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Blackwater's once-reclusive Erik Prince has launched a PR offensive, bringing the press to the private-security firm's Moyock, N.C. compound and showing up on TV chat shows. (More on that in a moment.) The strategy is clear enough: Prince wants to debunk Blackwater's image as out-of-control mercenaries in the wake of the Nisour Square shootings. And that's because Prince is prepping his company for even more lucrative contracts than the billion dollars Blackwater has received from the U.S. government since 9/11. As The Wall Street Journal reports today, Prince is looking to take on the biggest defense contractors in the country.
According to the Blackwater founder and CEO, private security -- guarding U.S. personnel in war-torn countries, as Blackwater does in Iraq -- shouldn't be what defines the company. "We see the security market diminishing," he told the paper. Instead, Blackwater wants to grow its training and logistics work, placing Blackwater in the center of what the WSJ terms "missions to which the [U.S. military] won't commit American forces." For example, Blackwater recently outbid Lockheed Martin, Northrup Grumman and Raytheon for a five-year, $15 billion contract to "fight terrorists with drug ties." Get ready to see a lot of Blackwater in Colombia.
Signs of Blackwater's expansion -- even amidst the Nisour Square controversy -- are evident, the paper reports:
The company has a fleet of 40 aircraft, including small turboprop cargo planes that can land on runways too small or rough for the Air Force. The company's aviation unit has done repeat business with the Defense Department in Central Asia, flying small loads of cargo between bases.Also in the North Carolina compound: an armored-car production line that Mr. Prince says will be able to build 1,000 of the brutish-looking Grizzly vehicles a year. The project arose out of a need for Blackwater to protect its security convoys in Iraq. Drawing on Mr. Prince's family history in the automotive industry, Blackwater made sure that the vehicles are legal to drive on U.S. highways.
Mr. Prince bought a 183-foot civilian vessel that Blackwater has modified for potential paramilitary use. Mr. Prince sees the ship as a possible step into worlds such as search-and-rescue, peacekeeping and maritime training.
It's not clear whether Blackwater would seek, or get, private-security roles in its Defense Department contracts akin to those it has from the State Department in Iraq. Nor is it clear how exactly Blackwater managed to beat such established defense giants for the narco-terrorism contract.
But it is looking more like Blackwater might actually be kicked out of Iraq. For the first time since the shootings on September 16, U.S. and Iraqi officials are seriously negotiating the company's expulsion. Evidently, Prince is preparing for such a loss by fighting Blackwater's reputation in the court of public opinion -- and then laying the ground for much, much bigger things.
Comments (49)
Nell wrote on October 15, 2007 9:48 AM:"...a fleet of 40 aircraft, including small turboprop cargo planes that can land on runways too small or rough for the Air Force. The company's aviation unit has done repeat business with the Defense Department in Central Asia, flying small loads of cargo between bases."
How conveeeenient.
For anyone who is old enough to remember the 1980s, much less us geezers who have first-hand memory of the 1960s, this should set off loud alarm bells.
Our government used to use the CIA and its assets for this kind of thing; the 1980s saw its transformation into "The Enterprise", an off-the-shelf private network for the conduct of covert foreign policy. Now the privatization is almost complete.
Let them go another year or two, and they won't depend on our tax dollars at all. They'll be funding themselves entirely from ferrying drugs and weapons.
sparish wrote on October 15, 2007 9:51 AM:Creepy.
If these are his current goals and equipment one could imagine he has larger ambitions. If Blackwater is for hire to the largest bidder....and located here...................?
sparish wrote on October 15, 2007 9:52 AM:Creepy.
If these are his current goals and equipment one could imagine he has larger ambitions. If Blackwater is for hire to the largest bidder....and located here...................?
sparish wrote on October 15, 2007 9:52 AM:Creepy.
If these are his current goals and equipment one could imagine he has larger ambitions. If Blackwater is for hire to the largest bidder....and located here...................?
susan parish wrote on October 15, 2007 9:52 AM:Creepy.
