A new low for the most revolting almost-member of the Trump Administration

I know that "revolting" and "amoral" are relative concepts in the Trump Administration, but I believe that I can say with some certainty that former Blackwater founder, and brother of Betsy DeVos, Erik Prince has got them all beat.

Privatizing war.
Gee, I wonder where he got that idea?

Blackwater.jpg

The power and influence of the mercenary army known as Blackwater peaked in the summer of 2007. Their immense might was clearly demonstrated when the State Department deployed Jean Richter to Iraq to audit the firm's $1 Billion contract with the Pentagon.

Just weeks before Blackwater guards fatally shot 17 civilians at Baghdad’s Nisour Square in 2007, the State Department began investigating the security contractor’s operations in Iraq. But the inquiry was abandoned after Blackwater’s top manager there issued a threat: “that he could kill” the government’s chief investigator and “no one could or would do anything about it as we were in Iraq,” according to department reports...
“The management structures in place to manage and monitor our contracts in Iraq have become subservient to the contractors themselves,” the investigator, Jean C. Richter, wrote in an Aug. 31, 2007, memo to State Department officials. “Blackwater contractors saw themselves as above the law,” he said, adding that the “hands off” management resulted in a situation in which “the contractors, instead of Department officials, are in command and in control.”

The Nisour Square massacre started a chain of events that would eventually discredit Blackwater, but it didn't happen immediately or quickly.

We need to remember why Erik Prince moved outside of the United States.

Prince moved to the UAE in 2010. Reports from the time said he made the move to escape possible criminal charges from the US government. The US and UAE have no extradition treaty.

Why isn't anyone talking about this?

In 2011, Blackwater was training Somalians to fight piracy, and getting paid half a billion dollars to train Afghanis to fight opium.
Without bothering to check, I'm going to guess that there is still pirates and opium in those countries.

But disastrous failure has never been a problem for Erik Prince.
When he's not giving testimony to Congress about why he's meeting Russian bankers, he's busy giving the Trump Administration ideas.

For instance, let's privatize the war in Afghanistan.

Prince calls his proposal “A Strategic Economy of Force.” It entails sending 5,500 contractors to Afghanistan to embed with Afghan National Security Forces, and appointing a “viceroy” to oversee the whole endeavor.

"An East India Company approach," Prince wrote in the Wall Street Journal. As if that was a good thing.
So, OK. That idea didn't fly.
But Prince wasn't discouraged. He came up with an even better idea.

The Trump administration is considering a set of proposals developed by Blackwater founder Erik Prince and a retired CIA officer — with assistance from Oliver North, a key figure in the Iran-Contra scandal — to provide CIA Director Mike Pompeo and the White House with a global, private spy network that would circumvent official U.S. intelligence agencies, according to several current and former U.S. intelligence officials and others familiar with the proposals. The sources say the plans have been pitched to the White House as a means of countering “deep state” enemies in the intelligence community seeking to undermine Donald Trump’s presidency.

An off-the-books, private spy agency, answering only to a megalomaniac. What's not to love?

It turns out that Prince thinks mercenaries can fix absolutely everything.

Erik Prince, the founder of the American private military company Blackwater and a major donor to President Donald Trump, is proposing a privately-trained police force that he believes would solve the trafficking crisis in Libya.

Now you might be thinking, "What does Erik Prince know about how American spy agencies work?" It turns out, more than he should.

With CIA Director Mike Pompeo promising to make his agency more “vicious,” the Trump administration has elevated to a key White House position a CIA officer who, according to two sources, once worked on a secret CIA assassination program meant to target terrorists.
At the time, the sources say, the program was contracted to Erik Prince, the controversial security contractor whose sister is Donald Trump’s education secretary.

Most of us would assume that with all this illegality, Prince would be spending his time getting lawyer'd up. Then you don't know Prince very well, because he's got bigger plans.

The latest recruit in former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon's war against the Republican establishment is, at least on the surface, an unlikely candidate to ride a populist wave to a Senate seat in Wyoming.
..But, at a time of rising grassroots frustration with Republican leaders in Washington, Prince's status as a political outsider and a proven Trump loyalist — he advised the candidate, he pumped $250,000 into his coffers, and his sister is Trump's education secretary — makes him intriguing to a wing of the GOP that isn't afraid to back candidates who have baggage.

