Where is it OK to reward companies accused of shooting civilians, running guns, and retaliating against employees who blow the whistle on all the alleged badness? Why, the State Department, that's where.

Last week, State awarded a security deal worth up to $10 billion, known as the Worldwide Protective Services contract, to eight private-security firms seeking protect diplomats in global hotspots. Some of those companies have engaged in shady behavior on previous government contracts. So here's a brief rundown of what it turns out your company's employees can do and still win that lucrative award.

Kill Civilians. On September 16, 2007, guards for Blackwater took U.S. diplomats away from the site of a morning bombing in Baghdad. But at a packed traffic circle called Nisour Square, guards opened fire in what they later told investigators was a response to an insurgent threat. A bullet evidently fired by a Blackwater operative killed the driver of one vehicle at Nisour Square, leaving the car to pitch forward toward the guards. In the ensuing confusion, a hail of gunfire erupted, leaving 17 Iraqis dead as they sought to flee.

Nearly two years later, in Kabul, a caravan driven by a Blackwater subsidiary called Paravant (more on them in a second) got in an accident with an Afghan-driven Toyota. Paravant employees in the rear vehicle say they stopped their car to aid the disabled vehicle in front of them, only to see the Toyota abruptly turn around and head back in their direction. They shot into the car, killing its passenger and an Afghan man walking his dog nearby. A murder trial in Virginia for the two shooters, Justin Cannon and Christopher Drotleff, resulted in a mistrial last week. This week, however, President Hamid Karzai began implementing a ban on private security contractors in Afghanistan – though not those who work for the State Department.



Mistreat Your 'Third Country Nationals." Last week, Triple Canopy lost its $438 million contract to guard the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. (They still managed to keep a chunk of the Worldwide Protective Services deal, though.) The State Department's inspector general found a host of problems earlier this year with how the company treats its largely Ugandan and Peruvian guard force. The living quarters of these so-called "third country nationals" were "unsafe and in violation of the contract," for one thing, and Triple Canopy worked them for as many as 39 consecutive days without a break. Yet the IG still found that the company was "effective" at protecting the embassy, which might explain State's willingness to stay in business with Triple Canopy – just not at the embassy.

Mislead Investigators. Daniel Schulman of Mother Jones caught a key footnote in the IG's March report into Triple Canopy. The company's top officers in Baghdad emailed around guidance instructing employees what to say and what not to say to the IG's team of sleuths, particularly about rest periods for guards: "Do not elaborate on answers to inspectors questions. Answer only the questions. What you say can and will be used against you."

Retaliate Against Whistleblowers. In a different case, two Triple Canopy employees claimed that in July 2005, their shift leader in Iraq snapped. He allegedly opened fire on an unthreatening taxi and a stopped pickup truck – simply because he wanted to kill Iraqis before he went home the next day. While they weren't sure that any Iraqis were harmed, the employees, Shane Schmidt and Charles Sheppard, reported the incidents immediately after the shift leader left the country. But according to a lawsuit they filed in a Virginia court, within a week, both guards "were terminated as a result of having reported the Shift Leader’s unlawful conduct." Neither was able to find work in the private-security field after their firings. Ultimately, the case was settled out of court on undisclosed terms.

Fire Your Weapons For No Reason. In July 2009, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction conducted an inquiry (.pdf) into how often various private-security firms let off their shots. The oversight experts cautioned that an itchy trigger finger didn't necessarily indicate "poor performance," since guarding bases and reconstruction projects is dangerous work. But they found that the company with the itchiest trigger finger between May 2008 and February 2009 was EOD Technology, another of the Worldwide Protective Services winners. EOD guards racked up 18 "negligent discharge" incidents and 30 "graduated force response" gun-claps, but only one incident where they actually came under attack. The runner-up? SOC LLC, yet another Worldwide Protective Services awardee, who came in with 12 negligent discharges, six graduated responses – and no attacks from hostiles.

Those aren't the only examples. In addition to the Triple Canopy case mentioned above, in 2005, guards for another contract winner, Aegis Defense Services, made a sort of highlight reel about the times they opened fire at civilian vehicles on Baghdad roads.

It's not clear if civilians died in any of these cases.

Set Up Shell Companies. Another Blackwater specialty. Earlier this year, a Senate Armed Services Committee investigation found that Blackwater established dozens of companies with names that gave no indication of Blackwater's involvement in them. One of them, Paravant, apparently did no business before seeking a subcontract to train Afghan soliders, leading chairman Carl Levin to conclude that it was "simply a shell company." This time around, the State Department knew that International Development Solutions was a joint venture between Blackwater arm U.S. Training Center and well-connected security firm Kaseman – but didn't announce Blackwater's involvement in the venture until Danger Room called the department out on it.

Take Guns That Aren't Yours, Or Even Run Guns. In one of the crazier episodes ever to feature a private security contractor, Blackwater "shell company" Paravant took hundreds of rifles and pistols from a U.S. weapons depot in Afghanistan, even though its employees were never permitted to carry guns for personal protection. The Senate found that on at least one occasion, a Paravant employee signed for the guns using the name of South Park character Eric Cartman. South Park's creators promptly returned the favor.

Honorable mention: In the 1990s, Tim Spicer, the founder of Worldwide Protective Services awardee Aegis Defense Services, used his old company Sandline International to outfit the Sierra Leone "government in exile" with guns despite a United Nations arms embargo.

Take Drugs. Private security companies working in Iraq have long been linked to steroids. But it emerged last month that a businessman named Howard Lowry told a court he used to procure steroids "by the case" for Blackwater guards during the early days of the Iraq war. In a deposition first reported by Jeremy Scahill, Lowry recounts Baghdad hotel parties where guards ran around naked, snorted cocaine and smoked hash, and shot guns off of balconies.

We've sent emails and telephone queries to the State Department seeking to learn the standards by which it determines which companies are fit to hold the Worldwide Protective Services contract and which aren't. When we get answers, we'll present them to you. The department vowed last week to conduct more rigorous oversight to address some previous problems with its contractors, such as poor labor standards, inebriation and outright bad performance. But there appears to be a lot of questionable behavior the department is at least tacitly willing to condone in the name of keeping its diplomats safe.

Photos: Top: Wikimedia. Triple Canopy guard Onyango Nicholas: DVIDS.

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