BLACKWATER IS CHANGING IT'S NAME, WILL IT BE BUSINESS AS USUAL ?

Blackwater Changes Its Name to Xe

Blackwater Worldwide is abandoning the brand name that has been tarnished by its work in Iraq, settling on Xe (pronounced zee) as the new name for its family of two dozen businesses.

Times Topics: Blackwater Worldwide ,Blackwater Lodge and Training Center, the subsidiary that conducts much of the company’s overseas operations and domestic training, has been renamed U.S. Training Center Inc., the company said Friday.

The company’s rebranding effort grew more urgent after Blackwater guards in Baghdad were involved in a shooting episode in September 2007 that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead.

Blackwater’s president, Gary Jackson, said in a memo to employees that the new name reflected the company’s shift away from providing private security. He has said the company is going to focus on training.

Last month, Iraqi leaders said they would not renew Blackwater’s license to operate in Iraq; the State Department said later that it would not renew Blackwater’s contract to protect diplomats when it expired in May.

A Blackwater spokeswoman, Anne Tyrrell, acknowledged the need to shake the company’s past in Iraq. “Certainly that is an aspect of our work that we feel we were defined by,” she said.

I guess this company is hoping we have a short memory and put the past behind them.

BLACKWATER WORLDWIDE TO LOSE LICENSE TO WORK IN IRAQ

An internal U S State Department report says Blackwater must prepare alternative means to protect diplomats there. The 42 page draft report report by the State Department's Inspector General says there is the prospect that Blackwater will be barred from the country. The department will have to make other security arrangements to replace Blackwater.

Blackwater employees no longer had immunity after January 1st when a new U S-Iraq security pact took effect. U S investigators have linked Blackwater to over 70 shooting incidents.