#tigerswan — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #tigerswan, aggregated by home.social.
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@PaxtonOrglot #ErikPrince and #KillerDrones. What could possibly go wrong?!!
#ErikPrinceColonialism #Academi #Blackwater #TripleCanopy #Tigerswan
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Michigan native #ErikPrince proposes #deportation plan to #ElSalvador, report says
By Justin Engel, Apr. 14, 2025
"Erik Prince, the former CEO of #Blackwater USA and a Michigan native, is among a group of defense contractors proposing to expand plans for deporting #immigrants to a prison in El Salvador, Politico reported.
"The pitch would attempt to avoid #legal challenges by designating part of the El Salvador prison system as #AmericanTerritory, the report stated.
" 'It’s unclear how seriously the White House is considering the plan by Prince, who has drawn scrutiny for his firm’s role in a deadly massacre in Iraq two decades ago,' the Politico report stated. 'But it would give Prince’s group an unprecedented and potentially highly lucrative role in an expanded version of a transnational operation that has elicited its own web of controversies, in part because it has swept up immigrants who do not have criminal records in the United States.'
"The report coincides with President Donald Trump’s plans to host #NayibBukele, the president of El Salvador, at the White House on Monday, April 14.
"Since March, El Salvador has accepted from the U.S. more than 200 #Venezuelan immigrants — whom officials with President Donald Trump’s administration have accused of gang activity and violent crimes — and placed them inside the country’s notorious maximum-security gang prison. It is also holding a Maryland man who the administration admits was wrongly deported but has not been returned to the U.S., despite court orders to do so.
"Trump has ties to the family of Prince, an automotive supplier heir from Holland. Prince is the brother of #BetsyDeVos, the secretary of education during the first Trump administration.
"Prince, a major Republican donor, has been accused of acting as a back channel on behalf of Trump. As Trump was preparing to take office in 2017, Prince met with a official close to Russian President Vladimir #Putin in the #Seychelles, islands off the coast of east Africa. Special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on his Russia investigation said the meeting was set up ahead of time with the knowledge of former White House aide #StephenBannon.
"Prince soared to notoriety after Blackwater USA employees in 2007 shot and killed #Iraqi #civilians in Baghdad’s #NisourSquare during the Iraq war, casting a light on the role played by private contractors in U.S. military operations overseas.
"In the wake of the scandal the company’s name was changed and Prince sold his shares to a private equity fund."
#ErikPrinceColonialism #Blackwater #Academi #ErikPrinceIsAWarCriminal #TripleCanopy #PrivateArmy #OffLeash #ProjectVeritas #Project2025 #TigerSwan #Fascism
#Authoritarianism -
Exclusive- #Trump supporter #ErikPrince reaches deal with #Congo to help secure [steal] mineral wealth
Jessica Donati and Sonia Rolley
Thu, April 17, 2025Excerpt: "Democratic Republic of Congo has vast reserves of #copper, #cobalt, #lithium and #coltan - a mineral used widely in smartphones, computers and electric vehicles - but has been plagued for decades by violence in its eastern region.
"The agreement between Congo and Prince initially involved a plan to deploy contractors to Goma, the capital of North Kivu province and the largest city in eastern Congo. But Goma is now under M23 control and that plan has been put on hold. M23 controls tracts of mineral-rich territory.
"A source close to the Congolese government told Reuters an initial deployment of Prince's advisers was expected to start in the south, far from the area controlled by #M23 and its allies.
" 'If you just look at Katanga, if you look at Kolwezi down just off the Zambian-Congo border, they claim that there's like $40 million a month in lost revenue of what's going out and what's coming in,' the source said.
"A diplomatic source also told Reuters the first stage of Prince's effort in Congo would focus on securing mines and tax revenues in copper-producing Katanga province.
"One of the sources close to Prince said advisers were expected to deploy with technical experts from a company specialised in testing and inspecting commodities. The advisers would initially target larger mines and expand as revenue collection improved.
"The source did not provide details on how the advisers would tackle corruption in the sector that has long drained revenue that would otherwise flow to the state.
"A source in the office of Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi said an agreement in principle had been signed with Prince, but the details on where and how many advisers would be deployed remained to be established."
https://www.aol.com/news/exclusive-trump-supporter-prince-reaches-142935924.html
#ErikPrinceColonialism
#PrivateArmy #Academi #ErikPrinceIsAWarCriminal
#TripleCanopy #OffLeash #ProjectVeritas
#Project2025 #TigerSwan #Fascism #Authoritarianism #Colonialism #Mining #Pollution #Genocide #Corruption #CopperMining #MiningPollution #CorporateColonialism -
#ErikPrince: Private sector can help with #MassDeportations
Leland Vittert
Tue, February 25, 2025"Erik Prince, founder of the former security contractor #Blackwater, denied proposing a 'private army' for mass deportations and instead described a logistics plan to help the #Trump administration fulfill its immigration goals.
" 'This is not some idea of a private army,' Prince said Tuesday on NewsNation’s On Balance. 'It was a memo generated to describe how to achieve the logistics necessary to move the millions of people that they intend to deport.'
"Prince pushed back against a Politico report that described a plan circulated among Trump allies calling for 'processing camps' and a private citizen force to carry out deportations.
"He said that the memo outlines how to accomplish mass deportations 'in a #legal, #ethical manner” with necessary #DueProcess. [WHAT A JOKE!!!]
" 'If people think it’s a huge number, think about how we’ve been invaded. We’ve had millions of people float into the country illegally, actually paying the cartels to smuggle them in,' Prince said.
"According to the Politico report, Prince and other contractors submitted a 26-page proposal before Trump’s inauguration that included using private aircraft, 'processing camps' on military bases, and deputizing private citizens to make arrests.
"The plan reportedly carries a $25 billion price tag to deport 12 million people before the 2026 midterms.
"Prince suggested the government would eventually need the private sector to help achieve Trump’s immigration goals, noting that deportation flights 'for years, even when other administrations are doing it, were largely contractor managed and operated.'
Source:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/erik-prince-private-sector-help-044932521.html#ErikPrinceColonialism #PrivateArmy #ErikPrinceColonialism #Blackwater #Academi #ErikPrinceIsAWarCriminal #TripleCanopy #PrivateArmy #OffLeash #ProjectVeritas #Project2025 #TigerSwan #Fascism #Authoritarianism #PrivateSecurity
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Very often, I find myself wondering, "Is there an #ErikPrince connection to x, y or z?" And very often, I am right!
