What is Blackwater founder Erik Prince up to now?

You remember Blackwater (now called Academi), right?
Erik Prince left Blackwater in 2010, but he's been anything but quiet.

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.
Prince was shameless about his reasoning.

One surprising element is the commercial promise Prince envisions: that the US will get access to Afghanistan’s rich deposits of minerals such as lithium, used in batteries; uranium; magnesite; and "rare earth elements," critical metals used in high technology from defense to electronics. One slide estimates the value of mineral deposits in Helmand province alone at $1 trillion

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.
“Pompeo can’t trust the CIA bureaucracy, so we need to create this thing that reports just directly to him,” said a former senior U.S. intelligence official with firsthand knowledge of the proposals, in describing White House discussions. “It is a direct-action arm, totally off the books,” this person said, meaning the intelligence collected would not be shared with the rest of the CIA or the larger intelligence community. “The whole point is this is supposed to report to the president and Pompeo directly.”

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.

Isn't that comforting.
Now you might be thinking, "Prince should just shut up." But 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, and war criminal, Erik Prince.
It just rolls off the tongue, don't it?

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mimi's picture

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Meteor Man's picture

A private spy agency to spy on government spy agencies. Pure unadulterated insanity. I can't wait to hear what the libertarian think tanks like CATO and Heritage think about this perfect black budget opportunity. In 1997 CATO urged minimal transparency:

https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/cia-budget-unnecessary-secret

Which we now have:

Pursuant to a suggestion by 9/11 Commission, the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) released the top line amount given to the NIP for fiscal year 2009 as 49.8 billion USD.[1] In FY2010, the NIP budget was 53.1 billion USD,[2] and the MIP budget 27 billion USD,[3] amounting to a total of 80 billion USD.[4]

In 2007, it was revealed that 70% of the intelligence budget went to defense contracting companies.[5]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_intelligence_budget

And a brief, but detailed report from WaPo from 2013:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/national/black-budget/

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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

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

Since when did we start contracting out assassinations to mercs...under Obama?

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Meteor Man's picture

@gjohnsit @gjohnsit
A Bing search turned up this:

It was one of the biggest secrets of the post-9/11 era: soon after the attacks, President Bush gave the CIA permission to create a top secret assassination unit to find and kill Al Qaeda operatives. The program was kept from Congress for seven years. And when Leon Panetta told legislators about it in 2009, he revealed that the CIA had hired the private security firm Blackwater to help run it. "The move was historic," says Evan Wright, the two-time National Magazine Award-winning journalist who wrote Generation Kill. "It seems to have marked the first time the U.S. government outsourced a covert assassination service to private enterprise."

And:

While Blackwater's covert unit began as a Bush administration story, President Obama now owns it. In 2010, his administration intervened on behalf of the Blackwater executives indicted for weapons trafficking, filing motions to suppress evidence on the grounds that it could compromise national security. The administration then awarded Blackwater (which is now called Academi) a $250 million contract to perform unspecified services for the CIA.

(emphasis added)

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/07/the-terrifying-back...

My best guess is that this practice has become SOP.

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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

Erik Prince is the brother of Education Secretary Betsy Devos who is trying to destroy our education system.

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Beware the bullshit factories.

detroitmechworks's picture

"The invisible hand of the market, clad in the shimmering brightness of free enterprise, did elevate Blackwater to the most trusted of contractors! That is why he's Prince!"

-Well, I didn't vote for him!
Strange middle of the night contracts, arranged in backroom deals, are no basis for a system of government! Supreme military power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical fraternity pledge.

"Be quiet."

-You can't expect to wield Supreme Military power, just cause some corporate tosser lobbed a contract at you!

"SHUT UP!"

-I mean if I went round, claiming I was a General, just cause some rich moron had tossed a pamphlet at me, they'd put me away!


/snark

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

SnappleBC's picture

@detroitmechworks

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A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard

Pariah Dog's picture

@detroitmechworks

with hiring mercs to help you get a situation under control. Oft times, they refuse to relinquish their authority - even using their strength to demand more.

Sometimes they go so far as to actually take over government

You should never allow mercs to get too comfy.

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Meddle not in the affairs of Dragons - For thou art crunchy and good with ketchup

to finish out his term. In Congressional confirmation hearings today Christopher Wray was less than forthcoming on a number of very pointed questions regarding warrants and wire taps relative to the Trump-Russia, Russia, Russia!!! investigations, which appear to have been carried out with little or no meaningful oversight. Trump's most formidable enemies may already be working with or within one or more of our own alphabet agencies.

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Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes

gulfgal98's picture

@ovals49 I believe that there is an internal war among the alphabet agencies that is going on right now. IMHO, there are no good guys, meaning the agencies or the top officials themselves. I have no idea where this is heading as we the people are simply powerless in this high stakes power game.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Meteor Man's picture

It just occurred to me that POTUS could target anybody for surveillance, torture or even black ops assassinations, with no restraints or oversight.

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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

Deja's picture

@ovals49 @Meteor Man
**something is seriously wrong with the reply function in essay messages. This is meant for Meteor Man. My 1st attempt tried to post it to Ovals, so I tried again. Crossing my fingers. On my phone, MM's reply is to the essay, not Ovals49.**

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Bollox Ref's picture

The Black Prince for our time.

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Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

dervish's picture

@Bollox Ref this guy is more like Himmler.

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"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."

gulfgal98's picture

@Bollox Ref created opportunities for sociopaths like Erik Prince. In a system that is truly responsive to the people, someone like Erik Prince would never have been able to get the kind of foothold he now has.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

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dervish's picture

could be charged with crimes for these activities. They got John Walker Lindh on far less.

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"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."