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2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: HRC's State Dept contracted w/Blackwater while BW was being prosecuted for Libya arms deals [View all]amborin
(16,631 posts)36. he has a long bad history:
http://www.thenation.com/article/lawmakers-ask-hillary-clinton-explain-erik-princes-mercenaries-uae/
and this:
The Skeptical Bureaucrat
From deep inside the foundations of our Republic's capital city
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Bill Clinton and Erik Prince: Three Degrees of Separation
I haven't seen the Clinton Foundation donors list for myself yet, since their website is still jammed and inaccessible. Anyway, the list is reportedly 2,922 pages long and not searchable, and no one with a normal home life will stay on his computer late into the night clicking "next" 2,922 times. So I'm relying on news media stories like this one in the Washington Post for the details of today's surprising revelation that one of ex-President Bill Clinton's donors was the Blackwater Training Center, home base of Blackwater Worldwide and its CEO, Erik Prince.
By the way, if you click on that story, dig deep; the WAPO buried the Blackwater item in paragraph 14 of a 19-paragraph story. I'm not sure whether that means they rated it low in news interest, or whether they were confused about how to report something that seems to implicate Bill Clinton and cause a problem for incoming SecState Hillary Clinton.
Granted, Prince was among the lesser fatcats on Clinton's list - in for only $10,001 to $25,000, rather than for millions like the Saudi Arabians and Barbra Streisand - nevertheless, there he was. So the question of the hour is: What was Erik Prince, the man liberals love to hate, doing on the list of Bill Clinton's 205,000 closest friends?
The controversies that have plagued Blackwater in Iraq, and it's main customer there, the U.S. State Department, are all too well-known. I find plenty of fault with Blackwater's operations in Iraq, and with the inadequate management provided by it's employer, as well. However, Prince has been demonized beyond what the facts justify and out of all sense of proportion. In the left-wing mind, Prince is the conservative Condottieri, the entrepreneur of mercenary mayhem, the impresario of death and destruction, the Praetorian protector of corporate interests, the commander of the Fundamentalist Freikorps, and - for all I know - the personal bodyguard to Dick Cheney himself. The picture presented by much of the news media and by various politicians is just too lurid and hyperventilating to be true.
So far as I can see, Erik Prince is just a former Navy SEAL who came from a wealthy family. When his father died, he left the Navy, put on a different kind of blue suit, and went into business for himself by founding and financing Blackwater Training Center, a place where he could employ a few Navy buddies and make some money training corporate security and law enforcement types. A remarkable biography, but really nothing extraordinary until the Iraq and Afghanistan wars created a huge demand for private protection contractors, resulting in Blackwater collecting over $1 billion in U.S. Government contracts between 2002 and 2008.
Prince appears to be the polar opposite of Bill Clinton. He's very private, very right-wing, and very religiously devout, a straight-laced military businessman and father of six who is hip-deep in Republican causes. What in the world led him to donate money to the Clinton Foundation? Which of Bill's worthy causes attracted Prince's interest? Was it health security, economic empowerment, leadership development and citizen service, or racial, ethnic and religious reconciliation? Or maybe HIV/AIDS, climate change, or fighting childhood obesity? Frankly, none of them sound like Prince's cup of tea. Maybe it was tsunami relief.
Bill Clinton and Erik Prince. Who or what could possibly bring this odd couple together? Could it be ... Hillary's political strategist Mark Penn ?
Last year, when the Democratic Party primary battle was getting started, some people pointed out the connection between Blackwater and Mark Penn. John Edwards was one. Bill Moyers was another. The below transcript from a PBS interview is typical:
BILL MOYERS: I was intrigued to learn that the PR-agency that is handling Prince, Burson-Marsteller , is also the guy who heads - the CEO is also Hillary Clinton's top strategist, Mark Penn.
JEREMY SCAHILL: Mark Penn.
BILL MOYERS: Mark Penn. Sort of-- he's been called Hillary's Rove. What-- I know something about how this system works. How a PR company comes to you and says hey I've got this client that would like to be on air here. Here's how we'd like to do it. And then, you see the same thing in being repeated from show to show to show like Hillary Clinton was on all five of the Sunday morning talk shows recently. What have you learned about how the system works between the political and media elites?
JEREMY SCAHILL: Well, I mean, PR-companies are also mercenaries and I know oftentimes work for the highest bidder. I think it's interesting that--
BILL MOYERS: They're not shooting people though.
