Blackwater's New Frontier: Their Own Private Africa

Well isn't THIS interesting!!

Blackwater's New Frontier: Their Own Private Africa

Will military contractors blur the line between aid workers and hired guns?

-By Bruce Falconer and Daniel Schulman

March/April 2009

"You give me money, I don't care who you are." It was late October, and
Zimbabwe's defense attaché, a soft-spoken, thick-shouldered lieutenant
colonel, was explaining his country's freewheeling approach to business in
the banquet room of the Liaison hotel on Capitol Hill. Mingling around him
were representatives from some of the world's best-known private security
and military contracting firms, gathered to explore their prospects in the
industry's next frontier: Africa. None betrayed any eagerness to do business

with Robert Mugabe, notwithstanding assurances from the beaming attaché that

Zimbabwe-"the second-largest economy in southern Africa"-remains strong
despite 231 million percent annual inflation. But there were plenty of other

avenues to explore, including a recent shake-up in the US military's command

structure that seemed to promise new demand for firms like Blackwater (which

recently changed its name to Xe), Triple Canopy, and DynCorp.

The guests, dressed in business attire and the odd military uniform, were
gathered for the annual summit of the International Peace Operations
Association (IPOA), a trade group. Industry reps had traveled from as far as

Dubai and Malta to discuss this year's topic-the Pentagon's newly
established US Africa Command, or AFRICOM-and to browse booths hawking
everything from armored vehicles to high-risk insurance. Arrayed on a table
in the back were piles of corporate literature, complete with pictures of
Third World children and Western contractors delivering aid, a popular
industry theme. Among the big-ticket attractions was a keynote address from
William E. "Kip" Ward, the four-star general in charge of AFRICOM.

The event drew record attendance, and industry veterans were not surprised.
"Everybody's always been interested in Africa," Chris Taylor, a former
Blackwater executive and now a vice president at Ohio-based Mission
Essential Personnel, explained over drinks in the hotel bar. "It represents
a huge opportunity for business."

Africa is no stranger to armed security contractors; the industry in its
modern incarnation was born when mercenary firms like Executive Outcomes and

Sandline International fought for embattled African governments during the
1990s, allegedly in exchange for diamond and oil concessions. Since then,
security contractors have gained broader acceptance. But serious concerns
remain about the role they might play in their old stomping grounds.

"There is a crying, desperate need for some of the services that these
people provide," said Alex Yearsley, the head of special projects at Global
Witness, a London-based human rights group. "There's no question they can do

it. It's a question of when you're going to have a questionable regime
hiring these people to kick out indigenous communities or [gain access to]
mining areas. That's when it gets problematic."

To companies seeking entrée to the continent, the military's new Africa
command could provide a key foothold. To pursue its mission of security,
diplomacy, and development, AFRICOM's outreach and partnership director,
Paul Saxton, told a packed audience at the conference, the command plans to
enlist the help of the private sector. "We're reaching out."

Reliance on contractors, though, could add to the controversy already
engulfing AFRICOM, especially the fears that the military's forays into
development work could blur the line between aid workers and soldiers or
hired guns. Taylor, the former Blackwater executive, downplayed such
concerns. AFRICOM, he says, will likely train "partner nations" to provide a

secure environment for humanitarian projects. "It doesn't mean that a bunch
of dudes with guns are going to show up with bags of rice."

Perhaps not, but critics have also accused the Pentagon of using AFRICOM as
a fig leaf for broader geopolitical objectives; they view the command as
little more than a strategic maneuver to counter China's pursuit of Africa's

natural resources. "I want to see it succeed," said the security director of

a well-known NGO who is nonetheless wary of AFRICOM's mission. "I want to
see development that is focused on empowerment, not as some tactic for US
interests. That's not development. That's manipulation."

Africans, too, have greeted the Pentagon's plans with suspicion. As US
officials toured the continent in search of a location for the new command's

headquarters, they met with so much opposition that they eventually decided
to operate from Germany for the time being. This frosty reception should
have come as no surprise, Eeben Barlow, the former South African soldier who

founded Executive Outcomes, commented on his blog in November. "Looking
at...US administrations' record in Africa, it is one long script of
betrayal, destabilisation, political blackmail and even worse." African
nations, he noted, "remain extremely reluctant and wary to allow the wolf to

guard their sheep."

But AFRICOM's start-up problems have not dampened the enthusiasm of Barlow's

cohorts in the security industry. They also see opportunities in other
federal initiatives-such as a massive, and little-known, State Department
contract, the Africa Peacekeeping Program. Worth some $1 billion over five
years, it covers work in countries including Somalia, Sudan, and the
Democratic Republic of Congo, everything from logistics support and
construction to training and advising African troops, flying aerial
surveillance missions, and improving coastal security. Triple Canopy and
Blackwater are said to be among those that submitted proposals.

At the IPOA conference, we spoke with two Blackwater representatives, who
during that morning's panel discussion had taken seats beside AFRICOM's Paul

Saxton. With Somali pirates' seizure of a Ukrainian ship carrying 33 battle
tanks fresh in the news, they told us, the company saw opportunity in the
area of "maritime security." In mid-October, Blackwater had announced that
its 183-foot, helipad-equipped ship, the McArthur, was standing by to assist

shipping companies in the area. (After being contacted by at least 70
shipping and insurance firms interested in its anti-piracy services,
Blackwater in December held three days of meetings in London with
prospective clients.) But the core of Blackwater's ambition in Africa is to
transition away from the high-profile "personal protection" work that has
brought it so much opprobrium in Iraq and Afghanistan; to that end, its
representatives told us, it has opened an office in Nairobi, Kenya, the
better to go after opportunities to train African military and security
forces.

If the sheer number of companies represented at the ipoa conference is any
indication, Blackwater's envoys will run into plenty of their
competitors-and that makes some observers uneasy. "You start bringing these
people on the scene, they come in as trainers, but at the drop of a hat they

can be other things," said the ngo security director. "They have skills,
they have something to bring, but it's a double-edged sword, and it depends
on which edge is being presented."