Blackwater
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see ERIK 2 EL SALV //GITMO
see tag
erik prince bw
south sudan boosted by evangelicals B2, less energy under obama
china Hong Kong, back in Iraq?!
capt 519 420
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disaster cap'l?
michael klare: all hell breaking loose etc bks
military DoD
https://kpfa.org/episode/talkies-january-2-2020/
[talkies 1/2/20 2010 drought russia lost 1/3 wht crop --> arab spring?! food scarce africa and ME, food #1 expense in poor ppl budget --> anger at elites, libya, syria WAR, threat multiplier] desertification push nomadic into sub-s different ethnic and religion, jihadis exploit; nigeria boko; mali niger
ctr for naval CNA report 2007
migrants tend to be rural ppl: carrib, centr am ...got to city for jobs (gangs)
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like fucking herpes
an 4 25
Former Blackwater CEO Erik Prince and defense contractors are aiming to cash in on deportations to a Central American prison/holding facility.
Prince — the brother of President Donald Trump's former education secretary, Betsy DeVos — hopes his proposal can skirt U.S. immigration laws by designating a section of a sprawling El Salvadoran prison as American territory, Politico reported. Proposed new language claiming “transferring a prisoner to such a facility would not be an Extradition nor a Deportation” raises the specter of deporting U.S. citizens to offsite facilities because "deportation" may only qualify as a "transfer." Politico's Dasha Burns and Myah Ward noted that Prince's proposal "could be a precursor to deporting U.S. citizens" even though the facility is initially only for holding undocumented immigrants.
Trump has already floated plans to deport U.S. citizens.
READ MORE: 'Could be the last one standing': Trump aims to 'illegally remove' head of bipartisan board
The facility, which has already drawn accusations of violence and overcrowding from human rights groups, could receive thousands more immigrants from facilities in the U.S. There is no word on how accessible the expanded Central American prison would be to immigrant defense attorneys and affected families, however.
It is unclear how seriously the White House is considering Prince’s plan.
A shooting incident in Nisour Square left 17 Iraqi citizens dead, allegedly at the hands of four Blackwater guards, nearly two decades ago. Intense government investigations, scrutiny, private security reform and criminal charges ensued. In 2014, an American jury found the Blackwater guards guilty of various criminal charges, from murder to weapons offenses.
Trump pardoned Blackwater contractors jailed for the massacre in 2020.
READ MORE: Outrage as video of Trump bragging about enriching his billionaire pals emerges
The facility is pitched as a holding pen for “criminal illegal aliens,” but the administration has made it clear that the only criminality necessary for arrest and deportation to an offsite prison is being on U.S. soil.
“[B]ecause they illegally broke our nation’s laws, and, therefore, they are criminals, as far as this administration goes,” said Trump Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt in January.
Most immigrants swept up within the last two months do not have criminal records in the United States.
Read the full POLITICO article at this link.
READ MORE: 'Punched the bully in the face': How some Republicans found courage to take on Trump
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https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/ken-starr-dead-1234592249/
no lnx
BONG HITS 4 JESUS
Ken Starr, Who Turned a Blind Eye to Rape and Defended a Sex Trafficker, Dead at 76
The right-wing lawyer was known for probing Bill Clinton’s affair, mishandling sexual assault cases at Baylor, and helping Jeffrey Epstein secure a sweetheart deal
BY JON BLISTEIN
SEPTEMBER 13, 2022
Special Prosecutor Kenneth Starr offers his testimony to the House of Representatives Judicial Committee, in Washington, D.C, on Nov. 19, 1998. DAVID HUME KENNERLY
KENNETH STARR, THE lawyer known for investigating Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky, mishandling sexual assault cases as president of Baylor University, and helping Jeffrey Epstein secure a sweetheart deal, died Tuesday, Sept. 13. He was 76.
Starr’s family confirmed his death, saying he died from complications from surgery at St. Luke’s Medical center in Houston, Texas.
Starr was a stalwart conservative foot soldier throughout his career. He started as a lawyer and was nominated by Ronald Reagan to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals in 1983, a post he maintained for about six years before resigning. George H.W. Bush later appointed him solicitor general, and he was even briefly in the running to fill a Supreme Court vacancy later taken by David Souter.
Though always lurking around the right wing, Starr really started to rise to prominence in the mid-’90s, when he was tapped to investigate Bill and Hillary Clinton’s alleged involvement in an Arkansas real estate project. Neither Clinton was prosecuted,but Starr’s probe expanded to include an investigation into Paula Jones’ claims of sexual assault against bill Clinton, as well as Clinton’s affair with Lewinsky.
The “Starr Report,” released in Sept. 1998, claimed Clinton lied about about his affair with Lewinsky and cited obstruction of justice, perjury, abuse of power, and more as reasons for impeaching Clinton. The report led to Clinton’s impeachment in the House of Representatives, but he was acquitted on all counts in the Senate.
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After making a name for himself investigating Clinton’s sexual impropriety, Starr returned to his career as a lawyer and found himself involved in a handful of prominent cases. He successfully represented the Juneau, Alaska, school board and principal that suspended a student for unfurling a “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” sign as the Olympic torch passed through the the city. He failed to secure constitutional immunity for the mercenary firm Blackwater after its contractors slaughtered four unarmed civilians in Fallujah. And he also failed to uphold Prop 8 in California, the ballot measure banning same-sex marriage that was later overturned in the courts.
Despite being busy defending opponents of same-sex marriage and private military contractors, Starr found plenty of ways to return to the world of sexual impropriety. With his plethora of connections to George W. Bush’s administration, Starr joined Jeffrey Epstein’s legal team and played a crucial part in pressuring the Justice Department to drop its sex-trafficking case against the billionaire. For his efforts, Starr helped his client secure the infamous sweetheart deal that landed him in prison for just 18 months and effectively ensured him immunity from future prosecution.
Epstein wasn’t the only alleged child molester Starr tried to help either. In 2013, he wrote a letter of support for Christopher Kloman, just before he was sentenced to 43 years in prison for molesting five girls while teaching at the elite Potomac School in the Sixties and Seventies.
Three years after that, Starr resigned as chancellor of Baylor University, and a professor at its law school, not long after being removed from his post as president. The reason? An investigation found that Starr and other administrators mishandled numerous accusations of sexual assault — including multiple rape allegations — against the school’s football players.
For his final act, the man who made a name for himself trying to take down one president tried to help another stave off the same fate. First as a TV talking head, he argued against impeaching Donald Trump over the Mueller report, claiming it would be “bad for the country.” Starr later joined Trump’s legal team when he was impeached (the first time) for abuse of power and obstruction of justice after he allegedly tried to pressure the Ukrainian government to investigate Joe Biden.
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/why-blackwater-helping-train-brazils-world-cup-security/
no lnx
In news as shocking as it was unreported in the United States, the Brazilian press revealed earlier this week that Academi—the rebranded private militia once known as Blackwater—has been providing security training for the 2014 World Cup.The notorious company, responsible for the 2011 Nisour Square massacre in Iraq, has been training Brazilian security forces in North Carolina.
Hosting mega-events comes with astronomical costs. This summer’s World Cup in Brazil is the most expensive ever, with a tab so far of $11 billion to $13 billion. These costs promise to catapult even higher as unfinished projects linger long after the soccer fans have returned home, with some estimating the final price tag to crest at $15 billion. In addition to being the most expensive, the World Cup organizers plan to deploy more force than any previous tournament. More than 170,000 security personnel from the military, police and secret service will be on hand, 22 percent more than worked the previous World Cup in South Africa. Now we know that some of these forces will be trained by a private security firm with a dodgy history.
In Rio, the “pacification” of favelas is already hurtling ahead full throttle. Amnesty International described the Pacifying Police Unit’s recent incursion into the Maré complex of favelas as “a military occupation.” The suspicious disappearance of a young man named Amarildo Dias de Souza from his home favela of Rocinha sparked a public outburst and media-led investigation that spurred criminal charges against the neighborhood’s commanding officer and his minions. The security officials sit in prison awaiting trial, accused of torturing De Souza to death and discarding his corpse in the jungle. Not surprisingly, a recent national poll found that less than a quarter of Brazilians trust the police.
The conflation of terrorism and activism is also rampant. Lawmakers in Brazil are angling to use the state of exception that sports mega-events inevitably bring to pass drastic legislation. The Brazilian Congress is contemplating an antiterrorism bill that would impose hefty sentences—fifteen to thirty years in prison—for “causing or inciting widespread terror by threatening or trying to threaten the life, the physical integrity or the health or liberty of a person.” Human-rights groups have clamored that such proposals are overly broad and could be used to squelch all kinds of protest and actions during the World Cup.
For security mavens, Academi’s involvement training Brazilians at its company headquarters in North Carolina may come as no great surprise. After all, Wikileaks revealed in a 2009 cable from the US Embassy in Brasilia that the US government views the crises brought on by hosting sports mega-events as prime occasions to cash in.
After power outages rippled across Brazil in 2009, the US Mission wrote, “The newly heightened concerns about Brazil’s infrastructure as a result of this blackout, combined with the need to address infrastructure challenges in the run-up to the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics, present the United States opportunities for engagement on infrastructure development as well critical infrastructure protection and possibly cyber security.” In short, Brazil’s misery created room for opportunism.
The cable encouraged US government agencies like the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security “to explore these opportunities in the near-term.” With Academi’s involvement in Brazil, this type of “opportunity” is taking shape.
The indomitable critic Eduardo Galeano recently said of FIFA, the world’s governing body for football, “There are visible and invisible dictators. The power structure of world football is monarchical. It’s the most secret kingdom in the world.” People across Brazil concur—disgruntlement with Fifa’s arrogance and opacity is widespread. Earlier this month, a poll found, quite remarkably, that in the football-crazy country of Brazil only 48 percent of the population favors hosting this summer’s World Cup, plummeting from 78 percent support in 2008. Meanwhile, 41 percent actively oppose it, up from only 10 percent. Last summer, the 2013 Confederations Cup provided a prime-time dress rehearsal for principled dissent. Almost everyone expects cross-country protests at this summer’s Copa do Mundo.
Under intense public pressure, Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes recently remarked, “We’re not going to build a Bird’s Nest [Stadium] in Rio de Janeiro. If you go to Beijing today, the Bird’s Nest has become a mausoleum to honor wasted public money. We are not going to do this here.” The mayor was right about the perils of white elephants. But another threat lingers: the intensified militarization of public space in the name of protecting the sports spectacle. Now it looks like private security firms like Academi are in on the deal, and that’s unsettling for anyone not under the spell of historical amnesia.
https://www.mintpressnews.com/blackwater-erik-prince-5000-mercenaries-maduro/257988/
as if the past months of US push for regime change in Venezuela with officials like Elliott Abrams of Iran-Contra conviction infamy at the helm wasn’t bizarre enough, things just got weirder, as Erik Prince has apparently been pitching a plan around Washington to privatize US coup efforts using his latest Blackwater inspired mercenary empire.
According to Reuters, Prince — the brother of billionaire Education Secretary Betsy DeVos who has over the past years since selling his mired-in-controversy Blackwater group (now Academi) revived his mercenary empire in China in the form of Frontier Services Group (FSG) — intends to “deploy a private army to help topple Venezuela’s socialist president, Nicholas Maduro.”
Price has reportedly sought access to Trump administration officials to whom he’s attempting to pitch the whole operation, said to involve some 5,000 soldiers-for-hire to be used by opposition leader Juan Guaido, according to multiple sources who spoke to Reuters. The controversial private security CEO has sought investments from both Trump supporters and wealthy Venezuelan exiles, and reportedly held meetings over the plan as recently as mid-April
Neither the White House nor Guaido opposition representatives have confirmed they were entertaining such a plan, with the latter denying altogether that Guado’s team had even spoken with Prince or FSG reps.
:{Reuters’ sources described some of the details of the proposed Venezuela coup plan as follows:
The two sources with direct knowledge of Prince’s pitch said it calls for starting with intelligence operations and later deploying 4,000 to 5,000 soldiers-for-hire from Colombia and other Latin American nations to conduct combat and stabilization operations.”
Perhaps the most interesting detail to be revealed is theneed for a triggering event that could set a final bid for coup over the top, after a number of small attempts failed to gain enough momentum in the past months.
Reuters’ sources described what Prince called a “dynamic event”:}:
One of Prince’s key arguments, one source said, is that Venezuela needs what Prince calls a “dynamic event” to break the stalemate that has existed since January, when Guaido – the head of Venezuela’s National Assembly – declared Maduro’s 2018 re-election illegitimate and invoked the constitution to assume the interim presidency.”
In 2017, Prince is known to have lobbied the Trump administration for using private contractors to stabilize the Middle East.
He’s made headlines last year after pitching an idea to privatize the wars in Afghanistan and Syria to Trump administration officials, which has reportedly met with little progress, though there were some indicators Trump could be open to the idea.
Iraq-style mercenary occupation of Venezuela? Erik Prince hopes so…
To the shock and surprise of many, a subsidiary of his Hong Kong-based Frontier Services Grouphas been allowed to operate in Iraq, showing up in the southern city of Basra, after both Prince and Blackwater were formally barred by Iraq’s government from ever entering the country again following the 2007 Nisour Square massacre.
As for Venezuela, things look to slowly destabilize further as continued total economic collapse fuels an ongoing humanitarian emergency, and on news of more armed uprisings by military defectors backing Guaido come out of Caracas.
Feature Photo | Blackwater founder Erik Prince testifies before a House committee examining the mission and performance of private military contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, Oct. 2, 2007. (Susan Walsh/AP)
Source | Zero Hedge
... LNX
Neither the White House nor Guaido opposition representatives have confirmed they were entertaining such a plan, with the latter denying altogether that Guado’s team had even spoken with Prince or FSG reps.
Reuters’ sources described some of the details of the proposed Venezuela coup plan as follows:
The two sources with direct knowledge of Prince’s pitch said it calls for starting with intelligence operations and later deploying 4,000 to 5,000 soldiers-for-hire from Colombia and other Latin American nations toconduct combat and stabilization operations.”
Perhaps the most interesting detail to be revealed is the need for a triggering event that could set a final bid for coup over the top, after a number of small attempts failed to gain enough momentum in the past months.
Reuters’ sources described what Prince called a “dynamic event”:
One of Prince’s key arguments, one source said, is that Venezuela needs what Prince calls a “dynamic event” to break the stalemate that has existed since January, when Guaido – the head of Venezuela’s National Assembly – declared Maduro’s 2018 re-election illegitimate and invoked the constitution to assume the interim presidency.”
In 2017, Prince is known to have lobbied the Trump administration for using private contractors to stabilize the Middle East.
He’s made headlines last year after pitching an idea to privatize the wars in Afghanistan and Syriato Trump administration officials, which has reportedly met with little progress, though there were some indicators Trump could be open to the idea.
Iraq-style mercenary occupation of Venezuela? Erik Prince hopes so…
To the shock and surprise of many, a subsidiary of his Hong Kong-based Frontier Services Group has been allowed to operate in Iraq, showing up in the southern city of Basra, after both Prince and Blackwater were formally barred by Iraq’s government from ever entering the country again following the 2007 Nisour Square massacre.
As for Venezuela, things look to slowly destabilize further as continued total economic collapse fuels an ongoing humanitarian emergency, and on news of more armed uprisings by military defectors backing Guaido come out of Caracas.
Feature Photo | Blackwater founder Erik Prince testifies before a House committee examining the mission and performance of private military contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, Oct. 2, 2007. (Susan Walsh/AP)
Source | Zero Hedge
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https://www.chathamhouse.org/publications/twt/rise-china-s-private-armies
[pix: Special forces of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization – which links China and Russia with Central Asian countries and India and Pakistan – take part in joint military excercises]
The increasing use of private security companies and military contractors has changed the conduct of war in recent years. In Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan and other fault lines across the world, small teams of elite operators – in units consisting of 15 men or fewer – are outperforming conventional troops. Increasingly arms and power are held in private hands, instead of the state. As a result, the authority of the state can be undermined and trust between governments broken.
Central Asia is now emerging as a front line for operations by private security companies. The region will be a central transport conduit for China’s regional development project, the Belt and Road Initiative, which promises to revive connections between the East and West. Increased interest by Chinese private security companies in the region, if unregulated, would damage regional stability and cooperation.
Chinese private security companies grew up after 11 Chinese builders working on a World Bank project in Afghanistan were shot dead by the Taliban in 2004. Before 2006, when a new external security affairs department was established, Chinese embassies had little back-up if citizens were attacked or needed to be evacuated.
