When I initially started to do research on this post, I had intended to focus primarily on the use of private contractors in war zones in general. But, the more I read about Blackwater USA, the more troubled I became. What follows here is a condensed version of what I've come across. I say "condensed", because, quite literally, something new would come out about Blackwater every day. These are some of the things that I find interesting, and some things that I had never heard about at all. I didn't focus on the war crimes they have allegedly committed, as that would have been several posts in itself...
Blackwater USA's founder, Erik Prince, was born June 6, 1969 in Holland, Michigan. His father, Edgar D. Prince, was the founder of the The Prince Corporation, whose claim to fame(and fortune incidentally) was the lighted vanity mirror most of us have embedded in our car's sun visors. He also co-founded the radical, religious right's Family Research Council. In fact, Erik was among the first team of interns that Gary Bauer took on in Washington at the Family Research Council. The Prince family's ties to the Christian Fundamentalist right, cannot be understated. Prince's father was one of the primary bank rollers of Newt Gingrichs' 1994 "Republican Revolution". Young Erik and his family are also very close to James Dobson and his Focus on the Family Prayer Warrior Network. Over the years, Erik has contributed over $250,000 dollars to various Republican candidates. And also some Green Party candidates in 2006 to try to defeat Democrats in a few races. I think it's safe to say he's a staunch, and loyal Republican.
Prince attended the United States Naval Academy for a short period, before leaving and attending Hillsdale College as an economics major. After graduation Prince went to work as an intern for George H.W. Bush's administration, but this was cut short due to ideological reasons...he felt as though the administration was not "conservative enough for him". Prince was quoted in a local Michigan paper as saying, "I saw a lot of things I didn't agree with—homosexual groups being invited in, the budget agreement, the 'Clean Air Act', those kinds of bills". After leaving the Bush (41) administration, he served as an intern to California Republican Representative Dana Rohrabacher, former Reagan speech writer, denier of global warming, and most recently a staunch proponent of his good friend(and convicted felon), Jack Abramoff...
The Founding of Blackwater USA
Prince joined the United States Navy in 1992 where he served as a Navy Seal Officer. Some of his deployments included Haiti, parts of the Middle East and Bosnia. His tenure as a Navy Seal was cut short in 1995 with the unexpected death of his father. Upon returning home to be with his family, Prince's mother, Elsa, decided to sell the Prince Corporation for $1.4 billion. Damn. Lighted , vanity mirrors paid off quite well. Suddenly, Erik Prince found himself to be a billionaire. There are many published reports suggesting that he absolutely loathed leaving the military. So, what's an ex-Navy Seal billionaire to do with his time and money? Why, start his own paramilitary, of course. Mr. Prince moved to Virginia Beach in 1997 and personally financed Blackwater U.S.A, buying 6,000 acres of swampland in North Carolina to set up a school for "special operations operators". The monstrosity that has become Blackwater was born.
Blackwater East
So, what exactly does Blackwater do at this compound? The short answer is they train mercenaries and law enforcement agencies. Both domestic and foreign. Here is a short propaganda video of theirs that details some of the activities that are going on at the compound.
Oh, yea. This video fails to mention the life sized, mock Columbine High School they have on premises for training purposes. That creeps me out. So, what's wrong with a guy supporting his political party, as long as it's by legal means, and starting his own security firm? Absolutely nothing. Last time I checked this was America. The problem isn't owning a private security firm. The problem is when you cross the line from being a security firm, to being a well financed, fundamentalist ideology driven, small, formidable private army. Private army you say? Here's where it gets a little crazy...
