Report: Blackwater Took Park In CIA Raids

MICHELE NORRIS, host:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Michele Norris.

There are new accusations today about the security contractor once known as Blackwater and the kind of work it's done for the U.S. government in Iraq and Afghanistan. The company is now called Xe Services. Several former employees and intelligence operatives tell The New York Times that contractors were working in a legal gray zone, operating side by side with CIA agents on raids to kill and capture top insurgents.

Times national security correspondent Mark Mazzetti is one of the reporters who broke that story, and he joins us now. Mark, what is at the heart of these accusations?

Mr. MARK MAZZETTI (National Security Correspondent, The New York Times): Well, as we report, Blackwater signed a contract with the CIA for Afghanistan and Iraq to guard CIA officers. And as we report in the story, this work sort of morphed over time. It started out just guarding the physical base where the CIA operates in those countries.

But over time, it meant protecting CIA officers when they went out on missions. And when they went out on raids against insurgents, Blackwater went along. And it got to the point where there was a blurring of the line of who was the contractor, who was CIA, who was military, where they were actually really participating in these, what they called snatching and grab operations against militant targets in those countries.

NORRIS: When was this happening?

Mr. MAZZETTI: Well, it started not long after the September 11th attacks in, I believe, late 2002 in Afghanistan. The most intense period we report was between 2004 and 2006 in Iraq, which was the sort of height of the Iraq insurgency in a time when the CIA and special operations troops were active in going after al-Qaida in Iraq, figures against Sunni insurgents. And wherever the CIA went, Blackwater went as part of this contract.

NORRIS: Now, we've noted this is sort of a murky area in terms of legality. A CIA spokesperson explained in your piece today that the CIA employs contractors to, quote, �enhance the skills of our own work force just as American law permits.� But does this actually fall within both the letter and the spirit of that law?

Mr. MAZZETTI: Probably two separate things. The trick is is that the actual regulations about what government employees can and can't do or what contractors can and can't do are very murky. So it means that contractors can do pretty much anything.

And as we've seen over the last several years, the contractors have taken on roles that you would have thought would be jobs for military or specifically intelligence operatives, like interrogating detainees. So, there's been a proliferation of jobs that Blackwater specifically, and contractors more generally have taken on in recent years.

NORRIS: Help me understand something. Why does the CIA have such a heavy reliance on these contractors? Is it a question of manpower or is it a question of having the contractors do the kinds of things that the CIA can't do or perhaps ought not be doing?

Mr. MAZZETTI: I think it's both. It started out as a manpower issue. As I said, they were brought over to Kabul in 2002 to help guard the CIA station, which was at the Ariana Hotel in Kabul. And the CIA was concerned that Taliban could get over the wall and kill all the CIA officers in Kabul. The military was doing other things in Afghanistan.

The CIA has asked for, you know, Marine platoon to guard the station, and they were denied. So they then hired Blackwater. CIA also has its own security force, but they were otherwise disposed. So, that's where it started. But over time, and starting in the period of 2004, I think in the CIA they started seeing the contractors as an option for doing things maybe that would have some deniability for the CIA.

NORRIS: We have been talking about the role of Blackwater contractors in a period between 2004 and roughly 2006. Does this carry over into the current administration?

Mr. MAZZETTI: Again, it's a little unclear. The CIA has severed its ties with Blackwater in Iraq, just like the State department has. The CIA does still use Blackwater in Afghanistan as does the State department where Blackwater drives around American diplomats.

Intelligence officials have said that all of the stuff we've reported has been scaled back significantly, if not ended and that there is now a review under way by the CIA to make sure that no Blackwater contracts with the CIA are operational, that they are for security as they were intended to be.

NORRIS: Mark Mazzetti is the national security correspondent for The New York Times. He was talking to us about the role of Blackwater contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan. And we should note that Blackwater the company is now called Xe Services.

Mark Mazzetti, thanks so much for talking to us.

Mr. MAZZETTI: Thanks very much.

NORRIS: And one more note on Blackwater. Earlier this year, CIA director Leon Panetta canceled one contract with Blackwater. That's according to the agency. NPR has confirmed that that contract involved using Blackwater employees to load missiles on drone aircraft he used to target terrorists in Pakistan. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio.