My Conversation with Blackwater's Erik Prince

I had a conversation with Erik Prince, Chairman and Founder of Blackwater USA.

We discussed the duty of Blackwater agents in Iraq. Here is a part of what he said:

He also talked about peacekeeping missions and the capabilities of a company like Blackwater.

Here is a part of what he said:

You can watch the entire conversation on the Charlie Rose website.

Comments

[RnR]

Blackwater could be the death of the legitimate military. They're better equipped (at taxpayers expense - which money should have gone to our legitimate military but bush/chene­y/rumsfeld gave it to Blackwater instead).

Their behavior and wanton killing/disregard for civilian populations has caused backlash attacks on our legitimate military and they're beholding to no law, anywhere. Hopefully that will change.

Without the crony appointments in the bush regime they would not have gotten where they are; without the crony appointments they would have been exposed a long time ago.

Increasing violence is beneficial to Blackwater, and lo and behold, after Blackwater arrives there *is* increased violence. What a lucky break. And in order for them to survive as a "company" there must be everlasting violence, or at least, populations to harass.

Agents of the "master race" (at least in their minds).

[architype]

This guy wants an American "christian" theocracy. Watch for another 911 type event in America prior to the 08 election, (perpetrated by the bush admin. with the help of blackwater), as an excuse to declair martial law, (the framework has been put in place in the last 6 years), and blackwater will be the "pretorian guard". The bush admin. will attempt to hold on to power at all costs. They know that they are about to get another "thumpin'",(if fixing the election doesn't work), and are terrified that they will be exposed even farther. People think this can't happen here...nei­ther did the Germans. The Democrats relinquish their power in an attempt to appear tough on terror...h­ow ironic and stupid is that?...le­tting go of power in order to maintain power...th­ey make bush look like a political genius. And they will prove it by nominating hillary...­the republicans are praying for that.
Blackwater has already drawn their weapons on American troops in Iraq...the­y have no loyalty to the Constitution or America...­they are only loyal to a warped view of christianity and the dollar.

[tbone99]

yeah -this whole Iraq thing may just be in order to send them home in time for the election.( Maliki's requesting out in 6 months -why not STAT?) Lets see 180,000 security people contracted with sniper and torture skills , hundreds of thousands employed in surveilance - and
millions ready to allow anything in order to to feel "secure'

[architype]

I don't own a gun, but I'm seriously considering buying a few...I know I would be out numbered, but I'd rather go down fighting than to be "renditioned".
I've also thought about moving to another country, but virtually all the potential candidates are tied to, and dependant on the US either economically or militarilly,(very little difference between the 2), even if they disagree idealogically with us.
We are essentially living in a corporate state already and most people will allow it to escalate because their livelyhood depends on the corporate paycheck..­.we can easily rationalize our behavior when our job, health care, and 401k depend on it. The pendulum has been swinging in this direction since Reagan, and Clinton kept the momentum going.

[Balconesfault]

When a company which has strong political ties to an existing administration get a lot of new contracts, that's one strike.

When an administration radically changes past policies to create huge federal contracting and profit opportunities that didn't previously exist for a specific industry with strong political ties to the administration (it's not like Blackwater is the only mercenary firm with close Republican connections) that's strike two.

When the Administratino is funding the creation of a shadow military that the President can call on without any Congressional oversight, that's strike three.

Where's the umpire? Nancy ... Harry ... Hillary?

[Dap]

Dear Mr. Rose,

Personally I am not in favor of private armies, there is good cause to be alarmed with such enterprises.

I shall limit my objections to the one argument I find of greatest importance.

Dr. Philip Zimbardo's Standford prison experiment. There has also be other research in this vain, they are all eye opening and give one real insight into the psyche of human mind. Dr. Zimbardo has a book out called: "The Lucifer Effect: Understanding how good people turn evil"

Keeping this in mind it is easy to understand my objections to such private armies and why my concerns are fully warranted. There is *No* possible way to place proper governmental oversight on such entities, the chance for abuse is 100%, it is just a matter of time.

Agape.

[DouginCT]

Bingo. Private armies operating in our country spells the end of a free society. Prince can put all the lipstick on this pig he wants. Human nature trumps intentions. Period.

[YellowPanties]

Thanks for giving Blackwater some white wash time, Charlie Blows. I mean, Rose.

[WIDESTANCE]

blackwater is a "subsidiary" of bushco and has never been anything but...

last night on cnn, price was asked how many blackwater employees are currently in iraq and he replied "around 1000" - it was also revealed a bit later that since 2001, blackwater has been awarded government contracts totaling more than 1 Billion dollars, with more than 500 Million in 2006 alone

my question is this

what are 1000 blackwater employees doing in iraq that is costing the u.s. taxpayer over a half billion dollars a year?

[WereAllInThisTogether]

its not just for the men, you're also paying for the equipment.

i'm not a big fan of the idea of private armies either, but the more i hear this guy talk the more it seems the problem is the state departments use of the private contractors, not the contractors themselves.

[tbone99]

They're buying up large acreage for compounds ( Illinois and San Diego),helicopters, and military equipment.­They're preparing.­..

[esquire07]

America is truly fucked.

[cuddletuffy]

Charlie,

I only watched the two short clips. It was as much as I could stomach. These two clips show you providing Erik Prince exactly what he wants and needs. Namely, to read his carefully crafted PR statements and appear as a good guy to sway the court of public opinion. Furthermore, you appear to provide him with an opportunity to sell us on his next venture in getting his mercenaries into Darfur.