While the Chinese government has been hesitant to send police forces to protect its interests abroad, China’s expanding footprint in Africa and other unstable areas around the world has spurred demand for private security. Between 2006 and 2010, the government had to rescue 6,000 citizens from countries including East Timor, Chad, Lebanon, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Thailand and Haiti. In 2011, conditions in Libya and Egypt meant 48,000 Chinese citizens had to be evacuated.
Mounting costs and obstacles in coordinating evacuation efforts may have led the Chinese government to re-evaluate its security strategy for people working abroad. Early experiments with hiring western security contractors were disappointing, which only served to increase the demand for homegrown security firms. Importantly, the impetus to create these Chinese security firms was driven by market incentives, not political mandate.
Beijing Security Service and Hua Xin Zhong An Security Service, two of the first security enterprises to spring up, offered basic security provision for clients operating in mainland China, with limited interests in Africa. By 2010, a new breed of security firm had emerged offering highly trained special operations forces to protect Chinese personnel in state-owned Chinese oil and gas companies or banks working in such places as Iraq, Afghanistan or Pakistan. These included Shandong Huawei Security Group, the first Chinese security firm to open an overseas office, and DeWe Security Service, a firm operating in 37 countries that played a vital role in evacuations from African war zones. Boutique security firms such as Ding Tai An Yuan Security have found new markets addressing specific security challenges unique to the Belt and Road Initiative.
Africa has been the main region of operation for these Chinese firms, but as the Belt and Road project expands through Central Asia, the energy and resources of those firms will probably be redirected there.
Hybrid species on the march
Over the past 15 years, the Chinese private security industry has modernized the services offered to clients, who remain mostly Chinese. Until 2014, these firms were all funded and manned by Chinese nationals. The emergence of Frontier Services Group (FSG) has seen a radical change. Headed by Erik Prince, a former Navy SEAL and founder of Blackwater, this Hong Kong-based company is the first Chinese-funded, American-operated private security group. The organization, previously known as DVN (Holdings) Limited, was originally an aviation and logistics company providing additional security and training services. Its corporate structure is unique in China. Many of its senior management, including Prince as chairman, are non-Chinese – specifically retired American military specialists. With Chinese backing, Prince stated that he could ‘pursue [his] vision for Africa and globally in a transparent manner and with the most respected partners’. Indeed, many of his firm’s clients are Chinese private companies or state-owned enterprises with interests in infrastructure, oil and gas, and mining in Africa.
From the beginning, FSG has made efforts to distinguish itself from Blackwater, the private military company now renamed Academi, whose reputation was tarnished by the killing of 14 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad’s Nisour Square in 2007. FSG has enjoyed success with logistical projects in Africa and has hired legal advisers and auditors to provide transparent annual reports for public scrutiny. In 2016, FSG became a service provider for companies participating in the Belt and Road Initiative, and began setting up offices in Myanmar, Laos and Pakistan. Future offices are planned for Thailand, Cambodia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
‘Most security challenges stem from clashes between the locals and workers and the fear that an influx of Chinese will affect demographics’
In late 2017, FSG revealed an expanded range of services – including an offer to the Afghan government of the use of its aircraft for close-support combat operations. In 2018, Prince offered the US government use of his private contractors to bring the 17-year Afghan conflict to an end. His proposal argued that traditional troop deployments could be substituted by 6,000 contractors and 2,000 US Special Forces, cutting the annual cost of the war from $68 billion to $5.5 billion.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, China has developed closer relations with Central Asia through cooperative security arrangements. The framework of the Shanghai Five group, comprising China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan, successfully resolved border disputes between its members and was later expanded into the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, to create a platform for cooperation on counterterrorism and security. In recent years, China’s economic interests have entered the picture; for example, its oil and gas interests in Central Asia are growing year on year and are challenging the dominance of Russian energy groups Gazprom and Lukoil. One example of a Chinese project is the Turkmenistan-China gas pipeline, that travels across Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
In Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan, Chinese state-owned enterprises have invested heavily in energy, infrastructure and logistics, helping to connect China to Middle Eastern markets and beyond. Chinese projects and workers continue to pour into the region, and new security challenges will naturally rise. The question is how will Chinese companies choose to resolve these new challenges? Western observers believe that private security firms can protect Chinese interests in Central Asia as they have in Africa. However, Central Asian observers would disagree: unlike many African states, the countries of Central Asia possess effective troops who can deal with security threats, because stability is their principal foreign policy concern. Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, for example, are ranked among the top 50 most powerful armies in the world, according to Global Firepower.
Most of the security challenges facing Chinese companies stem not from the inability of Central Asian countries to provide basic security, but from clashes between the local populations and workers and the deeply rooted fear that an influx of Chinese workers might affect demographics.
Examples were the clashes between locals and workers in 2014 at two oil refinery construction sites owned by Chinese construction company Zhongda Group in Kyrgyzstan, one at Tokmok and the other in nearby Kara-Balta. The Kyrgyz government intervened successfully in both instances to deport some of the unruly Chinese workers.
The latter type of security challenge was seen in Kazakhstan in early 2016, when thousands of protesters rallied against land reforms proposed by the Kazakh government in the oil cities of Atyrau and Aktau, because they feared the new rules would permit Chinese investors to buy Kazakh land. In some cases, security challenges take the form of terrorist attacks, such as the suicide bombing of the Chinese embassy in Bishkek by locals linked with Uyghur separatists that injured three local embassy staff.
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Podcast: :{Erik Prince:(style="font-weight:bold"):}: Wants A Private Air Force
Task & Purpose-Sep 20, 2018
The man behind defunct mercenary provider Blackwater sees private air power ... A new report links Erik Prince to efforts to buy or build private ...
:{Erik Prince:(style="font-weight:bold"):}: says mercenaries could replace US troops in Syria
The National-Jan 16, 2019
American troops in Syria could be replaced with private military contractors, ErikPrince, a former executive at security firm Blackwater has said.
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AN
Last week, President Donald Trump sent shock waves through the United States military with the announcement that he would be withdrawing all U.S. troops from war-torn Syria—and on top of that, Trump is planning a substantial reduction of U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
The decision to pull out of Syria didn’t sit well with Defense Secretary James Mattis, who announced his resignation. And Trump’s announcements on Syria and Afghanistan have been followed by an ominous new ad from the former Blackwater, the militarized security company responsible for the Nisour Square massacre of 2007.
The former Blackwater, which now goes by Academi, took out a full-page ad in the January/February 2019 issue of Recoil Magazine. The ad doesn’t say much: only the words “We are coming” in all capital letters, with the militarized security company’s familiar bear paw logo at the bottom of the page. And one cannot help but wonder if the “We are coming” message is meant for Syria and/or Afghanistan.
Blackwater was founded in 1997 in North Carolina by former U.S. Navy SEAL Erik Prince—brother of the Trump Administration’s secretary of education, Betsy DeVos—and his associate Al Clark. During the Iraq War, the federal government under the Bush Administration hired Blackwater for private security operations in Iraq—and the most infamous day in the company’s 21-year history was September 16, 2007.
That day, Blackwater escorted a convoy of U.S. State Department vehicles to a meeting in Baghdad—and 17 people were killed when Blackwater mercenaries opened fire on a crowd of civilians in Nasour Square. That horrifying incident became the subject of several investigations, including one by the FBI—which determined that at least 14 of the 17 were fired upon without cause.
In August, Prince suggested that Trump remove all U.S. troops from Afghanistan and replace them with privatized military contractors. A spokesperson for the National Security Council, interviewed anonymously, told NBC News, “No such proposal from Erik Prince is under consideration.” But four months later—with Mattis’ resignation and Trump’s recent announcements of U.S. withdrawal from Syria and a major reduction of U.S. forces in Afghanistan—one cannot help but wonder what the former Blackwater has in mind for the Middle East. Are they hoping to privatize the United States’ military operations in that part of the world?
In 2009, Blackwater changed its name to Xe Services before changing it to Academi in 2011. But the notorious bear paw logo remains—and in light of the company’s infamous history and recent developments with Syria and Afghanistan, the “We are coming” ad should not be taken lightly.
yemen
history, not civil war but clash of empires
Brit
marxist south, effective army feared by saudis
bush41
clerics thwart oil/empire efforts
blackwater
https://kpfa.org/episode/letters-and-politics-april-30-2018/
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http://www.rawstory.com/2010/09/disney-monsanto-discovered-blackwaters-hidden-clients/
on list: Royal Caribbean, Deutsche Bank, Chevron
Almost three years ago exactly — Sept. 17, 2007 — a cadre of guards from the security firm then known as Blackwater shot and killed 17 Iraqis at a public plaza in Baghdad.
The company, long in the public eye, has been known for brutal tactics and as a mercenary for the US State Department in countries where the US has boots on the ground. What hasn’t been known, however, is that the same company was handling intelligence ops for publicly-traded US companies.
Atop the list is Monsanto, the biotech giant, who The Nation’s Jeremy Scahill revealed Wednesday accepted a proposal through a Blackwater subsidiary which “offer[ed] to provide operatives to infiltrate activist groups organizing against the multinational biotech firm.”
Monsanto doesn’t stand alone. Through a network of 30 subsidiaries and shell corporations, Blackwater-linked entities provided “intelligence, training and security services” to a cache of major multinational firms, including: Monsanto, Chevron, the Walt Disney Company, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, Deutsche Bank and Barclays, according to documents Scahill obtained.
Blackwater’s owner and founder, Erik Prince — who has himself been linked to the CIA — helped train companies through two other firms he controlled: Total Intelligence Solutions and the Terrorism Research Center.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, no one responded to requests for comment.
Monsanto topped the list of firms using Prince’s services, Scahill writes.
“According to internal Total Intelligence communications, biotech giant Monsanto—the world’s largest supplier of genetically modified seeds—hired the firm in 2008–09,” the reporter writes. “The relationship between the two companies appears to have been solidified in January 2008 when Total Intelligence chair Cofer Black traveled to Zurich to meet with… Monsanto’s security manager for global issues.”
“After the meeting in Zurich, Black sent an e-mail to other Blackwater executives…. saying that Wilson “understands that we can span collection from internet, to reach out, to boots on the ground on legit basis protecting the Monsanto [brand] name…. Ahead of the curve info and insight/heads up is what he is looking for.” Black added that Total Intelligence “would develop into acting as intel arm of Monsanto.” Black also noted that Monsanto was concerned about animal rights activists and that they discussed how Blackwater “could have our person(s) actually join [activist] group(s) legally.” Black wrote that initial payments to Total Intelligence would be paid out of Monsanto’s “generous protection budget” but would eventually become a line item in the company’s annual budget. He estimated the potential payments to Total Intelligence at between $100,000 and $500,000. According to documents, Monsanto paid Total Intelligence $127,000 in 2008 and $105,000 in 2009.
….In an… e-mail to The Nation, Wilson confirmed he met Black in Zurich and that Monsanto hired Total Intelligence in 2008 and worked with the company until early 2010. He denied that he and Black discussed infiltrating animal rights groups, stating “there was no such discussion.” He claimed that Total Intelligence only provided Monsanto “with reports about the activities of groups or individuals that could pose a risk to company personnel or operations around the world which were developed by monitoring local media reports and other publicly available information. The subject matter ranged from information regarding terrorist incidents in Asia or kidnappings in Central America to scanning the content of activist blogs and websites.” Wilson asserted that Black told him Total Intelligence was “a completely separate entity from Blackwater.”
Walt Disney?
The Walt Disney Company hired Total Intelligence and TRC to do a “threat assessment” for potential film shoot locations in Morocco, with former CIA officials Black and Richer reaching out to their former Moroccan intel counterparts for information. The job provided a “good chance to impress Disney,” one company executive wrote. How impressed Disney was is not clear; in 2009 the company paid Total Intelligence just $24,000.
And Deutsche Bank?
Total Intelligence and TRC also provided intelligence assessments on China to Deutsche Bank. “The Chinese technical counterintelligence threat is one of the highest in the world,” a TRC analyst wrote, adding, “Many four and five star hotel rooms and restaurants are live-monitored with both audio and video” by Chinese intelligence. He also said that computers, PDAs and other electronic devices left unattended in hotel rooms could be cloned. Cellphones using the Chinese networks, the analyst wrote, could have their microphones remotely activated, meaning they could operate as permanent listening devices. He concluded that Deutsche Bank reps should “bring no electronic equipment into China.” Warning of the use of female Chinese agents, the analyst wrote, “If you don’t have women coming onto you all the time at home, then you should be suspicious if they start coming onto you when you arrive in China.” For these and other services, the bank paid Total Intelligence $70,000 in 2009.
Prince, now the owner of Blackwater successor Xe Services, has his eyes on another target: the Democrats.
He’s now writing a book alleging that officials in the Clinton and Obama administrations “approved of his most sensitive and controversial operations,” according to a report by veteran intel reporter Jeff Stein published in *The Washington Post* earlier this month.
The Post‘s Jeff Stein cited two unnamed sources who say Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater, is hurrying to sell his company before he can go public with a book that takes aim at the Democratic Party. One of the sources told Stein that Prince and his friends “think this will destroy the Democratic Party in the elections.”
The source, who is described as having a “business relationship with Xe,” said Prince had “given his people three weeks to complete the sale of the company and the book will be released then,” in time for the November elections.
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reese blackswan raytheon
http://s3.amazonaws.com/hamptonroadscom/store/1451.pdf
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http://www.democracynow.org/ 3/25/16
blackwater
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http://www.democracynow.org/ 3/25/16
blackwater
3/25/16
blackwater
http://www.c-span.org/video/?328719-1/book-discussion-disaster-capitalism
erik p frontier mining concessions
Now, sitting in a boardroom above Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour, he explains his newest title, acquired this month: chairman of Frontier Services Group, an Africa-focused security and logistics company with intimate ties to China’s largest state-owned conglomerate, Citic Group. Beijing has titanic ambitions to tap Africa’s resources—including $1 trillion in planned spending on roads, railways and airports by 2025—and Mr. Prince wants in.
With a public listing in Hong Kong, and with Citic as its second-largest shareholder (a 15% stake) and Citic executives sitting on its board, Frontier Services Group is a long way from Blackwater’s CIA ties and $2 billion in U.S. government contracts. For that, Mr. Prince is relieved.
“I would rather deal with the vagaries of investing in Africa than in figuring out what the hell else Washington is going to do to the entrepreneur next,” says the crew-cut 44-year-old.
Having launched Blackwater in 1997 as a rural North Carolina training facility for U.S. soldiers and police, Mr. Prince says he “kept saying ‘yes’ as the demand curve called—Columbine, the USS Cole and then 9/11.” In 100,000 missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, he says, Blackwater contractors never lost a U.S. official under their protection. But the company gained a trigger-happy reputation, especially after a September 2007 shootout that left 17 civilians dead in Baghdad’s Nisour Square.
At that point, charges Mr. Prince, Blackwater was “completely thrown under the bus by a fickle customer”—the U.S. government, and especially the State Department. He says Washington opted to “churn up the entire federal bureaucracy” and sic it on Blackwater “like a bunch of rabid dogs.” According to Mr. Prince, IRS auditors told his colleagues that they had “never been under so much pressure to get someone as to get Erik Prince,” and congressional staffers promised, “We’re going to ride you till you’re out of business.”…
Which brings him to Hong Kong and his new firm. “This is not a patriotic endeavor of ours—we’re here to build a great business and make some money doing it,” he says. Asia, and especially China, “has the appetite to take frontier risk, that expeditionary risk of going to those less-certain, less-normal markets and figuring out how to make it happen.” Mr. Prince says “critics can throw stones all they want” but he is quick to point out that he has “a lot of experience in dealing in uncertainties in difficult places,” and says “this is a very rational decision—made, I guess, emotionless.”…
“The U.S. has been fixated on terrorism the last 10 or 15 years,” says Mr. Prince, “and American companies by and large haven’t had the appetite for Africa.” In 2010 the African Development Bank found that Chinese firms signed 20 contracts in Africa for every one signed by an American firm. But does post-9/11 distraction really explain this discrepancy?
A better explanation would begin with China’s state-directed investment strategy, which funds opaque state-owned firms to operate across Africa with little regard for trifles such as financial transparency, environmental degradation or human rights. When a tyrant like Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir can’t get Western financing for a mega-dam across the Nile River, China arrives with an easy loan, some state-owned firms to build the dam and some others to claim oil or mineral concessions elsewhere in the country. Beijing’s approach has helped boost African economic growth—projected at 6% this year by the International Monetary Fund—but it has also helped entrench some of the world’s most oppressive governments…
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2014/01/27/erik-prince-chicom-stooge/
--
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamespoulos/2014/01/25/ex-blackwater-ceo-erik-prince-africa-neocolonial-with-china/
dryden " he conqiers who thinks he can; ibm ad on risk w/ smart looking einence grise but just a bit)
What happens when America outsources its craziest security assignments to a private contractor, then throws him under the bus?