If these are his current goals and equipment one could imagine he has larger ambitions. If Blackwater is for hire to the largest bidder....and located here...................?
Books Alive wrote on October 15, 2007 10:00 AM:We learned this fall about Blackwater's Airship LLC division. As their website explains, this remotely piloted airship vehicle (RPAV) is placed high in the air above the designated area to be surveilled, then it takes remote photos, etc as part of its communications capability. A professor in California has written on the role of these specialized airships.
http://www.blackwaterusa.com/airship/
Fred M. wrote on October 15, 2007 10:06 AM:The dems are going to have to make all this privatization of military operations an issue in 2008. Sending mercenaries into areas like Colombia with no rules of engagement or accountability is asking for huge problems.
I cannot believe how quickly the tenets and principles of our democracy have been kicked to the curb by this administration and either an enabling or spineless Congress!
Who in their right mind doesn't see this use of Blackwater and other mercenaries as nothing less than a private political army answerable only to the administration and offering them "plausible deniability?"
We are being turned into a fascist state and our media continues to concentrate on societal trivia.
nedu wrote on October 15, 2007 10:13 AM:The CIA is accountable to the administration of the United States.
Blackwater is not.
lilybart wrote on October 15, 2007 10:13 AM:Why don't we use Blackwater in Darfur and the Congo and Myanmar?
I could approve of using mercenaries to stop genocides.
Blackwater is evil, and I doubt we can kill it, so let's use them for good.
Lemons to lemonade and all
Muzzy wrote on October 15, 2007 10:17 AM:Re: "Also in the North Carolina compound: an armored-car production line that Mr. Prince says will be able to build 1,000 of the brutish-looking Grizzly vehicles a year...Drawing on Mr. Prince's family history in the automotive industry, Blackwater made sure that the vehicles are legal to drive on U.S. highways."
Made sure they are legal to drive on U.S. highways?!!
I have a terrible feeling about future intentions on our own soil.
JDub wrote on October 15, 2007 10:18 AM:Why is it exactly that we, the citizens of the United States, should rush to defend and protect these goons?
Remember Faluja and the "outrage" over the contractors strung up and torched. Grusome? Certainly. Unfortunate, I'd say so. But the "contractors" are getting paid big bucks and enter into the situations they find themselves in VOLUNTARILY, unlike our fine and committed soldiers who are ordered into harms way.
Maybe after the recently exposed events of unwarranted killing of Iraqi civilians we as Americans can start to better understand the level of frustration being felt daily by our Iraqi "hosts".
My big question is, when the Blackwater boat is sunk, or a plane is shot out of the air in Central America, is our military, and America at large, going to be expected to rush to help/rescue/defend these profiteers? Also, since Blackwater is a private enterprise, I assume, under the classic "free market" system, that they are for hire by the highest bidder, what's to stop them from taking up arms against American interests? I do not think that it will be their conscience.
Eric Prince, what a greedy tool. Why doesn't he just go buy an island somewhere? What an embarassment.
A truly patriotic American wouldn't defend the horrifically cruel actions of his miscreant employees, he'd fire them, help to make them face justice, and defend the good name of our country.
SVH wrote on October 15, 2007 10:19 AM:Mercenaries, or Sociopath's with a government contract?
We don't need organization's like Blackwater mixed up in US Foreign Policy- it's tough enough as it is with those units who obey the law.
Let them go the way of Halliburton and get them out of the US; at least that way our military can freely deal with them with the 'extreme prejudice' they offer others.
SVH wrote on October 15, 2007 10:21 AM:Best idea I've heard yet...
-----------
lilybart wrote on October 15, 2007 10:13 AM:
Why don't we use Blackwater in Darfur and the Congo and Myanmar?
I could approve of using mercenaries to stop genocides.
Blackwater is evil, and I doubt we can kill it, so let's use them for good.
Lemons to lemonade and all
theWalrus wrote on October 15, 2007 10:24 AM:Oh...this can't be good. Private militia contracted to the highest bidders around the world and accountable to no laws?
