Tarnished by the Black Water of Violence, Abuse, Murder? Change Your Brand Name....

Update: A reader directs us to a longer version of the article in The Salt Lake Tribune, in which Blackwater President Gary Jackson tells employees that the name change reflects the company's move from private security to training and logistics: "The volume of changes over the past half-year have taken the company to an exciting place and we are now ready for two of the final, and most obvious changes."

We offer no further comment on a story that speaks for itself. From The New York Times:

Blackwater Changes Its Name to Xe
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

RALEIGH, N.C. — Blackwater Worldwide is abandoning the brand name that has been tarnished by its work in Iraq, settling on Xe (pronounced zee) as the new name for its family of two dozen businesses.

Blackwater Lodge and Training Center, the subsidiary that conducts much of the company’s overseas operations and domestic training, has been renamed U.S. Training Center Inc., the company said Friday.

The company’s rebranding effort grew more urgent after Blackwater guards in Baghdad were involved in a shooting episode in September 2007 that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead.

Blackwater’s president, Gary Jackson, said in a memo to employees that the new name reflected the company’s shift away from providing private security. He has said the company is going to focus on training.

Last month, Iraqi leaders said they would not renew Blackwater’s license to operate in Iraq; the State Department said later that it would not renew Blackwater’s contract to protect diplomats when it expired in May.

A Blackwater spokeswoman, Anne Tyrrell, acknowledged the need to shake the company’s past in Iraq. “Certainly that is an aspect of our work that we feel we were defined by,” she said.