Answer: an object lesson in the craziness that awaits when he makes his next big move.
The Wall Street Journal sat down — in Hong Kong — with Erik Prince, former CEO of the notorious Blackwater firm. Guess what he’s doing there?
Now, sitting in a boardroom above Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour, he explains his newest title, acquired this month: chairman of Frontier Services Group, an Africa-focused security and logistics company with intimate ties to China’s largest state-owned conglomerate, Citic Group. Beijing has titanic ambitions to tap Africa’s resources—including $1 trillion in planned spending on roads, railways and airports by 2025—and Mr. Prince wants in.
Once, policymakers traded blame for “losing China.” Will anyone ask who lost Erik Prince?
Prince himself is clear about what sent him packing. Though the ordeal of falling out with the federal government was intense — Prince claims he was the top target of IRS auditors — that’s all in the past. It’s America’s future that has Prince turning to China. “”I would rather deal with the vagaries of investing in Africa,” he told the Journal, “than in figuring out what the hell else Washington is going to do to the entrepreneur next.” While America has lost its stomach for massive adventures, China “has the appetite to take frontier risk, that expeditionary risk of going to those less-certain, less-normal markets and figuring out how to make it happen.”...?!
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http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/07/01/blackwaters-descendants-are-doing-just-fine/
Blackwater is no more. But its descendants live on — and they’re still raking in government money. The company whose name is synonymous with some of the worst excesses of the Iraq war — and which earned more than $1 billion protecting U.S. facilities and personnel during the conflict — is back in the news because of an explosive New York Times story revealing that one of its top officials in Baghdad threatened to kill a State Department auditor who raised questions about its lucrative contracts. Just weeks after the alleged threats,Blackwater guards killed 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad’s Nisour Square, a massacre that permanently strained ties between Iraq and the United States and triggered a criminal case against the guards that continues to this day. The article is in one sense a literal blast from the past. Blackwater changed its name to Xe Services in 2009, in part because its brand had become so toxic after Nisour Square, and then sold itself to a group of outside investors in 2010. The board of the new company, ACADEMI, includes former Attorney General John Ashcroft and former San Antonio Spurs owner Red McCombs. Erik Prince, Blackwater’s flamboyant founder and former chief executive officer, moved to Abu Dhabi, where he has been linked to quixotic efforts to build a mercenary force for the United Arab Emirates and a paramilitary outfit designed to battle Somali pirates. He also wrote a book defending his actions during the war and was working on creating a video game featuring unnamed contractors shooting their way through a war zone.
10/24/2015 Blackwater’s Descendants Are Doing Just Fine | Foreign Policy http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/07/01/blackwatersdescendantsaredoingjustfine/ 2/8
Prince may no longer be working on U.S. contracts, but Blackwater’s descendants are still scoring big jobs, providing training and embassy security around the world. With fewer contracts coming from Iraq and Afghanistan, consolidation across the security business means that the State Department — which remains heavily dependent on private-sector guards for its embassies and consulates — has a smaller and smaller number of companies from which to choose. That, in turn, means big profits for the remaining heavyweights, including those that own what had once been Blackwater. In 2013, for instance, ACADEMI’s subsidiary International Development Solutions* received roughly $92 million in contracts from the State Department for security guards. More recently, ACADEMI, based in McLean, Virginia, and with 1,250 employees, received a $9 million contract from the Pentagon for private security services in Afghanistan. In addition to protecting U.S. installations in the war zones, ACADEMI also has contracts to train Pentagon personnel heading abroad at the 7,000-acre training center in Moyock, North Carolina, which was built by Prince as the centerpiece of his Blackwater empire. The site features multiple firing ranges, a three-mile driving track, and two airfields. The steady government work has made ACADEMI, like Blackwater before it, attractive to outside investors.
In early June, ACADEMI joined forces with rival private security company Triple Canopy to form Constellis Holdings, adding even more distance (and name changes) between it and the original Blackwater. Triple Canopy is one of several private security companies hired by the State Department to protect its embassies and consulates around the world. It had a particularly good year in 2012, when it received more than $200 million in contracts for security of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. The next year it received $5 million more to protect the U.S. Consulate in Basra in Iraq. By merging, ACADEMI and Triple Canopy will have over 6,000 employees, shrinking competition in the U.S. market and highlighting the increasing consolidation of what had once been a freewheeling industry.
The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction reported that of the $4 billion obligated to the State Department for Afghanistan reconstruction from 2002 to March 2013, for instance, DynCorp received 69 percent, or nearly $3 billion. And with over 618,000 employees worldwide, the London-based global security company G4S is one of the world’s largest private employers. But with Blackwater in the news again, questions are once again being raised about the role of these companies and whether governments that are excessively reliant on their services are able to properly oversee them. Meanwhile, Blackwater’s reckless reputation has become so well known that its follow-on companies have worked hard to distance themselves from it. First and foremost, they take great pains to point out that they have nothing to do with Prince, Blackwater’s infamous founder. For example, here’s one of the FAQs on ACADEMI’s website: Is ACADEMI associated with Erik Prince or the former Blackwater? The answer: "No … Erik Prince took both the Blackwater name and legacy with him when he sold the facility." ACADEMI spokeswoman Callie Wang says the company is entirely separate from Blackwater and has absolutely no involvement in the criminal trial of the Blackwater guards. When private investors bought Blackwater’s North Carolina training center in 2010, they implemented "significantly more than a cosmetic name change," Wang said. "We’ve built a record of excellence." Most recently, ACADEMI had to dispel rumors that its employees were operating in Ukraine. Once again, Blackwater’s past haunted the rebuilt company. "ACADEMI is not Blackwater, and ACADEMI has no personnel in Ukraine," the company said in a statement.
And in response to a request for comment, Triple Canopy said, "We respectfully decline the interview since we have no direct connection with the subject matter." Still, the twisted saga of Blackwater’s post-Iraq history vividly illustrates the ways the hugely lucrative security business has evolved since its glory days during the long war there. "It’s not the ACADEMIs and Triple Canopies you really have to worry about, but the much smaller companies that are cropping up in Africa and elsewhere in the world," said Sean McFate, author of the forthcoming book The Modern Mercenary. "There are new actors, smaller companies, emerging every day." McFate, who used to work in Africa for DynCorp alongside Blackwater contractors, said that while Blackwater isn’t representative of the industry, he expects future atrocities to occur as the global security industry gets bigger. "The industry is indeed growing, but not the way people think," McFate said. "Private military companies are no longer just U.S.-based; they’re appearing around the world. They are also going native, as warlords and others refashion themselves as for-rent security." And Prince himself is very much still in the business. A former U.S. Navy SEAL, Prince founded Blackwater in 1997 when he bought up land in North Carolina and built a training site for military and law enforcement officials. A turning point for the company came with the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen. Blackwater was hired by the Navy to train U.S. sailors how to protect themselves from attackers. It was a big contract that in turn led to further business, but it wasn’t until the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that the company really took off. Over the decade, the company won well over $1 billion in government contracts and its guards became famous for their cowboy swagger.
The public first became aware of Blackwater in 2004, when four of its employees were killed, their bodies burned and hung from a bridge in Fallujah. Then on Christmas Eve in 2006, an off-duty Blackwater employee shot and killed an Iraqi security guard inside the Green Zone, increasing pressure on the Bush administration to hold private security contractors accountable for crimes committed in war zones. The Nisour shooting in September 2007 left Blackwater’s reputation irreversibly damaged. Prince tried to rebrand the company, renaming it Xe Services in 2009. But then in April 2010, five former employees of Blackwater were charged with violating federal arms laws after falsifying paperwork to conceal the fact that they’d given Jordan’s King Abdullah II firearms as a gift. The charges threatened to end Xe Service’s U.S. contracting business, and so Prince moved to sell the company and separate himself from it. His family’s financial adviser from 1998 to 2002, Jason DeYonker, led the sale, organizing a group of private investors to purchase the company’s North Carolina training site for a reported $200 million. DeYonker continues to sit on the board of ACADEMI and is one of eight men on the board of Constellis Holdings. In 2010, Prince also sold Greystone, an affiliate of Blackwater that did work for the CIA. The company is still operating under its original name and its website lists offices in Chesapeake, Virginia, and Abu Dhabi. Around that time, Prince also sold Aviation Worldwide Services, which provided things like ISR (intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance), airdrops, and defensive air support, to AAR Corp. After selling his companies, Prince moved to Abu Dhabi, where he’s been implicated in a handful of secretive — and largely unsuccessful — security contracts like training Somalis to combat pirates. Prince told Bloomberg Businessweek‘s Drake Bennett in November 2013 that he had done consulting work for Reflex Resources, or R2, which had a contract with the United Arab Emirates to build a battalion of foreign troops for the country. But he said he was mostly busy "running a small fund and investing in Africa."
His small fund is called Frontier Resource Group, a private equity firm based in Abu Dhabi, which has a contract with the South Sudanese government to build an oil refinery. The project was temporarily put on hold earlier this year, when the security situation in the country grew too dangerous. Fortuna audaces iuvat, or "fortune favors the bold," reads the Frontier Resource Group’s website. An email to the company’s address bounced back, saying the account does not exist. While Prince pursued projects overseas, the firearms charges over the former Blackwater employees did not go away. That is, until this February, when most of the charges were dismissed after retired CIA officials testified the weapons had been given to the Jordanian king with the authorization of the CIA. Then at the beginning of June, the merger between ACADEMI and Triple Canopy was finalized. The new company will be led by ACADEMI’s CEO Craig Nixon, who joined the company after spending two years as a partner at the McChrystal Group, a consulting company formed by Gen. Stanley McChrystal after he retired in 2010. Nixon retired from the Army in 2011; his final assignment was as the deputy director of operations responsible for force protection for the U.S. Central Command. The companies will continue to operate as separate entities and will keep their individual names, ACADEMI’s spokeswoman said. Journalist and author Robert Young Pelton, who was hired by Prince in 2011 to ghostwrite his memoir, but is now suing him for failing to pay him the agreed fee, says the name changes don’t mean much. "It doesn’t matter who has the contract, they’re all the same people. Constellis represents a clean slate until they f*** up and get thrown under the bus." 10/24/2015 Blackwater’s Descendants Are Doing Just Fine | Foreign Policy http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/07/01/blackwatersdescendantsaredoingjustfine/ 7/8 This is inevitable, Pelton said, because the government has a bizarre love-hate relationship with these companies. On the one hand, they’re reliant on them to outsource political risk and on the other, eager to slap them in public whenever scandal happens. * Correction, July 2, 2014: The name of the ACADEMI subsidiary that has received $92 million in State Department contracts for security guards is International Development Solutions. An earlier version of this story incorrectly called the company International Development Services. (Return to reading.)
==
http://www.voltairenet.org/article179691.html
bad trans
Academi (ex-Blackwater), the world’s most powerful private army, reveals having been signed over, without indicating the name of the buyer, nor the amount for which it was bought.
According to SouthWeb.org, it’s the biotechnology multinational Monsanto who would be the happy acquirer [1].
Created in 1901, Monsanto debuted as a saccharine producer, used by Coca-Cola. During World War II, it supplied uranium for the Manhattan project, then while the Vietnam war, a potent herbicide to defoliate the jungle. For now over thirty years, Monsanto has become the global leader for genetically modified organisms. With a revenue of over 13,5 billion dollars, it is the 206st US multinational.
Academi was created by Erik Prince in 1997, under the name Blackwater Worldwide. The company, of which some managers are linked to Evangelic churches financed by the Pentagon, played a role, in Afghanistan in Iraq, comparable to that which played the Order of Malta, during the Nicaragua War. It is presided by Billy Joe (Red), McCombs (347th US fortune), John Aschcroft (former US Attorney general) and the admiral Bobby R. Inman (former NSA director and deputy director of the CIA). Academi, which works mainly pour the US government, participated in the Tripoli battle (Libya) and is currently recruiting combatants to do the Jihad in Syria.
Blackwater’s growth is partly due to the US Army Privatization Project, supported by the former Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld. However, this policy being a failure and budget restrictions helping, Academi is now only entrusted with surveillance or escort on secret operations ground, by Washington. It’s reputation has helped it obtain mercenary contracts from small states, particularly in the Persian Golf.
According to SouthWeb, Academi’s purchase is linked to the admission of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in Monsanto’s capital. Created by Microsoft’s founder and the speculator Warren Buffet (the first two fortunes of the United-States), it’s the most important ’’philanthropic’’ foundation in the world. It notably launched, with the Rockfeller foundation, the AGRA (Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa), which aims to expand usage of Monsanto seeds on the black continent.
http://www.projectcensored.org/private-military-companies-in-service-to-the-transnational-capitalist-class/
Globalization of trade and central banking has propelled private corporations to positions of power and control never before seen in human history. Under advanced capitalism, the structural demands for a return on investment require an unending expansion of centralized capital in the hands of fewer and fewer people. The financial center of global capitalism is so highly concentrated that less than afew thousand people dominate and control $100 trillion of wealth.
The few thousand people controlling global capital amounts to less than 0.0001 percent of the world’s population. They are the transnational capitalist class (TCC), who, as the capitalist elite of the world, dominate nation-states through international trade agreements and transnational state organizations such as the World Bank, the Bank for International Settlements, and the International Monetary Fund.
The TCC communicates their policy requirements through global networks such as the G-7 and G-20, and various nongovernmental policy organizations such as the World Economic Forum, the Trilateral Commission, and the Bilderberger Group. The TCC represents the interests of hundreds of thousands of millionaires and billionaires who comprise the richest people in the top 1 percent of the world’s wealth hierarchy.
The TCC are keenly aware of both their elite status and their increasing vulnerabilities to democracy movements and to unrest from below. The military empire dominated by the US and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) serves to protect TCC investments around the world. Wars, regime changes, and occupations performed in service of empire support investors’ access to natural resources and their speculative advantages in the market place.
When the empire is slow to perform or faced with political resistance, private security firms and private military companies (PMC) increasingly fulfill the TCC’s demands for the protections of their assets. These protection services include personal security for TCC executives and their families, protection of safe residential and work zones, tactical military advisory and training of national police and armed forces, intelligence gathering on democracy movements and opposition groups, weapons acquisitions and weapon systems management, and strike forces for military actions and assassinations.
The expanding crisis of desperate masses/refugees, alienated work forces, and environmental exhaustion means an unlimited opportunity for PMCs to engage in protections services for the global elite.
Estimates are that over $200 billion a year is spent on private security employing some fifteen million people worldwide. G4S is the largest PMC in the world with 625,000 employees spanning five continents in more than 120 countries. Nine of the largest money management firms in the world have holdings in G4S. Some of its more important contractors are the governments of the UK, the US, Israel, and Australia. In the private sector G4S has worked with corporations such as Chrysler, Apple, and Bank of America. In Nigeria, Chevron contracts with G4S for counterinsurgency operations including fast-response mercenaries. G4S undertakes similar operations in South Sudan, and has provided surveillance equipment for checkpoints and prisons in Israel and security for Jewish settlements in Palestine.
Another private military contractor Constellis Holdings—formerlyBlackwaterand Triple Canopy—is a leading provider of security, support, and military advisory services to the US government, foreign governments, multinational corporations, and international organizations. Constellis is managed by an all male board of directors including billionaire Red McCombs; John Ashcroft, the former attorney general; retired admiral Bobby Inman; and Jack Quinn, a leading Democratic advisor who served as chief of staff to vice president Al Gore and as counsel to President Clinton.
Hundreds of private military contractors now play an important role in TCC security in the evolving 21st century neo-fascist corporate world. Capital will be free to travel instantly and internationally to anywhere that profits are possible, while nation-states will become little more than population containment zones with increasingly repressive labor controls. For these reasons, PMCs must be understood as a component of neoliberal imperialism that now supplements nation-states’ police powers and could eventually substitute for them.