#ErikPrinceColonialism #Blackwater #Academi #ErikPrinceIsAWarCriminal #TripleCanopy #PrivateArmy #OffLeash #ProjectVeritas #Project2025 #TigerSwan -
So, my friend #BrendaNorrell of #CensoredNews tried an experiment... To see what #DeepSeek had to say about #StandingRock and other stuff (versus #ChatGPT). Ironic that the country that squashed and censored #TianmenSquare would be more "truthful" about similar actions here in the #US.
Rival Chinese and U.S. Companies Respond to Controversial Questions from #IndianCountry
by Brenda Norrell, Censored News, Updated February 1, 2025
"We asked the rival Chinese-owned and U.S.-backed search platforms a series of controversial questions from Indian country, on torture in #ResidentialSchools, critical injuries of #WaterProtectors at Standing Rock, bordertown #racism in #RapidCity, and federal lawsuits filed against #DebHaaland while she was Interior Secretary.
"We asked if the #RioPuerco wash, flowing by #Navajo communities, was contaminated by the #ChurchRock #uranium spill. We also asked who were the Lakota Red Warriors.
"Chinese-owned DeepSeek gave a more detailed description of the critical injuries that water protectors suffered at Standing Rock. China's DeepSeek included #TigerSwan in its response. Neither platform gave information on numerous federal lawsuits in the aftermath of the #resistance to the #DakotaAccessPipeline, or the upcoming trial in North Dakota District Court, #EnergyTransfer v #Greenpeace and #RedWarriorSociety."Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/01/rival-chinese-and-us-companies-respond.html
#USPol #StandWithStandingRock #ReaderSupportedNews #SilencingDissent #Censorship #AICensorship -
@WIREID91LDNON I wonder how much of the discord within #Occupy was from the outside. Just saying. I ID'ed an #FBI infiltraitor in the #ClamshellAlliance when I was a just a teen. All that shit is real. Also with the left infiltrating the right as well as #ACAB and #Tigerswan and #Blackwater. Who can we trust?! Things have been murky for decades -- and even murkier now (I just read a piece about a wilderness school guide who got inside the far right).
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The Circus is Coming to Town -- The Bizarre Lawsuit of #EnergyTransfer v #Greenpeace and #RedWarriorSociety
by #CensoredNews, January 1, 2025
"It's the most bizarre lawsuit -- Energy Transfer v Greenpeace and Red Warrior Society, eight years later.
"There are loads of documents hidden away with 'confidential' stamps in the court records, and a whole lot of players -- governors, Congressmen, and law enforcement, in the shadows.
"The fragments, , between the blackouts of 'redacted,' show that the head of Energy Transfer hasn't been answering all the questions in depositions. Other snippets show that the #OilPipeline doesn't want to reveal its spills, and whether there's been contamination already into the water at #StandingRock.
"Meanwhile, there's a 'newspaper' tainting the potential jurors, attorneys say, which promotes the sheriff.
"And where are all the files on #TigerSwan, the paid #FBI informants, and the military #SpecialOps? Tens of thousands of documents of TigerSwan were gained by #TheIntercept in another court battle.
"Where are the files on the #drone being shot down by law enforcement, the U.S. #BorderPatrol's surveillance plane, and the #BIA's #surveillance van parked at the casino, with undercover officers wandering around inside?
"The judge, appointed by the governor, won't recuse himself.
"#UnicornRiot media is in Minneapolis Supreme Court fighting the pipeline's subpoena to seize its confidential media records.
"#WaterProtectors and media have been served with third party subpoenas by the pipeline for this fishing expedition for their info.
"And it's all coming to #MandanNorthDakota, at the end of February, to North Dakota's District Court,
home to #MortonCountySheriff.
"It's a $300 million #SLAPP lawsuit to shut them down, says Greenpeace. Greenpeace said there was a large dump of records into the case."Stay tuned, and dig through the files -- good luck."
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/01/the-circus-is-coming-to-town-bizarre.html
#ReaderSupportedNews #NoDAPL #StandWithStandingRock #WaterIsLife #SLAPPsLawsuits #SilencingDissent #ACAB -
Follow the #BloodMoney -- to #ErikPrince!
American billionaire Erik Prince seeks #Israeli investments -- Founder of #Blackwater to visit Israel in July.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
JUNE 16, 2019"American billionaire Erik Prince, a former US Navy Seal and founder of controversial military contractor Blackwater, will visit Israel next month to search for new investment opportunities.
"Prince, who also co-founded Hong Kong-based Frontier Services Group (FSG) in 2014, will meet with start-ups and companies in fields including defense technology, intelligence and foodtech.
"Drone-maker BlueBird Aero Systems, off-road vehicle developer Tomcar, artificial intelligence defense solutions provider Axon Vision and satellite rescue firm Magnus are among the companies Prince is due to meet during his visit.
[...]
"Particularly of interest to Prince are the young alumni of elite #IDF intelligence unit 8200, who have established a reputation for developing innovative hi-tech start-ups after their release from the army."
#BibiIsAWarCriminal #ErikPrinceIsAWarCriminal #OffLeash #Academi #TigerSwan
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#EnergyTransfer's $300 Million Lawsuit Against #Greenpeace for #StandingRock #Resistance Delayed
By #BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews
July 29, 2024STANDING ROCK, #NorthDakota -- "Energy Transfer's $300 million #SLAPP lawsuit against Greenpeace and Standing Rock #WaterProtectors for the resistance to #DakotaAccessPipeline has been delayed until February, due to a 'massive document dump' by Energy Transfer, Greenpeace told Censored News today.
"Originally, our trial was set for July 29th, 2024 – but due to a massive document dump by Energy Transfer in June, Greenpeace filed a request to have the trial date pushed back. The judge agreed, and moved our trial to February 24, 2025 through March 28, 2025," Lindsay Bigda, communication director, Democracy Resilience Program at Greenpeace USA told Censored News today.
Responding to questions, Greenpeace said #RedWarriorSociety and other water protectors are named in the lawsuit."'Red Warrior Society is still named in the lawsuit and last week our lawyers presented arguments for why it shouldn’t be (because it is not the sort of entity that can be sued). The two individuals, #CodyHall and #KrystalTwoBulls, are also still named, but were never served. (Greenpeace entities are the only ones that were served and are actively litigating),' Bigda told Censored News.
"'Very few jurisdictions have made steps to prevent the corporate legal warfare waged in SLAPPs to #SilenceDissent and freedom of expression. The United States has long failed to uphold #HumanRights and #Indigenous leaders have had no choice but to leave their precious homelands; and use international diplomacy to implore all those who will listen for an end to the #extractive industry violence.'
