DoomsdaysCW<p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Blackwater" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Blackwater</span></a> Founder <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ErikPrince" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ErikPrince</span></a> Indicted for Arms Sales to <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Libya" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Libya</span></a></p><p>By Miriam Raftery</p><p>July 27, 2023 (San Diego) — "The name Erik Prince became familiar to many residents in San Diego’s East County when Blackwater, the private military contracting firm he founded, sought to build a <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/paramilitary" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>paramilitary</span></a> training camp in Potrero.</p><p>"Now Austria has indicted Prince for alleged arms trafficking to Libya in violation of a United Nations arms embargo; at least one shipment of explosives reportedly went through <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Austria" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Austria</span></a> using an Austrian business, BNN reports. Prince is accused of organizing a covert military operation to supply Libyan warlord <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/KhalifaHafter" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>KhalifaHafter</span></a> with war equipment for rebellion against a government backed by the U.S. and the U.N.</p><p>"If convicted, Prince could face up to five years in prison. However, it is unclear whether or not he will be extradited to Austria; Prince holds residency in both the U.S. and <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/AbuDhabi" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>AbuDhabi</span></a>. Prince has denied UN allegations of arms peddling to Libya.</p><p>"The local <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Potrero" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Potrero</span></a> project drew massive opposition on <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/environmental" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>environmental</span></a> grounds as well as the many controversies involving Blackwater, which Prince was CEO and chairman of at the time. The Harris Fire in October 2007 displaced many residents, but that didn’t stop them from showing up to vote and recall all five community planning group members who had voted for the project, which sparked national news headlines.</p><p>"The 2007 firestorms scorched Round Potrero Valley, where Blackwater planned to store <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ammunition" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ammunition</span></a> and a bunkhouse with 200 men in the box valley with only one exit. </p><p>"Blackwater ultimately dropped plans for the Potrero facility in 2008, ostensibly due to noise mediation requirements, although those had not changed since the project’s inception.</p><p>"Prince, a former Navy Seal before founding Blackwater in 2009, is no stranger to controversy. Three Blackwater guards were convicted in 2014 of manslaughter and another of murder in charges stemming from the massacre of civilians in Baghdad’s <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/NissourSquare" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>NissourSquare</span></a> in 2007. In March 2009, Prince resigned as Blackwater’s CEO but remained chairman of the board until the company’s sale in late 2010.</p><p>"Blackwater’s successor company, <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Academi" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Academi</span></a>, was accused of <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ArmsTrafficking" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ArmsTrafficking</span></a> in 2012 dating back to when Prince served as CEO and Chairman. Then in 2020, the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/FBI" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>FBI</span></a> investigated Prince for arms trafficking involving <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/cropduster" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>cropduster</span></a> planes converted for military use.</p><p>"He moved to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates in 2010, where he was hired by the crown prince to organize foreign troops for the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/UAE" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>UAE</span></a> and formed a new firm called <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ReflectResponses" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ReflectResponses</span></a>, or R2. He later trained Somalis in anti-piracy operations with UAE funding.</p><p>"Prince also leads a private equity firm, <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/FrontierResourcesGroup" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>FrontierResourcesGroup</span></a> and until April 2021, chaired Frontier Services Group Ltd., which had various business dealings in <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Africa" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Africa</span></a>.</p><p>"Prince also drew controversy over revelations that he lied to the House Intelligence Committee in Nov. 2017 about his involvement in the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Trump" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Trump</span></a> transition team and was at a Trump Tower meeting that allegedly had backchannel communications with a representative of Russian President Vladimir <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Putin" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Putin</span></a>. A Special Counsel in 2018 found evidence contradicting Prince, the Washington Post reported. The House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff sent a criminal referral to the Justice Department which announced in 2020 that it had opened an investigation into Prince’s alleged perjury during his testimony.</p><p>"Politically well connected, Prince is the sister of <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/BetsyDevos" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>BetsyDevos</span></a>, former Secretary of Education under President Donald Trump, and has been a major donor to numerous Republican candidates and a Trump-aligned super-pac."</p><p><a href="https://www.eastcountymagazine.org/blackwater-founder-erik-prince-indicted-arms-sales-libya" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">eastcountymagazine.org/blackwa</span><span class="invisible">ter-founder-erik-prince-indicted-arms-sales-libya</span></a></p><p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/PrivateArmy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>PrivateArmy</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Xe" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Xe</span></a><br><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/CorporateColonialism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>CorporateColonialism</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/PrivateArmies" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>PrivateArmies</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Fascism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Fascism</span></a> <br><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ErikPrinceColonialism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ErikPrinceColonialism</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/CorporateColonialism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>CorporateColonialism</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Blackwater" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Blackwater</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/TigerSwan" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>TigerSwan</span></a></p>