The Pakistani government has given a one-week deadline to the country’s intelligence services to identify and apprehend members of the notorious American security firm Blackwater (currently known as Xe Services LLC) in Pakistan. The deadline was issued following intelligence reports about the ongoing presence of Blackwater agents on Pakistani soil. According to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Blackwater agents are still operating in the country. The Xe Services operatives were reportedly involved in the assassination of senior leader of Haqqani terrorist network Nasiruddin Haqqani on the outskirts of Islamabad on November 10. Nasiruddin was the son of Jalaluddin Haqqani, the leader of Pakistan-based Haqqani militant network. In 2009, Blackwater conducted extensive activities and terrorist operations across Pakistan, however, the former Pakistani government denied that the US security contractor is present in the country. Blackwater was established in 1998 with the aim of conducting acts of espionage and military operations in crisis-hit regions across the world.
The company has been struggling with a trail of legal cases and civil lawsuits, including one for killing 17 Iraqi civilians during a Baghdad shootout in 2007. Blackwater’s operations have led to human rights violations. They have also carried out targeted assassinations inside and outside Pakistan. The company’s operatives also gather intelligence and help direct a secret US military drone bombing campaign that runs parallel to the well-documented CIA assassination drone strikes.
Investigative journalist Webster Griffin Tarpley says the Xe Services is behind the ongoing terrorist attacks in Pakistan in an attempt to incite civil war in the country mainly in line with the US policy to prevent Pakistan from becoming an energy corridor between Iran and China.Press TV
