What Do Congo’s Minerals and a Shadowy Prison Deal Have in Common? Erik Prince

Congo’s minerals, El Salvador’s prisons, and Trump’s war on dissent—Erik Prince is quietly at the center of it all.

Robert Inlakesh
By Robert Inlakesh

Erik Prince, the controversial founder of Blackwater and longtime ally of Donald Trump, is mounting a major comeback. He has secured a new deal to “protect” the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) lucrative mineral sector and is pitching a privatized prison complex in El Salvador that critics say echoes Guantanamo Bay. In a letter dated Feb. 8,

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Blackwater Founder Calls For 5,000 Mercenaries to Topple Maduro

Erik Prince has pitched a plan around Washington to privatize US coup efforts using his latest Blackwater inspired mercenary empire. 

ZeroHedge.com
By ZeroHedge.com
Blackwater founder Erik Prince testifies before a House committee examining the mission and performance of private military contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, Oct. 2, 2007. (Susan Walsh/AP)

As if the past months of US push for regime change in Venezuela with officials like Elliott Abrams of Iran-Contra conviction infamy at the helm wasn't bizarre enough, things just got weirder, as Erik Prince has apparently been pitching a plan around Washington to privatize US coup efforts using his latest Blackwater inspired mercenary

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New York Times Slammed For Running ‘Advertorial’ By Notorious War Profiteer

“Why is the New York Times op-ed page publishing Erik Prince’s sales pitch for more mercenaries?”

Jake Johnson
By Jake Johnson
Blackwater founder Erik Prince testifies before a House committee examining the mission and performance of private military contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, Oct. 2, 2007. (Susan Walsh/AP)

The New York Times came under fire on Wednesday for running what critics characterized as "uncontested propaganda" in the form of an op-ed by notorious war profiteer and Blackwater founder Erik Prince. As in his other prominent op-eds that ran recently in the Wall Street Journal and USA Today, Prince—the brother of Education Secretary Betsy

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Blackwater Founder’s ‘Disturbing’ Plan To Privatize Afghan War Gains Ground

Erik Prince appears eager to capitalize on conflict within the Trump administration, and his recent moves indicate that he sees a significant business opportunity in Afghanistan.

Jake Johnson
By Jake Johnson
Blackwater founder Erik Prince testifies before a House committee examining the mission and performance of private military contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, Oct. 2, 2007. (Susan Walsh/AP)

As President Donald Trump vents his frustration with the United States' "losing" strategy in Afghanistan, the "notorious mercenary" and Blackwater founder Erik Prince has seized the moment to offer his favored alternative: privatize the war. According to a report by Katrina Manson of the Financial Times on Monday, Prince has drafted a

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Judges Tosses Murder Conviction Of Blackwater Mercenary Who Killed 14 Unarmed Civilians

Three former mercenaries who killed and injured 31 unarmed Iraqis in Nisour Square will be resentenced, and a fourth may be retried.

Jessica Corbett
By Jessica Corbett
Blackwater Grand Jury

A federal appeals court on Friday threw out lengthy prison sentences of three former operatives for private mercenary firm Blackwater Worldwide—and ordered a retrial for a fourth operative who had received a life sentence—for their roles in the notorious 2007 Nisour Square massacre in Baghdad, which left 14 unarmed Iraqis dead and another 17

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Blackwater Founder Calls For ‘American Viceroy’ To Rule Afghanistan

Prince’s past connections to President Donald Trump indicate that his advice could potentially have some measure of influence on the White House.

Jake Johnson
By Jake Johnson
Blackwater CEO and founder Erik Prince (AP/Sara D. Davis)

Displaying what one commentator called "sheer 19th-century bloodlust and thirst for empire," Erik Prince, founder of the private mercenary firm Blackwater, argued in The Wall Street Journal this week that the United States should deploy an "East India Company approach" in Afghanistan. The country, he wrote, should be run by "an American viceroy

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