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1. Blackwater USA - After the private security firm killed 17 Iraqi civilians, they turned to B-M for “crisis management.” Former B-M executive Robert Tappan, who had been a State Department official, worked at the PR firm’s lobbying subsidiary, BKSH & Associates. Tappan helped Blackwater founder and head Erik Prince prepare for his testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. (In February, Blackwater, purportedly on the advice of B-M, changed its name to the mysterious Xe, pronounced Zee.) ZOE?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater:_The_Rise_of_the_World's_Most_Powerful_Mercenary_Army
Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army is a book written by independent journalist Jeremy Scahill, published by Nation Books in 2007, as a history and analysis of Blackwater USA, now called Academi. It won a George Polk Book Award.[1]
Contents
Synopsis:{:(style="margin-right:0px;margin-left:0px"):}:[edit:{]}:
The book details the rise of Blackwater USA, a private military company, and the growth of security contracting in the Iraq War and the War on Terrorism. In the book, Scahill contends that Blackwater exists as a mercenary force, and argues that Blackwater's rise is a consequence of the demobilisation of the US military following the Cold War and its overextension in Iraq and Afghanistan. He describes further how Blackwater (at the time of writing) serves in Iraq and Afghanistan like, in his judgement, a Praetorian Guard, protecting top authority figures and enjoying immunity from the usual constraints and regulations on traditional armies. Scahill argues that Blackwater's leadership was motivated by a right-wing Republican ideology, and that its founder, Erik Prince, has provided significant assistance in that venue. Blackwater is also present in some parts of Pakistan.
...
CBC interview with Scahill about the book
NPR interview with Scahill about the book
Democracy Now! interview with Scahill about the book
The Strategic Contractor - op-ed 19 Sept 2007 by The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies
Blackwater Founder Implicated in Murder by Jeremy Scahill, The Nation, August 4, 2009
Blackwater's Dark Side Exposed - video news report by MSNBC
In Explosive Allegations, Ex-Employees Link Blackwater Founder to Murder, Threats - video by Democracy Now!
Human Rights First; Private Security Contractors at War: Ending the Culture of Impunity (2008) =
- CBC interview with Scahill about the book
- NPR interview with Scahill about the book
- Democracy Now! interview with Scahill about the book
- The Strategic Contractor - op-ed 19 Sept 2007 by The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies
- Blackwater Founder Implicated in Murder by Jeremy Scahill, The Nation, August 4, 2009
- Blackwater's Dark Side Exposed - video news report by MSNBC
- In Explosive Allegations, Ex-Employees Link Blackwater Founder to Murder, Threats - video by Democracy Now!
- Human Rights First; Private Security Contractors at War: Ending the Culture of Impunity (2008)
wired sgaron
IT APPEARS THE Blackwater’s lawyers brought out the big guns for this week’s congressional hearings, as in hired PR guns. According to the Associated Press, Blackwater hired PR powerhouse Burson-Marsteller to help with its testimony (there were earlier reports — that now appear erroneous — that the relationship was broader than that):
Blackwaterday1a_2
Burson-Marsteller was brought aboard by the Washington law firms representing Blackwater — McDermott Will & Emery and Crowell & Moring.
One of the executives on the Blackwater account is Robert Tappan, a former State Department official. Tappan is a managing director of BKSH & Associates Worldwide, a Burson-Marsteller subsidiary.
At State, Tappan was deputy assistant secretary for public affairs. While at State, he spent six months in Baghdad as director of strategic communications for the Coalition Provisional Authority, the temporary governing body that disbanded in June 2004.
On Thursday, Paul Cordasco, a spokesman for Burson-Marsteller, said the company does not discuss its clients. In a statement sent by e-mail Friday, Cordasco said BKSH helped Prince prepare for the congressional hearing.
"With the hearing over, BKSH’s temporary engagement has ended," Cordasco said.
Over all, I’d say that Burson-Marsteller is deserving of that zillion bucks they earn, because Blackwater Chairman Erik Prince did a decent job at the hearing from a PR standpoint (but a different haircut might have helped). And hey, what better company to hire? Burson Marsteller recently worked with Virginia Tech to retool its image post-massacre. Hormel, maker of yummy Spam, is another client (and if you can make Spam look good, well, that’s gotta say something).
Of course, just a couple weeks ago, DANGER ROOM assembled its collective wisdom to provide PR advice to Blackwater, and unlike Burson-Marsteller, our tips were totally, completely free!
UPDATE: Oooh, oooh. "In addition to his role as a top campaign consultant to the Clinton campaign, Mark Penn is the worldwide president and CEO of Burson-Marsteller. The firm’s lobbying subsidiary BKSH helped Blackwater’s top executive, Erik Prince, prepare for his congressional testimony this week."
Penn could not be reached for comment, but Burson-Marsteller spokesman Paul Cordasco said in a statement that "through a personal relationship, BKSH, a subsidiary of Burson-Marsteller, helped Blackwater prepare for their recent hearing before Congress. With the hearing over, BKSH’s temporary engagement has ended."
(High five: HuffPo)
ALSO:
* Disaster Outsourcing
* Blackwater: It’s the Money, Stupid
* Blackwater’s X-Wing Fighters
* Blackwater Hearings Ain’t No Superbad
* Watch Blackwater Dig Its Own Grave
* Blackwater Author on Blackwater Shootings
* Addicted to Blackwater
* Black Days for Blackwater
* Blackwater: From Bad to Worse
* Top 10 PR Moves for Blackwater
* The Merc Cartoon
* Blackwater "Bitch Slap": Right Move?
* Blackwater Mess Fencing Diplos In
* The Blackwater Backlash
* Blackwater Ban "Inevitable"
* Blackwater: Banned in Iraq?
* Blackwater: The Vote
* Blackwater Goes Down the Rabbit Hole
* Blackwater Buying Counter-Insurgency Aircraft
* Blackwater Sprawl
* Inside the Belly of the Blackwater Beast
* Officers, Mercs Brawl
* Mercenary King, Revealed
* Hooker in the Green Zone?
==
9/10/01 rumy makes speech at pentagon, fmr execs from enron, northrup, gen dyn, new pvt sector model xiv 2002 footprint art'l
bw near The Gt Dismal Swamp in NC 7k acres
on 1991 gulf 1 DC sec of def; ration dod to pvt 1:10
in 1993 DC commiss study by Hallib on how to pvtize; during clinton years DC at aei, which was pt man for pvt mil push; 1995 DC runs hallib. (xvi)
clinton admin hired co to train croats, tipped war.
pjt for new am cent (kristol, dc, rumy) pushed for iraq war
Busk 43 admin: wolfie, feith, khalilizad, cambone, petye aldridge (aerospace corp)
end rumy, 1:1 (100K pvt contractors0 in iraq; 2006 quar review, clasisifed as part of US mil xvii Total Froce, ~ike
bw now (2007ish) 2300 in 9 countries incl US
20 aircraft incl heli gunships and blimps; has intel div; 500m$ in govt contracts
as brmemer left, Ordfer 17 gave immunity xx (kucinich questined); scam: not under mil law, but not under civil law (but vol code by industry) xxii
do swaer to uphold const?] ucmj sent added to bill, but mil may not have the capacity to enforce
Greystone div reg in carribean, tax except
recruit PI, chile (pinochet), nepal, columbia, ecaudor, el salv, honduras, panama, peru xxiii
sent hundreds into katrina (no invite?) then hired 950/day 70 mill, 243K$/day 2005 xxv
erik and family fight secular, pal Colson, some execs order of Malta !!th C before crusades to defend land taken from moslems
dutch reform after Cavin
dad lighted visor (some ideas stink)
sis (bush pioneer)married richard devos (lost gov race) his dad founded amway) both funded 1994 takeover (amway 2.5 m, biggest soft $ ever) plus 1.3m infomercials convention; devos huge in vouchers
1988 g bauer and dobson (foc on fam) start Family res council (evangelical, voucher, stem cell); erick early intern, then b1 intern(beef with clean air act?), then rohrabacher
erik funded helms, north, pombo, spencer abramham, santorin, coburn, delay, demint, pense, hunter,
backed pat buchanan (hillsdale?)
sold co 1.3b$; wife cnp (fdr lehaye, turn am rt; CFR too liberal) , frc
cnp: fallwell, schasfly, robertson, perkins dobson baur, r reed; norquust, north, gaffney, NRA lapierre; visits by DC, bolton, rumy, ashcroft, senor, delay, frist
colson alleged to hire tamsters to beat up antiwat protest, firebomb brookings; runs prison in Sugar Land (delay distr) 18 vs islam spread in prison rev robt sirico
ECT free mkt is xian ; creative cooperative leads to common good 21
theocons
erik claims idea his vs facts
DC comm study by Hillib subsid Brown and Root (--> kbr) on pvt mil support service; paid 3.9M but then cashed in
clinton win led to end of democ artl, one by bork too; colson says fight betw church and state inevitable.
neighbors did not want bw training next door; built HS to sim after littleton?
erik went to afgan (protect cia sites?) wanted to join cia but bad polygrapgh? (46) green badge.
Bremer kissinger asst, also haig, RR cent am war ambassador at large on terrorism; late 80's kiss and assoc; hastert appt council on ctr terr 1999.
Marsh and Mclennen (300 died in wtc)
sold terrorosm risk insurance; layoffs leadto social unrest.
scooter and wolfie asked him to run iraq' what he knew wd not fill thimble (henry kissendores gig)
replaced garner, advicefrom chalabi 64 feith and rumy said debath so fired army 400K unemplyed guys w/ guns andexplosives
spoke of god guide; bro ran congr in dobson distr.(wife prayer warrier0
pvt oil industry, no taxes, couldtake all profits out of cty 68
BW 27.7m$ contract; bremer pix good pr; all merc 2b$/1 yr 30% of reconstr $
4 guys kia said to do humanit work (but fodwas for mil)
ASG PR (delay staffers) big in K Str; Paul Behrends usmc lt col, rohrabacher (fought w/ muj 1988); john dooliitle got bw tour NC
erik and behr on Chr Freedom intl (RR Iran C guys)Bauer
2 days after kill, marines went in w/ Jim Steele (bremer dep) ernron exec tapped by wolf; col in ctr-insurent el salv death squad; testify iran-c
el salv model? US force back local guys to do dirty work? 115 only like 400 bad guys" in city of 10k (civilains killed by smart bomb)
b2 said he wanted to bomb al jazeera (alleged)
a week after kia, erik meetswith arms serv omm: incl chr john warner; santprum set up, ted stecvens alaska, geo allen va
before met w/ delay, porter goss, duncan hunter (hse armed serv) bill young;
~ jack reed of rh Is
swat olympic on espn
USCoC ppt on do biz iraq incl list or merc co
Abu G titan and CACI
bw 300% growth /yr
bremer skulks out 2 days early, f16 apache
successor john negroponte contra $, hid honduras hu rights viol
school of Am's
bw hired chile coomandos (pinochet sent students to chicago)
us sabotaged economy, allende land reform, literacy, cuba
4? fams sued; ken starr hired 234 roberts denied
--j cofer black cia zambia, somalia, s africa during apartheid
frustrated by rles. body bag talk, hired pvt; fired for tora bora leak> hired for ctc? quit to BW
joseph e schmitz bush 43 Pentagon Insp Genral, oversee mil contractors in afg and iraq 2002-5 resigned, scandlas; june 2005 149 prime contracts w/ 77 co's in iraq 42.1b$ (298) ~ Wyden
Grassley probe of blocking investigations, fake news relase, junket, hide info from congress
june 05 declares he will go to BW (COO genr; counsel" "genl sch"
RR
newt as spkr
catholic xian fundmtlist, in offic pent speeches, Malta
caled von steuben 1st effectuve insp genl; BW cites as founding merc (with laf, Polish and rochamebeua) al in "Contractor Pk" 300)
von s fled germany gay trial; put motto on new seal:always under the protection of the almighty"
dad CA pol ~ sex ed, inc tax pro states righrts, make illegal for fed to compete w/ any biz , sell UC
~ mlk remembrance; won OC congr sat, ran for prez ~ rmn on Am Ind Party (geo walaace) tossed out as head of jbs too extreme 300
wattts riots commies; nixon china visit pro commie
slick butch lawyeress 20k and apology, 2 kids batards, bought McC house in DC and wrote VC front in US also 1, full mil hon arlington 301.
older bro john patrick protected b1 from Iran-c (asst to CB gray); 5 yrs later, 1 mo after elected, revealed diary (gray and john refused to cooperate); in 1987 joe was spec asst to meese, RR atty gen'l, so covered for him; john clerked for scalia, then atty/lobby for Mayer Brown (CoC, lock, enron, GE, pfizer , bayer 302. b pioneer [sis had child of 13 yo student; her dad stood by her]
jow nay intel, patton boggs Oiraq reconstr practice june 2003)
Carl levin ~ confrim eg WT letter 3 days before 1992 election saind BC security risk VN, signed with lt cmder rank
US English
invest: perle asst to wolfie, office next dr rumy 306; perle lobbying at DoD (global crossing wanted to sell itself to for co; fibre optic network to china, used by gov't)) perle wd make 700K$ if deal goes thru; Perle quit when news broke, but runy asked to stay on Def pol Bd and he did; Conyers asked for invbest, 6 mos later joe said no apprance of impropriety to a reasonable person 307.
Lt gen Boykin dep undersec for def (intel) God put b2; spec ops and CIA; death squads in iraq alleged; xian jihad; ordered abu G be gitmo-ized 309 just bad eggs 310
joe no rule of law in tribal
rumy aid j shaw no exper in telecomm or def steered deals to pals; joe drafted press rel saying never invest by IG [was by fbi), wd not take down even when shown false
jag on trafficking (RW theme) but ignored in iraq; contractors held
Boeing tankers: hastert, rove, card; perle supported in wsj, tho had invested 20M$ in perle's fund 317 year before; deal approved by pete aldridge jr, fmr mcD-D, biot by boeng, contract cancelled; joe scrubbed report (to protect WH?) 318 joe claimed could not contact aldridge even tho had subpena and his bro was A's lawyer at lockheed (3 gutys got 445K 02-05)
joe gave bremer award
9/05 started at BW (katrina)
karrina 900rpm; deputized by gov (badges)DHS contract; got coast g call sign, claimed to rescue 150 ppl (); protected banks and rich ppl; in 3 wk 400K tyo proect morque; 3 mos 33 m$ 326 06 73M, 240K/day 327
B2 repealed 1031 bacon act so did not have to pay previaling wage; KBR (halli #1 $ iraq)30m$ assess infra and support recovery; shaw gp 700m katrina (135 m irq); both co had Joe Allbaugh lobbying; B-Ch camp mgr and ex head FEMA 327
950 m shaw
1.4b fluor (alan B also ran iraq recon, sowing down so shifted to La)
merc la; dyncorp, wac, am sec gp, kroll, Instuinctive Shooting Intel (israel)[helod in to proetect gated commun], 235 co's and up; f patrick quin iii guard 3m house, his hotels considered to house fema workers 328
575M Bechtel
dhs IG said need sec 2-5 yrs 330; BW best value
aug 06 BW guard library (almart a fema outpost too) used by fema, parteon denied entry, not told why, denied name of guard or his sup; BW hq in swaggart bible college
BW sets us new domestic disater div 332
BW caught wave/themes/desires of b34; pvt, iraq, boost xian biz 333
apr 2005 Minutemen
d hunter booster fence& BW , dana r endorsr MM
may 05 house approve 2k border guards, commit wants to outsrc training 334 mike rogers said cost more 4 yrs harvard than train in 10 mos; fid duty
bw and red cross $ raiser gala, brmer goh
b43 tried rto use kartrina to ~ posse comit 337
K STR
JA b43 trans team; 3/06 pled; ASG defunct (delay other scandals)
ranked top 25, $ up 34%, 8m$, 70 clients enron, time-w, pharma, lilly MS Salem Comm, Nat relig broadcasters, Grace news; pvt intel/sec via behrends
Intl Peace Ops Assoc delay staff ed Buckha, Karl Gallant (armpac) Tony Rudy 9delay liar)rudyworked w/ behrends in dana office early 90's) 337 (w/ erik? said def analyist actually unpaid intern)
erik escaped tho on bd of Toward tradition (JA chr) mag co and elottery gave $ at a time when delay cd help them
Paul b worked for Crowell's C&M capotiol link (BW 2004)339
neo/theo-cons stretched mil to breaking, but opnned up hige pvt biz 1:1 341
Jordan king Uk ed, soec ops, gets 1b$ US mil aid
Bw says can deploy brigade [3-5K]
darfur, jordan ; xian fredom head jim jacobson (RR) says UN intentimally fail in darfur to justify existence 351 behrends radio campaign
kopel on merc 354
rebranding
kucinich
IPOA ~ S africa merc law (opposed by Doug Brooks; passed aug 06
: Exec outcomes formed 1989, DeBeers co, Angola retook oil 1993. Sierra leone paid 35m (1/3 of def $) ~ insurgents, 9 daysto take diamond land 361
greystone 366-
after 2002 elections b43 said pvtize 850K fed jobs 372
june 06 GAO siad could not figure out how much $ to merc (min 10% wd be 5.6 b) 04-07 BW morethan 500M$
206 quad rev hire official pol
summer 07 AEI merc conf! 377 jcblack end
dn update 7/16/14 4 on trial, merged with compet
bs
A press release from Constellis Holdings signals major news in the High Threat Security Industry. Academi, the company formerly known as Blackwater and Xe, will join Triple Canopy along with a handful of other high threat security companies under a new management structure named Constellis Holdings.