"'Europe played a key role in the #colonization of the planet. Now let's see if she, her people, and jurisdictions, can help in undoing and healing that historic wound. #IndigenousPeoples must continue to engage with Europe to seek justice and #corporate accountability.'
"Standing Rock water protectors have been served subpoenas in the case from Energy Transfer, as it seeks out information. #UnicornRiot fought the subpoena in #Minnesota and won its case to protect its internal media files. However, Energy Transfer has now asked the Minnesota Supreme Court to reconsider its case.
"Greenpeace clarified the reason for the subpoenas that water protectors and Unicorn Riot media were served with.
'Unicorn riot was never named in the lawsuit. They received a third party subpoena, along with many other activist groups and individuals (these folks are not parties to the case; rather, they are third parties that Energy Transfer wants info from in its case against Greenpeace,)' Bigda told Censored News."Mercenaries #TigerSwan Spied without a License, Provided Info to Law Enforcement
"Red Warrior Camp was a focus of the mercenaries hired by Energy Transfer at Standing Rock in September of 2016, as revealed in the court-ordered spy documents released.
TigerSwan was found working in North Dakota without a license from 2016 through 2017. As a result, the North Dakota regulatory board ordered that TigerSwan's spy files be released. The Intercept now has over 50,000 of TigerSwan's spy documents at Standing Rock, as a result of a lengthy court battle. Energy Transfer, employer of TigerSwan, fought the release of documents in North Dakota court, but the North Dakota Supreme Court upheld the decision to release TigerSwan's documents in 2022."The TigerSwan aerial photos included #OcetiSakowin Camp, Red Warrior Camp, and the other camps. The spy documents reveal that a U.S. Border Patrol drone was included in the aerial #surveillance and #infiltrators were placed in the water protector camps at Standing Rock and elsewhere.
"Meanwhile, after Standing Rock, TigerSwan's CEO formed a new company. Syria says they are stealing #Syria's oil. CNN reported about the secretive contract and the new company.
#Palestinians Targeted for Surveillance by TigerSwan at Standing Rock
"As soon as a single #Palestinian activist showed up at an anti-Dakota Access Pipeline camp on the edge of the Standing Rock reservation in 2016, intelligence analysts for the mercenary security firm TigerSwan were on alert," by Alleen Brown, Drilled and co-published with the Center for Media and Democracy."
Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/07/energy-transfers-300-million-lawsuit.html#ReaderSupportedNews #StandWithStandingRock #SLAPPs #NoDAPL #CorporateColonialism #EarthDefenders #CriminalizingDissent #BigOilAndGas #ErikPrince #Blackwater
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In Backlash to Campus #ProPalestine #Protests, Echoes of #StandingRock and the Global Crackdown on #ClimateProtest
The use of #militarized police and “#antiterrorism” laws against #activists is not new in the U.S.
by Alleen Brown, Drilled
This story is co-published with the Center for Media and Democracy and #CensoredNewsMay 3, 2024
"As soon as a single #Palestinian activist showed up at an anti-#DakotaAccessPipeline camp on the edge of the Standing Rock reservation in 2016, intelligence analysts for the mercenary security firm #TigerSwan were on alert.
"El-Zabri, the Palestinian activist surveilled at Standing Rock, was among 79 people arrested this week while protesting at the #UniversityOfTexas at #Austin. 'It really felt like the same as Standing Rock, when we were facing the police,' he said.
"''There was a whole army that looked like it was at war in #RiotGear. They eventually used #TearGas and #PepperSpray.'
"'They're afraid of what we have to say and the people that we can touch,' said Cornell senior Yanenowi Logan, who is Deer Clan from the #SenecaNation and has been negotiating with campus administrators.
"Logan said that by standing up for Gazans, she and other Native organizers are also standing up for themselves. 'We want to be able to show them that, hey, we're still here,' she said. 'You can try to kill us. You can burn our crops. You can do whatever you want to do, but we're still going to persist.'"
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/05/drilled-in-backlash-to-campus-pro.html
#Genocide #Israel #Palestine #FreePalestine #GazaSolidarity #NoDAPL #Colonialism
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#JulianAssange extradition appeal: what you need to know before the #UK high court’s ruling
#WikiLeaks founder to learn on Tuesday if he can appeal against his extradition to the #UnitedStates
by Rafqa Touma
Mon 25 Mar 2024 22.03 EDT"Fitzgerald said Assange and WikiLeaks 'were responsible for the exposure of criminality on the part of the #USGovernment on an unprecedented scale,' including #torture, rendition, #extrajudicial killings and #WarCrimes.
"He alleged '#StateRetaliation' motivated the US prosecution and so was unlawful. Fitzgerald also warned that if Assange was extradited there was 'a real risk that he’ll suffer a flagrant denial of justice'.
"#MarkSummers KC, also for Assange, raised the issue of #CIA officials under former US president Donald #Trump reportedly discussing abducting and even #assassinating Assange."
#FreeAssange #Whistleblowers #whistleblower #USImperialism #Corporatocracy #ErikPrince #TigerSwan #Blackwater
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OpEd: Why #MAGA Loves #Russia and Hates #Ukraine
Feb. 8, 2024
By David French"In 2021, The American Conservative’s Rod Dreher praised a #Putin speech condemning the West and said that Putin and #Hungary’s #ViktorOrban were 'completely clear and completely correct on the society-destroying nature of #wokeness and postliberal leftism.' (It should be noted that Dreher has nonetheless unequivocally condemned Putin’s invasion.) A 2022 exchange between Steve Bannon and #ErikPrince, the founder of private military contractor #Blackwater, was even more illustrative. Bannon hosted Prince on his podcast shortly after Putin’s invasion and proclaimed Putin 'anti-woke.' Prince replied supportively that the people of Russia 'still know which bathroom to use.' And Bannon kept the thought alive, asking, 'How many genders are there in Russia?'"
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/08/opinion/why-maga-loves-russia-and-hates-ukraine.html
#Transphobia #ChristoFascism #ErikPrinceColonialism #CorporateColonialism #Fascism #TigerSwan #NoDAPL #HumanRights #EnvironmentalJustice #LGBTQ
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#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 -
Footing the $15 Million Bill for the #DakotaAccessPipeline's #PrivateArmy
Sen. John Hoeven added monies to the Department of Justice’s budget for FY 2017 to reimburse #NorthDakota for incurred costs.
