By Andrew Emett
Founder of the CIA-affiliated mercenary group Blackwater, Erik Prince, is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice for allegedly using his current Hong Kong-based corporation to illegally provide weapons and covert operators into conflict zones. Besides money laundering for Libyan officials using a Chinese bank, Prince has also been accused of murdering two federal informants working with the Justice Department while leading a reckless group of mercenaries responsible for butchering allies and innocent civilians.
According to a recent investigation by The Intercept, more than a half-dozen of Prince’s associates, including current and former business partners; four former U.S. intelligence officers; and other sources familiar with the Justice Department investigation requested anonymity before discussing the ongoing federal investigation into Prince’s “secret skunkworks program.” Although Prince no longer leads the defunct Blackwater, evidence of his mercenary activities continues to surface even after the notorious massacre at Nisour Square.
Founded in 1997 by former CEO Erik Prince, Blackwater only brought in roughly $200,000 per year before the events of 9/11. Former President George W. Bush and former Vice President Dick Cheney opened the floodgates awarding private mercenary armies with inflated government contracts and allowing them to operate with impunity. Although Barack Obama vowed on the campaign trail to curb the utilization of private contractors, he broke his word by continuing to provide defense contracts to private mercenary armies.
On the evening of December 24, 2006, Blackwater operative Andrew Moonen murdered Raheem Khalif, a security guard to Iraqi Vice President Abil Abd-al-Mahdi. When confronted by the security guard, Moonen pulled out his Glock 9mm pistol and shot him to death. After fleeing the scene, Moonen was fired for possessing a firearm while drunk and secretly flown back to the U.S. before he could be charged with the murder.
At approximately noon on September 16, 2007, a Blackwater convoy codenamed Raven 23 disobeyed orders from U.S. Embassy officials to remain in the Green Zone and instead established a blockade at Nisour Square in Baghdad. While driving his mother to an appointment, Ahmed Haithem Ahmed Al Rubia’y stopped his white Kia sedan at the checkpoint and waited for the Blackwater mercenaries to let them pass. Hiding inside the convoy’s command vehicle, Nicholas Slatten aimed his SR-25 sniper rifle through a gun portal and fired a round at Ahmed.
As Ahmed’s head exploded, his car slipped into neutral and slowly began to approach the Blackwater convoy. While attempting to stop the car, Iraqi police officer Ali Khalaf Salman raised his left arm signaling the shooters to stop firing. Inside the sedan, Ahmed’s mother, Mahassin Mohssen Kadhum Al-Khazali, clutched his bleeding head screaming, “My son! My son! Help me, help me!”
A turret gunner, Jeremy Ridgeway, opened fire killing Ahmed’s mother. Another Blackwater shooter launched an M-203 grenade that caused the sedan to erupt into flames. Unleashing sniper fire, machine guns, and grenade launchers, the Blackwater convoy murdered over a dozen unarmed civilians, including two boys, ages 9 and 11. At least 18 victims were wounded. The only damage inflicted upon the convoy’s command vehicle came from shrapnel by an American grenade fired at close range by a Blackwater operative.
According to witnesses, Nicholas Slatten, Paul Slough, Evan Liberty, Dustin Heard, Jeremy Ridgeway attempted to kill everyone in Nisour Square. Another turret gunner, Matthew Murphy, waved his arms warning nearby Iraqis to get down. After ignoring repeated orders to cease firing, the massacre finally ended when Blackwater operatives turned their guns on each other. Instead of killing their own teammates, the shooters eventually decided to stop firing. As the convoy exited the square, some of the shooters continued indiscriminately firing their machine guns at civilian vehicles.
Two weeks after the Nisour Square massacre, Prince testified before the House Oversight Committee. Under oath, Prince lied to U.S. Representatives when asserting that Blackwater never kills innocent civilians. Video leaked by Blackwater operatives reveals convoys running over pedestrians, shooting civilians, and aggressively sideswiping cars off the road. Prince went on to accuse the U.S. Army of killing the unarmed Iraqi civilians in Nisour Square.
One month before the Nisour Square massacre, State Department investigators discovered Blackwater manipulated its personnel records in order to overbill the State Department and falsified data on the government contract. On August 21, 2007, investigators Jean Richter and Donald Thomas met with Blackwater’s project manager in Iraq, Daniel Carroll, to discuss the investigation. Carroll told Richter “that he could kill me at that very moment and no one could or would do anything about it as we were in Iraq,” Mr. Richter wrote in a memo to senior State Department officials in Washington.
Although Thomas witnessed the Blackwater manager threatening Richter and corroborated his version of events, embassy officials ordered Richter and Thomas to leave Iraq immediately.
