Prince, a hero to many
American Evangelicals is an evil figure to some and certainly a living scandal
to Christians who root their faith in the New Testament. Regardless of what one
thinks of him, he remains an important if controversial figure.
Some believe him to be
a pariah restored under Trump. Some view him as a rogue operative, treacherous
and even treasonous in the relationships he pursues. For my part I continue to
think of him as an agent or operative of certain factions within the American
Deep State. I don't believe his collaborations and attempted collaborations
with either the Russians or Chinese represent some kind of defection. Rather,
they are more likely infiltrations. The fact that he also profits from his work
is incidental as indeed many covert operatives have been demonstrated to also
seek profits and to profit from their intelligence exploits. In some cases
profits are actually a form of revenue to fund other projects – the fact that
some 'skim' from these monies is neither surprising nor forbidden.
Do motives sometimes
get confused? Do plots go sideways and sometimes lose direction? Indeed they do
but there are sometimes cases of grandiose planning, operations and exploits
for what seems to be rather small or limited aims. At least that's the perception
but there are many angles and many interests at work and sometimes their
actions may seem nonsensical to the casual observer but make perfect sense to
someone on the inside.
The Intercept seems to
take great umbrage at Prince's corruption and perceived divided loyalties.
Again for my part I am not surprised at this, nor at the suspicion on the part
of the Russians – who seem to know Prince is an agent of the US Deep State –
not merely a toady for Donald Trump.
The generalised
corruption is in keeping with the nature of his work and with the war industry
in general. These are not moral people and they play a dirty game and do
business with some of the most evil people on Earth – and of course they too
are in fact some of the most evil people on Earth. Prince, the Evangelical hero
is certainly deserving of this label. These people are (to put it simply) in
the business of death. Prince views himself as some kind of crusader for Christ
but he's as lost and as hell-bound as the men who stormed and massacred
Jerusalem in 1099.
Is Blackwater (and its
various permutations) a particularly evil example of private security
contracting (i.e. mercenary) work? Maybe but that's a subjective assessment.
The truth is there are a host of such companies and they all have their
scandals. It's not merely a US-based industry. Interestingly it's one of the
places where the legacy of empire tends to live on as there are many British
and Commonwealth firms. Indeed in some cases they've been at 'the game' much
longer than their American cousins.
The Intercept would
have us scandalised that Prince might be collaborating with the private
security firm Wagner – which due to its Russian connections is to be deemed (in
the eyes of The Intercept's nearly constant pro-DNC commentary) as something
particularly heinous. And of course there's an implied connection for readers –
Prince and Trump – Prince and Russia – Russia and Trump.
But actually the Libya
angle simply validates a point I've now been making for some time – the US (or
at least powerful factions within the US) support the Haftar faction even
though this posture is actually in conflict with official policy which
ostensibly supports the UN-backed Tripoli government. The Libyan conflict is
complicated and getting more so as time progresses. It, like the Syrian War is
widening and incorporating a larger series of regional issues and there are
various proxy forces at work. The fact that Moscow and Washington might (in
this case) support the same figure only testifies to how crazy the real world
is. You can't make this stuff up.
Washington has its own
reasons for supporting Haftar and one of them is the fact that Ankara is violently
opposed to him. The idea that Turkey and Moscow can be turned against one
another is at this point very appealing to Washington. And the fact that the
game might lead to the further destruction of a country and the deaths of
thousands – is meaningless to the power-players and strategists. These are men
without consciences – or souls for that matter.
Is Wagner an arm of
the Russia state? Of course it is. Most of the big-time security contractors
are. The real mercenaries are not the types of outfits that end up with a
Wikipedia page. They often don't exist in any official capacity. The
established security outfits are tied to states (through unofficial channels)
or have corporate backing (which is sometimes just a backdoor for the state).