By Ruth Hopkins ,
IndianCountryTodayMediaNetworkPublished: May 23, 2017
“Last fall, the eyes of the world were fixated on #StandingRock.
“Among the images burned into the brains of so many abroad were those of Morton County sheriff’s department, joined by law enforcement officers from across the country, bedecked in military gear and armed to the teeth, brutalizing defenseless water protectors for expressing their first amendment rights and freedom of religion. Eyes were opened when mercs sicced vicious attack dogs on women and children guarding sacred burial grounds with their lives. Folks thousands of miles away watched in horror as they witnessed concussion grenades being thrown into crowds and elders being maced in the midst of sweat lodge raids. People will never forget live stream video picked up by mainstream media, showing hundreds of civilians being shot with water cannons in subzero temperatures by a corporate police state army. Some photos of injuries were judged too graphic to post by social media, as they revealed a young woman with a near severed limb and another who’d been blinded in one eye.
“This was not Iraq or Afghanistan. There was no foreign enemy invading our shores. These events occurred in the middle of the United States, on Lakota treaty lands; and the only thing these innocent people had done was dare to stand in the way of the Dakota Access Pipeline, the same one Bismarck, North Dakota residents rejected due to fears it would contaminate their water supply. This war zone created by Dakota Access and Morton County was meant to subdue Standing Rock residents and water protectors and force them to accept an unwarranted risk to their fresh water and the desecration of ancestral graves, under the barrel of a gun.
“Here in the states, hundreds of Native Nations and the American public sided with Standing Rock. Scores came to camp along the shores of the Mni Sosa (Missouri River). Others rallied in the local cities, signed petitions, and called the White House. Millions were outraged by the injustice.
“Yet who is paying for the corporate police state brutality I just mentioned? You are.
“Senator John Hoeven (R-ND), who accepted money from Energy Transfer Partners (the company behind the Dakota Access Pipeline) and has been vocal in his support of both the Dakota Access Pipeline as well as the Keystone XL pipeline, has announced that North Dakota will receive $15 million in federal funds to reimburse the state for costs incurred as a result of militarizing Barney Fife and company while they pushed the pipeline through for ETP and engaged in the violent, forced removal of water protectors. Hoeven slid said monies into the Department of Justice’s budget as part of Fiscal 2017 funding legislation.
“By the way, Hoeven sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee and is now the chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. Welcome to Custer’s wet dream.
“The distinguished Senator from North Dakota would have us believe his state was alone in its mission to extinguish #NoDAPL. Nothing could be further from the truth.
“When Morton County requested backup, law enforcement officials from across the nation came to North Dakota via the Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC). The Sheriff’s Association also showed up in full force.
“New York Daily News writer Shaun King obtained audio where #EnergyTransferPartners freely admitted that they worked closely with the Sheriff’s Association, and wow, did they ever. They became one and the same.
“#WaterProtectors who lived at camp can attest to #ETP and law enforcement’s collusion and fraternization, but the record speaks for itself.
“The Sheriffs’ Association has a $3.46 million budget, according to tax forms. Some of this funding comes from corporate sources, like TigerSwan. TigerSwan maintains offices in Iraq and Afghanistan. TigerSwan’s CEO is a former adviser to the multinational private security firm, Blackwater. Blackwater was founded by Erik Prince, a Trump campaign donor and the brother of Betsy DeVos, the US Secretary of Education. Besides funding the Sheriff’s Association, TigerSwan is in charge of Dakota Access intelligence and supervising overall security for the company. Tigerswan works for Dakota Access, while funding and partnering with the Sheriffs’ Association.
“The Sheriff’s Association purchased military gear from the US Department’s Defense Logistics Agency thanks to the Defense Department’s 1033 program. Think corporate welfare for the defense industry.
“Wait, there’s more. #EnergyTransferPartners CEO #KelcyWarren offered to reimburse North Dakota and Morton County for costs due to defending the Dakota Access Pipeline.
“So why are US taxpayers forking over $15 million to North Dakota?
“Despite the fossil fuel industry’s wishes, America is not an oil company with an army. We should not be bankrolling our own oppression.”
#BigOilAndGas #CorporateColonialism
#colonialism #Genocide #StandWithStandingRock #StandingRockSioux #TigerSwan #ErikPrince #Blackwater #DAPL #ACAB #ErikPrinceColonialism -
As Military Contractors Face Scrutiny; A Look at Erik Prince's Controversial 'Blackwater Worldwide'
Story by Rishitha Boddu, December 2, 2023
"Erik Prince is an American businessman and former US Navy SEAL whose net worth is estimated at a substantial $2 billion dollars. He is known for founding and owning the military contractor XE, widely recognized as #BlackwaterWorldwide, a company that engaged in #covert government operations. However, this enterprise faced intense scrutiny for #HumanRights violations in 2007, leading to Erik's decision to step down as its leader in 2009. But even before Blackwater, a significant portion of Prince's wealth is derived from his family's automotive accessory empire, established by his father.
"Established in 1997, Blackwater holds the distinction of being the largest private military company globally. Notably, it has been awarded more than $1.6 billion in federal contracts. Moreover, the company is reported to have secured classified contracts from the Central Intelligence Agency (#CIA) amounting to a staggering $600 million since 2001. Following Erik's departure, Blackwater underwent a change in ownership, with a group of investors acquiring it in 2010, before rebranding it as Academi in 2011. In 2013, Erik Prince authored the book 'Civilian Warriors: The Inside Story of Blackwater and the Unsung Heroes of the War on Terror,' shedding light on the company's inner workings.
"Blackwater, a private military and security company founded by Erik Prince in 1997, emerged as a major player during the #IraqWar. The company secured contracts to provide security services to various U.S. government agencies, making it an essential part of the U.S. military presence in Iraq. Blackwater's involvement in the Iraq war, including the killing of civilians, brought it to the forefront of public scrutiny and controversy.
"Blackwater and Erik Prince faced numerous allegations of war crimes and misconduct during the Iraq war. The most infamous incident was the #NisourSquare massacre in 2007, where Blackwater personnel were involved in a shooting that resulted in the deaths of seventeen Iraqi civilians.
"The Nisour Square incident was a turning point, as it raised questions about the behavior of private military contractors in a war zone. It prompted further investigations into the conduct of Blackwater and its personnel, ultimately contributing to a tarnished reputation.
