US private security firm Xe Services, previously known as Blackwater, has agreed to pay a 42-million-dollar fine in a bid to avoid criminal charges for hundreds of export violations, the New York Times reported late Friday.
As threatened, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has banned private security firms. But the devil of this decree lies in the details and there’s precious little of it, raising the spectre of increased insecurity.
The former president of Blackwater Worldwide, Gary Jackson, and four other company officials were indicted in a US court on Friday for firearms violations and for making false statements.
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates (pictured) will review a series of allegations involving misconduct in Afghanistan by the private security firm formerly known as Blackwater, the Pentagon said. The firm is now known as Xe.
Iraq has expelled 250 former employees of US private security company Blackwater --now working with other firms in the country-- in connection with a September 2007 incident which led to the death of 17 unarmed Iraqi civilians.
Two former Blackwater operatives could face the death penalty after they were indicted by a U.S. court on charges of murder allegedly committed in Afghanistan last year, the U.S. Justice Department announced on Thursday.
Iraq said on Sunday it would support a lawsuit against private US security firm Blackwater filed by families of victims of a 2007 shooting in which 14 Iraqi civilians were killed.
The Iraqi government says it has initiated proceedings to prosecute US security firm Blackwater, now known as Xe, for the killing of Iraqi civilians in Baghdad in 2007 after a US court decided to drop existing charges.
Iraqi government officials have expressed outrage at the decision by a US judge to dismiss criminal charges against five Blackwater Worldwide security guards who were accused of killing 14 Iraqi civilians in 2007.
A US judge has dismissed criminal charges against five Blackwater Worldwide security guards accused of killing 14 Iraqi civilians in 2007, saying prosecutors violated the defendants' rights.
