Blackwater still has State Dept. ties

WASHINGTON, Aug. 22 (UPI) -- The security contracting firm Xe, formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide, is still involved in U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, documents indicate.

Despite being dropped as security provider to the U.S. State Department in Iraq after the shootings of 17 Baghdad civilians in 2007, the company is still working on U.S. government contracts worth $400 million to fly diplomats around Iraq and to guard them in Afghanistan, The New York Times reported Saturday.

The contracts remain in effect despite pledges by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to "reduce our dependence on private security contractors."

Blackwater, as the company continues to be known by most, also was revealed Friday to have been highly involved in an effort by the CIA to assassinate al-Qaida leaders starting in 2004, when the agency was still reeling from its flawed intelligence on Iraq's supposed nuclear and biological weapons cache, the newspaper said.

The revelations prompted Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., to ask Blackwater chairman Erik Prince for details of the company's dealings with the CIA, expressing concern that contractors could have used their State Department assignments as a "cover to gather information for the targeted killing program," the Times said.