Welcome to the Neocon World. Rule By Force.
mike Mid City wrote on October 15, 2007 10:36 AM:Dismantle Blackwater and outlaw such business interest.
Tim Kane wrote on October 15, 2007 10:38 AM:What happens if a democrat takes office and they don't want to use Blackwater, or heaven forbid, peace breaks out?
What happens if Hillary cancels the check?
Might Blackwater attack us? Or, I mean, our government?
Are we going to have to use our military to fight Blackwater someday? Meanwhile Blackwater outbids the U.S. government for the best soldiers?
We are moving into the realm of the absurd, the sureal and the deeply, deeply immoral.
This nation is sliding into an abyss.
Prince of Blackwater, Prince of Darkness, Abyss,... one of these things is not like the other, one of these things isn't a metaphore, one of these things is real.
Imagine, the next election, the public will have choice between Blackwater and White Water. The choice should be easy. But I fear this nation has lost its moral faculty.
Billy Pilgrim wrote on October 15, 2007 10:39 AM:This is a page right out of George Orwell's Animal Farm. The future is here, and it's as ugly as Orwell foresaw it.
Richard L. Adlof wrote on October 15, 2007 10:42 AM:No shame. No morals. No problems. Blackwater . . .
When corporations grow armies.
Buckminster wrote on October 15, 2007 10:44 AM:Is there a 'fight fire with fire' mentality behind this? Are we trying to fight a non-state terrorist organization (Al Qaeda) with our own non-state terrorist organization?
The potential for this thing to get out of our control and run amok is the most frightening.
Richard L. Adlof wrote on October 15, 2007 10:49 AM:No shame. No morals. No problems. Blackwater, the army money can buy . . .
When corporations grow militaries.
(But not mercenary . . . No, NOT mercenary . . . Please don't sue me.)
Richard L. Adlof wrote on October 15, 2007 10:49 AM:No shame. No morals. No problems. Blackwater, the army money can buy . . .
When corporations grow militaries.
(But not mercenary . . . No, NOT mercenary . . . Please don't sue me.)
modmom wrote on October 15, 2007 10:51 AM:Why would the Bush Administration need such a loyalist to handle terrorists with drug ties?
Remember that Gulf Stream plane crash with tons of Coke and ties to CIA rendition flights?
Still, some facts have come to light, thanks to reporting done mostly by the McClatchy News Service. (The Sun-Sentinel has failed to so much as mention the crash, and the McClatchy-owned Miami Herald has given it only brief attention.) O'Connor and Smith reportedly bought the Gulfstream from a pair of Brazilian businessmen on September 16. That same day, according to logs available on www.flightaware.com, the plane was flown from Clearwater to Fort Lauderdale Executive, which is operated by the city that bears its name.
Two days later, at 7:22 p.m. September 18, according to the logs, the 80-foot-long jet with tail number N987SA took off from Fort Lauderdale for Cancun. It's not clear precisely who piloted that flight. O'Connor has never been certified to fly a jet like the Gulfstream.
The plane picked up the cocaine in Colombia and was en route to El Chapo's gang when it ran into trouble over the town of Tixkokob, on the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexican authorities said. The Gulfstream apparently flew over Tixkobob for two hours before the Mexican military was notified and sent helicopters to chase it. That led to the crash in the countryside. There were no reported injuries. The pilot was arrested, as were two other men who allegedly tried to bribe officials at the crash scene.
The jet had its own mysteries. Between 2003 and 2005, it was flown from Guantanamo, the U.S. base in Cuba, to Washington, D.C., and Oxford, Connecticut, leading to speculation that the CIA might have used it for the "rendition" of terrorism suspects.
-snip
http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/2007-10-11/news/dogging-a-high-flying-bird/print
John Parker wrote on October 15, 2007 10:57 AM:I got a feeling that Blackwater is actually becoming an "American Hezbollah or Al Qaeda" for domestic purposes. It's high time we fight back against these domestic terrorists and neutralize everything that Blackwater represents.
bwindrip wrote on October 15, 2007 11:40 AM:"Drawing on Mr. Prince's family history in the automotive industry, Blackwater made sure that the vehicles are legal to drive on U.S. highways."
