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Blackwater Founder Erik Prince Implicated in Murder

So apparently, not only did he hire mentally ill psychopaths, run drugs and illegal weapons to all sides of the Iraqi conflict, and give orders to his men to fire on US troops on several occasions, but it looks like he also had company whistle blowers murdered and had plans to exterminate all Muslims. Aren't you glad he's on our side?

Capitalism, my friend. You simply lack moral clarity.

Blackwater makes me question above anything if our capitalist system has any validity whatsoever... they are not accountable to anyone and can't be tried in military OR civilian courts, the worst that could ever happen to them is losing their jobs no matter what they do.

Originally posted by King Kandy
Blackwater makes me question above anything if our capitalist system has any validity whatsoever... they are not accountable to anyone and can't be tried in military OR civilian courts, the worst that could ever happen to them is losing their jobs no matter what they do.

ya, even the most ardent proponents of free market capitalism have stated that the government should have a monopoly on the use of force.

Xe is not a representation of capitalism

Originally posted by inimalist
ya, even the most ardent proponents of free market capitalism have stated that the government should have a monopoly on the use of force.

Obviously not or else they wouldn't be here... the government is employing them, there's someone who is thinking it's a good idea. If I recall Cheney actually wanted to privatize the military 100% (can someone spot why this is a bad idea?)

Originally posted by King Kandy
Obviously not or else they wouldn't be here... the government is employing them, there's someone who is thinking it's a good idea. If I recall Cheney actually wanted to privatize the military 100% (can someone spot why this is a bad idea?)

fair enough, the point being that Rand would probably be against private military contractors. It isn't capitalism.

You actually outline why it isn't capitalism. For Xe to work, it has to be in bed with the government. Traditional capitalism would hold that there should be a separation between the state and the economy.

That the guy who runs Xe is also a dominionist Christian who wants the American government to be Christian also scares the shit out of me.

Originally posted by inimalist
fair enough, the point being that Rand would probably be against private military contractors. It isn't capitalism.

You actually outline why it isn't capitalism. For Xe to work, it has to be in bed with the government. Traditional capitalism would hold that there should be a separation between the state and the economy.

That the guy who runs Xe is also a dominionist Christian who wants the American government to be Christian also scares the shit out of me.
Who's rand?

EVERYTHING about blackwater scares the shit out of me.

Originally posted by King Kandy
Who's rand?

/facepalm

Between Smith and Friedman as the most important people in the philosophy of capitalism.

Really someone you should know if you are going to bash the system. It'd be like going "who is the Lenin fellow?" when bashing Communism... Maybe not so bad, as he ran a nation for a while.

Originally posted by King Kandy
EVERYTHING about blackwater scares the shit out of me.

oh, indeed

Who's Friedman?

What makes him even scarier is that Prince does kind of look like iconic 80's American Fascist Oliver North. It's insane that we're in bed with these comic book villains and the media who isn't reporting this stuff resembles the asides from a latter day Frank Miller book.

Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
Who's Friedman?



He won a Nobel Prize for the love of Christ

Originally posted by Darth Jello
What makes him even scarier is that Prince does kind of look like iconic 80's American Fascist Oliver North. It's insane that we're in bed with these comic book villains and the media who isn't reporting this stuff resembles the asides from a latter day Frank Miller book.

lol

nothing to add, the comic book villainy remark made me chuckle though

I had thought about making a thread about this individual before, though seeing as this is the thread for tying Blackwater to major criminal activity, I figure it is just as good a place as any. So, with no further adieu:

inimalist presents: I did your goddamned investigative journalism for you

Slavko Ilic.

Bosnian born, spent time in the Yugoslav army. Worked as a private military contractor in a bunch of places, before winding up as a training officer and VIP guard in Iraq working for Blackwater. (1)

sometime around, oh, 2000ish, he moves to Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, and begins training with Rickson Gracie in Brazilian Jujitsu. He was moderately active in sparring and teaching (1), but looking at posts and activity in some local Jujitsu forums, it appears that sometime around 2005 he dropped out of that scene (2). He still did contract work for Blackwater, and in July 2006 was featured in an interview with Pilot about how awesome it was to train people to hurt others and how much he loved war (3).

Oddly enough, he was also arrested (basically in my city) in summer 2006 for threatening to blow up his wife. At the time, he was also charged with guns and thousands of dollars in Meth and E (4, 5). So, just to set the scene, we have mercenary guy living in Canada, doing contract work for a private military firm in America, dealing large amounts of chemical drugs in Canada. And, I don't mean to be presumptuous, but one doesn't just "pick up" dealing thousands of dollars of meth.

Anyways, cue 2008. Ilic is being watched by the police, because an informant picked up at the Sarnia US-Canada border has implicated him in a major cocaine smuggling operation (6). So, in front of a fitness center, cops see him make a deal, and bust him. The initial deal was for 2 kilos, and the man he was seen selling that to has since confessed (likely to avoid the international drug smuggling rap) (6). When searching Ilic's vehicle, they found an additional 33 kilos of coke. So, A) nobody is just a "coke dealer". Coke is a drug with such high profit margins that there are no independent business men in the game, and B) even if there are, there is nobody at the 33kilo level of coke distribution who isn't basically a member of a criminal cartel.

