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?

Comments
heh, what could go wrong? - Everything of course. /nt
https://www.euronews.com/live
And Black Budget Funding Too!
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:
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/
"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
This is what gets me
Since when did we start contracting out assassinations to mercs...under Obama?
Good Question
A Bing search turned up this:
And:
(emphasis added)
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/07/the-terrifying-back...
My best guess is that this practice has become SOP.
"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
Lovely family
Erik Prince is the brother of Education Secretary Betsy Devos who is trying to destroy our education system.
Beware the bullshit factories.
How'd ee become Prince then?
"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
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
If I could upvote that 90 times I would <eom>
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
There's one teensy little problem
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.
Meddle not in the affairs of Dragons - For thou art crunchy and good with ketchup
Trump may need a private intelligence agency
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.
“The story around the world gives a silent testimony:
— The Beresovka mammoth, frozen in mud, with buttercups in his mouth…..”
The Adam and Eve Story, Chan Thomas 1963
Alphabet agencies
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Spying On Journalist & Protesters Too
It just occurred to me that POTUS could target anybody for surveillance, torture or even black ops assassinations, with no restraints or oversight.
"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
#MANGA, amiright? :/
**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.**
Erik...
The Black Prince for our time.
Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.
The Black Prince had some honor
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
Our system and the politicians that run it
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Totally OT
I would think that Prince and his roving band of barbarians
could be charged with crimes for these activities. They got John Walker Lindh on far less.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."