Besieged by criminal inquiries and congressional investigators, how could the world's most controversial private security company drum up new business? By battling pirates on the high seas.
In late 2008, Blackwater Worldwide, under fire because of accusations of abuses by its security guards in Iraq and Afghanistan, reconfigured a 183-foot oceanographic research vessel into a pirate-hunting ship and then began looking for business from shipping companies seeking protection from Somali pirates. The company's chief executive officer, Erik Prince, was planning a trip to Djibouti for a promotional event, and Blackwater was hoping the U.S. Embassy there would help out, according to a secret State Department cable.
But with the Obama administration just weeks old, U.S. diplomats in Djibouti faced a problem. They are supposed to be advocates for U.S. businesses, but this was Blackwater, a company that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had proposed banning from war zones when she was a presidential candidate.
The embassy "would appreciate Department's guidance on the appropriate level of engagement with Blackwater," wrote James Swan, the U.S. ambassador in Djibouti, in a cable sent Feb. 12, 2009.
"Blackwater does not intend to take any pirates into custody, but will use lethal force against pirates if necessary," the cable said.
In the end, Blackwater Maritime Security Services found no treasure in the pirate-chasing business, never attracting any clients.
STATE DEPARTMENT PULLS THE PLUG
The State Department severed its computer files from the government's classified network, officials said on Tuesday, as U.S. and world leaders tried to clean up from the embarrassing leak that spilled America's sensitive documents onto screens around the globe.
By temporarily pulling the plug, the United States significantly reduced the number of government employees who can read diplomatic messages. It was an extraordinary hunkering down, prompted by the disclosure of hundreds of thousands of those messages this week by WikiLeaks, the self-styled whistleblower organization.