Why am I not thrilled?...
iggy wrote on October 15, 2007 11:55 AM:Oh he is a PRINCE alright!
kist93 wrote on October 15, 2007 11:58 AM:So with U.S. backing, Blackwater is set to become a state sponsored terrorist group? I thought that was supposed to be a bad thing.
kjoe wrote on October 15, 2007 12:10 PM:When will a member of the news media press a presidential candidate to spell out a position regarding the use of Blackwater and other privatized whatever they are(s)? It is probably a more significant issue and/or clue than silly stuff about what they will do by 2013 in iraq, or the details of spending 300 dollars per citizen to give eveyone 4000 dollars worth of healthcare.
DickTater wrote on October 15, 2007 12:13 PM:Yeah, why are we fighting Blackwater in Iraq when we could fight them here?
Watch yer butts, folks.
Corporations are not just going to bow out, now that we have found they swindled our government out from under us....and are the True Power in this country.
They have kept a facade, these last decades, of being just corporations on american soil. But the time has come where they can no longer afford to mask their intentions and true roles. It is too expensive and inefficient to always perform these big, public galas of moving political forces(opinion) to legalize the corporations and their actions. Soon, they will just have to drop the act and admit they are running the shop - so they can dispense with the Kabuki and get right to the business of shoving shit down our throats.
vera wrote on October 15, 2007 12:14 PM:Are there no laws on the books to prohibit private armies acting at the behest of a US-government? If not why not?
SLOUCH wrote on October 15, 2007 12:19 PM:The earnings potential for these private armies is staggering. Now I understand why Bremer was unable to explain and account for significant $'s during his Viceroyship, or why Wolfowitz would not commit to how $ amounts needed soon after the invasion.
Until the guns for hire are thrown out of Iraq, there will be no withdrawal. Iraq is the biggest money maker for their likes as well as Halliburton and the others. And these same coporations have solid connections to the White House and various congressional/senatorial committees. It's a stacked deck that the populace needs to 'democratically' work towards unraveling before it's too late. This is an issue that the democratic candidates need to address head on and we should start holding their feet to the fire on it.
There are more private US/British/Australian and other hired guns in Iraq than US military! How did that happen and why aren't we all screaming bloody murder about this.
"What happens if Hillary cancels the check?"
Fat Freakin' Chance.
She voted Lieberman-Kyl, just like she voted Iraq in '01. How is she going to expand the war into Iran WITHOUT mercenaries?
A vote for Hillary is a vote for war. Period.
Paul Gunderson wrote on October 15, 2007 12:32 PM:All these comments are troubling to discuss. We need to realize just how powerless we are in this country. I wonder what Mr.Prince will want to be called in the future? Will it be Mr.President or will he prefer "Prince Prince".
anonymouse wrote on October 15, 2007 12:33 PM:"What happens if a democrat takes office and they don't want to use Blackwater, or heaven forbid, peace breaks out?"
Sorry to burst your bubble, but those democrats we voted in are funding these clowns (that's called "supporting" these clowns). They will be here forever... unless "We the People" kick out all the incumbants and take back what's left of our country.
Anothere election or two and "We the people" will no longer have to make these irritating decisions. We will no longer need to worry about a constitution or human rights.
"We the People" have given so much power to our federal government that the folks there are no longer accountable to anyone outside the beltway.
Just think of what percentage of our funding for local government is now coming from the federal government as "grants" which are fully controlled by our representatives. the only criteria for the grant money is that they want us to get it rather than someone else.
If they don't "like us" any more for one reason or another, the funding can stop and the local government's ability to function is strangled. this scenario is not based on any laws or regulations ar protections... it is solely dependent upon who is giving the funds and who is receiving the funding...
