S&S - Ex-Blackwater employees indicted for violating federal firearms laws

From my archive of press clippings:

Stars and Stripes

Ex-Blackwater employees indicted for violating federal firearms laws

By Joseph Neff and Warren P. Strobel, McClatchy Newspapers


Stars and Stripes online edition, Saturday, April 17, 2010


RALEIGH, N.C. — Five former employees of the private security firm formerly known as Blackwater violated a series of federal firearms laws to give the company a leg up in the military contracting and training business, a federal indictment charged Friday.

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Snippet(s):

"Blackwater officials falsified federal paperwork to conceal a gift of firearms to Jordan's King Abdullah II, whom Blackwater was courting as a client, the indictment charges.

Former company president Gary Jackson used the tiny Camden County, N.C., sheriff's office as a front to buy AK-47 automatic rifles that Blackwater wanted for its training facility in Moyock, N.C., and the company illegally possessed short-barreled rifles that Blackwater officials thought were useful for winning security contracts."

"Friday's indictment is the latest bad news for Blackwater, which changed its name to Xe in 2009. The company burst into the spotlight in 2004 when four of its contractors were massacred in Fallujah, Iraq, which triggered two attacks on Fallujah by U.S. Marines.

The indictment highlights how Blackwater marketed its personal protection and military training services to countries worldwide, and investigators examined numerous allegations — not all of which are covered in the indictment — that the company exported firearms and other weapons without a license.

King Abdullah visited Blackwater's headquarters in March 2005 along with his two sons, according to government investigators. To curry favor with the king, Blackwater made a gift of five weapons etched with the Blackwater logo — three Glock pistols, an M4 Bushmaster rifle and a Remington shotgun.

Afterward, Blackwater employees realized that they couldn't account for the weapons, and falsely completed federal forms stating that Jackson and a second person had purchased the weapons, the indictment said."

"In February 2006, the company sought a State Department license to export more than $30,000 worth of weapons, including Bushmaster rifles, to Abdullah's private security detail. The State Department approved that export, but denied the company's bid to sell silencers for the weapons."

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"Friday's charges stem from a wide-ranging federal investigation of Blackwater's weapons dealings that began in February 2006, according to officials and documents. The investigation involved agents from the Treasury Department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms; the Department of Homeland Security's Immigrations and Customs Enforcement bureau; the Commerce Department; the State Department inspector general's office; and other agencies. At times, the team had up to 20 federal agents."

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Strobel reported from Washington. McClatchy Newspapers correspondent Jonathan S. Landay in Washington contributed to this report.

TH - Road to foreign adoption grows longer

The Hour

Road to foreign adoption grows longer


Posted on 03/29/2009


RALEIGH, N.C.


By KRISTIN COLLINS

McClatchy Newspapers


It seemed like a simple transaction when Tamara Lackey brought her adopted son from Ethiopia to Chapel Hill, N.C., four years ago:

The abandoned child had been living in a spartan orphanage, and Lackey was willing to provide a loving home.

She filled out paperwork, and five months later her bright-eyed, smiling baby was home.Hundreds of other families around the country are discovering that it's no longer so easy to take in the world's neediest children.

Read the whole article here.