1115.org

Looks like Blackwater USA attained Most Favored Contractor status in Iraq the same way as everyone else. They earned it, the old-fashioned way. Just like Halliburton, for example.

You might remember the recipe. Get a no-bid contract. Over-bill. Get caught. Get rewarded with a huge explosion of new contracts.

Blackwater CEO Erik Prince might have been unable to shed light on it. (He first said Blackwater had never received a no-bid contract. Then corrected himself to say they did get one no-bid contract but “he didn’t know anything further” and so could not provide any further details.) But William H. Moser, the deputy assistant secretary for logistics management, confirmed that in 2004, Blackwater received a “sole-source” contract for security — in other words, a no-bid contract.

It was an “urgent situation,” Moser explained. In 2004, the State Department had to make a rapid transition to assume diplomatic responsibilities with the demise of the Coalition Provisional Authority, and so “we decided to do a sole-source contract for Blackwater’s services.” He said that State was uncomfortable with the award, and asked the inspector-general to perform an audit at the end of 2004 — which found that Blackwater had overbilled State for an undisclosed amount of money. (The company charged the government separately for “drivers” and “security specialists” who were in fact the same people.)

It’s instructive to go back to the check-mark graph I recommended so highly this morning. They get the no-bid contract in 2004. They are caught over-billing at the end of 2004. And the size of their government contracts goes right through the roof. Uncanny, huh?