requested anonymity say a new multi-billion contract for private security firms to protect diplomats is “about to drop.” And one winner could well be Blackwater, or whatever it’s calling itself these days. So much for Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s one-time campaign pledge to ban “Blackwater and other private mercenary firms.”

Neither source would say which private security firms have won the four-year contract or how much it will ultimately be worth. The last Worldwide Protective Services contract, awarded in 2005, went to Blackwater, Triple Canopy and DynCorp. Rough estimates place that contract’s value at $2.2 billion.

This one is likely to be even more lucrative. That’s because this time, the reduction and forthcoming withdrawal of U.S. troops in Iraq is causing the State Department to splurge on private security. In June, a senior department official told the congressional Wartime Contracting Commission that the department requires “between 6,000 and 7,000 security contractors” in Iraq, up from its current 2700 armed guards. And that doesn’t even take into account those needed to guard the expanded U.S. civilian presence in Afghanistan. Mo’ mercs, mo’ money. And mo’ danger: this year, for the first time, U.S. contractor deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan exceeded troop deaths, ProPublica found.

But the mercs involved could be the same ones as last time. In a nod to open-government practices, State has pledged to pick six security companies to receive the Worldwide Protective Services contract, double the current three. But that doesn’t mean the firms who won the last time around can’t potentially re-up — including Blackwater.

The deadline to award the contract, known as the Worldwide Protective Services contract, is tomorrow, September 30, but it’s unclear whether the department will meet its long-announced goal. State is finalizing the contract right now, so if it doesn’t drop tomorrow — the last day of the fiscal year — it’ll be soon afterward.

In April, a State Department official confirmed that “any company, including Xe Services [another name for Blackwater] and its subsidiary companies, [may] submit a proposal in response to an acquisition process established on the basis of full and open competition.” Despite the slayings of civilians at Nisour Square in Iraq in 2007 — which got Blackwater de-certified by the Iraqi government — and on the road in Kabul in 2009, no federal acquisition official has ever recommended that Blackwater be barred from bidding on government contracts. That means it would violate federal law to prevent Blackwater from entering a bid. A company spokeswoman told me last year that Blackwater intended to bid on the next round of Worldwide Protective Services.

And while the contract may almost be in place, its oversight won’t. Last week, the contracting commission’s co-chairman told a House panel that even if the State Department can afford its merc surge in Iraq, “it is not clear that it has the trained personnel to manage and oversee contract performance of a kind that has already shown the potential for creating tragic incidents and frayed relations with host countries.” In other words, expect more wasted money — and the possibility of more Nisour Squares.

See Also:

• Mercs Gone Wild at U.S. Embassy Kabul (Updated, With Photos …
• Russian Mercs: We’ll Out-Blackwater Blackwater
• Blackwater in Kabul, or Eric Cartman Gets an AK-47
• Murder Mistrial for Facebook-Friendly Blackwater Guards
• Ain’t No Party Like a Blackwater Party, ‘Cause a Blackwater Party …
• State Department Flies Mercenary Air Force Over Pakistan

Authors: Spencer Ackerman

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