Senator Erik Prince.
It just rolls off the tongue, don't it?

The silver-lining is that if Erik Prince gets elected senator then all doubt will be removed - this is End Times.

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mimi's picture

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The Aspie Corner's picture

And so should the rest of the bourgeoisie. An East India Company approach? The EIC flooded China with opium during the 19th century. After our plutocrats kicked them out of the colonies.

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Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.

Lookout's picture

They have no shame. As I often say...it used to be the oligarchs simply purchased their politicians, but now they are openly the politicians themselves...screwing the citizenry in public with no qualms.

St George explained the situation years ago...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1iXXKmq58g (3 min)

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@Lookout
To scare, anger and brainwash millions of confused people into voting for them and hating everybody else.

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Beware the bullshit factories.

another one comes along. The list is really, really long.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

@dkmich just like all the #2 Al Queda guys Blackwater took out during W’s term.

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Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.

I can't tell you how often I wish I could declare myself king. I would drive millions into exile, Texas I think, and then I would build a wall. A big wall all around Texas where the inhabitants could then cage match each other for whatever resources exist within their wall.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

Note the headline and first paragraph

Democrat Dennis Kucinich got $20K to speak in 2017 to pro-Syrian group

COLUMBUS - Democratic gubernatorial candidate Dennis Kucinich received $20,000 to give a speech to a group sympathetic to Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Then look deep into the article, and it sounds totally different.

Kucinich's speech was given in London and paid for by the Association for Investment in Popular Action Committees in Cerrito, California. That group is an umbrella organization for the Syrian Solidarity Movement, which opposes "military conflict and imperialist interests" in the country.

Paul Larudee, treasurer of the group, told The Enquirer that the speech focused on "U.S. foreign policy with an emphasis on the situation in Syria."

"He’s not a warmonger and that’s exactly the type of person we want to sponsor," Larudee said. ...

The campaign sent a copy of Kucinich's speech, which included neither praise nor condemnation of Assad.

"The Syrian people, who are not unanimous on the question of President Assad, are resolute in protecting their way of life, which includes free education and free healthcare, while supporting the Assad government from a military overthrow which would destroy Syria," Kucinich said in remarks shared by his campaign.

The purpose of the speech was not to promote Assad, Laurdee said. "I have never heard him say anything about support for the Assad government in Syria."

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Meteor Man's picture

@gjohnsit
Amazing. The global media can not tolerate any anti-war politician. I'm guessing, hoping and crossing my fingers that Ohio voters know Kucinich too well to fall for this BS. IMO a Kucinich victory is one of the most critical wins for our future.

The problem:

Real scenes of real American cocksuredness, as well as the clumsiness associated with raw ignorance, come to life, e.g., during the presidential race between Ike and Adlai Stevenson in 1954: “A revealing incident occurred while Stephenson was campaigning for president. A citizen shouted to Stephenson that he ‘had the vote of every thinking person.’ Stephenson replied, ‘That’s not enough. We need a majority!”

America's Dystopian Future

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"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn

Meteor Man's picture

Letting the Prince/De Vos/Mercer cabal fly under the radar is a journalistic travesty of the highest order. Will the MSM be able to continue the cover up if Prince runs for the Senate?

Bolton, Haspel, Pompeo and now Prince. This is a terrifying and straight up demonic combination. We are definitely looking at the End of Times Armageddon.

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"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn

kharma's picture

then I would be pretty certain that Eric Prince is Lucifer the Prince of Lies

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There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties.. This...is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.--John Adams

edg's picture

In fact, I'd be very sad if I thought for one instant that things would've been any better under Hillary Clinton. Unfortunately, there are Democratic analogues to Erik Prince, and Hillary knows them all. They'd be clinging to her pantsuit leg, helping her run the world.

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travelerxxx's picture

@edg

Hell, these days Erik Prince could file and run as a Democrat. He'd get elected, too. With his CIA connections, today's DNC would fully support him - particularly if he mouthed a few words against Putin. After all, Prince would fit right in with the present slate of other CIA-connected Democratic candidates.

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