"Amid mounting legal challenges and heightened scrutiny, Erik Prince chose to step down from his role as the CEO of Blackwater in 2009. The controversy surrounding Blackwater's activities in Iraq and its reputation became increasingly untenable, and Prince sold the company.
"Prince's resignation was seen as a strategic move to distance himself from the crimes at Blackwater. While it marked his exit from the company he founded, it did not shield him from ongoing legal battles and public attention.
"In sworn statements submitted as part of the case, former Blackwater employees made explosive allegations, including claims that Prince may have been involved in the murder of individuals cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company.
"These individuals also alleged that Blackwater was engaged in smuggling weapons into Iraq and that Erik Prince, in their view, perceived himself as a '#ChristianCrusader' with a mission to eliminate Muslims and Islam. These allegations fueled the already raging controversy surrounding Prince and his companies.
"The fraud case and the allegations against Erik Prince and Blackwater have continued to generate public and legal scrutiny. This ongoing legal battle has kept the controversies alive, ensuring that Prince remains a figure of interest and concern."
https://marketrealist.com/blackwater-and-erik-prince/
#ErikPrince #Blackwater #Academi #Xe #NoDAPL #ClimateProtestors #TigerSwan #WaterProtectors #WarCrimes #IraqiCivilians #Warmonger #BigOilAndGas #BetsyDevos #Amway #ChristianRight #Fascism
#ErikPrinceColonialism #CorporateColonialism #USPol #WorldPol -
“TigerSwan Solutions.”
To keep the #FossilFuel industry safe, #TigerSwan used #counterinsurgency tactics including:
drones,
social media monitoring,
HUMINT (spying)
liaising with law enforcement officials and agencies
local community engagement,
counter-protesters,
building a “pipeline narrative,” and partnering with university oil and gas programs.“Win the populace, and you win the fight,” the presentation stated.
https://theintercept.com/2023/04/13/standing-rock-tigerswan-protests/ -
#TigerSwan Former Delta Operator sought to incite violence at the #DakotaAccessPipeline
by Jack Murphy Feb 26, 2018“’Everyone just saw #oil and saw dollar signs,' a security contractor who worked on the #DAPL project told SOFREP before commenting that Reese, 'wants to be the next #ErikPrince.' At one point, TigerSwan was making a million dollars in profit per month while working on DAPL. No one at the company wanted to see that spigot turn off so some employees provoked the protesters in order to prolong the conflict. ETP was unaware of this as their director of security, Eric Lyons, was inexperienced and took whatever TigerSwan said at face value.
“Another incident took place when Porter ordered several ex-Rangers to do penetration tests of the protester camps by driving a pickup truck right through their perimeter lines. The former Rangers blasted into Camp 3 where many of the more radical #NativeAmericans were known to be and made a loop through the camp. As protesters moved their vehicles to close off the entrance and trap them, the Rangers drove over a snow bank and escaped. Next, they drove down to Camp 1 and repeated the same tactic. This time the Native Americans drove after them and they got into a high-speed pursuit down the road.
“This action resulted in the women and children vacating the camps, while those remaining went up to 100% security and prepared for law enforcement and security contractors to come clear the camps, which was never going to happen. The #protesters simply burned through resources and the native American tribe was not in a position to help them since they had spent the water protector donations to the tune of 3.2 million dollars in order to settle their casino debts.
“‘I know for a fact that the money went into a lot of people’s pockets,' said Eddie Stormcloud who was a leader in one of the #WaterProtector camps and attended many closed-door sessions with the tribal council. Stormcloud also told SOFREP that the true amount of money was closer to nine million dollars rather than the 3.2 reported. At the end of the day, it seemed that everyone was cashing in on the situation at #StandingRock.
“‘Porter’s real goal was to keep this thing going as long as possible,' a former TigerSwan employee told SOFREP. 'Some of the protesters wanted to do big actions because they would get more media coverage and more funding. TigerSwan wanted it to happened because their contract would be prolonged. Meanwhile, ETP had no idea.'
“One of the first contractors on the ground at #DAPL told SOFREP that, 'when TigerSwan came on that was when the shit show started. They came in with this military ideology when it was a police operation. They were almost willing to go in and do things that RGT [Russel Group] would never do because you can’t by law. So the oil company looked to TigerSwan as the authority and a lot of guys went over to them.'
“The security contractor continued, saying that TigerSwan had an attitude of, 'we are going to walk into a room with a bunch of thugs and will be the biggest thug in the room.'
“‘They are trying to prolong this as a cash cow,' another contractor lamented.
“TigerSwan sent an unsigned and undated document from a nameless e-mail address to SOFREP denying the contents of this article. It reads in part, 'The claims you make have no basis in reality and are completely made up.' The document goes on to state, 'At no time were there any approved operations outside of the scope of the contract. Just like any dynamic organization, the client’s enterprise team for DAPL would come up with creative ideas to do their jobs differently, but nothing outside the scope of the contract was ever approved.'
"A legacy brought home from #Iraq and #Afghanistan: The conflict at Standing Rock created a number of precedents for the future of #protests and #counterprotest actions. While companies like #Blackwater were private military companies operating abroad, TigerSwan brought the tactics that contractors and soldiers use in Baghdad to American soil for the first time.
“'Someone is going to get shot, and then a bunch of people are going to get shot, and then we are going to have a #WoundedKnee III. That’s going to reflect badly on the national guard, on law enforcement, and certainly on private security contractors,' Landon Steele said. 'Guys need to be really leery and really careful and ask the really hard questions when a contract holder calls them and says we have a contract here in the US.'
“Today, TigerSwan employs contractors running static and roving security patrols for the #MarinerEast2 #ME2 pipeline being built in #Pennsylvania by #ETP. The company also has eyes on the Atlantic pipeline and would like to bid on upcoming security contracts that will need to be fulfilled for the project.
“TigerSwan’s internal security assessments anticipate protests when the Atlantic pipeline is run through North Carolina and West Virginia.”
Full article:
https://sofrep.com/news/tigerswan-former-delta-operator-sought-to-incite-violence-at-the-dakota-access-pipeline/#WaterIsLife #BigOil #OilAndGasIndustry #NoDAPL #HumanRights #Covert #Corporatism #Corporatocracy #Corruption #Capitalism #Colonialism #ACAB #Activism #ClimateChange
#EnvironmentalJustice
#ErikPrinceColonialism #CorporateColonialism #Blackwater #TigerSwan -
After infiltrating #StandingRock, #TigerSwan pitched its ‘#counterinsurgency’ playbook to other oil companies
More than 50,000 pages of newly released documents detail how the security firm targeted #pipeline opponents and tried to profit off its #surveillance tactics.
by Alleen Brown & Naveena Sadasivam
Apr 13, 2023"The Intercept and Grist contacted TigerSwan, #EnergyTransfer, the National Sheriffs’ Association, as well as Thompson, the group’s executive director. None of them responded to requests for comment.
