Much-hated Blackwater donated to Clinton Foundation

[Regis Philbin]

http://www.nypost.com/seven/12182008/news/nationalnews/blackwater_donation_may_pose_conflict_fo_144801.htm

BLACKWATER DONATION MAY POSE CONFLICT FOR CLINTON

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Posted: 12:58 pm
December 18, 2008

WASHINGTON - The future of security contractor Blackwater Worldwide just got a little more politically sensitive.

Newly released records show the largest security contractor in Iraq donated between $10,000 and $25,000 to former President Bill Clinton's foundation. Assuming Hillary Rodham Clinton is confirmed as Secretary of State, she will have final say on whether Blackwater will keep its contract despite a deadly shooting last year.

Five Blackwater guards are under indictment and a sixth has pleaded guilty for their roles in the shooting, which left 17 Iraqis dead. Prosecutors say the guards unleashed grenades and machine gun fire on innocent civilians.

That could cost Blackwater its contract to protect U.S. diplomats. The next secretary of state will make that call.

[Richard Tafoya]

Cut 'em loose. They've got too much baggage in the region and are probably bigger targets than the people they're supposed to be protecting.

So they wanted to curry some favor with the new Sec of State. Thank 'em for the cash and cut 'em loose.

One happy by-product of losing them, without that big U.S. contract, they can't pour a whole lot more cash into GOP coffers, can they?

Tribune's Swamp blog:
http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2007/10/grilled_blackwater_chairman_a.html

You saw a lot of Erik Prince on TV the last couple of days, spending considerable time calmly fending off inquiries from agitated Democratic congressmen about his security company's suddenly controversial activities in Iraq. One explanation may be that Prince, the head of Blackwater, U.S.A., has a lengthy political pedigree as a Republican.

Members of the House Oversight Committee, which is chaired by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Beverly Hills), accused Blackwater employees of being "cowboys" who acted recklessly during their contracted security duties for the State Department in Iraq. It also came out that Blackwater, which has lost some three dozen employees in Iraq hostilities, has a 100 percent success rate in protecting VIPs under its contract.

This may shock some, but it also turns out that the target of the committee's angry questions was a 38-year-old former Navy SEAL who has donated $230,000 to federal campaigns and causes in the last decade. Almost all of that money has gone to Republicans, according to a check of Federal Election Commission records by The Times' campaign finance expert, Dan Morain.

Prince's latest donation was in July, when he gave $20,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee. California recipients of Prince’s $1,000 checks include Reps. Jerry Lewis and Duncan Hunter, a current GOP presidential candidate, and former Rep. Richard Pombo.