Hi. I was just wondering if anyone knew if Xe services (formally Blackwater) are still operating in Sudan? Apparently 'South Sudanese' forces are stirring up trouble by attacking the North and possibly also the UN, and I have to wonder why and what South Sudanese gain from such a provocation. Meanwhile, there is a 'Northern backed' force causing trouble in the South. I certainly hope they have considered the idea that an arms-dealing private military contractor with as much to gain as Xe possibly stands to is just as reasonable a suspect as their (former) countrymen. They have certainly proven their lack of respect for law in the past (see the later links)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110520/pl_afp/sudanunrestabyeius_20110520195916A spokesman for the north's Sudan Armed Forces (SAF), Sawarmi Khaled Saad, accused the south's Sudan People?s Liberation Army (SPLA) of attacking its troops.
"Our forces and UN troops came under attack by the SPLA in Abyei area," the official SUNA news agency quoting Saad as saying. "There are substantial losses."
The SPLA denied responsibility.
The company also shipped automatic weapons and other military equipment for use by its personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan in violation of export controls, and in some cases sought to hide its actions, according to the government. In one incident, Blackwater shipped weapons to Iraq hidden inside containers of dog food.
A federal investigation into the company’s weapons shipments to Iraq led to guilty pleas on criminal charges by two former Blackwater employees who are believed to have cooperated with a broader federal inquiry.
Investigators reportedly looked into whether some of the weapons that were shipped to Iraq were sold on the black market and ended up in the hands of a Kurdish rebel group, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or P.K.K., which Turkey considers a terrorist organization. Turkish officials reportedly complained to the United States about American weapons seized from the group.
Does Xe = Halbech from Alpha Protocol? It seems to me that they stand to make significant money from governmental contracts; but mostly if that government fears future fighting.
The last I heard Xe's terms were sole access to a very, very significant percentage of Sudan's mostly untapped natural resources. I'm talking half of their untapped oil reserves.
Also, who is this Oliny guy causing trouble in the South?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12666585http://www.xe.com/news/2011-03-12%2004:02:00.0/1762377.htmIn summary, a possibly Northern Sudan backed former military leader who lost in the latest elections decides to cause military problems in South Sudan, where Xe services was attempting to get a ridiculously lucrative contract. He is assisted by a third force, led by someone Google has not heard of and apparently is unknown enough to not warrant a prior news story. Alternatively, it could be an assumed name.
Also, I think I found the reason why poppy cultivation in Afghanistan kept going up for years and years:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide"The fact is, we use Blackwater to do a lot of our training of counternarcotics police in Afghanistan. I have to say that Blackwater has done a very good job."[144]
Also from the wiki page:
Newly appointed CIA director Leon Panetta had recently acknowledged a planned secret targeted killing program, one withheld from Congressional oversight. Manzetti's sources, which tied the program to Blackwater, declined to have their names made public. The CIA was acting on a 2001 presidential legal pronouncement, known as a finding, which authorized the CIA to pursue such efforts.[182] Several million dollars were spent on planning and training, but it was never operationalized and no militants were caught or captured.[182][183] Jeremy Scahill reported in The Nation in November 2009 that Blackwater operate alongside the CIA in Pakistan in "snatch and grab" operations targeting senior members of the Taliban and Al Qaeda. The report cited an unnamed source who has worked on covert US military programs, who revealed that senior members of the Obama administration may not be aware that Blackwater is operating under a US contract in Pakistan. A former Blackwater executive confirmed that they operate covertly in Pakistan. A spokesman for Blackwater denied the claims, stating that they have "only one employee in Pakistan."[184] In December 2009, the CIA canceled their contract with Blackwater to load bombs onto drone aircraft in Afghanistan and Pakistan.[185]
In other words they were payed millions of dollars for operations of questionable legality in a foreign country;
that never happened. Even if the first part of that sentence does not make you wonder, the last part should.
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Topic: Sudan (Read 1210 times)