In an attempt to rebrand his image, Erik Prince renamed his company Xe Services in February 2009. Six months later, two former employees submitted sworn statements to the federal court in Virginia implicating Prince in the murders of individuals who were cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company. They also accused him of smuggling unlawful weapons, using illegal ammunition designed to explode after penetrating within the human body, committing fraud, money laundering, tax evasion, terminating mental health professionals who were not willing to endorse deployments of unfit men, and destroying incriminating evidence to intentionally deceive the State Department and other federal agencies.
With five former top Blackwater executives indicted on federal weapons, conspiracy, and obstruction charges, Erik Prince fled to Abu Dhabi in 2010. Although he had won multiple contracts with the Defense Department, the CIA, and the State Department, Prince abandoned the U.S. when confronted with a series of civil lawsuits, potential criminal charges, and Congressional investigations. After selling his company, Prince became executive director and chairman of Frontier Services Group (FSG), a self-proclaimed private equity firm that focuses on African mining and energy development.
Based in Hong Kong and funded by the Chinese government, Prince’s FSG has been accused of sharing defense intel with the Chinese while attempting to launder money for the Libyan government. Working with a former South African commando, a former Australian air force pilot, and a lawyer with dual citizenship in the U.S. and Israel, Prince reportedly used FSG “to secretly rebuild his private CIA and special operations enterprise by setting up foreign shell companies and offering paramilitary services.”
Documents acquired by The Intercept appear to show Prince’s mercenary operations illegally planned in at least a half-dozen countries without the knowledge of FSG’s board of directors. While exploiting the refugee crisis last year, Prince contacted Libyan and European officials in an attempt to secure a contract to defend Libya’s borders against refugees and other kinetic threats. According to a former intelligence official, the Justice Department reopened its investigation into Prince after he allegedly laundered money for Libyan officials using a Chinese bank in order to fund his mercenary operations.
“It was not a personal account,” the former U.S. intelligence official briefed on the investigation told The Intercept. “He was doing it for the purpose of what is considered now — in the investigation — money laundering on behalf of the Libyans.”
In October 2015, FSG’s corporate leadership stripped Prince of most of his responsibilities as chairman due to their concerns over his clandestine activities. FSG also terminated contracts belonging to two of Prince’s closest associates suspected of participating in illegal activities with their “rogue chairman.”
Unable to answer allegations that Chinese intelligence assisted Prince in setting up a bank account, his lawyer, Victoria Toensing, referred to the money laundering allegations as “total bullshit.” Toensing also claimed, “When he has legitimate business, he does legitimate business.”
Accused of money laundering, providing defense advice to Chinese intelligence, murder, and leading a psychotic gang of mercenaries, Erik Prince has eluded prosecution due to his work with the CIA and the State Department. Although Prince is under federal investigation, he has repeatedly eluded prosecution despite blatantly providing false testimony before the House Oversight Committee.
Andrew Emett is a Los Angeles-based reporter exposing political and corporate corruption. His interests include national security, corporate abuse, and holding government officials accountable. Andrew’s work has appeared on TheFreeThoughtProject.com, where this article first appeared, Raw Story, Alternet, Activist Post, and many other sites. You can follow him on Twitter @AndrewEmett and on Facebook at Andrew Emett.
The Corporate Intelligence Agency is knee deep in shenanigans all over the world, this is another example of US Imperialism that has gone rogue thanks to the malfeasance of the Republicans. Programs and corporations like Blackwater are like the British Privateers of old giving criminals the green light to operate with the governments blessings and immunity. The mercs are needed to carry out contracts on foreign soil for fascist usa.
Exactly. Just as the saying goes “where the rubber meets the road”, these guys are “where the dirt meets DC”.
Nothing will happen to their dirty little pawns. They need them right now and besides they could spill a lot of beans on their handlers.
All KABUKI theater to give the people the illusion of justice. Just like hillarys indictment.
What a joke.
The evil empire is depending on the peoples lack of focus and memory.
After a couple of weeks of endless shock and awe stories on the perpetual news conveyor belt, all of the crisis junkies will have completely forgotten about this and be preoccupied looking for their next news fix. The fate of the nation has been turned into a reality TV show due to the populace allowing themselves to be willfully ignorant and merely an audience begging for a new show.
This is how and why ACTING has gone live with all the false flags. The dysfunctional people seem to enjoy it.
