http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/10/02/black...
The ties between State and Blackwater are only part of a web of relationships that Blackwater has maintained with the Bush administration and with prominent Republicans. From 2001 to 2007, the firm has increased its annual federal contracts from less than $1 million to more than $500 million, all while employees passed through a turnstile between Blackwater and the administration, several leaving important posts in the Pentagon and the CIA to take jobs at the security company.
The article is a decent summary of the issue. Interestingly, on Raw Story where I found this, the authors of the story chose to change one of the quotes they presented!?!
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Blackwater_USA_linke...
"From 2001 to 2007," says Salon, "the firm has increased its annual federal contracts from less than $1 million to more than $1 billion, all while employees passed through a turnstile between Blackwater and the administration, several leaving important posts in the Pentagon and the CIA to take jobs at the security company."
$1 billion? That seems a rather intentional mistake considering that we would expect these quotes to have been copied and pasted. Why would the authors decide to exaggerate this figure?