"To TigerSwan, the emergence of #Indigenous-led social movements to keep oil and gas in the ground represented a business opportunity. Reese anticipated new demand from the #FossilFuel industry for strategies to undermine the network of #activists his company had so carefully gathered information on. In the records, TigerSwan expressed its ambitions to repurpose these detailed records to position themselves as experts in managing pipeline protests. The company created marketing materials pitching work to at least two other energy companies building controversial oil and gas infrastructure, the records show. TigerSwan, which was staffed heavily with former members of military special operations units, branded its tactics as a 'counterinsurgency approach,' drawing directly from its leaders’ experiences fighting the so-called War on Terror abroad.
"TigerSwan did not just work in #NorthDakota. Energy Transfer hired the company to provide security to its #RoverPipeline in #Ohio and #WestVirginia, the documents confirm. By spring 2017, TigerSwan was also assembling intelligence reports on opponents of Energy Transfer and #Sunoco’s #MarinerEast2 Pipeline in #Pennsylvania.
"The documents from the North Dakota security board paint a detailed picture of counterinsurgency-style strategies for defeating opponents of oil and gas development, a War-on-Terror security firm’s aspirations to replicate its deceptive tactics far beyond the Northern Great Plains, and the cozy relationship between businesses linked to the fossil fuel industry and one of the largest law enforcement trade associations in the U.S. The impetus for spying was not simply to keep people safe, but to drum up profits from energy clients and to allow fossil fuels to continue flowing, at the expense of the communities fighting for clean water and a healthy climate.
"'For them, it was an opportunity to help create a narrative against our tribe and our supporters,' said Wasté Win Young, a citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the one of the plaintiffs in a class action civil rights lawsuit against TigerSwan and local law enforcement. Young’s social media posts repeatedly showed up in the documents. 'We weren’t motivated by money or payoffs or anything like that. We just wanted to protect our homelands.'"
Full article:
https://grist.org/accountability/tigerswan-documents-dakota-access-pipeline-standing-rock-surveillance/#ClimateJustice #BigOilAndGas #WaterIsLife #ACAB #StandingRockSioux #StandWithStandingRock #NoDAPL #Activism #ClimateChange
#EnvironmentalJustice -
After Spying on #StandingRock Protest, #TigerSwan Shopped Info to Oil Firms
by Alleen Brown and Naveena Sadasivam
04/17/2023""More than 50,000 pages of documents were recently made public after the company behind the Dakota Access pipeline lost a court case to keep them secret."
"Leaked documents and public records reveal a troubling fusion of private security, public law enforcement, and corporate money in the fight over the Dakota Access pipeline."
"A new business model for breaking down environmental movements was being hatched in real time. On Labor Day weekend in 2016, private security dogs in North Dakota attacked #pipeline opponents led by members of the #StandingRockSioux Tribe as they approached earth-moving equipment. The tribal members considered the land sacred, and the heavy equipment was breaking ground to build the Dakota Access pipeline. With a major public relations crisis on its hands, the pipeline’s parent company, Energy Transfer, hired the firm TigerSwan to revamp its security strategy.
"By October, TigerSwan — founded by James Reese, a retired commander of the elite special operations Army unit Delta Force — had established a military-style pipeline security strategy.
"There was one nagging problem that threatened to unravel it all: Reese hadn’t acquired a security license from the North Dakota Private Investigation and Security Board. Although Reese claimed TigerSwan wasn’t conducting security services at all, the state regulator insisted that its operations were #unlawful without a license."
https://theintercept.com/2023/04/13/standing-rock-tigerswan-protests/
#Activism #ClimateChange
#EnvironmentalJustice #StandWithStandingRock #NoDAPL #Mercenaries #BigOil #ClimateJustice #ACAB -
Revolving door from #CIA to #Blackwater
By Greg Miller
Aug. 21, 2009WASHINGTON —
“The CIA’s decision to hire contractors from Blackwater USA for a covert assassination program was part of an expanding relationship in which the agency has relied on the widely criticized firm for tasks including guarding CIA lockups and loading missiles on Predator aircraft, according to current and former U.S. government officials.“The 2004 contract cemented what was then a burgeoning relationship with Blackwater, setting the stage for a series of departures by senior CIA officials who took high-level positions with the North Carolina security company.
“The revolving door helped fuel a backlash against what many inside the agency and on Capitol Hill came to regard as an overuse of outside firms, many of which made millions of dollars after filling their staffs with former CIA employees.“‘I have believed for a long time that the intelligence community is over-reliant on contractors to carry out its work,' said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. 'This is especially a problem when contractors are used to carry out activities that are inherently governmental.'
“Her comment underscored how the Blackwater contract’s disclosure has renewed questions about the sort of work the CIA has outsourced since the Sept. 11 attacks. In recent years, the agency has also faced criticism for using contractors to interrogate prisoners.“Experts said that there may not be any legal barrier against using contractors to kill terrorism suspects or subject them to brutal interrogations. Still, they said, there tends to be deep public discomfort with the idea of delegating certain activities -- whether issuing pardons, making arrests or pulling triggers -- to people who are not direct government employees.
“‘The use of force has been traditionally thought of as inherently governmental,' said Jeffrey Smith, former CIA general counsel. 'The use of a contractor actually employing lethal force is clearly troublesome, but I’m not sure it’s necessarily illegal.'
“U.S. officials familiar with the targeted-killing program said that Blackwater’s involvement was limited in scope and duration, and that the arrangement ended several years before CIA Director Leon E. Panetta killed the program two months ago.
“The program was kept secret from Congress for nearly eight years before Panetta told lawmakers about it in June. CIA officials have emphasized that the program was never operational and that it did not lead to the capture or killing of a single terrorism suspect.
“‘It was never successful, so he ended it,' CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said. Panetta 'never suggested to Congress that anyone at the CIA misled the intelligence committees or otherwise broke the law.'“The CIA delivered a report to Congress earlier this month after conducting an internal investigation of the program, which was launched after the Sept. 11 attacks but was canceled and restarted several times under different regimes at the agency.