Blackwater Aviation
Aviation Worldwide Services and Presidential Airways were founded in 1998 by Blackwater. This serves as their "aviation division". It currently consists of, approximately, 22 rotary and fixed-wing aircraft, including the CASA 212 cargo plane. However, the company has recently struck a deal with Brazil that will send, at least, five EMB-314 Super Tucano counter-intelligence, light attack aircraft. Blackwater aviation recently won an indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) type contract for $92 million to "provide all fixed-wing aircraft, personnel, equipment, tools, material, maintenance and supervision necessary to perform passenger, cargo and combi Short Take-Off and Landing air transportation services between locations in the Area of Responsibility of Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan". Incidentally, they were awarded this contract only days after Erik Prince testified before the Senate about the shooting by Blackwater personnel that resulted in the deaths of 17 Iraqi civilians. It is being reported that the FBI investigation into the matter has concluded 14 of the 17 shootings were unjustified...but I digress. There is another Orwellian-er, interesting "wing"(no pun intended) to Blackwater aviation. Blackwater Airships LLC is an ambitious effort that would make any super villain extremely proud.
Founded in January 2006, With a mission statement "to build a remotely piloted airship vehicle (RPAV). Although seemingly different from the traditional Blackwater mission, this new venture to provide a persistent surveillance capability is fully consistent with the Blackwater goal of offering solutions which help to protect our forces wherever they are deployed and support our homeland security." Blackwater seems to want to get in on some of the multi-billion dollar blimp action that the Pentagon has recently announced it is adamantly seeking. Blackwater owns an airport in Camden County, Virginia which includes a 6,000-foot-long, 80-foot-wide runway, another perpendicular airstrip 2,550 feet long and a 20,000-square-foot hangar, according to county records. The airport also contains a 66,569-square-foot, two-story metal building with nearly 300 rooms. Now Blackwater has it's own small air force, and a surveillance blimp division.
Blackwater Spy Agency
Total Intelligence Solutions, LLC was launched in February of 2007. Erik Prince hired Cofer Black, former CIA Director's Special Assistant for Counter-terrorism as well as the National Intelligence Officer for counter-terrorism, to oversee the venture. Mr. Black was made (in)famous by his installation of the "extraordinary rendition program", or the sending of prisoners to countries in which we know they will be tortured during interrogation. I don't think I'll be sending him a Christmas card this year, how about you?. Using the C.I.A. connections he's made over the years, Mr. Black has amassed, and still is amassing, a "mini-C.I.A." of retired "spooks". T.I.S. states, "Total Intel is the answer to those complex and often fast-breaking requirements. We provide a one-stop service able to meet all the intelligence, operational and security needs required by today's global business environment." They are targeting Fortune 1000 companies, supposedly. Now Blackwater has a subsidiary that basically gives them their own, small, highly trained and highly "connected" spy network...Do I see a pattern here?
Blackwater Maritime
Blackwater Maritime Security Solutions with a mission statement stating they "Will also provide international anti and counter-piracy, and anti and counter-terrorism security programs led by the world’s finest maritime special operations and security professionals. BMSS will soon offer its complete tactical maritime security training services aboard fully operational maritime platforms. This capability allows BMSS to conduct real-world tactical training for maritime force protection units while underway, at anchor, or in port". Hmm...do I smell a small fleet of "training ships" in the near future. Blackwater is soon to have it's own "mini-navy".
Blackwater Armored
Blackwater is even venturing into the armored vehicle market with, "The Grizzly". An armored vehicle designed to withstand roadside bombs...and haul ass. Seriously.
Hurricane Katrina
Immediately after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, and I do mean immediately...180+ Blackwater workers where on the ground in Louisiana less than 36 hours after the levee's broke...without a contract from the U.S. government. A short time after however, Blackwater landed a $73 million contract to protect FEMA staff helping with the Katrina recovery operation. This was Blackwater's first foray into domestic operations.
Blackwater West and North
If you thought Blackwater USA was just going to relegate itself to North Carolina and Virginia, I have a surprise for you. They're coming to a town near you! They are trying to build an 824 acre compound about 45 miles East of San Diego, near the rural community of Potrero. This will be "Blackwater West" Although, the local townspeople are in fierce opposition to the idea. This also happens to be part of the area that was recently affected by the wild fires in California. "But I live up North", you say?. Never fear-er...wait...scratch that, for they have Blackwater North. An 800+ acre swath of land about 100 miles outside Chicago, and about 25 miles from Mount Carroll, IL. But wait...there's more...Blackwater has also applied for operational licenses in every coastal state in the United States.
