Interesting facts about Blackwater USA

[auburngrad82]

1. Founder Erik Prince has been described as "reclusive, hyperpatriotic, conservative and very rich" and is a large contributor to GOP candidates including George W Bush, Tom DeLay, Oliver North, John Kyl, Rick Santorum, and Tom Coburn. Since 1998, he has made nearly $200,000 in contributions to Republican committees and candidates.

On 7/21/2006 Prince made a $5000 contribution to the Green Party of Luzerne County, PA. You might remember that at about that time Rick Santorum was in the fight of his political life when, suddenly, a Green Party candidate popped up to enter the race. The Green candidate's signatures were challenged and Santorum was eventually defeated, but it appears that Mr Prince thought the best way to defeat the Democratic Challenger was to funnel votes to the Green Party, hence the contribution. Source: http://www.opensecrets.org/indivs/search.asp?key=qm33d&txtName=Prince,%20Erik&txtState=9all%20states)&txtAll=Y&Order=N">www.opensecrets.org

2. Blackwater USA has government contracts for the next three to four years in excess of $2 billion.

"On Sept. 11, 2001, the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington assured the future of companies like Blackwater. “Try to find a war now where only soldiers are fighting,” says Peter Singer, a fellow at the nonpartisan Brookings Institution in Washington and author of Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Private Military Industry. Blackwater began landing more contracts, including some for private security consulting, its highly visible role in Iraq. Today it has about 2,700 employees around the world, including about 1,400 in Iraq."

“We’re the leaders in this industry,” (Blackwater President Gary) Jackson says flatly."
Source: http://www.businessnc.com/index.php?src=directory&view=articles&srctype=display&refno=484&category=2007-06">Business North Carolina

3. Blackwater mercenaries were a common sight in New Orleans after Katrina. "In August 2005, it deposited more than 135 security contractors in New Orleans less than 36 hours after Hurricane Katrina. “We were there when the National Guard arrived,” Jackson says. A week later, the company landed a contract from the Federal Emergency Management Agency — some reports put it at more than $73 million — to protect FEMA operations. The size of Blackwater’s force exploded to more than 700. Its presence was not without controversy. Armed, mostly white outsiders pointing weapons at mostly black residents provoked cries of racism, which Jackson scoffs at. His company’s contractors never fired a shot, he says, adding that Katrina merely played to its strengths." Source: http://www.businessnc.com/index.php?src=directory&view=articles&srctype=display&refno=484&category=2007-06">Business North Carolina

4. Employees of Blackwater include former Bush IG Joe Schmitz who became Blackwater COO in 2005, former CIA Counterterrorism Chief Cofer Black, who has been co-Chairman since 2005, former head of the CIA's Near East Division, now VP of Intelligence, and former CIA and Blackwater VP of Special Programs Rick Prado. Additionally, Blackwater is represented by Kenneth Starr's lawfirm in the numerous lawsuits surrounding the deaths of four Blackwater soldiers in Fallujah in 2004 and the crash of a Blackwater aircraft in Afghanistan in 2005. Source:http://www.businessnc.com/index.php?src=directory&view=articles&srctype=display&refno=484&category=2007-06">Business North Carolina

5. Blackwater has naval and air forces as well as land forces at its disposal. It owns a Boeing 767 with global reach that can whisk 200 to 300 people across oceans in a matter of hours. Blackwater believes they are capable of 10,000 armed soldiers within 60 days. Source: http://www.businessnc.com/index.php?src=directory&view=articles&srctype=display&refno=484&category=2007-06">Business North Carolina

6. Blackwater has recruited South American mercenaries, many of whom had trained under the Pinochet regime in Chile, to provide security in Iraq. The number of hired soldiers in Iraq is estimated to be in the thousands. Blackwater USA is the largest supplier of security forces in Iraq. Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1162392,00.html">The Guardian