Do you recall that General George Washington disbanded the military after the War of Independence? Do you recall why? He and the great majority of the founders declared standing armies the enemy of democracy. Do you recall why we fought against monarchy? One of the points of agitation was the king forcing colonists to provide room and board for his mercenary army. Our nation was founded on the notion that we were against monarchy and its institutions one of whose pillars is mercenary armies. The writings of the founders are filled with reasons why we should not even maintain armies when we are not at war.

Here we are, 230 years later. You are using the freedom of the press to help an egregious war profiteer, who by international law is a war criminal, sell his personality and his business to the American people. His business is that of a feudal lord, raising and using a mercenary army. Thanks Charlie. Thank you for showing us how much you love the ideas of feudalism and detest the fundamental pillars upon which our republic was founded.

Prince has benefited from the Bush tax cuts at the same time that his, "private", army wouldn't get paid if it wasn't for the public he and the Bush mafia are milking so he can get fat off of the government tit. I think it is time we force Exxon, Chevron, and BP to hire Blackwater with their own money and fight their own wars of conquest in their name. Even if it is murderous and illegal, at least it would be more honest than the taxpayer scam they are currently running.

[thgy]

Brilliant post! I hope Mr. Rose reads it and then apologizes to America.
They have sunk so low, I remember after Tom Delay was arrested, Brian Lamb of C-Span took a camera crew up and down K-Street to show America that K-Street is just a rode in DC.

My question is how are they going to behave when a democrat is president? Like they did when Clinton was in office, will we let them get away with it?

[drkazmd65]

Exactly cuddletuffy.

Somebody, somewhere, with their hands deep in the pockets of the American taxpayers and electorate, but with absolutely no responsibility to answer to that same electorate, is exactly what the founders were trying to avoid.

Mr. Prince, only answers to two powers, God, and Money. And 'we' are giving him the money.

Remind me again why Impeachment is 'Off the Table'?

[MarkKienan]

Privatize education
Privatize social security
Privatize military

Every aspect of society needs to be privatized so that the oligarchs can take advantage of their privledge and make a profit. THEY have THEIRS. Forget about everyone else.

[tbone99]

The worst is the public is providing the start up and maintenence money.

[tbone99]

How about the lambasting Dan Rather took for interveiwing Saddam Hussein ,the president of a country who as we know now was attempting to prevent the invasion of his country through back channels and had offered to step down.

[Boris]

Charlie...­.Blackwate­r will be the tool Dick Cheney uses to overthrow the US Government when Democrats take over in 08.

Cheney wants an imperial presidency and he will get it, even if he has to expose himself as the biggest asshole in US history.

The irony...th­e NRA will back down and probably join sides with Blackwater since most of their members are, like Cheney, chicken hawk bastards.

Which brings me to an idea. Lets award a Yellow Heart, similar to the Purple Heart, for GOPers who want your kids to die, but are too chickenshit to go themselves.

Line em up...Perle­, Feith, Lieberman.­..etc..

[esquire07]

Dead Troops = Halliburton Proftis = Money in Dick Cheney's bloody pockets.

Goodbye America. Just like Rome.

[researcher]

as long as he can keep nancy and reid in there he can keep his imperial presidency.

bush has it now with the spineless demos.

give bush credit he is an alpha dog par excellence. he gets every dime he asks for this war.

he knew the demos a lot better than all of us suckers that voted demo. never again. run nader please. the demos deserve to lose again.

come on jeb run. americans love alpha dogs.

[tbone99]

He's hardly an alpha dog -he's a lap dog for corporations

[EdwardUlyssesCate]

It is rather a sad state of affairs for our country when the government attempts to emulate the mob. Erik Prince is nothing more than a minor boss running a bunch of goons, reporting to a major boss that is not even the Godfather. However, like the mob donating to the local priest, Prince donates to Dobson and others. Now they and their followers look the other way when Blackwater lies, steals and murders. Goes all the way back to Abraham of Genesis. which said it is okay to lie, steal and murder those NOT of your own faith. It is so stupid. Men have not learned anything from history, so here we go again. About all one can do is get out of the way. But there is NO where to run. The rest of the world used to see us as one last hope before annihilation, but I guess we messed that up too.

[curlytop]

The very notion that Blackwater should be part of any UN peacekeeping operation anywhere in the world is obscene. Erik Prince's mercenaries are committing murder of Iraqi civilians everyday in Iraq. He and his band of war addicts belong in the brig.

[desertdweller]

Why is no one looking at Erik Prince's true motives? He and his well-heeled family (AMWAY fortune), and buddies like Gary Bauer have big plans for paving the way for the second coming, i.e., a modern-day crusade to return the so-called holy land to it's rightfull owners. Onward christian soldiers!

[totalliberal]

Charlie Rose says cheerily:
I had a conversation with Erik Prince, Chairman and Founder of Blackwater USA.

And I say. Yes we know. :-(

[RogerHWerner]

There is a roll for private security firms in today's world: Protecting corporate assets and/or staff. Private security firms have no business providing services that are traditionally offered by the military, government security agencies, police, and/or correctional officers. Blackwater however isn't the fundamental problem. The fundamental problem is an economic system that believes it's perfectly acceptable to outsource all government activities and not just those associated with security: Government policy permitted Blackwater to flourish. The prevailing economic theory in America today is free market capitalism in its extreme form as preached by the University of Chicago School of Economics and more specifically Milton Friedman. According to this school, there should be no government services..­.period. When the USSR fell apart along with its socialistic economic system, what was left was free market capitalism in its extreme form, and, today this system is promoted by the US, IMF, World Bank, the G8, and most of the western world. It would be nice to see a return to some form of Keynesian economic thinking and I hope it won't take an extreme event like the Great Depression to bring about such a change.