Webb: Blackwater contracts 'awarded for political reasons'

[kpete]

Webb: Blackwater contracts 'awarded for political reasons'
Greg Wasserstrom and Mike Aivaz
Published: Monday October 8, 2007

By Mike Aivaz

The security contracts awarded to Blackwater USA in Iraq were done so for primarily political reasons, Senator Jim Webb of Virginia told Joe Scarborogh today on MSNBC's Morning Joe. In an extensive discussion about US foreign policy, Webb brought up the controversy over Blackwater's actions in Iraq and the attempt by congress to bring them under US law. "With respect to Blackwater, we've allowed mercenaries to actually conduct combat operations, and we've never done this before," Webb said. "And they're doing this with no legal structiure over them."

There are also no international agreements that govern the handling of mercanries, Webb said, and it now up to the Congress to decide how best to deal with them, Webb said.

"But the other piece of it, let's be honest about it, a lot of the contracts, under this quasi military functions have been awarded for political reasons, and Blackwater is a really good example of that," Webb added. "That's something like half a billion out of their nearly billion dollar contracts were awarded without proper competition, according to the house committee report last year."

more plus video at:
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Sen._Webb_Blackwater_contracts_awarded_for_1008.html

[spanone]

1. OK Webb, let's fucking DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.

[babylonsister]

2. Weren't ALL the contracts awarded by this admin for political reasons? nt

[soothsayer]

3. aren't most contracts, historically? i mean...come on.

[babylonsister]

4. No, they haven't been. Before 'no-bid' contracts, there used to be an

archaic idea called competitive bidding. Many moons ago I worked in purchasing for the government and then, that was the law of the land. Also, 'buy American' was big. Times sure have changed.

[Thothmes]

8. No bid contracts

In time of war, the use of no bid contracts florishes. It is usually done for expediency. As an example Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock received several carrier construction contracts during WWII without competitive bidding. Ford received the B-24 contract from the Govt without bidding. Haliburton had a no bid contract for troop support operations in Kosovo during the Clinton years. None of these contracts appear to have been let for political reasons. This does not seem to be the case with the current war though.

[Richard Steele]

5. Yup. Even the few that actually require sevices be provided.

Time and again, we've seen that their so-called "contracts"
are little more than paper camouflage for outright THEFT.

[SaveAmerica]

6. Only one thing left to say to Webb:

[begin_within]

7. Why the hell doesn't the government dump Blackwater and hire someone else?

I know, I know, it's NOT THAT SIMPLE. But why can't they start the process now?