Hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform - Blackwater USA; Private Security Contracting in Iraq & Afghanistan

Interview

Hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform - Blackwater USA; Private Security Contracting in Iraq & Afghanistan

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

REP. JIM JORDAN (R-OH): Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Prince, I too want to thank you for your service to our country and for the good work that your company has been doing in Iraq and Afghanistan. I just want to pick up on a couple of things that the congressman from North Carolina had talked about, just some general questions. I know you've been sitting there for three hours; just a few questions, and then I'm going to yield some time to the gentleman from California.

How many employees do your -- you mentioned before, a little bit earlier, a thousand in the field, 50 administrative. But does that represent the entire workforce at Blackwater?

MR. PRINCE: We have about 550 full-time folks in the United States, 1,000-1,100 or so in Iraq, and then hundreds more in little pockets around the world. The next-greatest concentration obviously would be Afghanistan. There's about 300-400 there.

REP. JORDAN: So a couple of thousand working for you now.

MR. PRINCE: More or less, yes, sir.

REP. JORDAN: And you mentioned the extensive training when you -- some of the Special Operations individuals who then come to work for you after they leave military service and the training they undergo.

I believe you said earlier that there was a study done that shows there is no higher exit rate, or quicker exit rate, we will say, because of your company versus what typically happens. Is that true?

MR. PRINCE: Right. It was a GAO study. And it was not just directed at us. It was directed at the private security industry.

REP. JORDAN: Okay. And real quickly, just tell me, how does your -- in your testimony, the opening paragraph, you talk about you provide training to America's military and law enforcement communities and risk their lives to protect Americans in harm's way overseas. So are there several types of contracts that your company does? You do training contracts with the government, protective contracts, or do you do one contract per year? Tell me how those work.

MR. PRINCE: We have a number of different contracts. We never started this operation to be a security provider. It started as a training facility. The SEAL teams, Special Forces, Marine recon, SWAT teams, those were our customers for the first few years. The Navy came after the Cole was blown up. We trained well over 100,000 sailors since then how to protect their ships. Through one of our affiliates, we do aviation support in Afghanistan. We do --

REP. JORDAN: How many -- Mr. Prince, how many contracts would you have right now with the federal government? Any idea?

MR. PRINCE: More than 50.

REP. JORDAN: Okay.

MR. PRINCE: Some are very small. Some are very big.

REP. JORDAN: Again, I want to thank you for your service.

Mr. Chairman, if I could yield to the gentleman from California.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source