In a temper tantrum worthy of a prima donna, Blackwater USA founder, poor little rich boy, Erik Prince (pictured at left), the son of profound homophobes who backed numerous far right religious organizations, is packing up his marbles and walking away from his company that committed atrocities in Iraq and made a fortune off of American taxpayers. Not surprisingly, under Prince, Blackwater was a favored contractor by the Bush/Cheney regime. Now, he's acting as if he and the company are being persecuted. Sounds all to typical of the far right loonies. Sorry, but I just cannot find any sympathy for this jerk. In my view, it is too bad he isn't up on charges for civilian deaths in Iraq. Here are highlights from the Virginian Pilot: *
The man who built Blackwater USA into one of the world's most respected and reviled defense contractors feels that he was thrown under the bus after serving the nation's security interests for years.
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Erik Prince's company, which renamed itself Xe Services in February after an uproar over its Iraq operations, has worked closely for years with the CIA, the State Department and the U.S. military. But it became the target of a series of federal investigations and congressional probes, primarily for its Iraq work. Most recently, officials disclosed that the CIA tapped the company to work under a program to capture or kill terrorists.
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The 40-year-old heir to a Michigan auto parts fortune told Vanity Fair in an interview released Wednesday that Xe now pays $2 million a month in legal bills. The company is headquartered in Moyock in northeastern North Carolina.
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Prince likened his case to the leak of former CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity — a disclosure that led to a special prosecutor investigating the matter. "Well, what happened to me was worse," Prince said. "People acting for political reasons disclosed not only the existence of a very sensitive program but my name along with it."
[His father, Edgar Prince, turned a small die-cast shop in Holland, Mich., into a major auto parts supplier with a specialty product: a windshield visor with a lighted mirror. After his death in 1995, the company was sold for $1.4 billion. Edgar Prince was a confidant and financial backer of Gary Bauer] With his auto parts inheritance, Prince founded Blackwater in 1997 along with former colleagues from the Navy SEALs. After the Sept. 11 attacks, the company quickly developed a presence providing security and later won a lucrative contract to protect diplomats in Iraq.
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A September 2007 shooting in a Baghdad square that led to federal charges against company contractors triggered outrage in Iraq and the United States and prompted the eventual State Department decision not to renew Blackwater's contract protecting diplomats in Iraq. Executives at the company bemoaned that the work had tarnished the company's image.
*
The company has been beset by lawsuits and complaints over its work in the Iraq War, where it was a contractor providing security to U.S. government officials, and in other company endeavors. In August, two men who worked for Blackwater alleged in a federal lawsuit that Prince or his agents murdered one or more people who were planning to provide information to federal authorities about criminal conduct by the company and its operatives in Iraq. In a sworn statement, a “John Doe #1” says he observed “multiple incidents of Blackwater personnel intentionally using unnecessary, excessive and unjustified deadly force.”
The man who built Blackwater USA into one of the world's most respected and reviled defense contractors feels that he was thrown under the bus after serving the nation's security interests for years.
*
Erik Prince's company, which renamed itself Xe Services in February after an uproar over its Iraq operations, has worked closely for years with the CIA, the State Department and the U.S. military. But it became the target of a series of federal investigations and congressional probes, primarily for its Iraq work. Most recently, officials disclosed that the CIA tapped the company to work under a program to capture or kill terrorists.
*
The 40-year-old heir to a Michigan auto parts fortune told Vanity Fair in an interview released Wednesday that Xe now pays $2 million a month in legal bills. The company is headquartered in Moyock in northeastern North Carolina.
*
Prince likened his case to the leak of former CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity — a disclosure that led to a special prosecutor investigating the matter. "Well, what happened to me was worse," Prince said. "People acting for political reasons disclosed not only the existence of a very sensitive program but my name along with it."
[His father, Edgar Prince, turned a small die-cast shop in Holland, Mich., into a major auto parts supplier with a specialty product: a windshield visor with a lighted mirror. After his death in 1995, the company was sold for $1.4 billion. Edgar Prince was a confidant and financial backer of Gary Bauer] With his auto parts inheritance, Prince founded Blackwater in 1997 along with former colleagues from the Navy SEALs. After the Sept. 11 attacks, the company quickly developed a presence providing security and later won a lucrative contract to protect diplomats in Iraq.
*
A September 2007 shooting in a Baghdad square that led to federal charges against company contractors triggered outrage in Iraq and the United States and prompted the eventual State Department decision not to renew Blackwater's contract protecting diplomats in Iraq. Executives at the company bemoaned that the work had tarnished the company's image.
*
The company has been beset by lawsuits and complaints over its work in the Iraq War, where it was a contractor providing security to U.S. government officials, and in other company endeavors. In August, two men who worked for Blackwater alleged in a federal lawsuit that Prince or his agents murdered one or more people who were planning to provide information to federal authorities about criminal conduct by the company and its operatives in Iraq. In a sworn statement, a “John Doe #1” says he observed “multiple incidents of Blackwater personnel intentionally using unnecessary, excessive and unjustified deadly force.”
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