There is no difference between Republican or Democrat………….it is an illusion dearest…..2 sides owned by the same group to divide and rule. Prince is not going through this because he killed anything and anyone in his sight……………he is going through this because this little sociopath thought he could out smart the deep state sociopath Borg….and the deep state sociopath Borg does not like that. They want the best sociopaths and seek them out…..but they only want the ones that will be good little butt monkeys for the Borg……..like Obama, Clinton’s, Bushe’s, Cheney’s. Rove’s etc, etc, etc, etc, etc. By the way, the Borg, Deep State….is the Rothschild banking cartel………..but they do not always carry that last name.
In support of my comment reply below, what about the indictment or investigation of one of the rothschilds….(crickets) Does anybody even remember???
Like I said, kabuki theater to give the illusion of justice.
Yes Common Sense, I do indeed remember that…..and yes there has been nothing since on this in the alt media. And my first instinct on that was, “this is B.S. and distraction. Do you also remember even before that how one of them was killed in his plane? If they are not playing by the script they are either killed by suicide, plane crash or heart attack…i.e. Scalia…which probably the hooker/operative injected something or had the “hear attack” gun thing ( which btw is much much smaller now). Or they are accused of rape or fake poker chips, or misconduct of some sort. I am just saying that Prince thought he could outsmart his handlers…..like JFK….only JFK did not recognize he had handlers. That is my gut instinct on this one………and my gut is usually right. So in a round about way, we are in agreement. But I am young and I still want to believe that there are glimmers of hope of an awakening……….otherwise i would be in a complete state of hopelessness which will not serve me at this point. And I hope you are not in that frame of mind either……for your own sake.:)
I think the most promising glimmer that is happening now is people are not so afraid of saying bad things the Tribe – and how they intend to rule us.
I agree…….the man, so to speak, behind the curtain. Awareness of something is the first step towards solutions……and I do believe in the 100th Monkey Syndrome since we are all one. I peeked at you John……..artist an inventor…..I always love talking to people like that whenever I get lucky enough to sit next to them on a plane, or standing in line somewhere.
🙂 Some people like new ideas – most say they do, but hardly anyone really does, they are too uncomfortable.
That’s mainly because truly hearing/appreciating/judging new concepts demands your own thinking as well – which can be painful, as well as your risking finding yourself straying from the safety of the mob.
That’s why I took up sculpture – When you express a new idea in the physical form of a beautiful human body it tends to be appreciated a bit more than as an essay or bunch of blueprints…
I hadn’t thought about that profile for years – I’ve edited it now, changed ‘endlessly frustrated’ to ‘saddened’ which is the truth now.
This is a failed cast of the head of ‘Waiting’:
Does not look failed….it is beautiful:)
Its got all those bubble… but I liked the contrast of that roughness with the… can’t think of the word, maybe idealism? of the head – But when I took that pic it was all about the sunshine, the head was just a handy fragment. Here’s a (bad) pic of the whole of ‘Waiting’:
This is just down right BEAUTIFUL!!!!!! Innocent and etheric are the words that come to me.
Well Thank You Marie 🙂
P,S, I think some of my inventions are way more beautiful – I only dabbled in sculpture for about a year…
You should totally create a blog……and let people see!
You must be a mind reader – that’s just what I’ve been thinking.
Now that my net connection appears to be back up (it’s been down all the Easter weekend except for intermittent periods) I’m going to find out about it. Find the best platform etc. It could be good, some sort of mixture of beautiful, life affirming Art, full disclosure of important new technology and radical politics…
Thank you for talking with me Marie, it’s helpful to have a positive reflection from another sane person – maybe I’m not crazy after all…
Of course you are not! mmlb99ataoldotcom. We all need to help each other and stick together through what is a challenging time.
They won’t let me post anything.
Who cares if theyre being investigated – we have more than enough
evidence of war crimes by many people in the US and they havent done
anything – they didnt even arrest bankers – so PLZ dont report this BS like it has ANY merit!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Glad you brought that up!!!
I feel exactly the same and it can only mean one of two things I can think of.
The alternate news has gone tabloid and is putting anything out their no matter the lack of credibility to obtain readership in a very sophomoric fashion, OR…
they have been compromised just like MSM and are scripted the same.
CONTROLLED OPPOSITION.
During the 2nd World War there were few if any private military contractors (PMCs), during the Iraq war it got up to 50%. Blackwater is part of the privatization of the military. More and more the military is becoming private and thus unaccountable to the public, exactly as planned. We still pay for it, of course. The goal is to have a PRIVATE world army to serve a private global corporate government. Why do you think Blackwater and similar organizations are protected at every turn?
American elite selling out to China. Americans still paying taxes to their government but complaining about China at the same time. LOL. Borrowing Chinese money to engage illegal war against Iraqis to “get rid of terrorists”. China having the last laugh selling us the junk. What else is new?