“Officials familiar with the report said that the agency did not have a formal contract with Blackwater in connection with the targeted-killing program. Instead, the agency hired the company’s founder, Erik Prince, a former Navy SEAL, and other Blackwater executives to help turn an idea for forming Al Qaeda hit squads into an operational program.“The effort ranged from consulting with top executives to carrying out training exercises at Blackwater’s headquarters in North Carolina. Company officials did not respond to requests for comment.
“Blackwater was also closely associated with the CIA’s Predator aircraft operations, one of the most successful weapons in the agency’s arsenal against the Al Qaeda terrorist network. Former CIA officials said that from the beginning, Blackwater provided security at the air base in Shamsi, Pakistan, where the Predator aircraft were based.
“At the time, the company that manufactures the drone, General Atomics, was responsible for loading the Hellfire missiles used to target dozens of Al Qaeda leaders. But that task was subsequently switched to Blackwater, sources said.
“The agency 'has always used contractors,' said a former CIA official familiar with the Predator operations. 'You have to be an explosives expert,' and the CIA has never sought to use its own personnel for the highly specialized task. 'We didn’t care who put on the munitions as long as it wasn’t CIA case officers,' the former official said.“Gimigliano declined to comment on Blackwater’s involvement with Predator, saying the CIA 'as a rule does not deny or confirm reports on contractual relationships.'
“Blackwater changed its name to Xe Services LLC to escape the notoriety that followed a series of bloody incidents in Iraq, where the firm was accused of employing excessive force while providing protection for State Department employees. In one case, Blackwater guards were accused of opening fire in a crowded Baghdad square and killing 17 civilians.“The CIA had hired Blackwater in a similar capacity in 2002 to provide security at agency facilities in Afghanistan. Two years later, the CIA turned to Blackwater executives for help with the assassination program largely because the company, which has hired dozens of former U.S. special-operations soldiers, was seen as having deeper expertise than the agency itself on clandestine lethal operations.
“The use of contractors for the task was not considered an issue under the secret authorities that then-President George W. Bush had granted the agency.
'If there’s a covert-action finding that says, ‘Go hunt down Osama Bin Laden’ -- which there was -- the agency can use whatever means necessary,' said a former senior CIA official.“Over the next several years, the ties between the CIA and Blackwater deepened as a series of CIA executives took senior roles at the company.
“Among them were J. Cofer Black, former head of the CIA’s counter-terrorism center; Robert Richer, former No. 2 for operations; Alvin B. 'Buzzy' Krongard, former executive director; and Enrique 'Ric' Prado, military chief of the counter-terrorism center.“Former CIA Director Michael V. Hayden sought to reverse that trend by refusing to grant security clearances to contractors until at least 12 months after they had resigned from the agency. But Hayden defended the use of contractors during a panel discussion on the issue Thursday.
“‘We go to contractors because they possess certain experience or certain knowledge that we don’t have inherently inside our workforce,' Hayden said. 'We generally use the best athlete available in the draft.’”
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2009-aug-21-na-cia-blackwater21-story.html
#Blackwater CIA #TigerSwan #BigOil #HumanRights #Covert #Corporatism #Corporatocracy #Corruption #Capitalism #Colonialism
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Security Firm Running #DakotaAccessPipeline Intelligence Has Ties to U.S. Military Work in #Iraq and #Afghanistan
By Steve Horn
Oct 28, 2016"#TigerSwan is one of several security firms under investigation for its work guarding the Dakota Access pipeline in North Dakota while potentially without a permit. Besides this recent work on the #StandingRockSioux protests in #NorthDakota, this company has offices in Iraq and Afghanistan and is run by a special forces Army veteran.
"According to a summary of the investigation, TigerSwan 'is in charge of Dakota Access intelligence and supervises the overall security.'
"The Morton County, North Dakota, Sheriff’s Department also recently concluded that another security company, Frost Kennels, operated in the state while unlicensed to do so and could face criminal charges. The firm’s attack dogs bit #protesters at a heated Labor Day weekend protest.
"Law enforcement and private security at the North Dakota pipeline protests have faced criticism for maintaining a militarized presence in the area. The American Civil Liberties Union (#ACLU) and National Lawyer’s Guild have filed multiple open records requests to learn more about the extent of this #militarization, and over 133,000 citizens have signed a petition calling for the U.S. Department of Justice to intervene and quell the backlash.
"The Federal Aviation Administration has also implemented a no-fly zone, which bars anyone but law enforcement from flying within a 4-mile radius and 3500 feet above the ground in the protest area. #DallasGoldtooth, an organizer on the scenes in North Dakota with the #IndigenousEnvironmentalNetwork, said on Facebook that '#DAPL private security planes and choppers were flying all day' within the designated no-fly zone.
"Donnell Hushka, the designated public information officer for the North Dakota Tactical Operation Center, which is tasked with overseeing the no-fly zone, did not respond to repeated queries about designated private entities allowed to fly in no-fly zone airspace.
"What is TigerSwan?
"TigerSwan has offices in Iraq, Afghanistan, #Jordan, #SaudiArabia, #India, and #LatinAmerica and has headquarters in North Carolina. In the past year, TigerSwan won two U.S. Department of State contracts worth over $7 million to operate in Afghanistan, according to USASpending.gov.
"TigerSwan, however, claims on its website that the contract is worth $25 million, and said in a press release that the State Department contract called for the company to 'monitor, assess, and advise current and future nation building and stability initiatives in Afghanistan.' Since 2008, TigerSwan has won about $57.7 million worth of U.S. government contracts and subcontracts for security services.
"Company founder and CEO James Reese, a veteran of the elite Army Delta Force, served as the 'lead advisor for Special Operations to the Director of the CIA for planning, operations and integration for the invasion of Afghanistan and Operation Enduring Freedom' in Iraq, according to his company biography. Army Delta partakes in mostly covert and high-stakes missions and is part of the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), the latter well known for killing Osama Bin Laden.
"One of TigerSwan’s advisory board members, Charles Pittman, has direct ties to the #OilAndGasIndustry. Pittman “served as President of #Amoco Egypt Oil Company, Amoco Eurasia Petroleum Company, and Regional President BP Amoco plc. (covering the #MiddleEast, the Caspian Sea region, Egypt, and India),' according to his company biography.
'Sad, But Not Surprising'
"Investigative journalist #JeremyScahill told #DemocracyNow! in a 2009 interview that TigerSwan did some covert operations work with #Blackwater USA, dubbed the 'world’s most powerful #mercenary army' in his book by the same name. Blackwater has also guarded #OilPipelines in central #Asia, according to Scahill’s book.
