Stop hiring N.C. security firm

America's mission in the Middle East is too important to entrust crucial tasks to a contractor with a history of questionable judgment, sloppy hiring practices and lax supervision of employees.

For too long, that description has fit Xe Services, the Moyock, N.C.-based company formerly known as Blackwater. Nevertheless, the security firm appears poised to win another lucrative contract - this time, up to $1 billion to train the Afghan national police.

The deal is drawing well-deserved scrutiny from the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee. Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., urged Pentagon officials to review a Xe subsidiary's recent handling of weapons-training work in Afghanistan before deciding if Xe merits more government work.

Blackwater's activities in Iraq and Afghanistan have long been controversial. Some of that was perhaps inevitable; its employees often perform roles ordinarily handled by the military. They're also working in a volatile region where decisions must be made in a split second - and are easily second-guessed.

But, as the Armed Services Committee found, many of the company's problems are its own creation.

The Pilot's Tim McGlone detailed the concerns in an article Monday. He wrote that the committee's probe of a recent Xe subcontract generated testimony and internal company documents indicating employees and supervisors of Paravant, a subsidiary, trampled rules on alcohol use and weapons, among other things, in Afghanistan.

The lack of proper oversight, one company executive wrote, "cultivated an environment that indirectly" led to the shooting deaths of two unarmed Afghan civilians and the wounding of a third in Kabul in May. Two former employees are now facing murder charges in federal court in Norfolk.

The committee also drew attention to Xe's hiring practices. The company hired individuals with criminal histories and far from exemplary records in the U.S. armed forces.

Beyond those problems, there are numerous allegations about Xe that are still unsettled.

The Justice Department is reportedly investigating claims by former company officials that Blackwater executives authorized payments of about $1 million to Iraqi officials to try to silence them after company employees were involved in the fatal shooting of 17 civilians in Baghdad in 2007.

As McGlone reported, Xe officials say they've implemented new policies and replaced nine vice presidents and 16 directors in response to the troubles in Kabul. A similar reorganization occurred three years ago.

Pentagon officials need to ask how many times they'll accept the company's vows to shape up. They also should ask how many times they'd tolerate such problems in their own ranks before severing ties.