Blackwater Founder Takes a Beating in Congress

Blackwater USA founder and chairman Erik Prince stubbornly defended his company Tuesday while members of the House Oversight Committee grilled him with questions such as “Why are we privatizing our military to an organization that has been aggressive and in some cases reckless in the handling of their duties?”

BBC:

The committee’s chairman, Henry Waxman, referred to an incident in Afghanistan in 2004 when a Blackwater plane flown by inexperienced pilots crashed, killing US service personnel on board.

An investigation showed the pilots did not follow procedure, did not know where they were going and were treating their mission as “fun”.

“Is Blackwater, a private military contractor, helping or hurting our efforts?” Mr Waxman asked, referring to Iraq.

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Check out the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform’s Web site for video of the hearing and more information.