JEREMY SCAHILL: No, no, no. But they're mercenaries in the sense that they'll rent their services out to anyone. And once you're defending Erik Prince, you're working for him, then you become part of his sort of mercenary operation. I also think that it was a strategic choice to go with the company with Mark Penn because of his connection with the democrats and Hillary Clinton.
But let's, lets remember here we're talking about Blackwater right now because we have a Republican administration. For so many years, we had a Republican dominated Congress. Blackwater is certainly the beneficiary of the Republican monopoly in government. But this system has been bi-partisan for a very long time.
When Hillary Clinton's husband was in the White House, he was an aggressive supporter of the privatization of the war machine. Bill Clinton used mercenary forces in the Balkans. Who do we think gave Dick Cheney's company all of those contracts during the Nineties? We talk about Halliburton. It was Clinton. It was the Clinton administration. And, and, Blackwater may be an extraordinary Republican company. But they're gonna be around when there's a Democrat in office.
It makes sense to me. Why not give Bill Clinton a little cash (and pay lots more to Hillary's chief political aide) when your government contracting business is going to be around long after the Bush Administration is gone?
http://skepticalbureaucrat.blogspot.com/2008/12/bill-clinton-and-erik-prince-three.html
Lawmakers Ask Hillary Clinton to Explain Erik Princes Mercenaries in the UAE
The implications of allowing a US citizen to assemble a legion in any foreign country, and especially in a combustible region like the Middle East, are serious and wide-ranging, they allege.
By Jeremy ScahillTwitter
May 23, 2011
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Five members of Congress have called on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to clarify if Blackwater founder Erik Princes recently disclosed deal to provide a small mercenary army to the United Arab Emirates complies with US law and export regulations. We question whether private US citizens should be involved in recruiting and assembling forces, as well as providing military training and support to foreign governments and militaries, wrote the lawmakers, led by Representative Jan Schakowsky, a member of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. The implications of allowing a US citizen to assemble a foreign legion in any foreign country, and especially in a combustible region like the Middle East, are serious and wide-ranging.
On May 14, the New York Times revealed that Prince was leading an effort to build an army of mercs 800 strongincluding scores from Colombiain Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. They would be trained by US, European and South African special forces veterans. Princes new company, Reflex Responses, also known as R2, was bankrolled to the tune of $529 million from the oil-soaked sheikdom, according to the Times, adding that Prince was hired by the crown prince of Abu Dhabi Sheik Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan.
According to the lawmakers, under US law, Princes company is exporting a defense product and therefore falls under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), requiring him to first seek the approval of the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls before the defense services are provided. The DDTC is controlled by the State Department. Has Mr. Prince, or any of the other Americans involved in the training contract, received such approval from DDTC? the lawmakers ask Clinton in the May 23 letter [PDF], a copy of which was obtained by The Nation. Past attempts by The Nation to obtain certain DDTC records on Blackwater-affiliated companies have been rejected by the State Department.
They further ask Secretary Clinton for any clarification as to US policy toward private US citizens who recruit, assemble, or train foreign militaries, and toward foreign countries that hire private US citizens to train their militaries. They add: We have long expressed concerns about the US government continuing to do business with Blackwater, despite that companys growing list of misconduct, and we are concerned that Mr. Prince is now exporting his services. In addition, the Emirati regimes use of an American-created and trained force of foreign troops has the potential to introduce further instability and suspicion into an already volatile region (and at a particularly sensitive time). In addition to Schakowsky, the other signers of the letter are: John Conyers, Maurice Hinchey, James Moran and Peter Welch.
The implications of allowing a US citizen to assemble a legion in any foreign country, and especially in a combustible region like the Middle East, are serious and wide-ranging, they allege.
By Jeremy ScahillTwitter
May 23, 2011
Five members of Congress have called on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to clarify if Blackwater founder Erik Princes recently disclosed deal to provide a small mercenary army to the United Arab Emirates complies with US law and export regulations. We question whether private US citizens should be involved in recruiting and assembling forces, as well as providing military training and support to foreign governments and militaries, wrote the lawmakers, led by Representative Jan Schakowsky, a member of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. The implications of allowing a US citizen to assemble a foreign legion in any foreign country, and especially in a combustible region like the Middle East, are serious and wide-ranging.
On May 14, the New York Times revealed that Prince was leading an effort to build an army of mercs 800 strongincluding scores from Colombiain Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. They would be trained by US, European and South African special forces veterans. Princes new company, Reflex Responses, also known as R2, was bankrolled to the tune of $529 million from the oil-soaked sheikdom, according to the Times, adding that Prince was hired by the crown prince of Abu Dhabi Sheik Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan.
