First Was Blackwater, then Xe, then Academi. Make up your mind.
(BTW: Still the same old, same old group run by Erik Prince)
When it started: Back under Dubya and Dark Dick
First Update: Original Post Follows — This is a fast-moving story:
Second Update: From the Trump Afghanistan policy
speech (Monday, August 21, 2017) that relates to the following posts:
Extracted highlights re: The Erik Prince (his private Army
company: FSG part) of the story vis-à-vis Afghanistan – now our longest war –
16 years and counting.
Background: Within the White House, the
now-departed Stephen Bannon’s opposition to sending more troops to Afghanistan
helped fuel strife with other Trump aides, including national security adviser NSC
Adviser H. R. McMaster, who supported the modest troop surge.
Bannon had advocated for a proposal to replace U.S.
troops with private security contractors (Erik
Prince and this mercenary forces (some
6,000), an idea floated by Erik Prince himself. Military leaders largely
opposed the idea, and the White House ruled it out.
Overall, the
speech gets high marks from “leaders” in Afghanistan, but foreign policy
analysts said Trump’s decision on Afghanistan is tricky because his strategy
does not represent a radical departure from the past.
In short,
time will tell – doesn’t it always?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------First Update: Original Post Follows — This is a fast-moving story:
Modern-day “John Rambo” Wannabe
Redux
Still led and run by Erik Prince – who is
this guy and why U.S. tax-dollars potentially to be in play (again) – this time
tied to China – WTF moment for sure … details follow from the story – warning:
Pretty dam disgusting to say the least.
Blackwater
founder Erik Prince, the brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, has been
promoting a plan in major media outlets to turn the war in Afghanistan over to
private military contractors. But largely missing from the debate about
Prince’s plan is that the former Blackwater CEO currently leads a military
contractor that would profit from the proposal and enrich its shareholders
— which includes the Chinese government.
Related – FYI:
Betsy DeVos Invested in Military Tech Contractor Run by
Son-In-Law, While Brother (Erik) Shaped Afghan War Policy
Prince made
his pitch to the American people Monday with an op-ed in USA Today and
an extended one-on-one interview with host Erin Burnett on CNN.
Both USA Today and CNN named Prince’s current company, Frontier Services
Group (FSG) — unlike the Wall Street Journal, which ran a
Prince op-ed pushing his plan in May with a one-sentence
bio that failed to mention his current position — but neither outlet
mentioned that FSG
is a security contractor partially owned by the Chinese government.
Erik Prince’s pathetic
and BS quote of the Century or at least a top contender regarding his ties as
well as FSG’s to the Chinese government as seen here:
“We’re not serving
Chinese foreign policy goals, we’re
helping increase trade.”
helping increase trade.”
Prince’s
proposal is to win the war in Afghanistan through privatization of the military
effort there, but it’s also a sales pitch for the services of his industry and
his company.
FSG has openly allied itself with the foreign policy goals of the
Chinese government and has pursued the creation of a private air force
— the same type of air force Prince advocates in his plan.
That plan
calls for 5,500 private contractors to advise Afghan combat forces. Prince
wants to make those private security forces “military employees of the Afghan
government,” he explained to CNN host Erin Burnett.
BTW: Current DOD policy states that private
security contractors cannot engage in combat, but can use deadly force in
self-defense.
In Prince’s own words: “Imagine them as a skeletal structure that provides leadership, intelligence, medical, communications and logistic support to all those Afghan battalions so it works reliably.” He went on to say his security forces in his plan could be foreign — like his company, which BTW has HQ in Hong Kong and is traded on the Hong Kong stock exchange.
In Prince’s own words: “Imagine them as a skeletal structure that provides leadership, intelligence, medical, communications and logistic support to all those Afghan battalions so it works reliably.” He went on to say his security forces in his plan could be foreign — like his company, which BTW has HQ in Hong Kong and is traded on the Hong Kong stock exchange.
