WALL STREET JOURNAL REPORTS BLACKWATER OVERPAID MILLIONS OF DOLLARS FOR WORK IN IRAQ

Audit Finds That U.S. Overpaid Blackwater
By YOCHI J. DREAZEN
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
http://tinyurl.com/n2taqo

WASHINGTON -- A government audit found that the State Department overpaid the contract-security firm once known as Blackwater Worldwide by tens of millions of dollars because the company failed to properly staff its teams in Iraq.

The report didn't identify any specific security breaches, but it said the State Department should have withheld at least $55 million in payments to the company because of the shortfalls.

The audit by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction and the State Department's Inspector General said the firm didn't employ enough guards, medics, marksmen and dog handlers to fully man the teams, which were responsible for protecting the U.S. ambassador to Iraq and other high-level officials.

The failure to consistently field the right numbers of guards endangered the U.S. officials whom the company was being paid to protect, the report concluded.

"We believe the full manning of protective details is important to the safety of the principal being protected, as well as to the members of the protective details," the audit noted. "Insufficient manning exposed the department to unnecessary risk."

The audit also found that Blackwater, which this year changed its name to Xe, sometimes overcharged for airfare to and from Iraq and failed to properly account for some equipment received from the U.S. government.

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