Blackwater changes name, says to focus on training

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Blackwater Worldwide is abandoning the brand name that has been tarnished by its work in Iraq, settling on Xe (pronounced zee) as the new name for its family of two dozen businesses, according to the New York Times newspaper on Saturday. Blackwater Lodge and Training Center, the subsidiary that conducts much of the company’s overseas operations and domestic training, has been renamed U.S. Training Center Inc., the company said Friday (Feb. 13). The company’s re-branding effort grew more urgent after Blackwater guards in Baghdad were involved in a shooting episode in September 2007 that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead. Blackwater’s president, Gary Jackson, said in a memo to employees that the new name reflected the company’s shift away from providing private security. He has said the company is going to focus on training. Last month, Iraqi leaders said they would not renew Blackwater’s license to operate in Iraq; the State Department said later that it would not renew Blackwater’s contract to protect diplomats when it expired in May. A Blackwater spokeswoman, Anne Tyrrell, acknowledged the need to shake the company’s past in Iraq. “Certainly that is an aspect of our work that we feel we were defined by,” she said. AmR (S)/SR 1