Note: Prince also said private contractors deployed to Afghanistan “could also be American.” Then he clarified this way: “They could
be foreign nationals. They could be NATO allies. They can be from the global
SAF community of professionals” (The acronym for Security
Assistance Forces).
The private
contractors could potentially be from the company Prince leads, FSG, where he became the chairman in 2014. He also just happens to be FSG's largest shareholder (according to the company’s 2016
annual report).
Note: Another substantial shareholder is CITIC
Group, a state-owned Chinese conglomerate.
This updated story continues here at the link. – As I
said, all-in-all it's pretty damn disgusting and depressing - that is this level we have reached or perhaps going to reach or
should I say “sink” to this new low (and all over again).
Related:
My original post follows.
My bottom line even if that's not clear to many is: It's the money and marketing and not much else.
So stay tuned and see what Trump says tonight (re: NPR) – and thanks for stopping by.
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The original story and main post from here and also from here. Truly amazing to say the least – that headline:
Trump White House weighs unprecedented plan to privatize much
of the war in Afghanistan
Astonishing story on top of the fact that Congress just passed nearly a $700 billion DOD spending bill and now floating around is the hair brain idea to pay Erik Prince (formerly CEO of Blackwater, then Xe, then Academi) a full-fledged mercenary contractor (if we are honest about it) some $10 billion to take over the U.S. Forces mission and “win” the war?
(I note: Blackwater in the past has paid operators $600 a day (back in 2007) – so, how much does a PFC infantryman make a day – yeah, ha ha).
(I note: when someone changes their name or business name (like Prince has done three times) it’s got to be for no good reasons – that’s my hunch in this case).
Another Trump WTF moment...!!!
Prince as you may or may not know or remember is also the brother of Ed. Secy. Betsy DeVos (Prince is her maiden name).
A bit more on Erik Prince and what I think is a shitty deal brewing …
More recently, Prince, the Blackwater founder as I said and who is also the brother the Education Secretary Betsy Devos, now has been tied to the Trump administration.
In April, as Common Dreams reported, government officials told members of the press that Prince “took part in a clandestine meeting with a confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘as part of an apparent effort to establish a back-channel line of communication’ between Moscow and the White House.”
In June, Prince penned a Wall Street Journal op-ed in which he outlined five ways he believes President Trump can “fix our approach in Afghanistan,” including the suggestion that the U.S. deploy an “East India Company approach.”
As Common Dreams also reported, one critic described Prince’s plan as “sheer 19th century bloodlust and thirst for empire,” and another noted, “it is hardly surprising that a war profiteer sees profit opportunity in war.”
Then following his Op-Ed, it was revealed that two of Trump’s top aides, W/H chief strategist Steve Bannon and senior adviser, son-in-law, Jared Kushner, reportedly solicited advice from Prince “on how to proceed with the 16-year-long war in Afghanistan.”
That brings us to this story today.
So, what matters with private contractors in war? Take Iraq example:
The use of contractors in Iraq was unprecedented in both its size and scope.
Estimates of the number of contract personnel in Iraq varied.
In 2006, the United States Central Command estimated the number to be around 100,000. (That it turned out to be such a perfectly round figure indicated that the estimate was actually what researchers call a “WAG,” short for “wild ass guess.”)
In 2007, an internal DOD census on the industry found almost 160,000 private contractors were employed in Iraq (roughly equal to the total U.S. troops at the time, even after the 2007 troop surge).
Yet even this figure was a conservative estimate, since a number of the biggest companies, as well as any firms employed by the State Department or other agencies or NGOs, were not included in the census.
What matters is not merely the numbers, but their role – their mission – their conduct.
B/L from my view point: Just work hard and keep the billionaire class happy, right Mr. Trump Empire, Inc. CEO – now running (or ruining rather) the country like so many failed Trump business deals and trying to set and publish policy by tweet.
How pathetic and ironic is that?
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