Blackwater Chief Concedes It Is "Possible" Guards Made A Mistake
In an interview with Charlie Rose to air Monday on PBS, Blackwater USA chief Erik Prince continues to defend his security guards, and indeed argues that they could have been useful in situations like the Rwandan genocide in 1994, or in Darfur today.
He does, however concede that it's "possible" they made a mistake or exercised bad judgment.
On The Sept. 16 Shooting In Baghdad:
Charlie Rose: Why are you so convinced that this was not one of those cases where because of the fog of war, your guys made a mistake?
Erik Prince: I'm not saying it's impossible they made a mistake. I'm saying on the front end, we do a very thorough job of finding the best of the best. These are true proven professionals that come out of the US military that have significant positions of responsibility already. We put them through extensive vetting, psychological evaluations, we put them through more vetting and procedures dictated by the State Department than most soldiers in the US military do. So, yes, it is a very tough job. It required the tightest of judgment. Is it possible they made a mistake? Yes.
Charlie Rose: But they have assured you in what they have said to you, they didn't make a mistake, that there was provocation before they acted.
Erik Prince: In the statements I've seen, that is the case.
Charlie Rose: I want to give you a chance, because you feel like the media and others have made baseless allegations.
Erik Prince: Yes, but I'm also not prejudging to say that they're completely
innocent. I'm saying from their track record, as proven individuals working in high-threat situations for the past many years, almost all those guys were military veterans of Iraq or Afghanistan, serving there as an active duty member of the armed forces. They had good service then. There is no reason to believe that suddenly they went rogue. I don't believe they did. Is it possible one of them had bad judgment? Yes, it is possible. But the fact is, I'm very confident that there are bullet impacts in their vehicles to the point that one of them was disabled.
On Supporting Peacekeeping Missions:
Charlie Rose: George Clooney, the actor was on my television program.
Erik Prince: Yep.
Charlie Rose: Recently. He said to me, he got a call from you suggesting because of his interest in Darfur that if they let you, you could do what in Darfur?
Erik Prince: What we -- you know, as an idea to at least evaluate, imagine a force of just some professional advisers, a couple hundred folks that could go and help the African Union or the UN soldiers be even better at their jobs, help them make sure their vehicles are running, that they have a com-- a communications plan, that they have the basic elements of soldiering to get them out there, to get them patrolling, to get them some helicopter medivac support so that if one of them gets hurt, I mean troops, the fact they do better if they know that they're going to get taken care of if something bad happens.
Charlie Rose: So it was a support mission. It wasn't, as someone also said about you, because how much you love the Navy SEALS, that you have dreamed of creating a private Army that could be a lightning quick response and deal with circumstances like Rwanda like Darfur and perhaps other hotspots essentially saying, let me take care of. It I can do this.
I have the men. I have the skill. I have the training. I have the know-how. Let me take over some of the responsibilities of peacekeeping in the world.
Erik Prince: No. That's -- that's too far of an assumption. But who can watch the movie Hotel Rwanda not wish it had a different outcome? Who didn't wish --
Charlie Rose: No one.
Erik Prince: -- that the UN would have sent troops or yanked those Belgian commandos back there to secure that hotel and to provide some safe havens. I mean you let almost a million people in a country about the size of Maryland get killed by farm tools over four months.
More On Peacekeeping:
Charlie Rose: So you are basically saying, Eric is prepared to go on peacekeeping missions before the UN can go, before other people can go. We want to do that. That's what we're qualified and trained to do.
Erik Prince: I can't go and offer those kind of offensive services. I'm saying if --
Charlie Rose: Have you thought about it? Have you thought about this might be a place I'd like to go?
Erik Prince: Again, you watch the movie Hotel Rwanda or Sometimes in April or one of those and say, man, someone's got to do something. And you know, if someone asked us to do that, to say, hey, go send 5 or 600 folks to create some -- secure the airport, take that radio station off the air so it's not inciting the Hutus to keep killing the Tutsis, yes, private sector could have done that. And we welcome the oversight, send -- send 50 US military advisers or UN military officers from some country. Send them along. Make it a joint operation. But someone do something before that happens again.
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First Posted: 10-13-07 08:29 PM | Updated: 03-28-08 02:45 AM