deceased sued Blackwater on the grounds that the company had put the lives of its employees at risk out of profitability and unprofessionalism. However Blackwater responded immediately with a counter-claim in excess of ten million US dollars , since those killed had allegedly signed a contract that forbade to bring Blackwater American US before a court. The US Inquiry Committee concluded in 2007 that Blackwater was hindering an investigation into the incident and that its staff were poorly equipped due to austerity measures.

On April 21, 2005, five other inmates and six Blackwater employees died when the Mi-8 helicopter carrying them was shot down by a missile. The Bulgarian pilot Lyubomir Kostov was the only one who survived the crash, but was executed by Iraqi rebels. On the same day, another employee was killed by a bomb near Ramadi.

In May 2005, irritant gas was used in Baghdad , the use of which is only permitted in exceptional cases in war zones. Passers-by and at least ten members of the US armed forces suffered severe eye irritation and shortness of breath .

Blackwater also operated within the USA. The company received orders in August 2005 to clean up after Hurricane Katrina . The company took on logistics and security tasks and, according to its own information, used helicopters for aid transports. However, the Coast Guard denied this.

In mid-December 2006, a drunk Blackwater worker shot dead the bodyguard of Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdul Mahdi . The Blackwater employee was dismissed without notice, but was able to leave Iraq unmolested. He has also not had to answer to a US court for his act.

In January 2007, Blackwater workers were involved as mercenaries in the war against the Union of Islamic Courts in southern Somalia .

On October 3, 2007, the Polish ambassador Edward Pietrzyk was the victim of an explosion in Baghdad. A Blackwater team that happened to be nearby reacted immediately, rushing over and protecting the ambassador's convoy under heavy fire. Pietrzyk, whose vehicle was ripped apart by an IED , survived with severe burns and was flown by Blackwater to a nearby hospital. A Polish bodyguard and a civilian were killed in the attack and 11 others were seriously injured.

Five Blackwater workers were shot down in a helicopter in a contested Sunni area of Baghdad . According to media reports, four of the five people were killed by headshots on the ground.

At the beginning of May 2007 there was a firefight between Blackwater employees and the security forces of the Iraqi Interior Ministry in front of the Ministry building in Baghdad, which could only be ended with the intervention of the US Army .

On June 6, 2008, it was announced that the Blackwater subsidiary EP Aviation had purchased an Embraer EMB 314 Super Tucano fighter aircraft from the Brazilian manufacturer Embraer . The turboprop aircraft should only be flown in the USA for training purposes. According to Empresa Brasileira de Aeronáutica SA, the US government and the Brazilian government are said to have approved the sale.

In October 2008, Blackwater dispatched the former NOAA research vessel McArthur to the Gulf of Aden , equipped and equipped. A. with 40 armed security guards and one armed helicopter. The company offered pirate protection and merchant ship escort, but the old ship was too slow for the job.

In December 2009 it became known that Academi 2004 - then still Blackwater - observed the German-Syrian businessman Mamoun Darkazanli from Hamburg with the order of the targeted killing. Darkazanli came under the crosshairs of the American foreign intelligence service CIA as a suspected al-Qaida financier . On January 4, 2010, the Green MP Hans-Christian Ströbele called for the case to be clarified quickly. The Hamburg public prosecutor's office declared that it would initiate preliminary investigations against the CIA.

In May 2010 it became known that there were employees of the company in Pakistan .

After reaching a settlement with the US State Department , both parties agreed in August 2010 to pay the US government $ 42 million to avoid legal action. The reason was a total of 288 violations of US laws in the period 2003–2009, including "unauthorized export of defense articles".

Iraq license and Blackwater investigation

In September 2007, Blackwater's license to travel to Iraq was revoked by the authorities there after Blackwaters employees shot into a crowd after an alleged attack on their convoy . In the incident, 17 civilians were killed and 24 people seriously injured in Nissur Square in Baghdad. According to the Private Security Company Association of Iraq , Blackwater does not have a valid license for activities in Iraq that could be withdrawn by the authorities there. Even Blackwater's largest client, the US State Department , could not confirm that the commissioned security company had a current license for its mercenary services in Iraq. Through the so-called Memorandum 17 of the US administration in Iraq, Blackwater employees operate in a legal gray area: immune to Iraqi law and undisturbed by US courts. Iraqi security agencies reiterated that this was not the first case in which private security services deliberately endangered and killed civilians in Iraq. For this incident involving the arbitrary shooting of civilians, the Iraqi government is demanding compensation from the US security company Blackwater in the amount of 136 million US dollars (97 million euros ) for the bereaved. Five days after the fatal incident, the first Blackwater workers, after consulting the Iraqi government, resumed limited security services.

On September 22, 2007, the US attorney's office confirmed an investigation into Blackwater employees accused of illegally smuggling weapons into Iraq. These weapons were later allegedly delivered to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). The investigation was triggered by information from Turkish authorities whose security forces had seized American-made handguns from the arrested and killed PKK fighters. Prosecutor spokespersons rated the evidence as sufficient to bring charges. The company founder Erik Prince described the allegations as unfounded and denied any responsibility.

