1115.org

Always a pleasure to point out that Blackwater Worldwide is in the news again. Funny how they are hardly ever in the news for doing anything good. Still, there’s no such thing as bad publicity, right? Even if Blackwater is caught first breaking the law, and then lying about it. Under the Bush administration, that’s practically a character certificate anyway, especially for a company in Blackwater’s line of business. Even as we speak, the State Department must be taking steps to increase the size and scope of their Blackwater contracts.

Federal agents raided Blackwater Worldwide this week as part of an investigation into whether the private security company sidestepped federal laws prohibiting the private purchase of automatic assault rifles, the company said Thursday.

Blackwater spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell said investigators with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives searched Blackwater’s armory at its corporate headquarters in Moyock on Tuesday as part of the investigation. She said she did not know whether the weapons in question were seized.

Nice to see that fame and fortune haven’t changed Anne Tyrell one bit. Still the same mixture of ignorance and misinformation. The same mixture of thoroughly incompetent ignorance and misinformation, I should have said. Her denials of embarrassing details still come through as categorical confirmations.

The official spokesman for Blackwater, sent out there to answer questions about the ATF raid, doesn’t know a pertinent detail like that? Could it be any more transparent that the weapons in question were indeed seized?

In fact, ABC News has already reported that 22 automatic weapons were seized. Strangely enough, ABC News sources their information to Tyrell herself. One of her faces doesn’t seem to know what the other face is saying.

Agents took 17 AK-47s and 5 Bushmaster XM15 E2S automatic rifles, according to Tyrell

But Tyrell, of course, wasn’t done:

The company signed agreements in 2005 in which Blackwater financed the purchase of 34 automatic weapons. Camden County Sheriff Tony Perry became the official owner of the weapons, but Blackwater was allowed to keep most of the guns at its armory.

Federal laws prohibit private parties from buying automatic weapons.
[…]
She said it is not unusual for Blackwater to store automatic weapons because the company is licensed to sell, provide training on, or even manufacture firearms.

You’re following this so far, right? Because Blackwater is licensed to sell firearms, it is not unusual for them to store automatic weapons that it would be illegal for them to sell.

And if you’re thinking: “I sure hope she wasn’t saying that Blackwater Worldwide is now manufacturing their own automatic weapons”, I have bad news for you. They are.

But coming back to the story, the reason for Tyrell’s tired spin seems to be that the whole point of the raid was that it is illegal for these weapons to be in Blackwater’s possession:

It is illegal under federal law for anyone but government agencies – military or law enforcement – to acquire and possess automatic weapons, with an exception for weapons purchased before 1986. Under some conditions, weapons dealers are allowed to buy automatic weapons for the purpose of demonstrating them to law enforcement agencies.

Funny how Blackwater, which is still not a government agency unless Condi Rice got George Bush to sign some kind of secret executive order, first came to acquire these weapons, and then came to possess them. Buying the weapons, transferring ownership but keeping possession on extremely specious grounds apparently doesn’t pass the smell test. Even if you’re as well-connected as Blackwater.

Or it didn’t continue to pass the smell test once The News & Observer went public with the story of “Blackwater’s deal to buy 34 guns for the Camden County Sheriff’s Office — nearly two automatic weapons for each of the department’s 19 deputies.”

Back to Tyrell:

They own the weapons and we keep them in our secure armory. We have a very close relationship with local law enforcement.

I think she mis-spoke. I think the word she was reaching for was “cozy”, not “close”.

Something tells me that local law enforcement may not be quite as pleased with this close and cozy arrangement as they once were.