BLACKWATER GOES TO S.H.O.T.Industry’s largest trade show posts record attendance.by Eric R. Poole

CommuniquéBLACKWATER ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

March 2008

BLACKWATER ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

BLACKWATER GOES TO S.H.O.T.BLACKWATER GOES TO S.H.O.T.

The 30th annual S.H.O.T. Show opened the doors at the Las Vegas Convention Center on February 2nd to the industry’s military, law enforcement, shooting, hunting and outdoor enthusiasts. In addition to record atten-dance, exhibition space and companies, the press was out in record numbers.

“The buying activity reported is a strong indicator of a good year to come and reflects the strength of the shooting, hunting and outdoor industry,” Doug Painter, president of the N.S.S.F. and S.H.O.T. Show explained. According to reports, the show comprised 715,000 square feet of exhibit space, a gain of nearly 60,000 over last year, with 1,950 exhibiting companies, up from last year’s 1,870. Registered attendance totaled 58,769, attracted 30,686 buyers, 1,725 members of the press, 25,854 exhibiting personnel and 504 guests.

“Traffic was non-stop at both our booths,” indicated Melissa Cuthbert-Weinert. Melissa made the most of her time as she interacted with passers-by, interacting with various company executives coordinating advertising opportunities in the Blackwater Tactical Weekly. “It’s amazing how many people you can meet here.”

Sherry Whitehurst recently expanded Blackwater Pro Shop’s product line in the retail store as well as online where she is experiencing rapidly growing sales. Spending time at the booth and on the move, many companies approached her to develop Blackwater exclusive products to offer for sale.

The public seemed poised to receive Blackwater’s new BW15 rifle after handling twosamples that featured the Blackwater logo. “We’ve had a lot of people ask how they can get one, said Alan Alligood, Blackwater armorer.” Blackwater’s highly trained and ex-perienced armorers take the basic M4 to the next level by offering custom rifles that are built exactly to the customer’s wishes. “We have a hard time helping people understand that we are not offering a line or series of guns. We build want they want. Each one may be different,” says Armory Chief Bill Kirkland. In a business where the firearms industry

is saturated with variations and types of ARs, the BW15 represents a truly unique approach. The rifles can only be ordered through the Blackwater Armory, making

them very exclusive and highly desirable.

Industry’s largest trade show posts record attendance.by Eric R. Poole

“Traffic was non-stop at

both our booths,” indicated

Melissa Cuthbert-Weinert.

BLACKWATER ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

Eric Davis, Deputy Director of Blackwater’s 80-acre Midwest Campus, in Mt. Carroll, IL., was encouraged by the inquiries for training at the new Illinois training center. “Many people didn’t realize that Blackwater had a facility in this part of the country. That is what I’m here to fix.” With training beginning at the end of the winter freeze, the show proved a unique opportunity to reach out to potential clients.

For first-time exhibitors, the show was an eye-opener. “The key customers and the key decision makers in the industry are under one roof and that’s great for anybody,” said Matt Kriesel, chairman of Impact Jel, a first-time exhibitor. “What a phenomenal show. I don’t see how it can get better with the connections we received.”

“When it comes to media, there is nothing like SHOT where nearly 2,000 members of the press are in one place,” said Tom Taylor, Smith & Wesson Vice President of Marketing. “This year was great. Press attendance was up, and, since our company has expanded, we were able to meet with many other publications that we hadn’t in the past.”

The attendance and energy built up around this year’s show suggests another profit-able year for this industry, an industry that is often referred to as a family of like-minded Americans. If attendance has any bearing on the success of the businesses, Blackwater is anticipating a good year.

Shot Show conference floor.

Photo by Eric Poole

BLACKWATER ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

Protestors Guilty as ChargedProtestors Guilty as ChargedProtestors Guilty as Charged

On October 20, 2007 a group of about 50 activists gathered in Moyock, North Carolina at the edge of Blackwater Worldwide headquarters. Wearing blood stained clothing, they staged a political demonstration against the September 16th Nisoor Square shooting by placing a vehicle with bullet marks and blood on the property and smearing fake blood on the company’s welcome sign. It took only moments for the local police to respond to the protest; the first ever at Blackwater’s headquarters. Seven of the activists were arrested and charged with criminal trespassing; six of them with an additional charge of resisting arrest and one with another charge of injury to real property. The activists were held in the county jail for five days and released pending their trial.

The activists stood before a judge on December 5, 2007 answering the charges. Their stated intent was to put Blackwater on trial, and explained that their demonstration was a political statement against the company for its current actions in Iraq. District Court Judge Edgar Barnes cleared the courtroom to prevent the activists from grandstanding and attempting to put Blackwater on trial. The activists were all convicted in District Court, but with the help of the ACLU, they appealed their original convictions to the Superior Court.

On January 24 in Currituck County, North Carolina Superior Court, Judge Russell Duke presided over the activist’s appeal. Judge Duke allowed the defendant’s right of freedom of speech and decided to let the public witness the daylong trial. The protesters engaged in a gentle debate with their sentencing judge, professing their beliefs about Blackwa-ter’s actions in Iraq, frequently citing the Bible and the Constitution as support for their actions.

Judge Duke told them, “We’re not here about what’s happening in Iraq, we are here about the peace and harmony of this particular community. The law of this state is instituted to protect the peace and harmony. This is a place, a state, a nation, of laws – not of men.” Five of the seven protestors were convicted on second degree trespassing charges. Judge Duke sentenced each protester to five days and credited time already served. The other two protestors also received five day sentences which the judge sus-pended. All were ordered not to return to the Blackwater’s property.

“You now state you are not going to abide by the law, and you don’t respect myjudgment. That grieves me,” Judge Duke stated. Good luck was the last words that Judge Duke said to the protestors. They all filed out of the courtroom. One Protester responded to the comments that Judge Duke had made to the group. He was sorry that the group grieved the judge; especially since he given each one of us protestors a lot of leeway, and that he couldn’t speak for anyone else but that he personally appreciated that act of kindness.

Appealed convictions, denied….still guilty!by Dana C. Richardson

“You now state you are not

going to abide by the law,

and you don’t respect my

judgment. That grieves me,”

Judge Duke stated.

Below: Picture from the October 27, 2007 pro-

test at Blackwater headquarters. Protestors

and local media blocked roadway traffic until

sheriff deputies arrived to disperse the group.

BLACKWATER ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

Interested in Training at Blackwater?Interested in Training at Blackwater?Interested in Training at Blackwater?

Blackwater Training Center is known worldwide for providing the highest caliber of train-ing to law enforcement, military, and government agencies. Training is conducted at our facilities located in Moyock, North Carolina and Mount Carroll, Illinois along with mobile training at any approved facility.

The Tactical Pistol I course is one of many courses offered by Blackwater. This five day training course emphasizes the development of real life tactical and shooting skills. You will learn and use techniques that will reduce your reaction time, allow you to shoot faster with a higher degree of accuracy and increase your confidence with your hand-gun. The class predominately uses the Glock 17, but students are encouraged to bring their own handguns.

Five days of Tactical Pistol Trainingby Dana C. Richardson

Training objectives covered:• Weapon handling and safety

• Gear placement

• Conditions of readiness

• Fundamentals of shooting

• Proper ready positions

• Recoil managements

• Reloading and malfunction clearing

• Shooting positions

• Drawing and firing techniques

• Firing positions and barricades

• Shooting multiple and moving targets

• Low light shooting techniques

• Shooting on the move

• Strong hand only and support hand only

shooting

The course objective is to start at the basic skill level, continually adding techniques, developing the student’s shooting skills. Each major skill-set is taught, building upon the previous lessons and challenging the students to excel. The course will raise your expectations, making you more comfortable with a handgun and a better shooter. The course uses 3-inch dots, 8-inch dots, and silhouette targets throughout training (up to 25 yards), ending with static steel and pie plates. The instructors often encourage competi-tions between the students on the single, multiple and moving targets. These competi-tions emphasize and reinforce the basic skills such as drawing and firing.

Ron Conrad, Program Manager for Firearms and Tactics department advised,“Depending on the class abilities as a whole, the instructors may tailor the course sothe less experienced and the more experienced shooter develops new fundamentalskills, have a positive outcome and that we meet all the expectations of this course.”Information on this course and other open enrollment courses is available fromour Sales Department at: 252-435-2488 or training@blackwaterusa.com. As with allBlackwater skill development courses; the combination of our superior instructors,facilities and materials provides the student with an astounding experience.

Instructors demonstrating firing positions to

students

BLACKWATER ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

Barack OBAMA Shows Tacit SupportBarack OBAMA Shows Tacit SupportBarack OBAMA Shows Tacit Support

The Nation reports, Barack Obama gave a qualified show of support to Blackwater Worldwide. One adviser stated that Obama does not plan to sign on to legislation that seeks to ban the use of these forces in U.S. war zones by January 2009, after a new President would be sworn in.

Obama’s Iraq withdrawal plan provides for some U.S. troops to remain in Iraq but howmany is still uncertain. “If Obama comes into office next January and our diplomatic security service is in the state it’s in and the situation on the ground in Iraq is in the state it’s in, I think we will be forced to rely on a host of security measures,” said the senior adviser. “I can’t rule out and I won’t rule out the use of private security contractors.”

The U.S. Embassy in Iraq is slated to become the largest embassy in world history. If we continue to have diplomats and U.S. personnel traveling in and out of the Green Zone, a significant amount of protection will be required while still maintaining the embassy. Blackwater, DynCorp and Triple Canopy are the current companies that provide protec-tion for U.S. diplomats and personnel. Obama acknowledges that there may be no exist-ing U.S. laws that could be used to prosecute security contractors for crimes committed in Iraq, but he will focus on bringing accountability to these forces. “What we’re focused on at the moment is getting the legal architecture in place that will hold these guys ac-countable to the same standard that U.S. military personnel are accustomed to.”

Obama has proposed increasing funding to the diplomatic security division to assist ina protective force composed entirely of U.S. government personnel but the State Department says the reality of the process to identify, train and deploy new agents could take years. As Ambassador Ryan Crocker stated in late 2007, “There is simply no way at all that the State

Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security could ever have enough full-time personnel to staff the security function in Iraq. There is no alternative except through contracts.” Making diplomatic security a military operation would also pose serious challenges, as the New York Times reported late last year, “the military does not have the trained personnel to take over the job.”

One adviser indicated that contractors would continue to operate at significant levelsoverseas. “These contractors are not only providing private security functions; they arerebuilding schools, serving food and providing logistics to the Iraq communities.” Con-tractors continue to offer a cost effective solution providing temporary surges in capa-bilities in challenging environments.

Not “ruling out” use of private security companiesby Dana C. Richardson

Blackwater Worldwide Headquarters Building

located in Moyock, North Carolina

” Contractors continue to

offer a cost effective

solution providing

temporary surges in ca-

pabilities in challenging

environments.