Another Blackwater contract…surprise, surprise.

On Friday, the Pentagon issued Blackwater yet another ninety two million dollar contract despite their murder of eleven innocent Iraqi civilians earlier last month. Presidential Airways, a Blackwater company, has been issued a contract for “Short Take-Off and Landing air transportation services between locations in the Area of Responsibility of Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan,” beginning October 1st, 2007, and ending in September 2011.

It seems funny to me that this contract was still awarded despite Blackwater’s multiple blunders (more like “murders” than “blunders,” but whatever). So instead of investigating Blackwater’s crimes, our government decided to reward them with yet another contract. There are two seriously questionable items at hand here that should really make you think.

One: In the wording of the Pentagon press release regarding this deal, “This contract was competitively procured and two timely offers were received.” That means that Blackwater was not the only company available to provide this service. Even if Blackwater was a bit more expensive, it would seem smart from a public relations stand point to award another company the contract. Apparently someone doesn’t really care about that though.

Two: The press release regarding this contract was released on Friday, September 28th at 5:00 PM EST. If you have been paying any attention at all, you know that news that our government wants to slide by the public is almost always floated on a Friday afternoon. So we can only deduce by logical reasoning that the Pentagon wasn’t exactly proud of this decision, or at least didn’t want the public scrutiny that they knew would result.

Anyway, sounds like another Monday, another disappointing day for the United States.