#privatearmies — Public Fediverse posts

#Blackwater Founder #ErikPrince Indicted for Arms Sales to #Libya

By Miriam Raftery

July 27, 2023 (San Diego) — "The name Erik Prince became familiar to many residents in San Diego’s East County when Blackwater, the private military contracting firm he founded, sought to build a #paramilitary training camp in Potrero.

"Now Austria has indicted Prince for alleged arms trafficking to Libya in violation of a United Nations arms embargo; at least one shipment of explosives reportedly went through #Austria using an Austrian business, BNN reports. Prince is accused of organizing a covert military operation to supply Libyan warlord #KhalifaHafter with war equipment for rebellion against a government backed by the U.S. and the U.N.

"If convicted, Prince could face up to five years in prison. However, it is unclear whether or not he will be extradited to Austria; Prince holds residency in both the U.S. and #AbuDhabi. Prince has denied UN allegations of arms peddling to Libya.

"The local #Potrero project drew massive opposition on #environmental grounds as well as the many controversies involving Blackwater, which Prince was CEO and chairman of at the time. The Harris Fire in October 2007 displaced many residents, but that didn’t stop them from showing up to vote and recall all five community planning group members who had voted for the project, which sparked national news headlines.

"The 2007 firestorms scorched Round Potrero Valley, where Blackwater planned to store #ammunition and a bunkhouse with 200 men in the box valley with only one exit.

"Blackwater ultimately dropped plans for the Potrero facility in 2008, ostensibly due to noise mediation requirements, although those had not changed since the project’s inception.

"Prince, a former Navy Seal before founding Blackwater in 2009, is no stranger to controversy. Three Blackwater guards were convicted in 2014 of manslaughter and another of murder in charges stemming from the massacre of civilians in Baghdad’s #NissourSquare in 2007. In March 2009, Prince resigned as Blackwater’s CEO but remained chairman of the board until the company’s sale in late 2010.

"Blackwater’s successor company, #Academi, was accused of #ArmsTrafficking in 2012 dating back to when Prince served as CEO and Chairman. Then in 2020, the #FBI investigated Prince for arms trafficking involving #cropduster planes converted for military use.

"He moved to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates in 2010, where he was hired by the crown prince to organize foreign troops for the #UAE and formed a new firm called #ReflectResponses, or R2. He later trained Somalis in anti-piracy operations with UAE funding.

"Prince also leads a private equity firm, #FrontierResourcesGroup and until April 2021, chaired Frontier Services Group Ltd., which had various business dealings in #Africa.

"Prince also drew controversy over revelations that he lied to the House Intelligence Committee in Nov. 2017 about his involvement in the #Trump transition team and was at a Trump Tower meeting that allegedly had backchannel communications with a representative of Russian President Vladimir #Putin. A Special Counsel in 2018 found evidence contradicting Prince, the Washington Post reported. The House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff sent a criminal referral to the Justice Department which announced in 2020 that it had opened an investigation into Prince’s alleged perjury during his testimony.

"Politically well connected, Prince is the sister of #BetsyDevos, former Secretary of Education under President Donald Trump, and has been a major donor to numerous Republican candidates and a Trump-aligned super-pac."

https://www.eastcountymagazine.org/blackwater-founder-erik-prince-indicted-arms-sales-libya

#PrivateArmy #Xe
#CorporateColonialism #PrivateArmies #Fascism
#ErikPrinceColonialism #CorporateColonialism #Blackwater #TigerSwan

ICYMI - 2010: From #DemocracyNow

The Nation: Docs Reveals #Blackwater-Linked Companies Provided Intel & Security to Multinationals Like #Monsanto, #Chevron

September 16, 2010

“Blackwater’s Black Ops” — that’s the title of an explosive new article in The Nation magazine that reveals how entities closely linked with the private security firm Blackwater have provided #security and #intelligence services to a range of powerful #corporations over the past several years. The companies include #Monsanto, #Chevron, #DeutscheBank and others. Blackwater has also provided intelligence and training services to foreign governments, including #Jordan, the Canadian military and the Dutch police. We speak with investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill. [includes rush transcript]

"AMY GOODMAN: “Blackwater’s Black Ops” — that’s the title of an explosive new article in The Nation magazine that reveals how entities closely linked with the private security firm Blackwater have provided security and intelligence services to a range of powerful corporations over the past several years. The companies include Monsanto, Chevron, the Walt #Disney Company, Deutsche Bank, #Barclays and #RoyalCaribbean Cruise Lines.

"Blackwater has also provided intelligence and training services to foreign governments, including the Kingdom of Jordan, the Canadian military and the Dutch police. In 2007, former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto worked with Blackwater when she returned to #Pakistan to campaign for the general elections. Bhutto was assassinated in December of 2007.

"The new revelations come from documents obtained by The Nation. They show that Blackwater’s work for corporations and government agencies was contracted using two companies: #TotalIntelligenceSolutions and the #TerrorismResearchCenter. Both companies are owned by Blackwater’s owner and founder, #ErikPrince.

"Today also marks the third anniversary of the #NisourSquare massacre, when Blackwater guards gunned down seventeen #Iraqi civilians and wounded twenty in a fifteen-minute shooting spree in #Baghdad.

"For more, we’re joined now from New York by investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill. He’s a Puffin Foundation writing fellow at the Nation Institute. He’s a Democracy Now! correspondent and author of the book Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful #MercenaryArmy. His new article in online at thenation.com."

Listen / Read more:
https://www.democracynow.org/2010/9/16/the_nation__docs_reveals_blackwater

#PrivateArmy #Netherlands #Canada #Xe #Academi #CorporateColonialism #PrivateArmies #Fascism #AuthoritarianRule #Oligarchy

2007: #Blackwater's #ErikPrince Has #GOP, #Christian Group Ties

By Corey Flintoff, NPR

"Prince grew up in Holland, Mich., where his father, Edgar Prince, built Prince Corporation, an auto-parts company that based its success on novel products, such as the lighted vanity mirror for car window visors. The elder Prince was a close friend and supporter of Christian #Evangelists such as James Dobson of Focus on the Family, as well as a contributor to the Republican Party. He was an early benefactor of the #FamilyResearchCouncil.

"Erik Prince was accepted to the U.S. Naval Academy, but dropped out after three semesters. He later told the Virginia-Pilot newspaper that he loved the Navy but disliked the academy. He finished his schooling at the Christian-oriented #HillsdaleCollege in Michigan.

"Other members of Prince's family have been active in Republican politics. His sister, #BetsyDeVos, has served as chair of the Michigan Republican Party, and her husband, Dick DeVos, was an unsuccessful Republican candidate for governor of Michigan in 2006. Dick DeVos, a member of the conservative family that co-founded Amway, succeeded his father as president of that company."

Read more: https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14659780

#GOP #ChristoFacist #Mercenaries #PrivateArmies #ChristoFascism #Fascism #PoliceState #Blackwater