Blackwater joins wingnut weird week

How do you get rid of a bad rep, especially one that has a mitt-full of your people charged with manslaughter? (As Blackwater does).

Change your name.

Blackwater Worldwide is abandoning its tarnished brand name as it tries to shake a reputation battered by oft-criticised work in Iraq, renaming its family of two dozen businesses under the name Xe. The parent company's new name is pronounced like the letter z.

Blackwater Lodge & Training Centre — the subsidiary that conducts much of the company's overseas operations and domestic training — has been renamed US Training Centre Inc., the company said today.

The decision comes as part of an ongoing rebranding effort that grew more urgent following a September 2007 shooting in Iraq that left at least a dozen civilians dead. Blackwater president Gary Jackson said in a memo to employees the new name reflects the change in company focus away from the business of providing private security.

[...]

In his memo, Jackson indicated the company was not interested in actively pursuing new private security contracts. Jackson and other Blackwater executives said last year the company was shifting its focus away from such work to focus on training and providing logistics.

Actually, Blackwater's focus was shifted for them. First, they lost their benefactor and then Iraq told them to bugger off. The State department said they wouldn't be renewing any security contracts with them and that would have left them seriously exposed for what they really are - mercenaries.

And where did Blackwater come up with the Xe?

Oh... what the hell. I'll give you our take on it.

First, you have to remember that Blackwater is led by a bunch of arrogant, self-important wanks. They don't view themselves as anything less than "patriots" in the truest American ultra-right-wing definition of the word.

Xe is the elemental symbol for Xenon, an odourless, colourless gas. It is also a "noble" gas.

Is that where it comes from? I don't know. If it is, however, they might better have picked H2S... which stinks.

The DNA won't change.