I'm interested to see where this goes in court, but even the Canadian press is ignoring it. The connection, to me, is so blatant. There is no direct link between Ilic's coke and Blackwater, at least not one available through Google searches, but military involvement in the shipping of drugs over borders is not something new. I don't think Prince is a drug dealing criminal, but he clearly has no qualms with hiring such people. I don't think it would be surprising to find that Blackwater (or the American military for that matter) is moving narcotics from Afghanistan/Iraq into Europe/America, especially when people who do it in their spare time are the employees.

1 - http://www.jiu-jitsu.net/interviews/ilic/
2 - http://www.defend.net/deluxeforums/mixed-martial-arts-mma-bjj-forum/677-attn-yella-tiger.html
3 - http://hamptonroads.com/node/66231
4 - http://news.therecord.com/article/369397
5 - http://www.copswiki.org/w/bin/view/Common/M641
6 - http://news.therecord.com/article/446303

I was going off about these thugs, but these right wingers on another board were telling me how great these guys are.

Merc s are never a good idea, just ask the romans near the end of their empire!

Originally posted by Darth Jello
Blackwater Founder Erik Prince Implicated in Murder

So apparently, not only did he hire mentally ill psychopaths, run drugs and illegal weapons to all sides of the Iraqi conflict, and give orders to his men to fire on US troops on several occasions, but it looks like he also had company whistle blowers murdered and had plans to exterminate all Muslims. Aren't you glad he's on our side?

Love Jeremy Scahill

do you have links to Blackwater drug running or ordering firing on US troops?

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/NYT_reveals_Blackwater_dropped_blinding_gas_0110.html

http://www.newsweek.com/id/42487

just off the top of my head.

Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
Capitalism, my friend. You simply lack moral clarity.

Because Stalin and the Communists never killed or murdered anybody.

http://19.media.tumblr.com/mCU8jmcCknhaneztKwDmYdCyo1_500.jpg

Originally posted by KidRock
Because Stalin and the Communists never killed or murdered anybody.

The guy who runs Blackwater is a communist?

Originally posted by KidRock
Because Stalin and the Communists never killed or murdered anybody.


Stalin was not a communist, he was a dictator. Russia was never a communist country, it was a dictatorship

Originally posted by KidRock
Because Stalin and the Communists never killed or murdered anybody.

http://19.media.tumblr.com/mCU8jmcCknhaneztKwDmYdCyo1_500.jpg


I'm so confused. I don't even understand your joke.


You know SC was being overly sarcastic again, right?


Wait, you do realize it...I just don't understand how your joke fits in here.

Originally posted by dadudemon
I'm so confused. I don't even understand your joke.


You know SC was being overly sarcastic again, right?


Wait, you do realize it...I just don't understand how your joke fits in here. He was just using it as an excuse to post that ultra-awesome picture of a bear.

Originally posted by Darth Jello
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/NYT_reveals_Blackwater_dropped_blinding_gas_0110.html

http://www.newsweek.com/id/42487

just off the top of my head.

how does that even start to happen?

technically, wouldn't those actions make them enemy combatants, let alone subject to treason charges?

Many of them aren't US nationals, Xe is a "multinational conglomerate" and because of some Bush backroom deals, supposedly, there is no court in heaven, hell, or earth that can sue them or prosecute them. They're trying to sue in both US civil and criminal courts and the international criminal court has been trying but there's a good chance those'll get thrown out due to those courts not having jurisdiction.

If it makes anyone feel better, Xe's contract in Iraq was done away with by the new Iraqi government, so they be out soon, at least officially.

Seems their reign ended once Bushco couldn't back them anymore. Here's hoping Obama does what he can to end their rampant no-bid contracts with the US government, doubt it though.

They can still work their as "security guards for US diplomats and firms".

Obama hired his own private security firm, they are no better than blackwater.

The secret service?

afaik the secret service does not provide security in Iraq.

Obama has said since the election that he supported having the private security firms there, and even opposed removing them while he was pushing his "withdraw from Iraq" line.

cool that the Iraqis themselves might be kicking them out, but given they are essentially a force of mercenary invaders, how much clout the Iraqis have with them is questionable.

So, under international law, at the end of the day, who has control of these guys. If the Iraqis want them out, could they kick them out? What about the States? Could the states kick them out if the Iraqis wanted them there? What if Xe/Prince wanted to stay and both wanted them out?

I suppose they could force their way in but then they wouldn't be getting paid anymore.

Except for their weapons smuggling and drug deals. Those pay pretty well. God, I hope someone overturns Xe's immunity and imprisons all of these guys.

I'd like to see them prosecute the rapes, if nothing else

I still find it shocking that a contractor can pull guns on US troops and trade guns to the enemy and still get away with it.