Is everyone feeling safer, now?
chabuka wrote on October 15, 2007 12:55 PM:Schoolyard bullies are the biggest cowards..waterboard 'em, they'll talk !!
harold wrote on October 15, 2007 1:03 PM:Weren't the Clintons (and Gore) pioneers in the "re-invention" of government through privatization? Wasn't this the Faustian bargain they struck with the CIA (which after the fall of the Soviet Union was going to concentrate on helping US private enterprise) in order to attain power? Just asking.
moondancer wrote on October 15, 2007 1:06 PM:vera@12:14
There is a law I believe applies to Blackwater and that is the Anti-Pinkerton Act of 1893. It was written after Pinkerton became the defacto private army of the industrial elite(sound familiar?) to smash and kill strikers and union organizers.
mary sherk wrote on October 15, 2007 1:11 PM:It has been amended several times in the recent years, and I'm not sure how that affects it.
This guy is a progressive persons nightmare. And his companies need to be squashed before they get out of hand.
The biggest danger is having this "asset" available makes it easy to skirt the law, and to deny responsibility.
Anytime we have a dangerous ideologue in office, he/she can wreak havoc before anyone knows what happened.
what if GWB and Cheney decide they don't want to give up power in 2008. what if blackwater is their own privaate army to stay in power. what if all this current 'normal' campaigning is nothing but noise. might Cheney and Bush have established America's new royal family. imagine queen Lynn and king richard. (the bushes were only a means to their end) blackwater can make it happen.
Saint Augustine wrote on October 15, 2007 1:43 PM:What if Congress impeached Bush and Cheney? I think that impeachment is the 1st step in curing the cancer this administration has infected us with. The rest of the world will respect us, the people of this nation, if we can get our represenatives in Washington to impeach.
Fortunate Son wrote on October 15, 2007 2:17 PM:Bush himself was involved in a little reported company that imported plants at the same time he was doing community work for getting busted and had his daddy pull his ass out of the fire without ever having to say what it was (it was believed to be cocaine possesion and import). During his lost years as a memeber of the Texas National Guard Air Force ( he, with a phone call from another of Daddy's cronies, zoomed ahead of more than 500 other eligible candidates who'd applied legitimately) he was a constant companion of his "boyfriend" James Bath (another drunken drug user who refused to be medically tested by the official medical personell) in a neverending sequence of whoring, scheming, hedonistic STD spreading over the course of at least a year if not more. Then when he just decided on his own (his daddy) he enrolled in Harvard Business School, (seems they don't have any standards if a solid failure applies as long as they get the head's up from the hopefuls father's cronies and promise to bring cash.
Thomas Williams wrote on October 15, 2007 2:23 PM:I have said it before and I will say it again:
Anonymous wrote on October 15, 2007 2:39 PM:THE FOUNDERS WOULD HAVE HUNG PRINCE AND JUST ABOUT EVERY MEMBER OF THE MODERN REPUBLICAN PARTIES POWER MAD ELITE.
The christian right wingers would have found every one of the signers of the declaration lined up to pour boiling pitch over them, not because they were religious; they would have done it for the good of the country for their becoming involved in the political process not as citizens but as movement.
The factual history of this countries founding years show WASHINGTON AND THE NEXT 6-8 Presidents hung people like FALWELL and DOBSON for crimes against the people, the rule of law and democracy well into the 1830s and waving a bible as if it made you a more legitimate leader was good way to get yourself run out of town on a rail, something this country did well into the 1930s.
WE WERE A GREAT COUNTRY AND WILL BE AGAIN WHEN THE EVILS OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY ARE ROOTED OUT OF GOVERNMENT, BUSINESS, AND OUR PLACES OF WORSHIP.
mary sherk wrote on October 15, 2007 1:11 PM:
"what if GWB and Cheney decide they don't want to give up power in 2008. what if blackwater is their own privaate army to stay in power. what if all this current 'normal' campaigning is nothing but noise. might Cheney and Bush have established America's new royal family. imagine queen Lynn and king richard. (the bushes were only a means to their end) blackwater can make it happen."