In addition, the company's founder Erik Prince was heard before a congressional committee . The committee led by Henry Waxman confronted Prince with past events in which company employees were in the public eye for scandalous events, such as the shooting of the bodyguard of Iraqi Vice President Adil Abd al-Mahdi in 2006 by an intoxicated company employee.

In April 2008 the US State Department announced that the contract with Blackwater, which expired in May 2008, would be extended by one year. In the following year, Blackwater was supposed to protect American diplomats in Iraq .

As part of an investigation into the incident in September 2007 in which 17 civilians were killed, two former employees anonymously confirmed allegations of arms smuggling into Iraq in August 2009 in the form of affidavits . In addition, both employees, identified as John Doe # 1 and John Doe # 2 for security reasons, testified that Erik Prince and close associates had committed at least one murder of federal informants. At the same time, they particularly underlined Erik Prince's Christian fundamentalist motifs and reported on adaptations of Templar symbols by the Blackwater mercenaries.

On December 12, 2009 it was announced that the CIA had terminated an existing contract with Xe. As reported by the New York Times , employees of the company bombed unmanned drones for use against suspected terrorists in Pakistan and Afghanistan . This involvement in such secret CIA operations had been criticized many times in the past few weeks. Originally, the mercenary company was only hired to protect US soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A Washington, DC court in December 2009 dismissed an indictment by the US attorney general against five Blackwater employees for defective evidence. The Iraqi government protested sharply against this. After the prosecution completely closed the case in February 2010, the Iraqi government expelled a total of 250 of the company's mercenaries from the country. In April 2011, an appeals court in Washington DC ordered the trial to be reopened.

In October 2014, four employees were found guilty of the murder. Three other employees were found guilty of manslaughter in affect. Four of them were sentenced in April 2015. It amounts to one life imprisonment for murder and three times 30 years imprisonment for manslaughter. The verdicts were overturned in August 2017 by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals as being disproportionately harsh.

Videos

In 2012, Harper's Magazine published various videos showing, among other things, how Blackwater employees ram civilian vehicles in traffic. The videos also show insults and harassment against passers-by and how vehicles are fired into traffic and parked or waiting at intersections. Another video shows Blackwater vehicles driving in a column. The first vehicle hits an Iraqi passerby, who then remains motionless on the ground. The cars following the vehicle at the top of the column pass the seriously injured woman impassively.

Cooperation with various corporations and governments

According to a September 2010 report in The Nation , Total Intelligence Solutions and the Terrorism Research Center provided surveillance, training and security services to various governments and corporations such as Monsanto , Chevron Corporation , The Walt Disney Company , Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. , Deutsche Bank and Barclays . A Monsanto spokesperson said that information about the activities of groups or individuals that could pose a threat to Monsanto employees or operations was collected through monitoring of media reports and other publicly available sources. This ranged from information on terrorist incidents in Asia and kidnappings in Central America to monitoring the content of activist blogs and websites. According to available documents and internal emails, a meeting between Cofer Black and Monsanto's security chief Kevin Wilson took place in Zurich, at which plans were drawn up to develop a joint collaboration. According to these plans, Total Intelligence Solutions was to act as the "intel arm of Monsanto", ie as a private secret service for the global company. Monsanto reportedly agreed to pay up to $ 500,000 to Total Intelligence Solutions to infiltrate anti-Monsanto initiatives. Cofer Black confirmed the collaboration to The Nation , but denied consideration of such infiltration measures, as evidenced by emails.

Iraq was logs

The Iraq War documents leak (Iraq War documents leak) documented that Blackwater employees committed serious abuses in Iraq, including the killing of civilians. In total, the records reveal 14 different incidents involving Blackwater teams with ten dead and seven wounded civilians. A third of these incidents happened while Blackwater employees were protecting US diplomats.

