INSERT DESCRIPTIONA firearms and tactics instructor at Blackwater Worldwide demonstrated a weapon in Moyock, N.C., on Monday. (Photo: Gerry Broome/Associated Press)
INSERT DESCRIPTIONBlackwater’s logo.

When the public decides to adopt one brand to represent a whole category of goods, like Kleenex or Xerox, businesses usually call that a superior position. Not Blackwater Worldwide, at least when it comes to security contracting. In its case, that meant acting as a lightning rod for a highly controversial field where risk and return is measured in lives and dollars.

Now, executives say that they have had enough. Blackwater is giving up on the business that put them in the crosshairs of an astonishing array of parties, from the insurgents it expected to face in Iraq to the Iraqi government itself, along with the American public, Democratic members of Congress and investigators from several agencies in Washington.

Gary Jackson, Blackwater’s president, described plans for a withdrawal from security contracting in an interview published last night by The Associated Press:

In 2005 and 2006, security jobs represented more than 50 percent of the company’s business. The security business is down to about 30 percent of Blackwater revenue now and Jackson said it will go much lower.

“If I could get it down to 2 percent or 1 percent, I would go there,” he said, adding that the media have falsely portrayed much about that aspect of the company. “If you could get it right, we might stay in the business.”

blackwaterBlackwater USA personnel in Central Baghdad in 2005. (Photo: Yuri Cortez/AFP/Getty Images)

His tone followed questions about one of the main areas in which Blackwater plans to expand to make up for the millions that earns from security contracts. On Monday, The A.P. obtained a memo from Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who asked the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen:

“Why have we come to rely on private contractors to provide combat or combat-related security training for our forces?” Mr. Gates wrote. “Further, are we comfortable with this practice, and do we fully understand the implications in terms of quality, responsiveness and sustainability?”

The answer could affect millions in Blackwater business, although its clients also include many police departments.

While decidely less controversial than patrolling Baghdad with guns, troubles from war have certainly tainted the rest of Blackwater’s operations, including the three areas marked for expansion: training, aviation and logistics.

In June, Blackwater’s new training facility in San Diego was able to open only after a federal judge forced the mayor to end his protests. The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives seized weapons from Blackwater headquarters last month after questions on whether they were acquired legally.

Presidential Airways, a Blackwater subsidiary, is facing a lawsuit by the families of three U.S. troops killed in a plane crash in 2004 in Afghanistan. Recently, the company urged a federal court to rule on the case using Shariah law, arguing that the case was “governed by the law of Afghanistan.”

At the very height of the controversy last October, American officials defended Blackwater Wordwide as an indispensable part of diplomatic operations in Iraq, raising questions about who would take its place. From a New York Times article in May:

Officials say only three companies in the world meet their requirements for protective services in Iraq, and the other two do not have the capability to take on Blackwater’s role in Baghdad. After the shooting in September, the State Department did not even open talks with the other two companies, DynCorp International and Triple Canopy, to see if they could take over from Blackwater.

In the wake of the incident that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead last September, the company’s security license was revoked by the Iraqi government. As we reported on The Lede at the time, they were back to work in no time, for good reason:

American officials were immediately confined to the Green Zone, without the escorts they had hired to protect them elsewhere. With important business hampered by the restrictions, Blackwater was allowed back to work a few days later.

erik princeErik Prince, Blackwater’s owner. (Photo: Brendan Smialowski for the New York Times)

Almost seven months after the deadly incident, which is still being investigated, the State Department renewed Blackwater’s contract to guard American diplomats in Baghdad for another year.

On Monday, Undersecretary of State Patrick Kennedy told the A.P. that “they have not indicated to us that they are attempting to get out of our current contract.”

But Erik Prince, the chairman of Blackwater, told The Military Times earlier this month that the contract could be in jeopardy if the U.S. dropped its demands for immunity for private contractors in Iraq, as has been reported but not officially confirmed.

“A significant change like that would certainly cause a whole bunch of things to be renegotiated,” he said. “That’s a substantial change.”

A much bigger change may be on the horizon as well. The presumptive Republican and Democratic nominees support the use of security contractors much less than the Bush administration does, though neither has said that they must be pulled out of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Senator Barack Obama told The Military Times earlier this month that he was “troubled by the use of private contractors when it comes to potential armed engagements,” but he did leave some room for them — not that it will lend comfort to Blackwater executives.

“There is room for private contractors to work in the mess hall providing basic supplies and doing some logistical work,” he said.