According to the lawmakers, under US law, Princes company is exporting a defense product and therefore falls under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), requiring him to first seek the approval of the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls before the defense services are provided. The DDTC is controlled by the State Department. Has Mr. Prince, or any of the other Americans involved in the training contract, received such approval from DDTC? the lawmakers ask Clinton in the May 23 letter [PDF], a copy of which was obtained by The Nation. Past attempts by The Nation to obtain certain DDTC records on Blackwater-affiliated companies have been rejected by the State Department.
They further ask Secretary Clinton for any clarification as to US policy toward private US citizens who recruit, assemble, or train foreign militaries, and toward foreign countries that hire private US citizens to train their militaries. They add: We have long expressed concerns about the US government continuing to do business with Blackwater, despite that companys growing list of misconduct, and we are concerned that Mr. Prince is now exporting his services. In addition, the Emirati regimes use of an American-created and trained force of foreign troops has the potential to introduce further instability and suspicion into an already volatile region (and at a particularly sensitive time). In addition to Schakowsky, the other signers of the letter are: John Conyers, Maurice Hinchey, James Moran and Peter Welch.
and this:
The Skeptical Bureaucrat
From deep inside the foundations of our Republic's capital city
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Bill Clinton and Erik Prince: Three Degrees of Separation
I haven't seen the Clinton Foundation donors list for myself yet, since their website is still jammed and inaccessible. Anyway, the list is reportedly 2,922 pages long and not searchable, and no one with a normal home life will stay on his computer late into the night clicking "next" 2,922 times. So I'm relying on news media stories like this one in the Washington Post for the details of today's surprising revelation that one of ex-President Bill Clinton's donors was the Blackwater Training Center, home base of Blackwater Worldwide and its CEO, Erik Prince.
By the way, if you click on that story, dig deep; the WAPO buried the Blackwater item in paragraph 14 of a 19-paragraph story. I'm not sure whether that means they rated it low in news interest, or whether they were confused about how to report something that seems to implicate Bill Clinton and cause a problem for incoming SecState Hillary Clinton.
Granted, Prince was among the lesser fatcats on Clinton's list - in for only $10,001 to $25,000, rather than for millions like the Saudi Arabians and Barbra Streisand - nevertheless, there he was. So the question of the hour is: What was Erik Prince, the man liberals love to hate, doing on the list of Bill Clinton's 205,000 closest friends?
The controversies that have plagued Blackwater in Iraq, and it's main customer there, the U.S. State Department, are all too well-known. I find plenty of fault with Blackwater's operations in Iraq, and with the inadequate management provided by it's employer, as well. However, Prince has been demonized beyond what the facts justify and out of all sense of proportion. In the left-wing mind, Prince is the conservative Condottieri, the entrepreneur of mercenary mayhem, the impresario of death and destruction, the Praetorian protector of corporate interests, the commander of the Fundamentalist Freikorps, and - for all I know - the personal bodyguard to Dick Cheney himself. The picture presented by much of the news media and by various politicians is just too lurid and hyperventilating to be true.
So far as I can see, Erik Prince is just a former Navy SEAL who came from a wealthy family. When his father died, he left the Navy, put on a different kind of blue suit, and went into business for himself by founding and financing Blackwater Training Center, a place where he could employ a few Navy buddies and make some money training corporate security and law enforcement types. A remarkable biography, but really nothing extraordinary until the Iraq and Afghanistan wars created a huge demand for private protection contractors, resulting in Blackwater collecting over $1 billion in U.S. Government contracts between 2002 and 2008.
Prince appears to be the polar opposite of Bill Clinton. He's very private, very right-wing, and very religiously devout, a straight-laced military businessman and father of six who is hip-deep in Republican causes. What in the world led him to donate money to the Clinton Foundation? Which of Bill's worthy causes attracted Prince's interest? Was it health security, economic empowerment, leadership development and citizen service, or racial, ethnic and religious reconciliation? Or maybe HIV/AIDS, climate change, or fighting childhood obesity? Frankly, none of them sound like Prince's cup of tea. Maybe it was tsunami relief.
Bill Clinton and Erik Prince. Who or what could possibly bring this odd couple together? Could it be ... Hillary's political strategist Mark Penn ?
Last year, when the Democratic Party primary battle was getting started, some people pointed out the connection between Blackwater and Mark Penn. John Edwards was one. Bill Moyers was another. The below transcript from a PBS interview is typical:
BILL MOYERS: I was intrigued to learn that the PR-agency that is handling Prince, Burson-Marsteller , is also the guy who heads - the CEO is also Hillary Clinton's top strategist, Mark Penn.
