Blackwater Founder Eric Prince Blowtorched by Politics

Originally posted January 28, 2014.

Blackwater, under government contact, handled 100,000 security missions in Iraq and Afghanistan never losing a single official under its protection. Eric Prince also (as David Feith writes) “using his own personal wealth and expertise recruited and deployed a world-wide network of spies tracking al Qaeda operatives in ‘hard target’ locations where even the CIA couldn’t reliably operate.” In the end, Eric Prince was, I believe, used as a scapegoat by the government. According to Mr. Prince, Blackwater “was completely thrown under the bus by a fickle customer—the U.S. government.”

Today Eric is chairman of Frontier Services Group providing logistics and security services in Africa. Prince’s second-largest shareholder is Citic Group, China’s second-largest state-owned conglomerate. China is already Africa’s largest trading partner. Prince explains here that “the United States government is too big in all areas and that it is time to make the whole thing a lot smaller.” Eric Prince’s excellent memoir Civilian Warriors is now available.