“This move allows us to create a suite of services to better provide critical support capabilities for government and commercial clients and will utilize ACADEMI’s world-class training facility, the largest and most comprehensive private training center in the U.S.” said Jason DeYonker, Managing Director of Constellis Holdings, Inc.
Constellis Holdings, Inc. has agreed to acquire Constellis Group, Inc., a leading provider of security, support and advisory services to government, multinational corporations and international organizations operating in challenging environments around the world. Constellis Holdings was formed by the founders of Triple Canopy and the private equity investors who formed ACADEMI.
The transaction brings together a global team of industry leaders, including: Triple Canopy, Constellis Ltd., Strategic Social, Tidewater Global Services, National Strategic Protective Services, ACADEMI Training Center and International Development Solutions.
Operating under the oversight of a distinguished Board and an experienced management team, the combination of these companies will enable a significant expansion of services within the global security market, delivering mission support, integrated security solutions, training and advisory services at home and abroad.
- See more at: http://www.your-poc.com/academi-triple-canopy-5-companies-merge-forming-largest-high-threat-security-group-world/#sthash.FiHVwsPu.dpuf
==
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/10/blackwater-state-department-contracts_n_5572355.html
The State Department awarded more than a billion dollars in funding to the security firm Blackwater and its later incarnations even after one of the company's top officials allegedly threatened a government investigator's life, a review by The Huffington Post has shown.
The New York Times revealed last week that the State Department's chief investigator reported being threatened by a Blackwater official in Iraq in August 2007. The investigator said project manager Daniel Carroll told him "that he could kill me at that very moment and no one could or would do anything about it as we were in Iraq."
Officials at the American embassy in Baghdad later asked the investigators conducting the Blackwater probe to leave. A few weeks later, in September, Blackwater guards shot and killed 17 Iraqi civilians. A criminal trial for four of the guards is currently underway.
harge
By REUTERS
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — The military contractor formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide has agreed to pay a $7.5 million fine to settle charges of arms-sales violations, the Justice Department said Tuesday.
The agreement, filed in United States District Court in New Bern, N.C., covers unauthorized sales of satellite phones in Sudan; unauthorized military training provided to foreign governments, including Canada’s; illegal possession of automatic weapons; and other violations, the Justice Department said.
The sales and training in question took place from 2005 to 2008 and did not have the authorization of the Treasury and State Departments, as required by law, prosecutors said. The company, now called Academi LLC, acknowledged “responsibility for the conduct” in signing what is known as a deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department.
The agreement means the company will not face prosecution on 17 counts as long as it meets auditing requirements and complies with export restrictions.
Two years ago Blackwater, which also used the name Xe Services LLC, reached a $42 million settlement with the State Department for similar allegations.
“This company clearly violated U.S. laws by exporting sensitive technical data and unauthorized defense services to a host of countries around the world,” Brock Nicholson, special agent in charge of United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigations in North Carolina and two other states, said in a written statement.
The company was once based in North Carolina and still has a large training center there.
As a military contractor for the United States government in Iraq, Blackwater was a target of intense international scrutiny. In 2004, four of its security guards were ambushed and killed, and two of their bodies were hung from a bridge in Falluja. In 2007, 17 Iraqi civilians were killed when Blackwater guards opened fire in Nisour Square in Baghdad.
spooky biz monsanto
State Dept. Dropped Blackwater Probe After Manager Threatened to Kill Investigators
The State Department abandoned a probe of the private military firm Blackwater in Iraq after a company official threatened to kill the government’s chief investigator. The New York Times reports investigators began looking into Blackwater’s Iraq operations just weeks before company operatives shot dead 17 Iraqi civilians in the 2007 massacre at Baghdad’s Nisoor Square. The investigators found widespread misconduct and warned of an "environment full of liability and negligence." But according to government documents, the previously undisclosed investigation was quashed after Blackwater’s project manager in Iraq, Daniel Carroll, issued a threat "that he could kill" the chief investigator, Jean Richter, and "no one could or would do anything about it as we were in Iraq." The U.S. Embassy in Iraq ended up siding with Blackwater, ordering Richter and a colleague to leave the country and calling them "unsustainably disruptive" and "unnecessarily hostile" to "contract personnel." The New York Times says the investigators’ unheeded warnings "make clear that the [State] Department was alerted to serious problems involving Blackwater and its government overseers before Nisour Square." The trial of four Blackwater operatives accused in the massacre began this month after years of delay.
wtf: http://academi.com/pages/about-us/board-of-directors/john-ashcroft w/ clearchannels fdr
http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/blackwater_worldwide
life inc; provided sec for walmart post katrina
DISASTER PROFITEERING:
Will They Do for the Gulf Coast What They Did for Iraq?
Funds to rebuild the areas of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana hit by the storm are flowing quickly. Congress has already approved $62 billion for disaster relief, and the total price tag is expected to exceed $100 billion. "They are throwing money out, they are shoveling it out the door," according toWashington lobbyist James Albertine (John M. Broder, "In Storm's Ruins, a Rush to Rebuild and Reopen for Business," Washington Post, September 10, 2005).
Normal contracting rules have been suspended, so the majority - if not all - of the contracts for hurricane relief and rebuilding will be awarded on a no-bid, cost-plus basis. This is a recipe for fiscal disaster. As Danielle Brian of the Project on Government Oversight has said, this process is likely to attract greedy, self-interested companies: "This is very painful. You are likely to see the equivalent of war profiteering - disaster profiteering."
Among the politically connected firms that have already received contracts related to Hurricane Katrina cleanup and rebuilding include Vice President Cheney's former company, Halliburton (to rebuild military facilities affected by the storm and to help repair the breach in the levee); Bechtel, Fluor, CH2MHill, the Shaw Group, and Dewberry Technologies to build or repair housing in the region; and the private military company, BlackwaterAssociates, allegedly to guard local buildings. The majority of these firms have been active in the rebuilding of Iraq, where poor performance, overcharging, and outright fraud have been regular occurrences.
Lobbyists have also hit the ground running in an effort to help their clients secure contracts. Most prominent among them is Joe Allbaugh, who flew to the region before many FEMA officials made their way there. Among his clients are Halliburton and the Shaw Group, both of which have rebuilding contracts already in hand....
http://www.worldpolicy.newschool.edu/wpi/projects/arms/updates/091305Katrina.html
patr acts
blackwater got more than billion from gov 174
erik p at u of mi talk said he still ran com called in airstrike in afgan, ~ geneva conv, moved to bahrain, said we shd have pvt contactors in nigeria, yemen, somalia, saudi 175
http://boingboing.net/2011/12/14/blackwater-iraq-data-dump-mer.html
Blackwater and co Iraq data-dump: mercenaries shot a judge with impunity, used bullets as hand signals, were not disciplined as this "would lower morale"
By Cory Doctorow at 9:32 am Wednesday, Dec 14
Four years after their initial Freedom of Information Act request, Gawker has received and published 4,500 pages' worth of detail on the way that mercenaries from Blackwater and other defense contractors conducted themselves in Iraq. Their basic procedure appears to have been to shoot any car that attempted to pass or tailgate any of the convoys they guarded, especially if the driver was a "military aged male." Then, with no followup (or very little), they would conclude that the driver was unharmed and drive on, filing a report later. One victim of a Blackwater mercenary shooting was a judge, who was wounded in the leg (though the mercs' report claimed he was unharmed). The State Department backed the mecenaries on this; in Gawker's words, 'The State Department determined that shooting at judges for driving too fast in their own country is "within the established Department of State policy for escalation of force."' Other drivers were shot because they carried passengers with "devices" in their hands -- such as mobile phones....
Blackwater subsequently rebranded itself as "Xe," and has just changed its name to Academi, and is still seeking lucrative government contracts. I reviewed Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army in 2007, and it remains an important read for anyone who wants to understand the way that US-funded mercenaries run amok in America's fields of war (and in America's disaster zones, such as post-Katrina New Orleans), murdering and rampaging with impunity.
http://www.blackwaterwatch.com/
spying on greens
http://www.grist.org/article/2010-09-15-notorious-agribiz-giant-monsanto-hired-security-firm-blackwater
The 2007 atrocity in Iraq wrecked the company's reputation, forcing it change its name to the unpronounceable Xe and break into what The New York Times recently called [http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/04/world/middleeast/04blackwater.html?_r=1 ]"a web of more than 30 shell companies or subsidiaries [created] in part to obtain millions of dollars in American government contracts." (None of this has stopped the Obama administration from continuing to work with Blackwater and its shell companies; last year, Scahill reported that Blackwater was on the ground in Pakistan on a U.S. contract.)
Into this unsavory milieu stepped Monsanto in 2008, Scahill reports. The agribusiness giant was one of a group of transnationals -- others include Chevron, the Walt Disney Company, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, Deutsche Bank, and Barclays -- that hired a Blackwater shell company called "Total Intelligence Solutions" for overseas services....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide
Xe Services LLC (pronounced /ˈziː/ *zee*) is a private military company founded as Blackwater USA in 1997 by Erik Prince and Al Clark.[^^2]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-Gielink_2007_149-1)[^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-2)3]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-2) The company has a wide array of business divisions, subsidiaries, and spin-off corporations but the organization as a whole has aroused significant controversy.[^^4]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-SundayHerald_090207-3)[^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-Alternet_092807-4)5]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-Alternet_092807-4)[^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-ScoopNZ_092807-5)6]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-ScoopNZ_092807-5)[^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-HeraldUK_09-6)7]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-HeraldUK_09-6)[^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-TehranTimes_092307-7)8]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-TehranTimes_092307-7)
Based in North Carolina, Xe operates a tactical training facility (
36°27′N 76°12′W / 36.45°N 76.2°W:{ / :{36.45; -76.2:(style="display:none"):}::(style="display:none"):}:) that the company claims is the world's largest, where it trains more than 40,000 people a year, mostly from U.S. and other military and police services. The training consists of military offensive and defensive operations, as well as smaller scale personal security.
Xe is currently the largest of the U.S. State Department's three private security contractors. Of the 987 contractors Xe provides, 744 are U.S. citizens.[^^9]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-APBW_092207-8)[^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-CRS_CongressReportRL32419-9)10]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-CRS_CongressReportRL32419-9) At least 90% of the company's revenue comes from government contracts, of which two-thirds are no-bid contracts.[^^11]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-Virginian-Pilot_072506-10) Xe provided security services in Iraq to the United States federal government, particularly the Central Intelligence Agency[^^1]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-OversightContract1-0) on a contractual basis. They no longer have a license to operate in Iraq: the new Iraqi government made multiple attempts to expel them from their country,[^^12]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-WP-licenserenewal-11) and denied their application for an operating license in January 2009.[^^13]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-nyt-licenseapplication-12) However, the company is still under contract with the State Department and some Xe personnel were working legally in Iraq at least until September 2009.[^^14]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-13)
In October 2007, the company, Blackwater USA, was renamed Blackwater Worldwide. It announced on February 13, 2009 that it would operate under the new name "Xe." In a memo sent to employees, President Gary Jackson wrote that the new name "reflects the change in company focus away from the business of providing private security." A spokesperson for the company stated that it feels the Blackwater name is too closely associated with the company's work in the occupation of Iraq.[^^15]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-14) Spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell said there was no meaning in the new name, which the company took over a year to arrive at in an internal search.[^^16]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-15)
^...^
Xe is a privately held company and does not publish much information about internal affairs. Xe's founder and former CEO Erik Prince, a former Navy SEAL, attended the Naval Academy, graduated from Hillsdale College, and was an intern in George H. W. Bush's White House. Prince is a major financial supporter of Republican Party causes and candidates.[^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-NPRBW_092507-19)
^...^
There are a variety of ongoing controversies involving Blackwater Worldwide that are not in direct relation to their specific and individual operations for the U.S. government. However, their role in their work is the factor of these controversies.[^^2]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-Gielink_2007_149-1) It has alternatively been referred to as a security contractor or a mercenary organization by numerous reports by the U.S. and international media.[^^4]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-SundayHerald_090207-3)[^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-Alternet_092807-4)5]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-Alternet_092807-4)[^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-ScoopNZ_092807-5)6]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-ScoopNZ_092807-5)[^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-HeraldUK_09-6)7]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-HeraldUK_09-6)[^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-TehranTimes_092307-7)8]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-TehranTimes_092307-7) Critics consider Xe's self-description as a private military company to be a euphemism for mercenary activities.[^^50]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-032607Cherbonnier.html-49)[^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-154)155]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-154)Jeremy Scahill points out that Chilean nationals, mostly former soldiers, whose country of origin does not participate in hostilities in Iraq, work for Xe in that country; thus, those Chileans meet the definition of "mercenary."[^^156]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-155)[^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-156)157]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-156) At least 60 Chilean Blackwater employees were trained during dictator Augusto Pinochet's regime.[^^158]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-157)[^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-158)159]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-158)[^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-159)160]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-159) Author Chris Hedges wrote about the establishment of mercenary armies, referring to Blackwater as an example of such a force, asserting its existence as a threat to democracy and a step towards the creation of a modern day Praetorian Guard in a June 3, 2007, article in the *Philadelphia Inquirer*.[^^161]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-160)
^...^
Mark Manzetti, writing in the *New York Times* on August 19, 2009, reported that the CIA had hired Blackwater "as part of a secret program to locate and assassinate top operatives of Al Qaeda."[^^181]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-NYTimes2009-08-19-180) Newly appointed CIA director Leon Panetta had recently acknowledged a planned secret assassination program, one withheld from Congressional oversight. Manzetti's sources, which tied the assassination program to Blackwater, declined to have their names made public. The CIA was acting on a 2001 presidential legal pronouncement, known as a finding, which authorized the CIA to pursue such efforts.[^^182]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-Secret_Plan_Against_Al_Queda-181) Several million dollars were spent on planning and training, but it was never operationalized and no militants were caught or captured.[^^182]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-Secret_Plan_Against_Al_Queda-181)[^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-BBC20090819-182)183]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-BBC20090819-182) Jeremy Scahill reported in *The Nation* in November 2009 that Blackwater operate alongside the CIA in Pakistan in "snatch and grab" operations targeting senior members of the Taliban and Al Qaeda. The report cited an unnamed source who has worked on covert US military programs, who revealed that senior members of the Obama administration may not be aware that Blackwater is operating under a US contract in Pakistan. A former Blackwater executive confirmed that they operate covertly in Pakistan. A spokesman for Blackwater denied the claims, stating that they have "only one employee in Pakistan."[^^184]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-183) In December 2009, the CIA canceled their contract with Blackwater to load bombs onto drone aircraft in Afghanistan and Pakistan.[^^185]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide#cite_note-184)
ashes: cofer black fder Total Intelligence Sol 2007 robt richer and prado, both cia (all 3 1st to blackwater)
^^
^SW
"America's Holy Warriors"
Erik Prince[37]^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-36) is "the secretive, mega-millionaire, right-wing Christian founder of Blackwater, the private security firm that has built a formidable mercenary force in Iraq," Chris Hedges wrote December 31, 2006, in Truthdig.[38]^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-Hedges-37)
Prince "champions his company as a patriotic extension of the U.S. military. His employees, in an act as cynical as it is deceitful, take an oath of loyalty to the Constitution.[39]^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-38) These mercenary units in Iraq, including Blackwater, contain some 20,000 fighters. They unleash indiscriminate and wanton violence against unarmed Iraqis, have no accountability and are beyond the reach of legitimate authority. The appearance of these paramilitary fighters, heavily armed and wearing their trademark black uniforms, patrolling the streets of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, gave us a grim taste of the future. It was a stark reminder that the tyranny we impose on others we will one day impose on ourselves," Hedges wrote.[38]^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-Hedges-37)
Starr defense
"The new 'counsel of record' for the North Carolina-based company is none other than former Whitewater investigator Kenneth Starr—the independent counsel in the 1999 impeachment of President Bill Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal," Jeremy Scahill and Garrett Ordower reported online October 26, 2006, in The Nation.[40]^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-JerSca-39) "Starr was brought in last week by Blackwater to file motions in front of the US Supreme Court in a case stemming from the killing of four Blackwater contractors in the Iraqi city of Fallujah on March 31, 2004."
