A company closely associated with the security firm once known as Blackwater has won a new State Department contract worth more than $84 million over five years.

The contract went to International Development Solutions, a joint venture that includes U.S. Training Center, a company owned until recently by Xe Services, which changed its name from Blackwater after a cascade of legal problems over several years.

The consortium will provide protective security in the Israel-occupied West Bank, "services that are based from the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said.

The initial contract, awarded Jan. 3, is for one year, "with the possibility of four, one-year renewable options" with a total value of roughly $84.3 million, Toner said.

International Development Solutions (IDS) is a joint venture between majority partner Kaseman, a McLean company whose board is stocked with top former State Department and CIA officials, and U.S. Training Center (USTC), the onetime Blackwater affiliate that former officials say still employs many of its operatives.

A USTC spokesman said the company would have no comment. A State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity in order to discuss the contract freely, said the company no longer had a relationship with Xe. Both companies are based in tiny Moyock, N.C., the former headquarters of Blackwater as well.

Training for the new Jerusalem contract almost certainly will be done in Moyock, close observers said, because USTC has no comparable facilities elsewhere.

The company had no comment, a representative said.

Despite its legal troubles, Blackwater-associated companies have continued to score government contracts. Last June, Xe Services won a $100 million contract from the CIA to provide protective services in Afghanistan. Then in October, partnering with another company, Xe won a share of a $10 billion State Department contract for worldwide protective services.

"The mere fact that the [State Department] is still throwing millions of dollars their way for work is completely amazing and speaks to their ability to get around things," said a former Blackwater employee, who asked to remain anonymous because he now works for the government.

Blackwater was plagued by problems about its work in Iraq, including an incident in which contractors allegedly fatally shot 17 Iraqis in a crowded square. Eventually, the Iraqi government refused to give the company a new operating license.

Last February, Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, asked Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to investigate whether Xe Services and Raytheon set up "a shell company" to bid on an Army contract without "the 'baggage' that the name Blackwater carried."

Last summer, with his former top managers facing criminal charges and saying he was weary of "proctology exams" from Congress, Blackwater founder and erstwhile chief executive officer Erik Prince put the company up for sale and moved to Abu Dhabi.

In December, Xe Services was acquired by a consortium of investors led by Forte Capital Advisors and Manhattan Partners. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Forte's managing partner, Jason DeYonker, has been close to Prince for years. From 1998 to 2002, he managed Prince's personal financial portfolio.

According to associates, Prince is developing protective security and antiterrorism business in Africa, relying on many of the third-country nationals he employed during Backwater's heyday.

Meanwhile, Xe Services has "cleaned up its act," CIA Director Leon Panetta said last summer. The State Department also has set up a special unit to vet its contracts.

steinj@washpost.com To read more on SpyTalk go to washingtonpost.com/spytalk.