Blackwater saves the day

Source: TheWashington Times
Three young women have returned home to Michigan after being rescued from an orphanage in a remote village of strife-torn Kenya by Blackwater Worldwide.
Blackwater is under fire from Congress over a September shooting in Baghdad that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead, but the private security firm is receiving nothing but praise from the father of two of the rescued women.
Dean VanderMey, executive director of Set Free Ministries International, a nondenominational Christian ministry in Grand Rapids, Mich., that operates throughout Africa, said daughters Brittanie, 21, and Aubrie, 19, and their friend Jamie Cook, 20, owe their lives to Blackwater's "dedicated professionals."
The women were rescued Sunday from an orphanage at which they were working in a remote area of Kenya after countrywide election results were bitterly disputed, sparking mob violence that killed nearly 500 people.
They arrived home safely in Grand Rapids on Monday after Blackwater operatives picked them up at an airstrip near the orphanage in the village of Kimilili. They were flown to Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, aboard a 10-passenger single-engine plane located by Blackwater officials before catching a commercial flight home.
"There were only two guards at the orphanage, and they had only spears and machetes. The girls were sleeping with knives and Mace," Mr. VanderMey told The Washington Times. "They didn't know if the mobs were going to come to their village or not."
After being unable to arrange for a charter airplane or helicopter to pick up the women despite a "frantic search," he said he turned to his parents for help — and they reached Blackwater founder and owner Erik Prince through Rep. Vernon J. Ehlers, Michigan Republican.
It was within an hour, he said, that Mr. Prince, a Michigan native, called to offer his firm's services.

With all the negative press these guys get, I figured it's time to applaud them! After all, they are our fellow Americans!