# Blackwater

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "Blackwater," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/blackwater/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*The private military contractor founded by Erik Prince that ran the CIA's Global Response Staff and, until shut down by Leon Panetta, a global assassination program; staffed at the board level with former CIA officers including Cofer Black as Vice President.*

- **Founder:** [Erik Prince](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/erik-prince)
- **Vice President (post-CIA):** [Cofer Black](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cofer-black) — former head of the CIA Counterterrorism Center
- **Key CIA contract:** [Global Response Staff](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/grs-global-response-staff) (GRS) — security for case officers
- **Shut down by:** [Leon Panetta](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/leon-panetta), upon his arrival as CIA Director (2009)
- **Legal status (per Ninth Circuit, 2025):** Contractor killings carried out under written CIA contract are legally protected
- **Current status of founder:** Resident in Dubai, outside U.S. jurisdiction

**Blackwater** is the private military contractor founded by [Erik Prince](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/erik-prince) that performed extensive paramilitary and intelligence work for the [Central Intelligence Agency](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia) during the post-September 11 period. The company is the institutional embodiment of the post-9/11 contractor-intelligence model: its board of directors was populated almost entirely by former CIA officers, with [Cofer Black](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cofer-black) — the former head of the agency's Counterterrorism Center — installed as Vice President, and a network of former CTC officers heading its operational divisions. [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) describes the resulting relationship between the agency and the company as *"quasi-CIA"*: *"Everybody's from the CIA. Everybody's getting rich, right? Because remember, post-9/11, money was literally not an issue."*[1][2]

## Global assassination program

Blackwater ran a worldwide assassination program for the [CIA](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia). Its existence was first publicly acknowledged by [Leon Panetta](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/leon-panetta) in his memoir — Panetta wrote that one of his first acts on arriving as CIA Director was to shut it down. He gave no detail; the program was identified as Blackwater's by external reporting in the aftermath of the disclosure, which also revealed that Panetta in the process publicly outed [Erik Prince](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/erik-prince) to the House Intelligence Committee. *"That's why Erik Prince lives in Dubai now and not in the United States."*[3]

Kiriakou's position on the program is that Panetta — whom he otherwise does not like personally — was correct to terminate it. The fundamental problem is institutional: *"How do you control people who don't actually work for you? You can't. And you risk them going rogue, which of course they do because it's their nature."* The predictable failure mode is the misidentified target — *"you convince yourself that Ahmed Schmmed is a really bad guy. And actually, no, it's a cousin with a similar name, but you just put a bullet in this guy's head. Okay, you write a check for 100 grand to his widow and just move on. And that's not cool. It's a crime."*[4][5]

## GRS and paramilitary work

In addition to the assassination program, Blackwater ran the [Global Response Staff](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/grs-global-response-staff) (GRS) program for the [CIA](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia) — protective security for case officers, especially in Baghdad's Green Zone during the Iraq War. Kiriakou describes GRS duty as one of the most dangerous in the post-9/11 contractor space: *"your job is literally to throw your body in front of the other guy so the other guy doesn't get killed and can complete the meeting."*[3][6][7]

## Spy network

Blackwater also operated as a private intelligence-collection enterprise — a fact Kiriakou cites as surprising even to him. *"Blackwater was involved in stealing secrets. Like, they had a network of spies. When you think about Blackwater, you think about boots on the ground, military contracts. People know that they ran the GRS program for CIA, but…"*[1]

## Ninth Circuit ruling (2025)

In approximately July 2025, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on the legality of contractor-conducted killings in CIA service. The plaintiff was [Abu Zubaydah](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/abu-zubaydah), who sought to sue contractors who had tortured him. The court held that contractors operating under a written CIA contract are legally protected as agents of the agency — meaning the CIA's authority to act under [Executive Order 12333](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/executive-order-12333) extends to its contractors. *"The reason I paid attention was because it was Abu Zubaydah who was the plaintiff in the case. … The court was like, 'Yeah, sorry. You got tortured, but they were acting on behalf of the CIA.'"*[8][9]

## Contractors as a private army (Judging Freedom)

[John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) says the CIA's post-9/11 reliance on contractors — groups like [Blackwater](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/blackwater) under whatever name it now uses — is so heavy that there are probably more contractors than CIA officers, giving the president *"an extra level of deniability."* He points to a *"boatload of idiots"* who washed ashore in Venezuela claiming to be on the CIA's payroll — probably true, he says — as the result of ill-conceived operations run by ill-prepared people.[10][11]

## See also

- [Erik Prince](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/erik-prince)
- [Cofer Black](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cofer-black)
- [Global Response Staff](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/grs-global-response-staff)
- [Special Activities Division](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/special-activities-division)
- [Executive Order 12333](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/executive-order-12333)
- [Title 10 vs Title 50](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/title-10-vs-title-50)

## Sources

1. Mossad, Terrifying CIA Technology, Blackwater & The Most Secret CIA Unit (2025-08-31), at 1:01:05. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3FxH39oYsA&t=3665s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-31-dalton-fischer-mossad-blackwater/
2. Mossad, Terrifying CIA Technology, Blackwater & The Most Secret CIA Unit (2025-08-31), at 1:01:36. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3FxH39oYsA&t=3696s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-31-dalton-fischer-mossad-blackwater/
3. Mossad, Terrifying CIA Technology, Blackwater & The Most Secret CIA Unit (2025-08-31), at 1:00:32. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3FxH39oYsA&t=3632s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-31-dalton-fischer-mossad-blackwater/
4. Mossad, Terrifying CIA Technology, Blackwater & The Most Secret CIA Unit (2025-08-31), at 1:02:38. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3FxH39oYsA&t=3758s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-31-dalton-fischer-mossad-blackwater/
5. Mossad, Terrifying CIA Technology, Blackwater & The Most Secret CIA Unit (2025-08-31), at 1:03:10. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3FxH39oYsA&t=3790s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-31-dalton-fischer-mossad-blackwater/
6. Mossad, Terrifying CIA Technology, Blackwater & The Most Secret CIA Unit (2025-08-31), at 3:18:50. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3FxH39oYsA&t=11930s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-31-dalton-fischer-mossad-blackwater/
7. Mossad, Terrifying CIA Technology, Blackwater & The Most Secret CIA Unit (2025-08-31), at 3:19:21. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3FxH39oYsA&t=11961s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-31-dalton-fischer-mossad-blackwater/
8. Mossad, Terrifying CIA Technology, Blackwater & The Most Secret CIA Unit (2025-08-31), at 1:05:16. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3FxH39oYsA&t=3916s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-31-dalton-fischer-mossad-blackwater/
9. Mossad, Terrifying CIA Technology, Blackwater & The Most Secret CIA Unit (2025-08-31), at 1:05:46. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3FxH39oYsA&t=3946s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-31-dalton-fischer-mossad-blackwater/
10. John Kiriakou: The CIA's Tortures and Crimes (2025-12-08), at 26:31. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qVZ2KGc9-g&t=1591s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-12-08-judging-freedom-cia-tortures-and-crimes/
11. John Kiriakou: The CIA's Tortures and Crimes (2025-12-08), at 27:04. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qVZ2KGc9-g&t=1624s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-12-08-judging-freedom-cia-tortures-and-crimes/

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