It seems right out of a shoot-’em-up Hollywood thriller: A shadowy private American security company led by a messianic right winger by the name of Erik Prince who has close connections to the White House and Pentagon hires out his own air force to put down civil unrest at home and insurgencies abroad.
Well, it’s not a movie, but all too real.
There is an Erik Prince and he heads Blackwater USA, which touts itself as “The most comprehensive professional military, law enforcement, security, peacekeeping and stability operations company in the world” with a mission “To support security, peace, freedom, and democracy everywhere.”
Blackwater is no stranger to readers of my own blog. I’ve written extensively about what are politely called private soldiers — but in reality are mercenaries — in Iraq.
Many of Blackwater’s operatives there are former Army Special Forces troopers and Navy SEALS who get paid fat salaries and out-of-this-world bennies to guard prisoners, protect convoys, stand sentry and do security overflights in their armed-to-the-teeth black helicopters. Oh, and keep their mouths shut.
Four of those mercenaries, you might recall, were killed by a mob in Fallujah in March 2004 and their bodies hung from the trestles of a bridge.
Their widows sued Blackwater. They claimed that the Dark Prince, in an effort to increase his profit margins, failed to provide the armored vehicles, weapons, maps and necessary lead time in which the four men could have familiarized themselves with the area.
Incredibly — that is until you understand Blackwater’s modus operandi — the Dark Prince’s response was to take a page from the Dick Cheney playbook and claim that Blackwater is above the law.
When that ludicrous argument failed to pass muster with the courts, Blackwater countersued the men’s estates for $10 million to try to silence the widows and keep them out of court.
Did I mention that the Dark Prince is well connected?
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