Blackwater guards joined CIA raids

Employees of the Blackwater private security company took part in secret CIA raids in Iraq and Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON, December 11, 2009 (AFP) - Employees of the Blackwater private security company took part in secret CIA raids in Iraq and Afghanistan, the New York Times reported Friday, citing former employees and intelligence officials.

Blackwater contractors, who gained notoriety for abuses in Iraq, including the killing of 17 civilians in Baghdad in September 2007, participated in Central Intelligence Agency "snatch and grab" missions to capture or kill insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the Times.

"It became a very brotherly relationship," an unnamed former top CIA officer told the newspaper. "There was a feeling that Blackwater eventually became an extension of the agency."

A spokesman for the North Carolina-based security firm, now renamed Xe Services, told the newspaper that it was never under contract to participate in clandestine raids.

Blackwater came under fire over several incidents in Iraq, including the 2007 killings, and lost its contract to provide security for US embassy diplomats in Baghdad in May.

The Times in August reported that the CIA hired Blackwater in 2004 as part of a program to find and kill top Al-Qaeda terrorists.

CIA Director Leon Panetta canceled the program in June, and US officials said that no missions were ever carried out.

Erik Prince, the former US Navy Seal who headed Blackwater, told Vanity Fair magazine earlier this month he felt betrayed that his role in working with the CIA had become public.

"I put myself and my company at the CIA's disposal for some very risky missions," said Prince, who eschewed a role in his family's billion-dollar auto-parts firm to join the military.

"But when it became politically expedient to do so, someone threw me under the bus."

Prince's role in the CIA program was widely reported after Panetta briefed US lawmakers on its existence.

The company Prince founded has now been rebranded Xe, but he stepped down as chief executive of the firm earlier this year, though he still serves as chairman of its board.