"There are undeniable benefits to having Starr, the US Solicitor General under President George H.W. Bush, represent Blackwater—a highly partisan GOP company—in front of a Supreme Court stacked with Bush appointees. Starr also has a personal connection to Blackwater. Starr and Joseph Schmitz, the general counsel and chief operating officer of Blackwater's parent company, the Prince Group, have both worked closely with the arch-conservative Washington Legal Foundation. Since 1993 Starr has served on the legal policy advisory board of the organization for which Schmitz has frequently acted as a spokesperson and attorney," Scahill and Ordower wrote.[40]^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-JerSca-39)
CIA-Pentagon-Blackwater"revolving door"
"A number of senior CIA and Pentagon officials have taken top jobs at Blackwater, including firm vice chairman Cofer Black, who was the Bush Administration's top counterterrorism official at the time of the 9/11 attacks (and who famously said in 2002, 'There was before 9/11 and after 9/11. After 9/11, the gloves came off')," Ken Silverstein wrote September 12, 2006, in Harper's Magazine.[41]^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-Silv-40)
In fall 2005, Robert Richer "resigned from the post of Associate Deputy Director of Operations; he immediately took a job as Blackwater's Vice President of Intelligence. Richer is a former head of the CIA's Near East Division and long served in Amman, where, for a period beginning in 1999, he held the post of station chief. For years he was the agency's point man with Jordan's King Abdullah, with whom he developed an extraordinarily close relationship," Silverstein wrote.[41]^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-Silv-40)
Also, Silverstein wrote in September 2006, "there's talk at the agency that Blackwater is also aggressively recruiting José Rodriguez, the CIA's current top spy as director of the National Clandestine Service. Rodriguez has a number of former agency friends at Blackwater, most notably Rick Prado, with whom he served in Latin America and who is now Blackwater's Vice President of Special Programs."[41]^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-Silv-40)
Recent Cofer Black start-up and merger, Total Intelligence Solutions, LLC, is a merger of three companies, The Black Group, The Terrorism Research Center, Inc. and Technical Defense. TIS very well may fall outside the legal corporate domain of Blackwater, however two of the top executives at TIS, Cofer Black and Enrique Prado still hold positions at Blackwater, and Robert Richer recently left his position at Blackwater to take on responsibilities at TIS. As well, it should be noted that one of the three companies merged to create TIS, The Terrorism Research Center, is owned by Blackwater founder Erik Prince.[42]^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-41)
^...^
Soliders of Fortune
"Coalition of the Billing"
"There are no reliable figures on the number of guards fromColombia or other countries," Sonni Efron wrote July 30, 2005, in the Los Angeles Times. "Fijians, Ukrainians, South Africans, Nepalese and Serbs reportedly are on the job in Iraq."[46]^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-Sonni-45)
Peter W. Singer of the Brookings Institution, "author of a book on the private military industry, said veterans of Latin American conflicts, including Guatemalans, Salvadorans and Nicaraguans, also had turned up. 'What we've done in Iraq is assemble a true 'coalition of the billing',' Singer said, playing off President Bush's description of the U.S.-led alliance of nations with a troop presence in Iraq as a 'coalition of the willing'," Efron wrote.[46]
Chilean "former commandos"
Blackwater and other U.S.-based private military contractors do not only recruit Americans; according to Jonathan Franklin, former commandos from Chile are an increasing presence among private military troops in Iraq. Gary Jackson, president of Blackwater, told the British newspaper The Guardian that former Chilean commandos, "many of who had trained under the military government of Augusto Pinochet," will be sent to Iraq for a year and a half, to guard oil wells from saboteurs. "We scour the ends of the earth to find professionals - the Chilean commandos are very, very professional and they fit within the Blackwater system," said Jackson. And the private military melting pot doesn't stop there: "Squads of Bosnians, Filipinos and Americans with special forces experience have been hired for tasks ranging from airport security to protecting Paul Bremer, the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority."[47]^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-46)
Colombian "seasoned counter insurgency troops"
The Colombian news magazine Semana and the Financial Times of London reported in September 2006 that "35 Colombians—mostly seasoned counter insurgency troops—alleged in a letter to Blackwater that recruiters had promised them salaries of $4,000 a month," Bill Sizemore wrote in The Virginian-Pilot. "They said it was only when they were given their contracts barely hours before leaving Bogota that they learned they would be paid $34 a day, or about $1,000 a month."[48]^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-Size-47)
"American contractors can earn $10,000 a month or more working for Blackwater and its competitors in Iraq," Sizemore wrote.[48]^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-Size-47)
In July 2005, Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) was concerned "that U.S. government contractors [were] hiring thousands of impoverished former military personnel, with no public scrutiny, little accountability and large hidden costs to taxpayers," Sonni Efron wrote in the Los Angeles Times.[46]^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-Sonni-45)
"The United States has spent more than $4 billion since 2000 on Plan Colombia, a counter-terrorism and counter-narcotics program that includes training and support for the Colombian police and military. Last month, Congress moved toward approval of an additional $734.5 million in aid to the Andean region in 2006, most of it for Colombia. 'We're training foreign nationals - who then take that training and market it to private companies, who pay them three or four times as much as we're paying soldiers,' Schakowsky said. 'American taxpayers are paying for the training of those Colombian soldiers,' she said. 'When they leave to take more lucrative jobs, perhaps with an American military contractor, they take that training with them. So then we're paying to train that person's replacement. And then we're paying the bill to the private military contractors'," Efron wrote.[46]^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-Sonni-45)
Filipino "mercenaries"
"Many Filipinos apply for any type of work just to work abroad and earn money", with an estimated "tenth of the country's 84 million population ... out of the country and working legally and illegally abroad", Claro Cortes reported June 11, 2006, in Gulf News.[49]^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-Cortes-48)
"Authorities at the former US Naval Base in Subic have denied reports that an American company is using the facility to hire Filipino mercenaries for Iraq", Cortes wrote. Several Manila newspapers reported that Blackwater USA "was using the former US naval base to recruit Filipino mercenaries to fight in Iraq" and "even featured pictures of Filipino-looking men wearing combat fatigues during what appears to be guard duty in an alleged Middle East community."[49]^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-Cortes-48)
"The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) denounced the US for hiring Filipino mercenaries to fight its wars in Iraq and other countries," Manila's Sun Star reported June 12, 2006.[50]^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-SunStar-49) "New People's Army (NPA) spokesman Gregorio 'Ka Roger' Rosal said hiring Filipino civilians to provide support services for the US' war in Iraq and other countries is bad enough and should be discouraged, but 'hiring Filipino soldiers of fortune to fight in US wars of aggression and terror against other countries is even worse and deserves nothing but condemnation.'
"Rosal said the establishment of Blackwater's recruitment center in the Philippines stemmed from the mounting casualties of US military personnel that have triggered severe criticism, massive protests and plunging ratings for US President George W. Bush.
"He said the US has also turned to Third World countries to be able to cut costs as hired Filipino mercenaries are paid only US$60,000-US$80,000 a year, half of what it pays American mercenaries with equivalent qualifications and assignments," the Sun Star reported.[50]^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-SunStar-49)
^...^
Public relations and lobbying
On October 11, 2007, Blackwater announced their withdrawal from IPOA. According to the Wall Street Journal, a Blackwater spokeswoman said, “We have decided to take a hiatus from the association. We, like many other organizations engaged in this type of work, are pursuing other aspects and methods of industry outreach and governance."[2][3]
Blackwater's immediate departure from IPOA may have been to avoid an internal investigation from the trade association. [4]
Blackwater has started up their own organization, The Blackwater Peace and Stability Operations Institute, [5] and taken up the services of a well known public relations company.
The law firms representing Blackwater, McDermott Will & Emery and Crowell & Moring, have hired public relations giant Burson-Marsteller. Robert Tappan, one of the Burson-Marsteller executives working on the Blackwater case,[52]^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-51) was formerly the deputy assistant secretary for public affairs at the State Department. While in this capacity, he spent six months in Baghdad as the director of strategic communications for the Coalition Provisional Authority. [53]^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-52)
According to *PRWeek*, Burson subsidiary, BKSH & Associates, was hired through an internal connection at Blackwater to help with Erik Prince's October 2, 2007 testimony to Congress and that this "temporary engagement has ended". [54]^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-53)
In January 2008, Blackwater hired Womble, Carlyle, Sandridge & Rice, "as its D.C. representative for contracting and acquisition issues," reported O'Dwyer's PR Daily. The firm will serve as Blackwater's "D.C. representative for contracting and acquisition issues." Firm lobbyists on the Blackwater account include Jimmy Broughton, who was former Senator Jesse Helms's chief of staff; Mark Harkins, who worked for Representative Brad Miller; and Kevin Jones, who served as a legislative assistant to former Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen.. [55]^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-54)
In January 2008, the online database Lobbyists.info also listed C&M Capitolink and Gregory F. Hahn, in addition to Womble Carlyle, as Blackwater's lobbying firms. [56]
Executives
- Erik Prince, Chairman of the Board
- Joseph E. Schmitz (former Inspector General, Office of the Secretary of Defense, under Donald Rumsfeld)[9]^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_note-Witte-8)
- J. Cofer Black, Vice Chairman of the Board (former Coordinator in the Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism, U.S. Department of State, under Secretary of State Colin Powell)
In February 2009, Prince announced he was stepping down as the company's CEO, but would remain its chair. "I'm a little worn out by the whole thing, the politics of it all," he said. In other personnel changes, "Joe Yorio, 44, an executive from shipping company DHL with an Army Special Forces background, will become president of Xe, replacing longtime employee Gary Jackson. Danielle Esposito, 32, a veteran employee, will become chief operating officer and executive vice president. The chief executive slot remains open and is likely to be filled by Mr. Yorio." [57
Books
- Robert Young Pelton, License to Kill: Hired Guns in the War on Terror, Crown Publishing Group, 2006. 288 pp. ISBN 9780307345455
- Jeremy Scahill, Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army (book), Avalon Publishing Group, Inc./Nation Books, 2007. 438 pp. $26.95. ISBN 10 1560259795 ISBN 13 978-1560259794
...wac talk Jeremy Scahill's Blackwater is the dark story of the rise of this mercenary army - World Affairs Council of Northern California http://fora.tv/2008/06/13/Jeremy_Scahill_Blackwaters_Covert_Rise_to_Power
more contractors than mil; 180K (70 ct martuial for murder; 0 for contractors, immunity)
has started intelligenct w/ sr cia offer services to corps (already works for dea), columbia
total intel solution 3 cia vets black ctriteror post 9/11, extra ord; robt richter, ricj prado cia paramilitary
dad gave seed $ to focus on fam and dobbs, also --------
knights of malta (colleague?)
lighted sunvisor, sold biz over a billion
Resource
Outside Resources
- ClearWater Project, "ClearWater Project's Website." Website of a group "organized to preserve the public nature of and civilian control over law enforcement and military activity and training for law enforcement and military personnel. Clearwater opposes the privatization of war and of law enforcement."
- "The Journal with Bill Moyers." Interview with The Nation investigative reporter and author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army.
- "Anti-Xe/Blackwater Petition." Open Letter and petition to Congress calling for dismissal of Blackwater Contractors and approval of Congress passing the Stop Outsourcing Security Act.
- Stop Blackwater, "Stop Blackwater." Group website, who is committed to ending BlackWater/Xe.
- "End Blackwater Presentation." Presentation on the history of Blackwater and how to work toward ending it, given by a grassroots activist Ray Lutz, who runs the site StopBlackwater.net and founded COPS - Citizens' Oversight Projects.
- "BlackWater Watch"
- "The Rise and Fall of BlackWater in Potero." Documentary on Alternate Focus Screening presenting the small Southern California town of Potrero joining in with environmentalists, peace activists, veterans groups, immigrant rights groups, and others to stop the mercenary firm Blackwater Worldwide from building a training facility in their town. This is the story of their fight and ultimate defeat of Blackwater.
- "Blackwater in Potero." In late 2006, Blackwater USA, now known as Blackwater Worldwide, submitted a proposal to build a training facility called Blackwater West in the rural San Diego County town of Potrero. This documentary tells the story of what followed.
- Democracy Now!, "Ray Lutz on Democracy Now!." Grassroots activist, who runs the site StopBlackwater.net, talks about the opening of a new BlackWater USA Base in Potero, CA.
- Citizens Overwights Projects, "Blackwater Worldwide on COPs Wiki." Great overview of all things related to Blackwater/Xe put together by Citizens Oversight Projects, a group led by social and political activist Ray Lutz, who also runs the site StopBlackwater.net.
Related SourceWatch articles
- Alexander Strategy Group
- Aviation Worldwide Services, LLC
- Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army (book) by Jeremy Scahill
- Blackwater Watch
- civil war in Iraq
- Custer Battles
- Defense contractors
- Executive Outcomes
- Greystone, Ltd.
- Hurricane Katrina
- International Peace Operations Association
- Loose Cannon Pentagon
- McCain doctrine
- Military-industrial complex
- outsourcing
- post-war Iraq
- Presidential Airways, Inc.
- Private Military Corporations
- Privatization of Iraq
- Vinnell Brown and Root (VBR)
- Vinnell Corporation
- war profiteering
References
- ↑ National Public Radio, Business Blackwater Picks A New Name: It's Xe, Radio report. February 13, 2009
- ↑ August Cole, "Blackwater Puts on a New Public Face", Wall Street Journal, February 14, 2009.
- ↑ Blackwater Security.com.
- ↑ Company profile: Blackwater USA, NNDB.com.
- ↑ "Timeline of significant events for Blackwater," The Virginian-Pilot, September 18, 2007.
- ↑ "Blackwater Lays Off Workers," Associated Press, November 4, 2008.
- ↑ History, BlackwaterUSA.com.
- ↑ Prince Group, PrinceManufacturing.com.
- ↑ 9.0^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Witte_8-0) 9.1^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Witte_8-1) Griff Witte, "Pentagon's IG Takes Job at Contractor," Washington Post, September 1, 2005.
- ↑ Aviation, BlackwaterUSA.com.
- ↑ "Blackwater USA Completes Acquisition of Aviation Worldwide Services press release," Press World, April 28, 2003.
- ↑ 12.0^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Hill_11-0) 12.1^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Hill_11-1) Klaus Marre, "Waxman: Blackwater may have engaged in tax evasion," The Hill, October 22, 2007
- ↑ Peter Dale Scott, The Real Grand Chessboard and the Profiteers of War, Global Research, August 11, 2009.
- ↑ 14.0^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Kim_13-0) 14.1^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Kim_13-1) 14.2^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Kim_13-2) 14.3^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Kim_13-3) 14.4^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Kim_13-4) Kim Gamel, "Helicopter Shot Down in Iraq; 5 Killed," Associated Press (CBS News), January 23, 2007.
- ↑ 15.0^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Baker_14-0) 15.1^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Baker_14-1) Mike Baker, "Blackwater silent after helicopter crashes in Iraq, killing five," Associated Press (The Mercury News), January 23, 2007.
- ↑ Steven R. Hurst, "5 Americans Killed in Iraq Copter Crash ... over dangerous Sunni neighborhood in central Baghdad," Associated Press (CBS News), January 24, 2007.
- ↑ 17.0^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-IraqCon_16-0) 17.1^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-IraqCon_16-1) "7 U.S. security contractors killed in Iraq. Blackwater USA also lost 4 men in Falluja last year," CNN, April 21, 2005.
- ↑ 18.0^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Ellen_17-0) 18.1^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Ellen_17-1) 18.2^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Ellen_17-2) Ellen Knickmeyer, "Insurgents Down Civilian Helicopter Near Iraqi Capital. 6 Americans Among Victims; More Bodies Found in Tigris," Washington Post, April 22, 2005.
- ↑ Jonathan E. Kaplan, "Private army seeking political advice in D.C.," The Hill, April 14, 2004.
- ↑ Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman, "The Rising Corporate Military Monster," CounterPunch, April 23, 2004.
- ↑ This Reuters article is no longer available.
- ↑ This News & Observer article is no longer available.
- ↑ order.pdf Blackwater remanding order case number 05-00048, SourceWatch pdf.
- ↑ Griff Witte, "AFGHANISTAN: Blackwater Broke Rules, Report Says," Washington Post (CorpWatch), October 5, 2005.
- ↑ "Amateur video shows roadside bomb attack on contractors," CNN, September 17, 2007.
- ↑ "Report: Contractors involved in shooting," Associated Press (WANE.com), September 16, 2007.
- ↑ "Blackwater License Being Pulled in Iraq," Associated Press (New York Times), September 17, 2007.
- ↑ Sabrina Tavernise and James Glanz, "Iraqi Report Says Blackwater Guards Fired First," New York Times, September 19, 2007.
- ↑ " Reuters AlertNet, September 23, 2007.
