'Prince of Mercenaries' who wreaked havoc in Iraq turns up in Somalia

[BlueMTexpat]

Source: The Independent

Erik Prince, the American founder of the private security firm Blackwater Worldwide, has cropped up at the centre of a controversial scheme to establish a new mercenary force to crack down on piracy and terrorism in the war-torn East African country of Somalia.
<snip>
Mr Prince is working in Somalia alongside Saracen International, a murky South African firm which is run by a former officer from the Civil Co-operation Bureau, an apartheid-era force notorious for killing opponents of the white minority government.
<snip>
Mr Prince, a 41-year-old former US Navy Seal with links to the Bush administration, subsequently rebranded the company "Xe Services" and sold his stake in it. But he remains entangled in a string of lawsuits pertaining to the alleged recklessness of the firm.

For most of the past year, he has been living in Abu Dhabi, where he has close relations with the government and feels better positioned to dodge lawsuits. In an interview with a men's magazine, he recently declared that the UAE's opaque legal system will make it "harder for the jackals to get my money".
<snip>





Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/prince-of-mercenaries-who-wreaked-havoc-in-iraq-turns-up-in-somalia-2191270.html

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Blackwater (or whatever its incarnation is now) is at it again ... .

[somone]

1. Maybe they can kidnap the asshole

[molly77]

2. No money for ACORN but plenty for mercenaries.

WE are living in a fascist country.

[Octafish]

7. Media destroyed (and allowed it to be destroyed) ACORN.

We live in fascist times.



Don't call me Scarface.

[DCKit]

6. AFAIK, rendition is perfectly legal. nt

[enuegii]

3. I thought Prince considers himself some kind of Christian warrior...

And now he's working alongside of or with a group called "Saracen International?"
Weren't the folks the Crusaders were fighting against back in the day commonly called "Saracens" in the West?

[provis99]

4. he's a money-grubbing mercenary first, and Christian second.

[aquart]

5. Somalia, the land of bloody opportunity.

Take a close look at what we may become.

[HankyDubs]

8. Go Pirates!

and fuck Eric Prince!

[BlueMTexpat]

9. LOL - that was - almost - my own reaction.

I don't particularly care for the pirates, but I abhor Prince.

Poor Somalia doesn't need either. It's already FUBAR - no small thanks to our own policies in the area.

[sarcasmo]

10. This scumbag should be in jail, yet he was allowed to flee to the UAE.

[ronnie624]

11. And he'll be working with South African nazis.

How surprising.

[alp227]

12. NY Times: Somalia May Cut Ties to Mercenary Firm

MOGADISHU, Somalia — The minister of information for the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia said Sunday that his government would most likely sever its relationship with Saracen International, a private security company in which South African mercenaries and the founder of Blackwater Worldwide are said to be involved.

Saracen has offered to train beleaguered government troops and battle pirates and Islamist insurgents in Somalia, which has been steeped in civil war for two decades. But after the recent disclosure of an African Union report that said Erik Prince, Blackwater’s founder, provided seed money for the Saracen contract and was “at the top of the management chain,” many of Somalia’s biggest donors, including the United States, have questioned the wisdom of the deal. Somali officials, in turn, have cooled to working with Saracen.

Full story: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/24/world/africa/24somalia.html