literature

Web links

Commons : Blackwater Worldwide  - collection of images, videos, and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Iraq occupation of the USA: Blackwater manager allegedly threatened US investigators with death . Spiegel Online , June 30, 2014
  2. ^ [1] Constellis Holdings, Inc. buys Constellis Group, Inc.
  3. ↑ a b Mercenary company Blackwater wants to go back to Iraq with a new name. In: Focus Online , December 12, 2011. Retrieved December 12, 2011.
  4. ↑ Investor group buys security company Blackwater. In: Tages-Anzeiger from December 17, 2010.
  5. ^ Former Blackwater Purchased by Investors ( December 21, 2010 memento in the Internet Archive ) in: Time Magazine, December 17, 2010.
  6. ↑ Jeremy Scahill: Blackwater's Black Ops. In: The Nation. September 15, 2010, accessed June 16, 2019 .
  7. ↑ CIA announces Blackwater cannoning. Spiegel Online , December 12, 2009.
  8. ↑ a b Report: Blackwater 'impeded' probe into contractor deaths (English) , CNN. September 27, 2007. Retrieved November 30, 2010. 
  9. ↑ Legal proceedings of the relatives from January 2005. (PDF; English)
  10. ↑ Blackwater sent employees to their death , Handelsblatt. September 29, 2007. Retrieved November 30, 2010. 
  11. ↑ a b CNN.com - 7 US security contractors killed in Iraq - Apr 21, 2005. Retrieved April 22, 2019 .
  12. ↑ FOX News - Video Shows Chopper Crash Survivor Was Executed - Apr 22, 2005 ( Memento of October 30, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  13. ↑ James Risen: 2005 Use of Gas by Blackwater Leaves Questions . In: New York Times , January 10, 2008, accessed April 10, 2017.
  14. ↑ Jeremy Scahill: Blood is thicker than Blackwater. In: The Nation , April 19, 2006 (English).
  15. ^ Debate on the role of private security forces . In: Der Standard , September 23, 2007.
  16. ↑ Blackwater copter rescues Polish Ambassador, Seattle Times, October 3, 2007, accessed January 23, 2018 [2]
  17. ↑ 5 Americans Dead In Baghdad Copter Crash . CBS , January 23, 2007 (English).
  18. ↑ Security companies in Iraq - When Rambos clean up. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , September 18, 2007.
  19. ↑ Blackwater wants to practice with a fighter jet . ( Memento from September 28, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) FTD.de
  20. ↑ Blackwater gunboats will protect ships . In: The Independent . November 19, 2008 ( independent.co.uk [accessed November 11, 2017]).
  21. ↑ Article in the American Vanity Fair , Vanity Fair , January 2010.
  22. ^ CIA murder order in Hamburg: Green politician Ströbele calls for a quick investigation. Hamburger Abendblatt , January 4, 2010.
  23. ↑ Murder order of the CIA in Hamburg: Hamburg public prosecutor examines investigations against the CIA. In: Hamburger Abendblatt , January 4, 2010.
  24. ^ Blackwater infiltrates streets of Islamabad. ( Memento of September 8, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) (archive version)
  25. ↑ Agreement with US government: Blackwater has to pay a fine of millions . In: The daily newspaper: taz . August 24, 2010 ( taz.de [accessed November 11, 2017]).
  26. ↑ Revenant of the Praetorians? In: Telepolis , October 4, 2007.
    Sudarsan Raghavan: Iraqi Families Vent Anger Over Killings. Those Touched by Blackwater Incident Express Doubt, Mistrust and Sadness. In: Washington Post , December 14, 2008, p. A20.
  27. ↑ "Security Companies in Iraq: 'Whores of War' Under Fire" , Spiegel Online , September 19, 2007.
  28. ↑ "Fatal Shots: Iraqi Government Revokes US Mercenary Forces" , Spiegel Online, September 17, 2007.
  29. ↑ New allegations against US security companies . In: Handelsblatt , October 9, 2007.
  30. ↑ Mercenary troops start verbal counter-offensive . In: Spiegel Online , October 2, 2007.
  31. ↑ Fatal shots by drunken cowboys . In: Welt Online , October 3, 2007.
  32. ↑ nytimes.com
  33. Jump up ↑ Judge dismisses charges of Blackwater shooting. Welt Online from January 1, 2010.
  34. ↑ WORLD: US security company: Iraq has 250 Blackwater employees . February 11, 2010 ( welt.de [accessed April 22, 2019]).
  35. ↑ cf. Blackwater employees have to go to court again ( Memento from May 10, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) at tagesschau.de, April 23, 2011 (accessed on April 23, 2011); (Archive version)
  36. ↑ tagesschau.de ( Memento from October 23, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  37. ↑ Blackwater: Former US mercenaries convicted of murder and manslaughter. Four ex-employees of the private US security company have been jailed for decades for killing Iraqi civilians. You consider yourself innocent. In: time online. April 14, 2015, accessed April 14, 2015 .
  38. ↑ Marco Maier: War crimes: Blackwater mercenaries convicted of murder and manslaughter. Contra Media Online OG, April 14, 2015, accessed on April 15, 2015 : “ The Washington court sent one of them behind bars for life for murder, the other three accomplices were each given up to 30 years imprisonment for manslaughter. The jury found the four defendants guilty in October. Nicholas Slatten was found guilty of murder and his former colleagues Paul Slough, Evan Liberty and Dustin Heard of manslaughter. In addition to the 30 years imprisonment, Judge Royce Lamberth sentenced them to an additional day in prison for other charges. The prosecution called for between 47 and 57 years in prison. "
  39. ↑ "The Warrior Class": The Blackwater Videos , accessed July 17, 2014.
  40. ↑ Blackwater's Black Ops: Internal documents reveal the firm's countryestine work for multinationals and governments , The Nation , September 15, 2010
  41. ^ Monsanto and Blackwater: Is There a Connection? | Beyond the Rows. Retrieved August 1, 2017 .
  42. ^ Growing Use of Contractors Added to Iraq War's Chaos - Iraq War Logs - WikiLeaks Documents . In: The New York Times , October 23, 2010. 
  43. ↑ WikiLeaks Iraq War Logs Expose US-Backed Iraqi Torture, 15,000 More Civilian Deaths, and Contractors Run Amok . In: Democracy Now , October 25, 2010. Retrieved October 26, 2010.