This time to Academi. They had changed their name to Xe (?) a while ago because the left was hassling them.
For some of you this might be a concern, I frankly don’t really care about mercs. They’ve been around a long time. The fact that the “professional adventurer” has been replaced by the “Private Contractor” is a sad footnote to that profession – indication of a decline of manliness as we lose legendary Soldiers of Fortune like Mike Hoare to the growing demand for glorified security guards with accounting experience but that’s really a philosophical issue many of you aren’t interested in.
Despite new ownership, a new board and new management, security contractor Xe Services LLC could never shake a troublesome nickname: the company formerly known as Blackwater.
Now, it’s the company formerly known as Xe.
On Monday, Virginia-based Xe plans to unveil a new name—Academi—and new logo. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Ted Wright, president and chief executive, said the name change aims to signal a strategy shift by one of the U.S. government’s biggest providers of training and security services.
Mr. Wright said Academi will try to be more “boring.”
Founded by former Navy SEAL Erik Prince, the original Blackwater cultivated a special-operations mystique. But it was tarnished by a string of high-profile incidents, including a deadly 2007 shootout in Iraq that ultimately led to its reorganization and rebranding as Xe Services. Mr. Prince left the business in 2010, selling his stake to investor group USTC Holdings LLC.
Mr. Wright came on board this summer as part of a continuing corporate reorganization. In recent meetings with clients, he said he explained that the new corporate identity was supposed to stress the company’s focus on regulatory compliance and contract management, in addition to its track record of protecting clients. “I tell them, from now on, I’m going to be in the background; I’m going to be boring,” he said. “You’re not going to see me in headlines.”
But Mr. Wright may be courting controversy in one area. He said he would like to take Academi’s business back to Iraq, and has hired an outside company to help it apply for an operating license there. “I think eventually, we’re going to get a license; we’re going to do business in Iraq,” he said.
Just what we need in Iraq – mercs who have a thorough understanding of regulatory compliance and contract management. It really is sunset on the West.
Some of you more conspiracy minded readers will want to take note of this change since you think they’re going to be used to herd us into FEMA camps. The rest of us can just shake our heads ruefully at what’s become of us.
Abdulaziz al-Hijji and his wife Anoud left three cars at their luxurious home in a gated community in Sarasota, Florida — one of them new — and flew to Saudi Arabia in August 2001. The refrigerator was full of food; furniture and clothing were left behind; and the swimming pool water was still circulating.
Security records of cars passing through a checkpoint at the Prestancia gated community indicated that Mr al-Hijji’s home, 4224 Escondito Circle, had been visited a number of times by Mohamed Atta, the leader of the
19-strong hijack team, who piloted American Airlines Flight 11 into the North Tower of the World Trade Centre in 2001.
The logs also indicated that Marwan Al-Shehhi, who crashed United Airlines Flight 175 into the South Tower, and Ziad Jarrah, who was at the controls of United Airlines Flight 93 when it crashed in a field in Pennsylvania, had visited the house.
All three men had trained to fly at Venice Airport, which is 19 miles from Sarasota.
[…]
In email correspondence with the Telegraph, Mr al-Hijji strongly denied any involvement in the plot, writing: “I have neither relation nor association with any of those bad people/criminals and the awful crime they did. 9/11 is a crime against the USA and all humankind and I’m very saddened and oppressed by these false allegations.
“I love the USA. My kids were born there, I went to college and university there, I spent a good portion of my life there and I love it.”
Mr al-Hijji’s account is supported by the FBI, which has stated: “At no time did the FBI develop evidence that connected the family members to any of the 9/11 hijackers … and there was no connection found to the 9/11 plot.’’
Bob Graham, a former US senator who, in addition to co-chairing the congressional inquiry into 9/11, was chairman of the US senate intelligence committee at the time, disputes the FBI denials. He has long believed that there was Saudi support for the 19 terrorists, 15 of whom were subjects of the kingdom. He cites two secret documents to which he has recently had access.
The first document, Graham says, is “not consistent with the public statements of the FBI that there was no connection between the 9/11 hijackers and the Saudis at the Sarasota home. Both documents indicate that the investigation was not the robust inquiry claimed by the FBI.”