JEREMY SCAHILL: Mark Penn.
BILL MOYERS: Mark Penn. Sort of-- he's been called Hillary's Rove. What-- I know something about how this system works. How a PR company comes to you and says hey I've got this client that would like to be on air here. Here's how we'd like to do it. And then, you see the same thing in being repeated from show to show to show like Hillary Clinton was on all five of the Sunday morning talk shows recently. What have you learned about how the system works between the political and media elites?
JEREMY SCAHILL: Well, I mean, PR-companies are also mercenaries and I know oftentimes work for the highest bidder. I think it's interesting that--
BILL MOYERS: They're not shooting people though.
JEREMY SCAHILL: No, no, no. But they're mercenaries in the sense that they'll rent their services out to anyone. And once you're defending Erik Prince, you're working for him, then you become part of his sort of mercenary operation. I also think that it was a strategic choice to go with the company with Mark Penn because of his connection with the democrats and Hillary Clinton.
But let's, lets remember here we're talking about Blackwater right now because we have a Republican administration. For so many years, we had a Republican dominated Congress. Blackwater is certainly the beneficiary of the Republican monopoly in government. But this system has been bi-partisan for a very long time.
When Hillary Clinton's husband was in the White House, he was an aggressive supporter of the privatization of the war machine. Bill Clinton used mercenary forces in the Balkans. Who do we think gave Dick Cheney's company all of those contracts during the Nineties? We talk about Halliburton. It was Clinton. It was the Clinton administration. And, and, Blackwater may be an extraordinary Republican company. But they're gonna be around when there's a Democrat in office.
It makes sense to me. Why not give Bill Clinton a little cash (and pay lots more to Hillary's chief political aide) when your government contracting business is going to be around long after the Bush Administration is gone?
http://skepticalbureaucrat.blogspot.com/2008/12/bill-clinton-and-erik-prince-three.html
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HRC's State Dept contracted w/Blackwater while BW was being prosecuted for Libya arms deals [View all]
leveymg
Mar 2016
OP
How much did Prince donate to the Opelousas' Charity Ball - i.e., the Clinton Foundation
yourpaljoey
Mar 2016
#9
The fix is in with corporate media. There's not enough time to get the truth out to enough people.
RiverLover
Mar 2016
#10
The fix may indeed be in but there seems to be a continual drip, drip, drip of information on this
Samantha
Mar 2016
#43
More wingerish sounding noise, this kind immunizes her against the rest of the RW noise machine caus
uponit7771
Mar 2016
#5
Now that we know that Erik Prince was one of Hillary's buddies, it is. BFFF. Get with the program!
leveymg
Mar 2016
#51
This is insane. I'm only old enough to be voting in my 3rd presidential election this year but
Nuclear Unicorn
Mar 2016
#52
If you really want to be appalled, read '07 Salon article by Blumenthal about Blackwater in Iraq.
leveymg
Mar 2016
#61
Thanks again, I will definitely read this. I'm pretty sure I know 'why' to your questions but
polly7
Mar 2016
#72
So now long-respected journalists like Jeremy Scahill are wingers and Blackwater is good?
Armstead
Mar 2016
#55
Most of this stuff was long before Hillary was SOS..Bush Cheney stuff. Carry over to Clinton SOS.
Jitter65
Mar 2016
#6
No, these contracts with the State Dept continued under Hillary while BW was under new criminal
leveymg
Mar 2016
#7
Prince's Libya ITAR problems started under Clinton, who created the opportunity for BW to play there
leveymg
Mar 2016
#53
Clinton was not obligated to continue employing BW and she certainly wasn't obligated to
Nuclear Unicorn
Mar 2016
#46
And of course the founder of blackwater is under investigation for spying for the Chinese
NWCorona
Mar 2016
#8
This is the outfit that has been involved in child sex trafficking in Afghanistan
Ash_F
Mar 2016
#17
Yep, yet ANOTHER reason I will NEVER vote for HRC. If younguys push her to be our nom, then
peacebird
Mar 2016
#26
Wish the Inspector General was able to look into that except there was no IG to look...
Octafish
Mar 2016
#35
Thank you for that specific data on Prince's contribution to Bill and Hillary's pay to play
leveymg
Mar 2016
#49
This reminds me of a little blip in the 'news' about Blackwater that I saw...
Peace Patriot
Mar 2016
#39
Frontier Services Group (FSG) kind of reminds me of this outfit, and its chief security contractor
leveymg
Mar 2016
#89
Can you imagine the trouble this guy would be getting into without things to keep him busy?
leveymg
Mar 2016
#92