- ↑ Lara Jakes Jordon and Mat Apuzzo, "FBI Finds Blackwater Trucks Patched," Associated Press, January 12, 2008.
- ↑ Super Tucano, Embraer.com, accessed September 4, 2007.
- ↑ 32.0^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-BBBB_31-0) 32.1^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-BBBB_31-1) "Blackwater Buys Brazilian Bombers," Strategy Page, August 27, 2007.
- ↑ Rod Hafemeister, "Lt. colonels charged with assaulting contractor", Air Force Times, February 26, 2007.
- ↑ "Charges dismissed against officers in Kabul run-in with contractor", Air Force Times, April 4, 2007.
- ↑ Jay Price, "Air Force looks into fight with contractor", The News & Observer (North Carolina), February 21, 2007.
- ↑ wrongedbyblackwater.com via Yahoo cache. Undated, accessed September 30, 2007.
- ↑ Profile: Erik Prince, NNDB.com.
- ↑ 38.0^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Hedges_37-0) 38.1^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Hedges_37-1) Chris Hedges, "America’s Holy Warriors," Truthdig, December 31, 2006.
- ↑ "Memorandum for All Blackwater USA Officers, Employees, and Independent Contractors. Subject: Blackwater USA National Security Oath and Leadership Standards," Prince Group (MountainRunner.us), September 16, 2005.
- ↑ 40.0^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-JerSca_39-0) 40.1^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-JerSca_39-1) Jeremy Scahill and Garrett Ordower, "From Whitewater to Blackwater," The Nation, October 26, 2006.
- ↑ 41.0^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Silv_40-0) 41.1^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Silv_40-1) 41.2^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Silv_40-2) Ken Silverstein, "Revolving Door to Blackwater Causes Alarm at CIA," Harper's Magazine, September 12, 2006.
- ↑ "Black and Prince Launch Intel Company," Iraqslogger, no date. Registration required.
- ↑ IPOA Online Journal, IPOAOnline.org.
- ↑ 44.0^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Frank_43-0) 44.1^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Frank_43-1) Frank Langfitt, "Private Military Firm Pitches Its Services in Darfur," All Things Considered/NPR, May 26, 2006.
- ↑ Anna Maria Tremonti, "Whole Show Blow-by-Blow. *The Current* for Show May 11, 2006," CBC (Canada), May 11, 2006.
- ↑ 46.0^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Sonni_45-0) 46.1^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Sonni_45-1) 46.2^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Sonni_45-2) 46.3^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Sonni_45-3) Sonni Efron, "Worry Grows as Foreigners Flock to Iraq's Risky Jobs," Los Angeles Times (GlobalPolicy.org), July 30, 2005.
- ↑ Jonathan Franklin, "US contractor recruits guards for Iraq in Chile. Forces say experienced soldiers are quitting for private companies which pay more for similar work," The Guardian (UK), March 5, 2004.
- ↑ 48.0^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Size_47-0) 48.1^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Size_47-1) Bill Sizemore, "Blackwater USA says it can supply forces for conflicts," The Virginian-Pilot, March 30, 2006: "Stepping into a potential political minefield, Blackwater USA is offering itself up as an army for hire to police the world's trouble spots."
- ↑ 49.0^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Cortes_48-0) 49.1^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-Cortes_48-1) Claro Cortes, "Manila Newspapers: US Firm Blackwater Recruiting Mercenaries to Fight in Iraq, Authorities Deny it. GN Headline: US firm 'not recruiting mercenaries for Iraq'," *Al-Jazeerah*, June 11, 2006.
- ↑ 50.0^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-SunStar_49-0) 50.1^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xe#cite_ref-SunStar_49-1) "Congress can look into hiring of Pinoy 'mercenaries' to Iraq: Palace," Sun Star (Manila, Philippines), June 12, 2006.
- ↑ Tim Shorrock, "Contractor's arrogance contributed to Iraqi rebellion, Marine Colonel says. 'Money doesn't talk, it swears...'," Tim Shorrock Blogspot, January 31, 2005.
- ↑ http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5io26XfEe4F4LJr8KxWsRUyjO_SbwD8S34P3O0
- ↑ http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/rls/62028.htm
- ↑ http://www.prweek.com/us/news/article/743606/Blackwater-incident-sheds-light-crises/
- ↑ "Blackwater Bolsters Lobby Team," O'Dwyer's PR Daily (sub req'd), January 21, 2008.
- ↑ "Blackwater USA," Lobbyist.info (sub req'd), accessed January 2008.
- ↑ August Cole, "Founder, CEO of Blackwater Steps Aside, 'Worn Out'," Wall Street Journal (sub req'd), March 2, 2009.
External articles
- Background information and series of articles
- Articles for 2003-2006
- Articles for 2007
- Articles for 2008
2009
- Jeremy Scahill, "Blackwater Founder Implicated in Murder," The Nation, August 4, 2009.
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/004355.php
2010
Blackwater's Black Ops
September 18, 2010
Jeremy Scahill
Over the past several years, entities closely linked to the private security firm Blackwater have provided intelligence, training and security services to US and foreign governments as well as several multinational corporations, including Monsanto, Chevron, the Walt Disney Company, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines and banking giants Deutsche Bank and Barclays, according to documents obtained by The Nation. Blackwater's work for corporations and government agencies was contracted using two companies owned by Blackwater's owner and founder, Erik Prince: Total Intelligence Solutions and the Terrorism Research Center (TRC). Prince is listed as the chairman of both companies in internal company documents, which show how the web of companies functions as a highly coordinated operation. Officials from Total Intelligence, TRC and Blackwater (which now calls itself Xe Services) did not respond to numerous requests for comment for this article.
One of the most incendiary details in the documents is that Blackwater, through Total Intelligence, sought to become the "intel arm" of Monsanto, offering to provide operatives to infiltrate activist groups organizing against the multinational biotech firm.
Governmental recipients of intelligence services and counterterrorism training from Prince's companies include the Kingdom of Jordan, the Canadian military and the Netherlands police, as well as several US military bases, including Fort Bragg, home of the elite Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), and Fort Huachuca, where military interrogators are trained, according to the documents. In addition, Blackwater worked through the companies for the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency and the US European Command.
On September 3 the New York Times reported that Blackwater had "created a web of more than 30 shell companies or subsidiaries in part to obtain millions of dollars in American government contracts after the security company came under intense criticism for reckless conduct in Iraq." The documents obtained by The Nation reveal previously unreported details of several such companies and open a rare window into the sensitive intelligence and security operations Blackwater performs for a range of powerful corporations and government agencies. The new evidence also sheds light on the key roles of several former top CIA officials who went on to work for Blackwater.
The coordinator of Blackwater's covert CIA business, former CIA paramilitary officer Enrique "Ric" Prado, set up a global network of foreign operatives, offering their "deniability" as a "big plus" for potential Blackwater customers, according to company documents. The CIA has long used proxy forces to carry out extralegal actions or to shield US government involvement in unsavory operations from scrutiny. In some cases, these "deniable" foreign forces don't even know who they are working for. Prado and Prince built up a network of such foreigners while Blackwater was at the center of the CIA's assassination program, beginning in 2004. They trained special missions units at one of Prince's properties in Virginia with the intent of hunting terrorism suspects globally, often working with foreign operatives. A former senior CIA official said the benefit of using Blackwater's foreign operatives in CIA operations was that "you wouldn't want to have American fingerprints on it."
While the network was originally established for use in CIA operations, documents show that Prado viewed it as potentially valuable to other government agencies. In an e-mail in October 2007 with the subject line "Possible Opportunity in DEA—Read and Delete," Prado wrote to a Total Intelligence executive with a pitch for the Drug Enforcement Administration. That executive was an eighteen-year DEA veteran with extensive government connections who had recently joined the firm. Prado explained that Blackwater had developed "a rapidly growing, worldwide network of folks that can do everything from surveillance to ground truth to disruption operations." He added, "These are all foreign nationals (except for a few cases where US persons are the conduit but no longer 'play' on the street), so deniability is built in and should be a big plus."
The executive wrote back and suggested there "may be an interest" in those services. The executive suggested that "one of the best places to start may be the Special Operations Division, (SOD) which is located in Chantilly, VA," telling Prado the name of the special agent in charge. The SOD is a secretive joint command within the Justice Department, run by the DEA. It serves as the command-and-control center for some of the most sensitive counternarcotics and law enforcement operations conducted by federal forces. The executive also told Prado that US attachés in Mexico; Bogotá, Colombia; and Bangkok, Thailand, would potentially be interested in Prado's network. Whether this network was activated, and for what customers, cannot be confirmed. A former Blackwater employee who worked on the company's CIA program declined to comment on Prado's work for the company, citing its classified status.
In November 2007 officials from Prince's companies developed a pricing structure for security and intelligence services for private companies and wealthy individuals. One official wrote that Prado had the capacity to "develop infrastructures" and "conduct ground-truth and security activities." According to the pricing chart, potential customers could hire Prado and other Blackwater officials to operate in the United States and globally: in Latin America, North Africa, francophone countries, the Middle East, Europe, China, Russia, Japan, and Central and Southeast Asia. A four-man team headed by Prado for countersurveillance in the United States cost $33,600 weekly, while "safehouses" could be established for $250,000, plus operational costs. Identical services were offered globally. For $5,000 a day, clients could hire Prado or former senior CIA officials Cofer Black and Robert Richer for "representation" to national "decision-makers." Before joining Blackwater, Black, a twenty-eight-year CIA veteran, ran the agency's counterterrorism center, while Richer was the agency's deputy director of operations. (Neither Black nor Richer currently works for the company.)
As Blackwater became embroiled in controversy following the Nisour Square massacre, Prado set up his own company, Constellation Consulting Group (CCG), apparently taking some of Blackwater's covert CIA work with him, though he maintained close ties to his former employer. In an e-mail to a Total Intelligence executive in February 2008, Prado wrote that he "recently had major success in developing capabilities in Mali [Africa] that are of extreme interest to our major sponsor and which will soon launch a substantial effort via my small shop." He requested Total Intelligence's help in analyzing the "North Mali/Niger terrorist problem."
In October 2009 Blackwater executives faced a crisis when they could not account for their government-issued Secure Telephone Unit, which is used by the CIA, the National Security Agency and other military and intelligence services for secure communications. A flurry of e-mails were sent around as personnel from various Blackwater entities tried to locate the device. One former Blackwater official wrote that because he had left the company it was "not really my problem," while another declared, "I have no 'dog in this fight.'" Eventually, Prado stepped in, e-mailing the Blackwater officials to "pass my number" to the "OGA POC," meaning the Other Government Agency (parlance for CIA) Point of Contact.
What relationship Prado's CCG has with the CIA is not known. An early version of his company's website boasted that "CCG professionals have already conducted operations on five continents, and have proven their ability to meet the most demanding client needs" and that the company has the "ability to manage highly-classified contracts." CCG, the site said, "is uniquely positioned to deliver services that no other company can, and can deliver results in the most remote areas with little or no outside support." Among the services advertised were "Intelligence and Counter-Intelligence (human and electronic), Unconventional Military Operations, Counterdrug Operations, Aviation Services, Competitive Intelligence, Denied Area Access...and Paramilitary Training."
The Nation has previously reported on Blackwater's work for the CIA and JSOC in Pakistan. New documents reveal a history of activity relating to Pakistan by Blackwater. Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto worked with the company when she returned to Pakistan to campaign for the 2008 elections, according to the documents. In October 2007, when media reports emerged that Bhutto had hired "American security," senior Blackwater official Robert Richer wrote to company executives, "We need to watch this carefully from a number of angles. If our name surfaces, the Pakistani press reaction will be very important. How that plays through the Muslim world will also need tracking." Richer wrote that "we should be prepared to [sic] a communique from an affiliate of Al-Qaida if our name surfaces (BW). That will impact the security profile." Clearly a word is missing in the e-mail or there is a typo that leaves unclear what Richer meant when he mentioned the Al Qaeda communiqué. Bhutto was assassinated two months later. Blackwater officials subsequently scheduled a meeting with her family representatives in Washington, in January 2008.
Through Total Intelligence and the Terrorism Research Center, Blackwater also did business with a range of multinational corporations. According to internal Total Intelligence communications, biotech giant Monsanto—the world's largest supplier of genetically modified seeds—hired the firm in 2008–09. The relationship between the two companies appears to have been solidified in January 2008 when Total Intelligence chair Cofer Black traveled to Zurich to meet with Kevin Wilson, Monsanto's security manager for global issues.
After the meeting in Zurich, Black sent an e-mail to other Blackwater executives, including to Prince and Prado at their Blackwater e-mail addresses. Black wrote that Wilson "understands that we can span collection from internet, to reach out, to boots on the ground on legit basis protecting the Monsanto [brand] name.... Ahead of the curve info and insight/heads up is what he is looking for." Black added that Total Intelligence "would develop into acting as intel arm of Monsanto." Black also noted that Monsanto was concerned about animal rights activists and that they discussed how Blackwater "could have our person(s) actually join [activist] group(s) legally." Black wrote that initial payments to Total Intelligence would be paid out of Monsanto's "generous protection budget" but would eventually become a line item in the company's annual budget. He estimated the potential payments to Total Intelligence at between $100,000 and $500,000. According to documents, Monsanto paid Total Intelligence $127,000 in 2008 and $105,000 in 2009.
Reached by telephone and asked about the meeting with Black in Zurich, Monsanto's Wilson initially said, "I'm not going to discuss it with you." In a subsequent e-mail to The Nation, Wilson confirmed he met Black in Zurich and that Monsanto hired Total Intelligence in 2008 and worked with the company until early 2010. He denied that he and Black discussed infiltrating animal rights groups, stating "there was no such discussion." He claimed that Total Intelligence only provided Monsanto "with reports about the activities of groups or individuals that could pose a risk to company personnel or operations around the world which were developed by monitoring local media reports and other publicly available information. The subject matter ranged from information regarding terrorist incidents in Asia or kidnappings in Central America to scanning the content of activist blogs and websites." Wilson asserted that Black told him Total Intelligence was "a completely separate entity from Blackwater."
Monsanto was hardly the only powerful corporation to enlist the services of Blackwater's constellation of companies. The Walt Disney Company hired Total Intelligence and TRC to do a "threat assessment" for potential film shoot locations in Morocco, with former CIA officials Black and Richer reaching out to their former Moroccan intel counterparts for information. The job provided a "good chance to impress Disney," one company executive wrote. How impressed Disney was is not clear; in 2009 the company paid Total Intelligence just $24,000.
Total Intelligence and TRC also provided intelligence assessments on China to Deutsche Bank. "The Chinese technical counterintelligence threat is one of the highest in the world," a TRC analyst wrote, adding, "Many four and five star hotel rooms and restaurants are live-monitored with both audio and video" by Chinese intelligence. He also said that computers, PDAs and other electronic devices left unattended in hotel rooms could be cloned. Cellphones using the Chinese networks, the analyst wrote, could have their microphones remotely activated, meaning they could operate as permanent listening devices. He concluded that Deutsche Bank reps should "bring no electronic equipment into China." Warning of the use of female Chinese agents, the analyst wrote, "If you don't have women coming onto you all the time at home, then you should be suspicious if they start coming onto you when you arrive in China." For these and other services, the bank paid Total Intelligence $70,000 in 2009.
TRC also did background checks on Libyan and Saudi businessmen for British banking giant Barclays. In February 2008 a TRC executive e-mailed Prado and Richer revealing that Barclays asked TRC and Total Intelligence for background research on the top executives from the Saudi Binladin Group (SBG) and their potential "associations/connections with the Royal family and connections with Osama bin Ladin." In his report, Richer wrote that SBG's chair, Bakr Mohammed bin Laden, "is well and favorably known to both arab and western intelligence service[s]" for cooperating in the hunt for Osama bin Laden. Another SBG executive, Sheikh Saleh bin Laden, is described by Richer as "a very savvy businessman" who is "committed to operating with full transparency to Saudi's security services" and is considered "the most vehement within the extended BL family in terms of criticizing UBL's actions and beliefs."
In August Blackwater and the State Department reached a $42 million settlement for hundreds of violations of US export control regulations. Among the violations cited was the unauthorized export of technical data to the Canadian military. Meanwhile, Blackwater's dealings with Jordanian officials are the subject of a federal criminal prosecution of five former top Blackwater executives. The Jordanian government paid Total Intelligence more than $1.6 million in 2009.
