[Infowarrior] - Blackwater rebrands itself

[Richard Forno]

Blackwater is now Xe. Just Xe.
Blackwater rebrands itself

http://www.newsobserver.com/917/v-print/story/1405570.html

The era of Blackwater is over.

The Eastern North Carolina-based private security company had  
exemplified the problems of using private soldiers in combat zones.  
Now, after losing its contract to guard U.S. diplomats in Iraq, it is  
changing its name.

Company officials announced Friday that the group of businesses  
formerly called Blackwater Worldwide will now be known as "Xe,"  
pronounced like the letter Z.

The company provided no information on how it chose the name.

The attempt to rebrand itself comes as six former employees face  
manslaughter charges for a shooting that killed 17 civilians in  
Baghdad. The company has also faced intense scrutiny since four of its  
employees were massacred and two of them hung from a bridge in  
Fallujah in 2004.

In January, the Iraqi government denied Blackwater a license to  
operate there, and its workers are expected to leave the country this  
spring.

Company spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell said the new name reflects a new focus.

After earning more than $1 billion in federal contracts from the Bush  
administration, mostly for providing security to U.S. diplomats in  
Iraq, she said the company will no longer pursue new security  
contracts. She said it will now work mostly on training law  
enforcement officers and military troops in such areas as weapons  
handling and hostage rescue.

"This company will continue to provide personnel protective services  
for high-threat environments when needed by the U.S. government,"  
Blackwater president Gary Jackson said in a memo to employees, "but  
its primary mission will be operating our training facilities around  
the world, including the flagship campus in North Carolina."

The company runs what is believed to be the world's largest privately  
owned firearms training facility. Its headquarters is in the  
northeastern North Carolina town of Moyock, and it has smaller sites  
in Illinois and San Diego.

Aside from its Iraq work, the company also guards U.S. diplomats in  
Afghanistan. However, some members of Congress -- including Sen. John  
Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee -- have  
called for the company to be fired.

Blackwater's chief executive, Erik Prince, a former Navy SEAL, founded  
the company in 1997 in a remote, swampy area of the state. It operated  
in relative obscurity until the Fallujah massacre in 2004. Images of  
the ambush were flashed around the world after a mob dragged the  
bodies of the contractors through the streets and hung two charred  
corpses from a bridge.

The incident set off a battle that left 36 U.S. military members and  
600 Iraqi civilians dead. A congressional inquiry found that the for- 
profit company used unarmored vehicles to save money and cut essential  
personnel from the mission.

'So corrupt'

Kathryn Helvenston-Wettengel, whose son Scott Helvenston was one of  
the Blackwater employees killed in the massacre, said Friday that the  
name change made sense.

"I'm not surprised at all," she said "They've become so corrupt, I  
don't think they could get a contract under Blackwater's name. So,  
good luck."

Hers is among four families suing Blackwater, alleging that the  
company failed to provide armored vehicles, machine guns, proper maps  
or the full complement of six guards outlined in the company's contract.

In addition to that incident, Blackwater has been involved in nearly  
200 shooting incidents in Iraq. In 2007, company contractors were  
accused of killing 17 innocent civilians in Baghdad. Six former  
employees have been charged with manslaughter.

Iraqi officials said that record of violence was behind their decision  
last month to deny Blackwater's permit.

Tyrrell, the company spokeswoman, said the name change has been part  
of a gradual process of redefining the company.

"Of course, the past is a factor in all decisions made by the  
company," she said. "We're changing the name because we're taking the  
company to a place where we think it is no longer described by the  
name Blackwater."

(Staff writer Jay Price contributed to this report.)

kristin.collins at newsobserver.com or 919-829-4881

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Staff writer Jay Price contributed to this report.
SOME MEANINGS OF XE

* The symbol for the element Xenon, a colorless, odorless gas

* XE.com, a currency and foreign exchange rate Web site

* X-Entertainment, a pop culture Web site for Generation X

* Chi Epsilon, a civil engineering honor society

* A gender-neutral pronoun invented to avoid sexism in language

XE, MEET XE

Steven Dengler, CEO of XE, the Canadian-based currency exchange  
services company, said Friday that he was surprised at Blackwater's  
choice of name. His company's Web site, XE.com, is one of the most  
popular destinations on the Web.

On any given day, it's usually ranked between No. 250 and No. 380 for  
traffic, he said.

"Why on earth they'd want to name themselves the same thing as such a  
well-established brand, I don't know," Dengler said. "We just think  
they made a bad mistake."

He paused to speak while adding a line to his company's Wikipedia  
entry saying that it had no relationship with the company once known  
as Blackwater.

The currency exchange XE's lawyers were still looking into the issue,  
but Dengler said that at first blush the change seemed unlikely to  
have any serious effect on his XE, and the Moyock firm doesn't appear  
to be engaged in any of the same lines of work.

"We have our trademark registered all over the world, but we certainly  
don't have anything registered under 'mercenary army,' " he said.

-- JAY PRICE