With well-connected ASG operatives steering the publicity-shy Erik Prince and other company executives around, Blackwater was positioning itself to cash in on its newfound fame, while staking out a key role in crafting the rules that would govern mercenaries on U.S. government contracts. 18 “Because of the public events of March 31, [Blackwater’s] visibility and need to communicate a consistent message has elevated here in Washington,” said ASG’s Bertelli. “There are now several federal regulations that apply to their activities, but they are generally broad in nature. One thing that’s lacking is an industry standard. That’s something we definitely want to be engaged in.”19 By May, Blackwater was reportedly “leading a lobbying effort by private security firms and other contractors to try to block congressional or Pentagon efforts to bring their companies and employees under the same justice code” as active-duty soldiers.20 “The Uniform Code of Military Justice should not apply to civilians because you actually give up constitutional rights when you join the armed forces,” Bertelli said. “You’re subject to a different legal system than you are if you are a civilian.”21 (Two years later, despite Blackwater’s efforts, language would be slipped into the 2007 defense-spending authorization that sought to place contractors under the UCMJ.) In June, Blackwater would be handed one of the U.S. government’s most valuable international security contracts to protect diplomats and U.S. facilities. 22 At the same time, Blackwater was given its own protection, as Bremer granted a sweeping immunity for its operations in Iraq.23
But while Blackwater executives worked the GOP elite on the Hill, others in Congress began to question what the Blackwater men were even doing in Iraq, not to mention Fallujah that day. A week after the ambush, thirteen Democratic senators, led by Jack Reed of Rhode Island, wrote to Donald Rumsfeld, calling on the Pentagon to release an “accurate tally” of the number of “privately armed” non-Iraqi personnel operating in Iraq. “These security contractors are armed and operate in a fashion that is hard to distinguish from military forces, especially special operations forces. However, these private security companies are not under military control and are not subject to the rules that guide the conduct of American military personnel,” the senators wrote.24 “It would be a dangerous precedent if the United States allowed the presence of private armies operating outside the control of governmental authority and beholden only to those who pay them.” The senators asserted that security in a “hostile fire area is a classic military mission” and “delegating [it] to private contractors raises serious questions.” Rumsfeld did not respond to the letter.25 Instead, the Iraq reconstruction floodgates opened wide and mercenary contracts poured out. As the New York Times bluntly put it, “The combination of a deadly insurgency and billions of dollars in aid money has unleashed powerful market forces in the war zone. New security companies aggressively compete for lucrative contracts in a frenzy of deal making.”26
Two weeks after the Fallujah killings, Blackwater announced plans to build a massive new facility—a twenty-eight-thousand-square-foot administrative building—on its Moyock property for its operations.27 The finished product would be sixty-four-thousand square feet, more than twice the originally projected size.28 It was a major development for Blackwater, which had been denied permission for the project for six years because of objections by the local government. In the days after the ambush, county officials worked to amend local ordinances for Blackwater’s expansion. With the new permissions, Blackwater was given the green light to build and operate firearms ranges and parachute landing zones, and to conduct explosives training as well as training in hand-to-hand combat, incendiary-type weapons, and automatic assault weapons.29 “It will be our international headquarters,” said company president Gary Jackson.30
Meanwhile, just two weeks after the Fallujah killings, Blackwater issued a press release announcing that it would be hosting the first-ever “World SWAT Conference and Challenge.” The release declared, “Never before in the history of the world has there been such a need for men and women who can respond effectively to our most critical incidents. Blackwater USA, the world’s largest firearms and tactical training facility, has put together a conference to meet that need that is unlike any other before it.”31 It boasted of workshops on a number of subjects, including “resolving hostage situations, suicide bomber profiling, and the psychology of operating and surviving critical incidents.”32 After the conference portion, there would be a SWAT Olympics, where teams from across the United States and Canada would compete in a series of events televised by ESPN. At the event’s press conference, Gary Jackson refused to answer any questions about the Fallujah ambush, steering all discussion back to the SWAT challenge.33 The only mention of Fallujah came during the chaplain’s blessing of the event. “This is almost a vacation compared to what a regular week looks like,” Jackson told reporters at the opening of the games.34
At the conference, retired Army Lt. Col. David Grossman, author of the book On Killing and founder of the Killology Research Group, addressed participants in a hotel ballroom, pacing around with a microphone.35 He spoke of a “new Dark Age” full of Al Qaeda terrorism and school shootings. “The bad guys are coming with rifles and body armor!” he declared. “They will destroy our way of life in one day!” The world, Grossman said, is full of sheep, and it was the duty of warriors—the kind of men assembled at the Blackwater conference—to protect them from the wolves. “Embrace the warrior spirit!” he shouted. “We need warriors who embrace that dirty, nasty four-letter word kill!” Meanwhile, Gary Jackson sent out an e-mail to the Blackwater listserv encouraging people not to miss the “fantastic” dinner speaker at the challenge, one of the most experienced spies in recent U.S. history, J. Cofer Black, at the time the State Department’s head of counter-terrorism. 36 In the aftermath of 9/11, as head of the CIA’s counterterrorism division, Black had led the administration’s hunt for bin Laden. A year after the Fallujah ambush, he would join Blackwater as the company’s vice chairman—one of several former senior officials the company would hire in building up its empire and influence.
As Blackwater plotted its tremendous expansion at home, it emerged as the mercenary industry trendsetter. “Increased violence this month has thrown a spotlight on the small army of private US security firms operating as paramilitaries in Iraq under Pentagon contracts,” reported PR Week, a public relations trade journal.37 “As calls for greater regulation over these companies increase, [they] are ramping up their presence in Washington to make their voices heard…. At the forefront is Blackwater USA, the North Carolina firm that lost four employees after an attack in Fallujah on March 31.” After Blackwater started using well-connected ASG lobbyists to promote its services, other mercenary firms followed suit. All seemed to realize that the mercenary gold rush was on. The California-based Steele Foundation, one of the earliest private security companies to deploy in Iraq, hired former Ambassador Robert Frowick, a major player in the Balkans conflicts, on April 13, 2004, to help manage “strategic government relationships” in Washington.38 Meanwhile, the London-based mercenary provider Global Risk Strategies rented office space in D.C. that month to base its own lobbying operations. “We are fully aware that D.C. operates in a totally different manner,” said Global executive Charlie Andrews. “What we need to assist our company is a hand-holding organization basically who will guide us through procedures and D.C. protocols.”39 In the midst of the flurry of lobbying activity by private military companies, Senator Warner told the New York Times his view of the mercenaries. “I refer to them as our silent partner in this struggle,” he said.40