Private Guards ‘Took Part in Raids on al-Qaeda Militants’

Giles Whittell and Tim Reid in Washington

December 11, 2009 "The Times" -- Mercenaries have been taking part in American raids on al-Qaeda militants in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to newspaper reports that will intensify pressure on Congress to curtail the use of private security guards in war zones.

The disclosure that former Navy Seals and other US special forces soldiers employed by Blackwater Worldwide took part in CIA raids may also prompt fresh scrutiny of General Stanley McChrystal. The senior Nato commander in Afghanistan was head of the Pentagon’s Joint Special Operations Command between 2003 and 2008, when he directed covert attacks on al-Qaeda’s leadership in Iraq.

According to former Blackwater staff, sent to protect CIA officers in the field, they helped to kill militants targeted in “snatch and grab” raids.

It was “highly unlikely” that General McChrystal did not know about the company’s involvement, Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer, told The Times yesterday.

Blackwater has become a byword for excessive force wielded beyond the control of US military hierarchies since the Iraqi Government accused five of its staff of killing seventeen unarmed civilians in Nisoor Square, Baghdad, two years ago. Its lucrative contract with the State Department was cancelled after the claims.

The company, which has since been renamed Xe Services by its controversial founder, Erik Prince, a billionaire former Navy Seal, denies that its staff have ever been under contract to take part in raids with special forces or the CIA, but a former Blackwater manager told The New York Times that the company’s participation was “widely known” with “hundreds of guys involved”.

Former company staff quoted yesterday said that guards assigned to protect CIA officers on raids were often armed with sawn-off M4 automatic weapons with silencers — a potent combination banned under US regulations.