It should be remembered that much of the FBI malfeasance in the 90s regarding terror investigations was due to the influence of Jamie Gorelick, who went on to help destroy our economy in Fannie Mae. I’m not a fan of Wikipedia but here’s a decent summary of her less than stellar career.
Since Al-Qaeda has been shown to work with Iranian operatives and Iran is now angry at England the Brits may want to keep an eye on al-hijji
Conservatives are often frustrated by the radical green movement and our inability to bridge the ideological divide between us on issues where we would share common ground. We all want to stop toxic waste dumping, conserve our habitat, and protect ecosystems. On many issues where the green movement and conservatives would naturally align, such as stopping invasive species like pythons in the Everglades or the much dreaded”pig bomb,” conservatives are often shocked to find the green movement working against initiatives to halt the spread of these environmentally dangerous species that in many cases also present a danger to humans.
This is a conceit, however. The environmental and animal rights movements are no more about sustainable living than the Democratic Party is about free markets and a strong national defense. Environmentalism is a cult whose theology is based on anti-humanism. It recruits from the dregs of society by promising the cultists revenge on the society and world they think has wronged them. You need no more evidence of this than PETA’s newest ad which promotes veganism by using images of the aftermath of violent sex. Violent sex that injures women, the ad supposes, is a benefit of men going vegan.
But the PETA ad is just a more flamboyant example of how these people think of the rest of us humans. The sexual dysfunction of whoever wrote this ad is not unique to PETA. Recently it came to light that one of Greenpeace’s newest “heroes” is a tier 3 sex offender who to this day claims his victims–two girls between the ages of 13 and 15–were asking for it. Meet George John Bolenbaugh III aka John Bolenbaugh. Greenpeace has been highlighting this “activist” for his tireless campaign which claims an oil company he worked for (and was fired from?) is killing people. This despite the fact he’s a predatory child molester who had sex with two girls, who were between the ages of 13 and 15, when he was in his late 20s.
Defendant sought to introduce evidence that one of the complainants had herpes, arguing that her active case of herpes was relevant to a possible motive for accusing defendant of criminal sexual conduct. [*3] He contended that the evidence was relevant to the complainant’s bias and credibility. We agree with the trial court that the evidence was irrelevant and that, even if relevant, any probative value of the evidence was substantially outweighed by the risks of unfair prejudice.
Nice guy right? Just the kind of person you’d want representing you and your cause–if you were running a depraved cult of nihilistic degenerates. But it gets worse. Bolenbaugh is unrepentant for his crimes and his fellow “greens” are defending not only his activism but his criminality. Bolenbaugh and friends have launched a campaign on YouTube to attack the people exposing this information and here’s a little nugget one of his supporters dropped into the conversation:
@Hellfireblogs This guy is not a predator!!! You are! The guy done his time,leave him alone! I’ve been lied to and found out later she was younger than she claimed. Luckily I did no time and I shouldn’t have. The girl is now a great mother, successful business owner and one of my best friends. No permanent damage! I’m not saying it was right but I surely didn’t deserve prison and this guy has done his time and is registered and it was 12 years ago.Leave him Alone!!!
Full disclosure: I’m the Hellfireblogs he or she is responding to. But did you catch that? This person is saying he too “was fooled” by these evil teen girls seeking to entrap men in their late 20s. Sound like good people fighting for a cause to you?
What’s also interesting is that this particular YouTuber is a 9/11 truther with a channel devoted to anti-American conspiracy theories. He or she seems especially concerned by mythical “Illuminati” and “Satanic” child abuse. Yet, they are not at all concerned by real predation and exploitation of teens. Almost like, you know, a cult.
Bolenbaugh himself is all over YouTube and other sites claiming that I work for this oil company, that he did nothing wrong (even though he had sex with two children), and the that the “real” criminals are this company. He’s fighting the good fight, so to speak.
Of course we all know that’s bunk. Bolenbaugh is using the cover of environmentalism to lash out at the world he’s angry at for treating him in what he thinks is an unfair way. He’s also no doubt linking up with a movement where he will come into contact with young girls, and his videography is especially disturbing considering his history when you see how much time he spends with children and families.
