Blackwater CEO Erik Prince Implicated In Murder
Jeremy Scahill reports at The Nation that the founder of Blackwater, Erik Prince, has been implicated in silencing whistleblowers at his company by killing them:
A former Blackwater employee and an ex-US Marine who has worked as a security operative for the company have made a series of explosive allegations in sworn statements filed on August 3 in federal court in Virginia. The two men claim that the company’s owner, Erik Prince, may have murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals who were cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company. The former employee also alleges that Prince “views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe,” and that Prince’s companies “encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life.”
These statements came as part of sworn affidavits filed August 3, meaning the men who alleged this face perjury charges if what they say is proven untrue. In the affadavit from John Doe #2 [.pdf via The Nation], this should-be-shocking line caught my attention (emphasis mine):
Mr. Prince operated his companies in a manner that encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life. For example, Mr. Prince’s executives would openly speak about going over to Iraq to “lay Hajiis out on cardboard.” Going to Iraq to shoot and kill Iraqis was viewed as a sport or game.
Yes. War was a game to these men, many of whom also didn’t pass necessary mental health screenings, according to JD#2, who also says Prince fired mental health professionals for giving bad reports. John Doe #2 was, according to Scahill, a former Blackwater manager. In his statement, he says that Mr. Prince and his associates have threatened to kill him since he left the company, and he offered his testimony even under that threat. It’s probably no wonder that Prince and his top managers would want this man to keep quiet: among his charges are that Prince knew of and encouraged the use of illegal weapons and ammunition and “did nothing to stop the use of prostitutes, including child prostitues, among his men” on their specially-construced Man Camp base in Iraq.
Oh boy. 😡 Our military does NOT teach this mentality AT ALL. It burns me up that Blackwater off.’s are representative USA over there! Unfortunately, I live in a place where this mentality is alive and well. People love hunting SO MUCH that they can’t bear to get out of camo clothing nor remove the hunting license from the ugly clothes when not hunting. 90% of them are such small men too. Then they get drunk and act even “braver” and “stronger” because they get together and fuel each other’s mentality, shoving their “God Bless the USA” wisdom into people’s faces. They wear camoflauge to go FISHING! How mental is that?! :yuck: