ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. (AP) — Security contractor Blackwater USA, which has lost at least eight workers to ambushes in Iraq, is growing at an impressive rate and plans to double the number of people it employs at its headquarters.
At a ribbon-cutting Tuesday for a new target-manufacturing plant, Blackwater President Gary Jackson said he was astounded by the growth of his company.
“The numbers are actually staggering. In the last 18 months we’ve had over 600 percent growth,” he said.
Blackwater is one of the biggest and best-known private security firms working in Iraq, with a $21 million contract to guard the Coalition Provisional Authority. Now, Blackwater guards John Negroponte, the U.S. ambassador in Iraq, along with the food shipments destined for U.S. troops.
The company opened offices in Baghdad and Jordan in the past year.
Four Blackwater employees — two Americans and two Poles — were killed in June on the main road to Baghdad airport. Four others were killed March 31, and their bodies were mutilated and burned. Two were hung from the framework of a bridge across the Euphrates River.
The company started seven years ago with 27 employees. Blackwater now has thousands of contract workers based in several countries. Blackwater’s headquarters in North Carolina will see a doubling of its work force to about 400 people, Mr. Jackson said.
“This is a billion-dollar industry,” he said. “And Blackwater has only scratched the surface of it.”
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