Some of the training Blackwater provided to Canadian military forces was in Blackwater/TRC's "Mirror Image" course, where trainees live as a mock Al Qaeda cell in an effort to understand the mindset and culture of insurgents. Company literature describes it as "a classroom and field training program designed to simulate terrorist recruitment, training, techniques and operational tactics." Documents show that in March 2009 Blackwater/TRC spent $6,500 purchasing local tribal clothing in Afghanistan as well as assorted "propaganda materials—posters, Pakistan Urdu maps, etc." for Mirror Image, and another $9,500 on similar materials this past January in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
According to internal documents, in 2009 alone the Canadian military paid Blackwater more than $1.6 million through TRC. A Canadian military official praised the program in a letter to the center, saying it provided "unique and valid cultural awareness and mission specific deployment training for our soldiers in Afghanistan," adding that it was "a very effective and operationally current training program that is beneficial to our mission."
This past summer Erik Prince put Blackwater up for sale and moved to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. But he doesn't seem to be leaving the shadowy world of security and intelligence. He says he moved to Abu Dhabi because of its "great proximity to potential opportunities across the entire Middle East, and great logistics," adding that it has "a friendly business climate, low to no taxes, free trade and no out of control trial lawyers or labor unions. It's pro-business and opportunity." It also has no extradition treaty with the United States.
29 june 13
Yes, Monsanto Actually DID Buy the BLACKWATER Mercenary Group!
A report by Jeremy Scahill in The Nation revealed that the largest mercenary army in the world, Blackwater (later called Xe Services and more recently “Academi“) clandestine intelligence services was sold to the multinational Monsanto. Blackwater was renamed in 2009 after becoming famous in the world with numerous reports of abuses in Iraq, including massacres of civilians. It remains the largest private contractor of the U.S. Department of State “security services,” that practices state terrorism by giving the government the opportunity to deny it.
Many military and former CIA officers work for Blackwater or related companies created to divert attention from their bad reputation and make more profit selling their nefarious services-ranging from information and intelligence to infiltration, political lobbying and paramilitary training – for other governments, banks and multinational corporations. According to Scahill, business with multinationals, like Monsanto, Chevron, and financial giants such as Barclays and Deutsche Bank, are channeled through two companies owned by Erik Prince, owner of Blackwater: Total Intelligence Solutions and Terrorism Research Center. These officers and directors share Blackwater.
One of them,Cofer Black, known for his brutality as one of the directors of the CIA, was the one who made contact with Monsanto in 2008 as director of Total Intelligence, entering into the contract with the company to spy on and infiltrate organizations of animal rights activists, anti-GM and other dirty activities of the biotech giant.
Contacted by Scahill, the Monsanto executive Kevin Wilson declined to comment, but later confirmed to The Nation that they had hired Total Intelligence in 2008 and 2009, according to Monsanto only to keep track of “public disclosure” of its opponents. He also said that Total Intelligence was a “totally separate entity from Blackwater.”
However, Scahill has copies of emails from Cofer Black after the meeting with Wilson for Monsanto, where he explains to other former CIA agents, using their Blackwater e-mails, that the discussion with Wilson was that Total Intelligence had become “Monsanto’s intelligence arm,” spying on activists and other actions, including “our people to legally integrate these groups.” Total Intelligence Monsanto paid $ 127,000 in 2008 and $ 105,000 in 2009.
No wonder that a company engaged in the “science of death” as Monsanto, which has been dedicated from the outset to produce toxic poisons spilling from Agent Orange to PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), pesticides, hormones and genetically modified seeds, is associated with another company of thugs.
Almost simultaneously with the publication of this article in The Nation, the Via Campesina reported the purchase of 500,000 shares of Monsanto, for more than $23 million by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation,which with this action completed the outing of the mask of “philanthropy.” Another association that is not surprising.
It is a marriage between the two most brutal monopolies in the history of industrialism: Bill Gates controls more than 90 percent of the market share of proprietary computing and Monsanto about 90 percent of the global transgenic seed market and most global commercial seed. There does not exist in any other industrial sector monopolies so vast, whose very existence is a negation of the vaunted principle of “market competition” of capitalism. Both Gates and Monsanto are very aggressive in defending their ill-gotten monopolies.
Although Bill Gates might try to say that the Foundation is not linked to his business, all it proves is the opposite: most of their donations end up favoring the commercial investments of the tycoon, not really “donating” anything, but instead of paying taxes to the state coffers, he invests his profits in where it is favorable to him economically, including propaganda from their supposed good intentions. On the contrary, their “donations” finance projects as destructive as geoengineering or replacement of natural community medicines for high-tech patented medicines in the poorest areas of the world. What a coincidence, former Secretary of Health Julio Frenk and Ernesto Zedillo are advisers of the Foundation.
Like Monsanto, Gates is also engaged in trying to destroy rural farming worldwide, mainly through the “Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa” (AGRA). It works as a Trojan horse to deprive poor African farmers of their traditional seeds, replacing them with the seeds of their companies first, finally by genetically modified (GM). To this end, the Foundation hired Robert Horsch in 2006, the director of Monsanto. Now Gates, airing major profits, went straight to the source.
Blackwater, Monsanto and Gates are three sides of the same figure: the war machine on the planet and most people who inhabit it, are peasants, indigenous communities, people who want to share information and knowledge or any other who does not want to be in the aegis of profit and the destructiveness of capitalism.
So why were so many media outlets, editorialists and bloggers clamoring to say that the purchase was a “hoax”?
That’s a good question. The more cynical among us might suspect a financial incentive from Monsanto itself to such “journalists.” Monsanto indeed has hired a public relations team to seek out critical blogs and websites reporting on their crimes against both Nature and humankind. We have seen this first hand in comments on PoliticalBlindSpot.com articles on Monsanto. It is not beyond the realm of possibilities that they have created blogs where seemingly legitimate authors write organic thoughts, observations and rebuttals. The public presumes these are real-world people, when in fact they are working PR for the company.
But the core argument of those who claim that the Monsanto purchase of Blackwater is not true lies in the fact that we can only officially document Blackwater being hired by Monsanto for years. Immediately following this extensive work that Blackwater did for Monsanto, they sold the company. Because of the nature of how the sale transpired, it is impossible to document who the sale was to. The obvious and logical conclusion to insiders (particularly in the private security industry), however, is that the sale was in fact to Monsanto who had been employing the group.
Xe (now **Academi**) has, indeed, been purchased, and while there’s no way of DOCUMENTING who the new owners really are, the logical conclusion would be that Monsanto, who had been employing them prior to the sale are the new owners. This, of course, would also make sense of the secrecy surrounding the deal and the identity of the new owners. Thecompany was bought out by private investors via private equity companies that don’t have to divulge any of their dealings, with Bank of America providing much of the $200 million in financing for the deal.
New York-based USTC Holdings said it will acquire Xe and its core operating subsidiaries, but did not disclose the price or terms of the agreement in a statement.
USTC Holdings is an investor consortium led by private equity firms Forte Capital Advisors and Manhattan Partners.
Various researchers have been trying to document the buy via a paper trail, but so far without much luck. That, of course, is the point…
Keeping it private
One thing that is known:Forte Capital Advisors is the baby of long-time Blackwater ally Jason De Yonker:
DeYonker has unique experience with the Company that dates back to its founding in the late 1990s. He advised the Company through development of its early business plan and expansion of the Moyock training facility as well as supporting negotiations of its first training contracts with U.S. government agencies. Between 1998 and 2002, Mr. DeYonker co-managed Xe founder, Erik Prince’s family office which included management of Mr. Prince’s portfolio companies.
What does that mean? The guy is a glorified accountant.
Prior to joining Forté, Jason co-managed a +$100 million family office. In addition to actively managing various platform companies, Jason was a part of the executive team responsible for family wealth management.
Jason has spent the last 18 years advising on various mergers, acquistions and divestitures with an aggregate transaction value greater than $1 billion. Jason’s experience include: transaction advisory, portfolio management, real estate development, venture capital and cross border dealings. Jason began his career with Arthur Andersen Corporate Finance Group, and was a Director in Deloitte & Touche’s Corporate Finance Group. He also was the Finance Director for the West Family Trust, a venture capital group focused on cross-border transactons.
Jason recieved a Bachelor of Business Administration, with a concentration in finance and accounting, from the Univeristy of Michigan.
The other investor? It looks like the very junior partner will be Manhattan Partners, a private equity company – a shop that gathers money from anonymous rich investors and uses the pool of cash to leverage buyouts of big companies they wouldn’t have been able to take over on their own.
Manhattan Partners invests in “compelling growth and special situation transactions,” but this will be their first known foray into defense industries – WarIsBusiness.com reports (via Spencer Ackerman):
Manhattan Growth Partners is led by Dean Bosacki and Patrick McBride. Bosacki serves on the board of “the world’s largest commencement photography business,” among other companies. Manhattan Growth Partners, which describes itself as “a progressive thinking private equity firm,” also holds a majority interest in Hugo Naturals, a line of organic, vegan-friendly soaps, lotions, scents and soy candles sold at Whole Foods and other greenwashed retailers.
At the end of the day, it would seem the logical conclusion is that in spite of arguments to the contrary, Monsanto in fact did by the Blackwater mercenary group… or at least the renamed Blackwater Xe (now Academi) Services group. The big question now is why?
READ MORE >>
rightweb:
- Institute for the Study of War:Board Member
- Academi LLC (Formerly Blackwater and Xe):Senior adviser
- Fox News:Military analyst
- U.S. Army:Former four-star general, Vice Chief of Staff
Please note: IPS Right Web neither represents nor endorses any of the individuals or groups profiled on this site.
John F. “Jack” Keane, a 37-year U.S. army veteran, former four-star general, and former vice chief of staff of the Army, is a vocal advocate of hawkish U.S. foreign policies. Well connected among both defense contractors and the neoconservative advocacy community, Keane has served as a board member at the Institute for the Study of War—a hawkish military policy institute that has been directed by Kimberly Kagan and chaired by Liz Cheney—and is a frequent guest on Fox News.
Keane’s appearances on Fox occasionally attract attention, such as his March 2012 claim on Mike Huckabee’s program that President Barack Obama knew Osama bin Laden’s whereabouts nearly a year before ordering the raid that led to the al-Qaeda leader’s assassination. “We had the target in the summer [of] 2010 and it took until the following May to execute the mission. … I know for a fact we had it that summer,“ Keane claimed. He suggested, oddly, that the Obama administration had exercised “delay and procrastination” while the White House “was trying to verify that the target was actually there.” Huckabee did not press Keane to substantiate any of his claims.[[1]](http://www.rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/keane_jack#_edn1)
Since leaving the military, Keane has enjoyed a successful private-sector career that has often appeared to dovetail with his political advocacy. In addition to serving on the corporate boards of MetLife, General Dynamics, and Allied Barton Security, Keane is also a co-founder of Keane Advisors LLC, a financial consulting firm that specializes in working with military contractors.[[2]](http://www.rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/keane_jack#_edn2)
In June 2012, Keane was named a “senior adviser” to Academi LLC, the most recent incarnation of the notorious military contractor Blackwater. Announcing Keane’s selection, Academi board member and former White House Counsel Jack Quinn called Keane “an American hero” whose “commitment to our national security is second to none.” Quinn promised that Keane “will help continue to bring Academi to an even higher level of performance.”[[3]](http://www.rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/keane_jack#_edn3)
Because Keane advocates prolonged counterinsurgency campaigns and military confrontations that would presumably benefit his business with military contractors, Real News Network reporter Jesse Freeston has called him “a textbook example of the military-industrial complex in action.”[[4]](http://www.rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/keane_jack#_edn4)
Advocacy
Keane was a stalwart opponent of withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq and remains an avid supporter of the war in Afghanistan,
in March 2012, “If we move out too early, if we cut and run, we will turn [Afghanistan] back into a sanctuary, the al-Qaeda will return, and the risk I believe to the United States is absolutely unacceptable.”
In a January 2012 appearance on the network, Keane also predicted war with Iran. “I think we’ve been on a collision course with Iran since 1980 when they declared us their strategic, number-one enemy in the world,” he said, “and they’ve been using state-sponsored terrorism against us through their proxies for 30 years and it’s not gonna stop. I think it’s inevitable that we will have some kind of conflict with them.” During the interview, Keane suggested that U.S. intelligence agencies believed Iran was “a year or two away from [nuclear] weaponization” —even though, as of mid-2012, U.S. intelligence officials have continued to conclude that Iranian leaders have not decided to build a nuclear weapon.[[5]](http://www.rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/keane_jack#_edn5)
Keane is perhaps best known for his co-authorship, with AEI’s Frederick Kagan, of “Choosing Victory: A Plan for Success in Iraq,” a 2007 policy paper that many observers—including Gen. Davis Petraeus[[6]](http://www.rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/keane_jack#_edn6)—credited with laying the political groundwork for President Bush’s troop surge in Iraq. Keane subsequently became a vocal public proponent of U.S. counterinsurgency campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, warning about the alleged impact of “failure” in Iraq on regional security issues, including in Iran. In an October 2011 interview with Fox News, for example. Keane suggested that the then-pending Iraq drawdown was “a disaster” that would weaken U.S. “influence” against Iran.[[7]](http://www.rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/keane_jack#_edn7)
Shortly after the Fox interview, on October 26, 2011, Keane appeared at a U.S. House of Representatives hearing on “Iranian Terror Operations on American Soil” to discuss an alleged plot by Iran to kill the Saudi ambassador to the United States. Discussing the alleged conspirators, Keane said: “We’ve got to put our hand around their throat now. … Why don’t we kill them? We kill other people who kill others.” Keane described Iran as “our number-one strategic enemy in the world,” declaring the alleged plot a “stunning rebuke to the Obama administration’s policy of negotiation and isolation with the Iranians.” He then recommended undertaking “covert operations led by the CIA” and giving “money, information, and encouragement to the dissident leaders inside Iran to use their population to put pressure on the regime.” Joining Keane at the hearing were Reuel Marc Gerecht of the neoconservative Foundation for Defense of Democracies and Matthew Levitt of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a spin-off of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.[[8]](http://www.rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/keane_jack#_edn8)
Investigative journalist Gareth Porter credited Keane with quietly working behind the scenes to curry both active and retired military opinion in favor of a protracted U.S. presence in Iraq. In a 2009 interview with the Real News Network, Porter called Keane “the mafia don of this network of retired and active-duty generals who are now quietly at work trying to figure out how they can really turn this [Iraq] storyline … against Obama, making sure that anybody in the Pentagon who meets with a reporter is going to give the same line that … [Obama]'s threatening stability in Iraq.”[[9]](http://www.rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/keane_jack#_edn9)
bs
Suzanne Folsom, SVP, General Counsel & Chief Compliance Officer
Suzanne Rich Folsom is the SVP, General Counsel & Chief Compliance Officer at ACADEMI. Ms. Folsom is an expert in regulatory and compliance risk management and corporate governance. She has proven executive leadership skills at the world's largest and most diverse corporations and international organizations such as AIG, the World Bank Group, the United Nations and leading international law firms O'Melveny & Myers LLP and Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP. Ms. Folsom has lived around the world while working as a lawyer, policy advisor and governance specialist.
Ms. Folsom was recruited by AIG to lead the regulatory and compliance team, and to remedy the company's material weaknesses. During her tenure, Ms. Folsom installed a best in class regulatory and compliance framework and program for the company and its more than 3,000 subsidiaries in 130 countries. Ms. Folsom and her team were widely praised by international regulators from around the globe for their extraordinary efforts during a time of heightened concern over the global financial crisis.
Prior to her work at AIG, Ms. Folsom distinguished herself as a tireless advocate for good governance and a courageous champion of global anti-corruption initiatives at the World Bank Group. From 2003 to 2008, she served as the Counselor to the President of the World Bank Group. During her tenure, she also assumed the role of Director of U.S. Affairs, and later was selected as the Bank's Director of the Department of Institutional Integrity. Ms. Folsom's extensive and diverse professional experience includes eight years with O'Melveny & Myers LLP, where she served as Special Counsel and advised a host of high-profile international and domestic clients.
Previously, Ms. Folsom served as the Chief of Staff to Her Majesty Queen Noor of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. In addition, she served as First Family Liaison to the U.S. Presidential Inaugural Committee and Special Assistant to Mrs. Barbara Bush for the 1988 Presidential Campaign. Ms. Folsom’s political career also includes serving as Executive Director of a women's political action committee.
Ms. Folsom received her political science degree from Duke University and her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, where she focused on international law, ethics and corporate governance. Ms. Folsom has lectured on issues of ethics, compliance and governance at professional forums including the American Bar Association, the International Bar Association, Harvard Law School, the World Bank, and the Inter-American Bank as well as private institutions and associations. She is published in the area of governance and is a frequent commentator in the press and media on issues pertaining to corporate ethics and governance. She has worked in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East.