Feb 25, 2009

Blackwater was founded in 1997 as a private army so that the U.S. government could hire them to do things not legal by the regular military.

It did such dastardly things in Iraq that the Iraqi government recently refused to renew their license to operate in that country.

So they changed their name, as so many companies do, in order to avoid changing their practices.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheat-sheet/item/blackwater-rechristened-xe/name-game/

In a memo, Blackwater president Gary Jackson announced that the company intends to shift away from the soldier-for-hire game and into "personnel protective services for high-threat environments when needed by the U.S. government."

Let me see.  . . they are shifting their focus from being mercenaries to being, well, mercenaries. I feel so much better now.