Gunmaker Ends Partnership With Blackwater

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Even as FBI agents return to Baghdad to revisit the scene of Blackwater’s September 16 shooting that killed 17 Iraqi civilians and wounded 24 more, the embattled private security firm continues to lose friends closer to home. According to UPI, German gun manufacturer Heckler-and-Koch, which formed a “strategic partnership” with Blackwater in August 2006, has announced an end to its association with the company:

Heckler-and-Koch said it would end its relationship in the wake of a German news report that Blackwater employees used its machine guns in Iraq and Afghanistan and that the two companies had a “strategic partnership.”

Deutsche Welle said Tuesday that the revelations stirred criticism among some German politicians who said they were aghast at Blackwater’s controversial role in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“It is scandalous and unacceptable that a German arms company cooperates with such a lawless mercenary troop,” declared Green Party lawmaker Hans Christian Strobele.

Lawless mercenary troop? That’s exactly the kind of talk that makes Erik Prince’s skin crawl. But it’s also language that carries considerable political weight these days, especially given the high number of (allegedly) unlawful killings in Iraq that have involved Blackwater operators.

The end of the Blackwater/Heckler-and-Koch partnership means that paying clients will no longer be able to avail themselves of the “Blackwater HK International Training Services” program, which offered classes like H&K Rifle Operator, H&K Pistol Operator, and H&K SMG (submachine gun) Operator.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

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