Former SEAL killed in suicide attack worked for Xe

VIRGINIA BEACH

Jeremy Wise, the former Navy SEAL killed in a suicide bomber's attack on a CIA base in Afghanistan last week, was working for Xe, the Moyock, N.C.-based security company previously known as Blackwater.

Wise's Xe affiliation is disclosed in an obituary published in today's Virginian-Pilot.

Wise was one of eight people killed in the Dec. 30 blast in Khost province. News reports Tuesday identified the suicide bomber as a Jordanian double agent and said seven of the victims were CIA-affiliated. The eighth was a Jordanian military officer.

CNN had reported earlier that two of the CIA casualties were Xe contractors. Asked about the report, a Xe spokeswoman declined to comment. MindyLou Paresi of Dupont, Wash., said in an interview with The News Tribune of Tacoma, Wash., that her husband, 46-year-old Dane Clark Paresi, was a Xe contractor who died in the attack.

The company typically does not publicly identify contractors who are killed in action.

If the CNN account is accurate, the latest two casualties would be the 36th and 37th Blackwater/Xe contractors killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Erik Prince, Xe's founder, acknowledged in a Vanity Fair interview last month that the company has had a long-standing relationship with the CIA.

Prince is a former SEAL, as have been many other Blackwater executives and contractors.

Wise, 35, was an eight-year Navy veteran who left the service in September.

He had been stationed at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek and lived with his wife and son in the Ocean Lakes section of Virginia Beach.

"Our condolences go out to the Wise family during this difficult time," Lt. j.g. Arlo Abrahamson, a spokesman for Naval Special Warfare Group 2 at Little Creek, said in a statement. "Jeremy will be greatly missed by his friends, family, and former teammates in Naval Special Warfare."

Wise grew up in Arkansas, one of four children. His father is a physician in Hope, Ark.

Wise joined the Navy on Sept. 28, 2001, three weeks after the terrorist attacks.

"I would like to say that I joined the Navy because of Sept. 11, because it would sound really patriotic, but truth be told, I wanted to do it anyway," he said in a 2003 interview with the Hope Star.

He had spent two years in medical school but said he felt "like a fish out of water," adding, "I looked into becoming a SEAL and liked what I saw."

His decision was hard for his family to accept at first, he told the newspaper: "They thought I was crazy. 'You want to do what?' "

But ultimately, his family was fully supportive, he said.

Combat is the only reason SEAL teams exist, Wise said.

"You definitely have to be comfortable with that," he said, "and anyone who is too at ease about it is being naive on the subject."

A memorial service for Wise will be held at 1 p.m. Thursday in the Little Creek chapel.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Bill Sizemore, (757) 446-2276, bill.sizemore@pilotonline.com