What if's are limitless based on fear. The Blackwater proposal for opening a compound in California has been scraped. Peacefully. The United States has its' military and its' patriots. And many many patriotic heroes here and
turtleguy wrote on October 15, 2007 2:50 PM:abroad. Like the flag that was designed before the Stars and Stripes was decided upon which read "Don't tread on me.", liberty is too deeply ingrained in our culture. Nobody is gonna use our can of whoop ass as target practice with a BB gun.
Cool, a fleet of airplanes for drug running and illegal weapons sales. They can get together with Moon's south american guys and take over much of the drug market.
Jim Leach wrote on October 15, 2007 6:05 PM:Hey, I thought deep cover "wet" counterinsurgency efforts beyond the reach of normal guidelines and accountability was the sole province of the CIA!!??!!
Do you think they know about this? I'll be they're not happy.
Larv wrote on October 15, 2007 6:34 PM:Are we sure Prince isn't actually a Bond villain? Present PR blitz aside, secretive and generally reclusive? Check. Private army with high-tech weapons and a personal warship? Check. Shady connections to those in power? Check again. Even his name, Erik with a k Prince, sounds like a SPECTRE pseudonym. Someone needs to find out if he owns any sharks or has a deadly asian manservant.
The Oracle wrote on October 15, 2007 10:05 PM:Air, sea and land.
Gee, all Erik Prince needs is a country to takeover or to do his bidding, and he'd have all the makings of a right-wing dictator with his own for-hire army, air force and navy.
And U.S. taxpayers are paying for this...now and certainly in the future.
Erik Prince and his hired guns have already poisoned the reputation of the United States of America around the world.
Erik Prince is setting up a para-military empire that is already rivalling the militaries of some countries around the world...and the culture of corruption Bush administration and neo-con Republican thugs are allowing this to happen.
But the real question is why? What are the rogue Republicans, who've already done so much damage to our democracy, planning on doing next???
Arlington Acid wrote on October 15, 2007 10:16 PM:It's my understanding that the 5 year 15 billion dollar contract that Blackwater is vieing for (or have they already been granted it in another no-bid deal?) is a *domestic* contract, meaning that we'd have mercenaries running around INSIDE of the United States, making arrests (under what kind of warrant? Under what kind of legal authority?). It would be bad enough (and absurdly arrogant) to send kill-for-pay types into other countries under the auspices of "the drug war" but to have them running around the U.S. as a seperate entity from local or federal law enforcement? Sheer madness!! This is going to end *very* badly.
Robin Boerner wrote on October 15, 2007 11:22 PM:Give a Right Wing Christian Lunatic a few BILLION with no bidding and apparently no oversight, tell him he is saving the free world for Darth Vader Cheney, Baby Jesus and the Village Idiot from Texas (Molly Ivins was so right) this is the outcome.
More then one commander has said that these trigger happy buffoons has hurt their ability to win over the Iraqi's. If the Republicans really supported the troops like their mouth pieces Limbaugh, O'Reilly and that man-creature anti-semite Coulter claim they do, they'd cancel Blackwater's contracts, send the Dark Prince back to his private swamp and take away most of his war toys.
If I decided to start my own private army here in Alaska you can bet that the Patriot Act US Attorney Nelson Cohen would have the FBI, ATF, etc at my door ala Waco.
If these clowns weren't so scary they would be funny.
busdrivermike wrote on October 15, 2007 11:23 PM:So he is going to build one thousand armored vehicles before the 2008 election....err... a year?
I guess Florida in 2000 was just the beginning of the end.
Mikee wrote on October 15, 2007 11:39 PM:Check out strategepage.com.
Blackwater is in the process of forming it's own air force with the purchase of light attack bombers from Brazil.
Don wrote on October 16, 2007 11:57 AM:Has anyone seen more information regarding the jail break of Ayham al-Samarie?
From what I understand the guy bilked the Interim Iraqi Government for hundreds of millions. I wonder how much he paid those 'private security contractors' who 'bleed red, white and blue' to spring him.
I would love to see someone do an in depth investigation of this stinker.