7. Blackwater has made over $300 million in government contracts in only 2 years. "Blackwater was originally slated to be paid $229.5 million for five years, according to a State Department contract list. Yet as of June 30, just two years into the program, it had been paid a total of $321,715,794. When confronted with this apparent $100 million discrepancy, the State Department could not readily explain it. Blackwater's two years of WPPS earnings exceed many estimates of the company's total government contracts, which the Virginian-Pilot recently put at $290 million combined since 2000. Six years ago the government paid Blackwater less than $250,000." Source: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060828/scahill">The Nation

8. Joe Schmitz, chief operating officer and general counsel of the Prince Group, was the senior Pentagon official responsible for investigating waste, fraud and abuse. Now he faces a congressional inquiry into accusations that he quashed two criminal investigations of senior Bush administration officials. Schmitz’s father, John G. Schmitz, was a two-term Republican congressman from California who ran for president in 1972 as the candidate of the American Independent Party after its founder, George Wallace, was paralyzed by a would-be assassin. John Schmitz’s political career ended with the revelation that he had a mistress who bore two of his children. He then moved to Washington, where he bought a house once owned by Sen. Joseph McCarthy.

Joe Schmitz’s sister, Mary Kay LeTourneau, also became embroiled in a scandal. As a married teacher in Washington state, she went to prison after being convicted of having a sexual relationship with a 13-year-old student with whom she ultimately had two children. The two have since married.

Source http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=108028&ran=144012">The Virginian Pilot

9. Cofer Black, Co-Chairman of Blackwater USA, is also a senior advisor to Mitt Romney's presidential campaign. Source: http://www.mittromney.com/News/Press-Releases/Cofer_Black_Joins_Romney_Campaign">www.mittromney.com

The more I learn about Blackwater the scarier they (and their ties to the GOP) are.



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[redqueen]

1. Also, Olbermann reported that Prince is

"a radical right wing Christian evangelical"

God but that's a frightening description these days.

[auburngrad82]

2. His dad helped start Focus on the Family

And was close friends with James Dobson and other right wing wackos.

[redqueen]

4. Focus on the Pharisees?

That figures. Frightening stuff indeed.

[sampsonblk]

3. Great post

Very informative

[OneBlueSky]

5. why isn't Congress moving to outlaw mercenary armies like Blackwater? . . .

I can't think of anything scarier than a huge corporate army (with air force and naval capabilities) answerable to no one but their stockholders, and whose only bottom line is the bottom line . . .

[auburngrad82]

6. Why would they?

Blackwater, Dyncorp, KBR, etc are huge donors the the GOP. They also allow the true casualty cost of the war to be masked. Contractors are not included in the KIA list. Since about 1000 have been killed that moves the casualties to nearly 5000.

[auburngrad82]

7. Another interesting tidbit about Blackwater's founder

From http://www.harpers.org/archive/2006/09/sb-revolving-door-blackwater-1158094722">Harper's Magazine:

"A CIA source with whom I spoke said that Prince is very tight with top agency officials and has a “green badge,” the security pass for contractors who have access to CIA installations. “He's over there regularly, probably once a month or so,” this person told me. “He meets with senior people, especially in the D.O.” (The D.O., or Directorate of Operations, runs covert operations; last year, it was absorbed by the newly created National Clandestine Service.)"

Why would this man, who is not and has never been a part of the CIA, have this kind of access to CIA installations?



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[Bitwit1234]

8. Nader would not have been able to interfer in two elections

if the republicans had not financed him. And while we are at it look what the did for Liberman.

[LynneSin]

9. Hahahaha - he donated to the Green Party

Yeah, like the Green Party isn't in cahoots with the Republican Party.

I'm booking this one for future use when some dimwit here at DU suggests that they'd rather vote Green Party than a certain democrat.

BTW, I remember the whole Romanelli Story - when Romanelli's signature list failed at the confirmation count the republicans abandoned the Green candidate and stuck him with the bill for the signature validation. Romanelli also had to pay for all court fees which again, the republicans refused to help him with since Romanelli wasn't going to be on the ballot

[auburngrad82]

10. Thought you would like that one

The scarier thing for me is why is their legal counsel, Kenneth Starr, giving so much money to Hillary? In fact, most of his contributions have been to Democrats lately. Looks like he's trying to cover all bases...



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