This isn’t a one-off. The PETA ad depicts the violent degradation of women as a part of their lifestyle and worse, depicts women as wanting to be hurt during sex. Greenpeace is using an unrepentant child molester who blames his victims for his crimes as a spokesman for their cause. There is a pattern here that can only be understood by looking at the underlying anti-human theology of these groups.
There is an impulse among conservatives to embrace the idea that these groups are full of people who are not evil, just wrong. We can no longer afford to perpetuate this myth. The radical green movement will not save the environment because that is not what it’s designed to do. It is a movement designed to give people like Bolenbaugh a platform from which to lash out at the rest of us and marginalizing this moral insanity is the only way a sane, rational conservation movement in this country can ever arise.
The ships are believed to be headed to Syria to aid in the Baathist crackdown. I guess that Arab spring which overturned the Egyptian government isn’t heralding in peace and stability after all since Egypt allowed the passage:
ISMAILIA – Two Iranian naval ships have sailed through Egypt’s Suez Canal into the Mediterranean, in a move likely to be keenly watched by Israel.
“Two Iranian ships crossed through the Suez Canal (on Thursday) following permission from the Egyptian armed forces,” a source in the canal authority said on Friday.
The destroyer and a supply ship could be on their way to the Syrian coast, the source added. Iran and Syria agreed to cooperate on naval training a year ago, and Tehran has no naval agreement with any other country in the region.
Two Iranian warships sailed along the strategic waterway on February 17 last year, in a move that Israel called a “provocation”.
Egypt’s military, which has a close defense ties with the United States, has been governing the country since the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak a year ago.
Iran joins Venezuela in supplying Syria making Western actions against that country seem like a world war by proxy. Hopefully things don’t heat up too much there.
Very close. I just got finished reading the excellent KGS Nightwatch newsletter and it seems that not only is Iran already striking Israeli targets in the Middle East but are striking targets in Asia as well. The sharp turn into Islamism in Turkey is also building more tensions as Israel finds a new ally in Cyprus, who have been increasingly targeted by Turkish aggression. This is the build up to armed conflict which will no doubt draw in more countries:
The Iranians who were arrested after mistakenly setting off explosives in Bangkok on Tuesday planned to attack Israeli diplomats, Thai police chief Prewpan Dhamapong said on 16 February. Dhamapong said that Thai authorities know for sure that Israeli diplomats were targets and that the targets were specific.Meanwhile, Malaysian authorities have arrested an Iranian man also suspected of being involved in the Bangkok bombings. Royal Malaysian Police Inspector General Tan Sri Ismail Omar said the suspect was detained late on 15 February at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Malaysia is prepared to extradite the suspect to Thailand, after completing interrogation and receiving the expected Thai request
[…]
Cypriot President Demetris Christofias and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signed an agreement on 16 February for emergency use of Cypriot airspace by Israeli aircraft. News services reported the agreement would allow the Israeli air force and navy to use airspace and waters around Cyprus to protect energy resources and to establish an Israeli base on Cyprus. Netanyahu and Christofias both denied these reports and insisted the agreement is only for peaceful purposes.Comment: This is the first visit to Cyprus by an Israeli prime minister. Multiple news commentaries noted that Cyprus traditionally has been cool to Israel because of Israel’s past close military and political relations with Turkey. Thus, the down turn in Turkish ties over the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip, among other issues, has rebounded into a new relationship with Cyprus.The Israelis and Cypriots have a legitimate need to be able to protect offshore oil and gas exploration. During Netanyahu’s visit, Turkey threatened to bar Cyprus from exploring in waters that Turkey also claims.A potential advantage for Israel is that the new arrangement could afford Israeli pilots opportunities for more long distance flight training, which would be needed to prepare for an attack against Iran. The press coverage of the new agreement suggests observers should expect to see Israeli combat aircraft at Cypriot airfields and training in Cypriot airspace.On arrival in Nicosia, Netanyahu made a point of mentioning Iran’s nuclear threat, as he put it, accusing Iran of being the most dangerous country on earth. Taken together, the circumstances, statements and fact of a military agreement leave no doubt that this initiative is part of the Israeli strategy for dealing with Iran.