"Liberal" Ties, as well?
Even though Erik Prince has an incredibly strong bond with extreme right wing Conservatives, the old adage still rings true. If you want to know the truth, just follow the money. The first two Federal contracts Blackwater ever received were during the Clinton administration. In February 2000, Blackwater wins its first federal contract. The company is entered into the General Services Administration contracting database for government-approved goods and services. This enables it to compete for larger, longer-term federal contracts. October 12, 2000, the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen...Blackwater gets its first long-term federal contract to train sailors for the U.S. Navy. By 2001, Blackwater's federal contracts totaled $736,906. Thanks Bill. Another recent incident has been all over the news lately, the shooting of 17 Iraqi's by Blackwater employees in September. It seems a couple weeks before Mr. Prince was scheduled to testify before the Senate concerning this event he hired a PR firm to do damage control(like any corporation would). Mr. Prince chose the services of Burson-Marsteller. Their CEO is Mark Penn. And Mark Penn just happens to be Hillary Clinton's Chief Political Strategist. Her Karl Rove, if you will. Coincidences? Maybe so, but there's one thing I'm sure of. No matter who wins the '08 election, be it Democrat or Republican, Blackwater will still be around for a long time. It's not just a Republican/Religous Right issue.
My Thoughts
Well, like I said before, I did not intend to specifically focus on Blackwater in this post. I just became, more and more concerned the more I read. My concerns are really two-fold. One, it obviously doesn't take a rocket scientist to connect the dots and see what's really going on here. Having a private security firm is one thing. But, having a small, private army is quite another. I look at it like this. I remember after the OKC bombing, there was a push to come down on some of the private militias in the US. Do you think the Federal government would allow any one of these groups to attain the kind of weaponry Mr. Prince has acquired-much less assemble his own spy network staffed by ex-CIA employees? I think not. Whether it is an insane, skinhead militia, or an insane Christian fundamentalist corporation, I believe it's dangerous for a group like this to have an obscene amount of weaponry at their disposal. That's how coup's happen. Not only that, but if a company like Blackwater knows that they are likely to get multi-million dollar contracts after terrorist attacks, or natural disasters(fires...maybe a levee breaking?), it wouldn't take a great stretch of the imagination to consider the possibility of them carrying out attacks themselves, just for business. That's just putting to much power in the hands of a few. Keep in mind I'm totally for the Right to Bear Arms. I just don't believe the founding fathers meant for it to cover jets, armored personnel carriers, nor a spy network.
Second, is the whole private contractor issue itself, and this is a pretty straight forward reason I believe. Anyone who has read my posts, or listened to my music, know that I oppose the war in Iraq. There are somewhere between 160,000-180,000 private contractors carrying out work in Iraq right now. We(the US) have around 160,000 soldiers in Iraq. When we have more private contractors than we do troops on the ground, something has been seriously fucked up somewhere down the line. Granted, not all the contractors over there are like Blackwater. There are people over there doing legitimate work to help rebuild Iraq, they are not all mercenaries trying to destroy anything that moves. But, my thinking is this. If we have more private corporation contractors over there than we do troops, it seems only logical to say if we didn't have those private contractors over there, we wouldn't be fighting a war in Iraq right now. It would take a military draft to have enough troops to occupy the country any further. And that would be political suicide given the popularity of the war at this stage. Right? Or am I a fucktard? So, there you go. That's my advice on how to bring our troops home. Pass legislation severely limiting the use of private contractors. But that will never happen, as the private contractors are made up of old friends in Washington and huge political donors. It's a thought though. I sure don't hear any of our politicians with any rock solid plans for getting us the hell out of Iraq.
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