Court Documents Reveal How Blackwater Served As Effective Extension Of CIA: Daily Beast

New Report Reveals Shocking Details About Blackwater's CIA Ties
(FILES) A picture taken on July 5, 2005 shows contractors of the US private security firm Blackwater securing the site of a roadside bomb attack near the Iranian embassy in central Baghdad. A key contract for US security firm Blackwater ended in Iraq on May 7, 2009, a US embassy official said, closing out a controversial era for the outfit whose guards shot 17 civilians in Baghdad in 2007. AFP PHOTO/AHMAD AL-RUBAYE (Photo credit should read AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/Getty Images)
(FILES) A picture taken on July 5, 2005 shows contractors of the US private security firm Blackwater securing the site of a roadside bomb attack near the Iranian embassy in central Baghdad. A key contract for US security firm Blackwater ended in Iraq on May 7, 2009, a US embassy official said, closing out a controversial era for the outfit whose guards shot 17 civilians in Baghdad in 2007. AFP PHOTO/AHMAD AL-RUBAYE (Photo credit should read AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/Getty Images)

Last month a three-year-long federal prosecution of Blackwater collapsed. The government's 15-felony indictment--on such charges as conspiring to hide purchases of automatic rifles and other weapons from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives--could have led to years of jail time for Blackwater personnel. In the end, however, the government got only misdemeanor guilty pleas by two former executives, each of whom were sentenced to four months of house arrest, three years' probation, and a fine of $5,000. Prosecutors dropped charges against three other executives named in the suit and abandoned the felony charges altogether.

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