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Blackwater ‘became an extension’ of the CIA: report

The role of Blackwater employees in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars was so central to the US's efforts that the lines between the controversial security contractor, the CIA and the military were effectively "blurred," says a report in the New York Times.

During the height of the Iraqi insurgency from 2004 to 2006, Blackwater guards participated almost nightly in "snatch and grab" raids on suspected militants, the Times reported in a story published late Thursday.

The company's cooperation in top-secret CIA operations "illuminate[s] a far deeper relationship between the spy agency and the private security company than government officials have previously acknowledged," the Times reports.

"Blackwater's partnership with the CIA has been enormously profitable for the North Carolina-based company, and became even closer after several top agency officials joined Blackwater."

"It became a very brotherly relationship," an unnamed "former top CIA officer" told the Times. "There was a feeling that Blackwater eventually became an extension of the agency."

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