Blackwater Expanding State Department Contract

According to a small announcement that appeared on Blackwater's website on Monday, Blackwater Worldwide is seeking additional staff for the controversial WPPS II contract due to "contract expansion."  The note does not explain whether this is a new task order under WPPS or if a current one is being expanded.

The positions advertised in the announcement are consistent with those Blackwater has listed in the past for the Baghdad task order under the WPPS II:

• Personal Security Specialist (translation:  shooters) 
• Designated Defensive Marksmen  (translation: snipers) 
• EMT-P with tactical experience 
• Mechanics 
• K-9

These positions seem to be for a Personal Security Detail and do not have the higher qualifications sought for the Tactical Support Teams, the "A teams" that are sent in as a quick response unit when the PSD teams get into trouble.   (It was a Tactical Support Team that was involved in the Nisoor Square incident.)

In other Blackwater news, in a snoozer of a document, BW denied Congressman Waxman's allegations of tax evasion, defending its classification of its operators as independent contractors, claiming safe haven provisions under IRS Section 530 zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. 

After an unscheduled nap while studying the IRS regs, I contacted a top employment lawyer who explained that the Section 530 safe haven "just means they can't get dinged for past misclassification; it does NOT mean the classification as IC will stand on a going-forward basis."  All of this seems rather trivial and it is.  However, embedded in the issue was a very real danger for Blackwater.

At the center of employee verses independent contractor classifications is the question of the degree of control and independence.  This is where things were tricky for Blackwater because by definition and by IRS regs, an independent contractor is just that--independent.  You can't tell them how to do their jobs.
In order to defend its position that its operators are correctly classified as contractors, it had to find a way of asserting that it did not have direct control over how its operators perform their jobs while not setting themselves up for claims that they admit their guys are out of control.

Blackwater came up with an interesting workaround with its argument:

most if not all of the operational controls over Blackwater’s contractors are either carried out or imposed by the United States government....Blackwater’s contract with the Department of State provides that a “[federal Agent-in-Charge (“AIC”)] will have on-site authority over the operational units.”

I'm advised by counsel that this argument is "a loser" and is unlikely to stand up to challenge, but it nonetheless was a clever defense in that it sidestepped the greater danger of self-incrimination.  And it had the added bonus of discouraging all but insomniacs from delving further into the issue.

Comments

[Bomb Guy]

Gotta' love that top employment lawyer!

[LimpetShark]

Just got one comment for this fag that wants to down warriors for coming back in service in the private sector for the military. Many of us have paid our dues to this nation of ours that we protect with pride and honor. Now that we have retired there is limited duty for us in the private sector because of being from the Special Operations Command. So I will just say this to Mr. Jeremy Shitknuckles and others that either do not know what we do other than listen to the news and they are often very misleading. Or they just want something to complain about, here is my comment to you.

There is a saying in the Special Operations Command and more so in the Teams (because you are not military I will explain) SEAL Teams. We do not say SEALs when we are speaking of ourselves, just the idiots outside looking in refer to us as such.

If you dont like what we in the Special Operations of the US Military Stand for. Then feel free to stand in front of us.

[LimpetShark]

Just got one comment for this fag that wants to down warriors for coming back in service in the private sector for the military. Many of us have paid our dues to this nation of ours that we protect with pride and honor. Now that we have retired there is limited duty for us in the private sector because of being from the Special Operations Command. So I will just say this to Mr. Jeremy Shitknuckles and others that either do not know what we do other than listen to the news and they are often very misleading. Or they just want something to complain about, here is my comment to you.

There is a saying in the Special Operations Command and more so in the Teams (because you are not military I will explain) SEAL Teams. We do not say SEALs when we are speaking of ourselves, just the idiots outside looking in refer to us as such.

If you dont like what we in the Special Operations of the US Military Stand for. Then feel free to stand in front of us.

[yardley]

Speaking of cool spy novels, some time ago I read a good one titled "Cutout" by Francine Mathews. Apparently it recieved little attention but I couldn't put it down. P.S. Is it so wrong to want to lean over Chloe O'Brians shoulder and whisper dirty secrets? LMAO