"Reese advised Blackwater and took a leave of absence from TigerSwan in 2008 in the aftermath of the #NisourSquareMassacre, a shooting in Iraq conducted by Blackwater officers which saw 17 Iraqi civilians killed. TigerSwan has a business relationship with Babylon Eagles Security Company, a private security firm headquartered in Iraq which also has had business ties with Blackwater.
"'It is sad, but not surprising, that this firm has ties to the US interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq,' Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the women-led peace group #CODEPINK and the co-founder of the human rights group #GlobalExchange, told DeSmog. 'It is another terrifying example of how our violent interventions abroad come home to haunt us in the form of repression and violation of our civil rights.'
"The North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the Private Investigation and Security Board are also conducting parallel investigations to the one recently completed by Morton County. TigerSwan did not comment on questions posed about their contract."
https://www.desmog.com/2016/10/28/private-security-firm-dakota-access-iraq-afghanistan-blackwater/
#TigerSwan #BigOil #NoDAPL #Blackwater #HumanRights #Covert #Corporatism #CIA #Corporatocracy #Corruption #Capitalism #Colonialism #ACAB #ErikPrince #ErikPrinceColonialism
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Extent of #Blackwater and #CIA Collaboration Uncovered
By Yana Kunichoff
Published December 11, 2009"New details of Blackwater participation in clandestine CIA raids detail the extent to which private security contractors were involved in covert government antiterror operations.
"According to former employees and current and former American intelligence officials, who agreed to speak on condition of anonymity because they feared repercussions, Blackwater security guards participated in clandestine raids to capture or kill suspected insurgents in #Iraq and #Afghanistan and in transportation of detainees on CIA flights.
"The raids against suspects were said to occur almost nightly between 2004 and 2006, the height of the Iraqi insurgency. Several of the former Blackwater employees said the lines dividing the government-sanctioned agencies (the CIA and the military) and Blackwater began to blur.
"This information highlights a more extensive relationship between the CIA and Blackwater, now re-named Xe Services, than government investigation had previously acknowledged.
"This was confirmed recently by an article about #ErikPrince, the founder of Blackwater, published in Vanity Fair. In it, Prince spoke about the extent of his involvement with the CIA, which ranged from putting together, funding and executing operations to bring personnel into 'denied areas' to targeting specific people for #assassination who were deemed enemies by the #USGovernment.
"Though Prince alleged that he participated as a private citizen and used his personal funds to carry out operations, the Blackwater employees interviewed by The New York Times confirmed both their full knowledge of and participation in the raids.
"#Xe spokesman Mark Corallo, however, continued to deny this."
Full article:
https://truthout.org/articles/extent-of-blackwater-and-cia-collaboration-uncovered/#TigerSwan #BigOil #HumanRights #Covert #Corporatism #Corporatocracy #Corruption #Capitalism #Colonialism
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“… communications firms working for #EnergyTransfer and the National Sheriffs’ Association worked together to write newsletters, plant pro-pipeline articles in the media, and circulate “wanted”-style posters of particular protesters … And the heads of both the National Sheriffs’ Association and #TigerSwan engaged in discussions on strategy to counter the anti-pipeline movement, with #propaganda becoming a priority for both the police and private security.”
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The Intercept and Grist begin release of 50 #TigerSwan documents
by Brenda Norrell, Censored News, April 14, 2023
"The #Intercept and #Grist began releasing new TigerSwan spy documents in new coverage of the mercenaries hired by the #DakotaAccess Pipeline. They now have 50,000 TigerSwan documents, and another 9,000 are held up in the court battle for now. The documents reveal TigerSwan spying on #WaterProtectors at #StandingRock in #NorthDakota, Bold Iowa, and at other locations.
"[Murdered] #Pauite #journalist, drone #activist and filmmaker #MyronDewey was among those that TigerSwan spied on and stalked at Standing Rock..."
#WaterIsLife #NoDAPL #IndigenousNews #Blackwater #ErikPrinceRead more: https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2023/04/the-intercept-after-spying-on-standing.html
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2016 via #DemocracyNow: #TigerSwan Security, Linked to #Blackwater, Now Coordinates Intel for #DakotaAccess
"We speak with Intercept co-founder Jeremy Scahill, who has spent years reporting on private security contractors such as the private security firm TigerSwan, which has links to the now-defunct mercenary firm Blackwater and is in charge of coordinating intelligence for the Dakota Access pipeline company. He discusses the company’s track record as more than 100 #NativeAmericans and allies fighting the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline have been injured by police in North Dakota. Many were attacked with rubber bullets, tear gas, mace canisters and water cannons in freezing temperatures. The attack began after the water protectors attempted to clear access to a public bridge, which has been blocked by authorities using military equipment chained to concrete barriers."
#NoDAPL #ErikPrinceListen: https://www.democracynow.org/2016/11/21/jeremy_scahill_tigerswan_security_linked_to
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#ErikPrince on #Blackwater’s Secret #CIA Past
by Eli Lake
Updated Jul. 12, 2017 12:00AM ET / Published Mar. 14, 2013"During [a 2008 raid], the ATF seized 17 Romanian AK-47s and 17 Bushmaster AR-13 rifles the bureau claimed were purchased illegally through the sheriff’s office in Camden County, North Carolina. It also alleged that Blackwater illegally shortened the barrels of rifles and then exported them to other countries in violation of federal gun laws. Meanwhile, in the process of trying to account for Blackwater’s guns, the ATF discovered that the rifles and pistols presented in 2005 to King Abdullah and his brothers were registered to Blackwater employees. Prosecutors would subsequently allege that Gary Jackson—the former president of Blackwater and one of the two people who would eventually plead guilty to a misdemeanor—had instructed employees to falsely claim on ATF forms that the guns were their own personal property and not in the possession of Jordanian royalty.
"In all of these instances—the purchase of the rifles through the Camden County sheriff, the shipment of the guns to other countries, and the gifts to Abdullah—Blackwater argued that it was acting on behalf of the U.S. government and the CIA. All of these arguments, obviously, were very much in Blackwater’s legal interest. That said, it provided the court with classified emails, memoranda, contracts, and photos. It also obtained sealed depositions from top CIA executives from the Directorate of Operations, testifying that Blackwater provided training and weapons for agency operations. (A CIA spokesman declined to comment for this story.)"
Read more:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/exclusive-erik-prince-on-blackwaters-secret-cia-past#ErikPrinceColonialism #CorporateColonialism #Blackwater #TigerSwan