[PAA-Discuss] Blackwater brass forms intelligence company

[Ron and Kris Graham]

Evidently, this information just hit Buzzflash because that's where I found
the link to this article. I don't like it one bit. Blackwater is obtaining
more and more power within the United States. According to former U.S.
Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, Blackwater mercenaries are still on the
ground in New Orleans providing "security". She was appalled, and so am I.

 

Kris

 

Blackwater brass forms intelligence company

 


Blackwater Vice Chairman Cofer Black 


Blackwater Vice Chairman Cofer Black 

By BILL SIZEMORE, The Virginian-Pilot 
C February 21, 2007 

Cofer Black, vice chairman of Blackwater USA, announced Tuesday the
formation of a new CIA-type private company to provide intelligence services
to commercial clients. 

The executive roster for the new venture, Total Intelligence Solutions, is
loaded with veterans of U.S. intelligence agencies, including two other
Blackwater officials.


A spokeswoman for Total Intelligence said there is no corporate affiliation
with Blackwater, the Moyock, N.C.-based private military company, but the
new firm clearly has a Blackwater stamp. 	


  

	


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Among the key personnel and their positions at Total Intelligence, which
will be based in Alexandria:

*  Black, chairman. He joined Blackwater two years ago after three decades
in the CIA and State Department. He was director of the CIA's
Counterterrorist Center and the State Department's coordinator for
counterterrorism, a job with ambassador rank. 

*  Robert Richer, chief executive officer. He is vice president for
intelligence at Blackwater and retired from the CIA in November 2005 as
associate deputy director for operations. 

*  Enrique "Ric" Prado, chief operating officer. He is vice president of
special government programs at Blackwater and a 24-year veteran of the CIA's
Directorate of Operations, including 10 years with the agency's paramilitary
Special Operations Group. In his last overt job with the CIA, Prado worked
under Black as chief of operations for the Counterterrorist Center. 

Blackwater's primary specialties are tactical training and security, but it
is no stranger to the intelligence world. The 10-year-old company's first
security contract, awarded in 2002, was for a classified operation. In his
book "Licensed to Kill: Hired Guns in the War on Terror," author Robert
Young Pelton identified the company's client as the CIA.

The concept of marketing intelligence services to commercial clients is not
new, Pelton said Tuesday, but the new venture represents "a continuing
evolution in what Blackwater's doing."

"Total Intel brings the intelligence gathering methodology and analytical
skills traditionally honed by CIA operatives directly to the board room,"
Black said in a statement Tuesday. "With a service like this, CEOs and their
security personnel will be able to respond to threats quickly and
confidently - whether it's determining which city is safest to open a new
plant in or working to keep employees out of harm's way after a terrorist
attack."

The statement said the company will operate a "24/7 intelligence fusion and
warning center" that will monitor civil unrest, terrorism, economic
stability, environmental and health concerns, and information technology
security around the world.

Among other top executives of the new company are:

*  Matthew Devost, president. He is an information security consultant and
founding director of the Terrorism Research Center. 

*  Caleb "Cal" Temple, senior vice president for intelligence and analysis.
A former FBI intelligence specialist, he was most recently chief of the
Office of Intelligence Operations in the Defense Intelligence Agency. 

*  Reach Bill Sizemore at (757) 446-2276 or bill.sizemore at pilotonline.com.

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