All in a day's work for Blackwater

Four of the five government contractors in line for portions of a $15 billion Pentagon contract to counter "narco-terrorism" have operations in Arizona.

The Department of Defense program aims to develop new technologies and applications to combat international illegal drug trafficking and its ties to terrorism and anti-American groups

Lockheed Martin, ARINC Inc., Raytheon Co., Northrop Grumman Corp. and Blackwater USA are the private contractors lined up for the work, according to the Defense Department's contract announcement.

Blackwater USA is the only company of the five that does not have operations in Arizona.

ARINC is based in Annapolis, Md. and is part of the Carlyle Group private equity firm. ARINC has operations in Scottsdale, Phoenix, Tucson and the U.S. Army base at Fort Huachuca.

Los Angeles-based Northrop has various operations in Yuma, Tempe, Sierra Vista, Fort Huachuca and Phoenix.

Raytheon Co. has its missile division and 10,000 workers in Tucson. Lockheed Martin also has operations at Fort Huachuca as well as Prescott Valley.

But apparently the megamillion dollar companies that Prince runs are small businesses...
Think Progress:

An audit by the Inspector General of the Small Business Administration found that private security firm Blackwater “obtained dozens of small business contracts worth more than $110 million even though” the company “may have exceeded size limits for a small business”:

The Inspector General of the Small Business Administration said Blackwater, based in Moyock, N.C., obtained 39 contracts set aside for small businesses from 2005 through 2007. Of these, 32 contracts worth $2.1 million were set aside for companies with annual revenues of $6.5 million or less.

Blackwater’s revenues have exceeded $200 million each of those years, according to federal contracting data.

The report said that Blackwater “may have improperly classified Blackwater guards in Iraq and Afghanistan as independent contractors rather than employees.” It’s a tactic other private contractors have used to avoid paying taxes.