This isn't to say that there isn't some shuffling that takes place from time to
time but the ability to present a viable war plan or strategy to a state actor (or
company) requires a lot of capital. War is not cheap. These are not lightweight
actors – not a handful of men with AK-47's. There are groups like that in
operation but they're not in the same league as Wagner and Blackwater.*
Look at an organisation
like Tim Spicer's Aegis. This would be the same Spicer who previously ran
Sandline International. Deeply connected to the Commonwealth sphere, Spicer was
involved in a notorious mercenary scandal in Papua New Guinea – and few would
question the state connections. Additionally, Spicer was involved in the decade
long civil war in Sierra Leone. Officially the British government opposed his
actions but there are doubters and not a few have suggested that Spicer's role
was in actuality an MI6 operation. His outfit also played a role in the 2003
invasion of Iraq and was caught up in its own scandals involving attacks on
civilians.
Aegis has also signed
contracts with the Pentagon and when the US pulled out of Iraq in 2011 – it was
Spicer's outfit along with DynCorp that picked up many of the security
contracts. The company's board is deeply connected, comprised of ex-generals
and cabinet members among others. These are not typically the kind of people
that would risk being blacklisted. More often than not they are still
government employees but in an unofficial and private capacity.
Basically these
organisations serve a purpose. They enrich those in the Defense Establishment
and they provide special off-the-books
services and are able to operate outside of congressional or parliamentary
review. If things go wrong, they allow for a degree of plausible deniability
for those holding political office. These aren't true mercenary organisations
but rather are arms of the deep state – in the case of Aegis, the
Anglo-American Establishment.
There have been other
companies like this. Air America was famous in the Vietnam era. Southern Air
Transport was also a CIA front company that worked alongside the US military.
In other pieces I have described my own interactions with SAT planes which used
to frequent the base I was stationed at in Italy. These 'private' companies are
fronts, arms of the US intelligence community and its overlapping interests
with special operations.
In connection with
Aegis, there is the notorious DynCorp. Before Erik Prince and Blackwater
entered the scene DynCorp was the frequent target of investigative journalists
and attempted exposés.
The company was involved in various Cold War projects and controversies but it
received some serious media attention in the 1990's in connection with various
scandals surrounding its Balkan contracts. The trafficking of children became
so notorious that even Hollywood picked up the story. DynCorp has also seen its
share of scandals in Latin America, Africa and Afghanistan. And as is so often
the case when it comes to these types of companies which are involved in drug
interdiction – they themselves usually face some accusation of drug smuggling.
While that's shocking to some, those who have been following US intelligence
and the story of drugs will scarcely raise an eyebrow. You can be sure as I
handled cargo for Southern Air Transport – I often wondered just what was in
the boxes? – especially on the flights coming from Turkey. I know one thing. It
would have been very easy to move that cargo into Italy and completely bypass
Italian customs.
Basically until
Blackwater came on the scene if there was a book or movie with some kind of bad
security contractor-mercenary types, more likely than not they were stand-ins
for DynCorp.
And yet despite the
scandals, the company (which many believe to be a CIA front) continues to grow
and has now expanded into various domestic law enforcement and analyst (IT)
roles – a point that has upset not a few people. Additionally given its
government and intelligence ties, these functions often skirt the law. To view
DynCorp as somehow being a wholly private company separated from the US
security state would be to entertain fantasy and delusion. It's like Aegis and
even Blackwater but while less a household name than Prince's organisation,
DynCorp is actually much bigger. Located in Reston VA, it's an integral part of
Top Secret America with numerous CIA
and FBI contracts, not to mention its ties to Wall Street.
But The Intercept
wants us to be outraged about Wagner and Moscow. The Russian firm is outrageous
and evil but it's the same story the world over. Moscow is merely parroting
those who have long played the game. Indict the industry – don't pretend as if
some entities are moral. And yet we're to believe Wagner is especially evil because it's connected
to Moscow.
These private
profit-based companies are tied to governments and if they contract with the
wrong people, then they face sanction and their business model collapses. They're
private but if they want to maintain their standing they are not allowed to
function autonomously. This is why I continue to insist that Prince is not
rogue at all – but merely acting for the deep state or at least a faction
within it. Remember, this is the golden age for the Private Military
Contractors. Their business flourished during the Cold War, experienced
significant growth in the labyrinthine 1990's and then entered the current Golden
Age during the Bush-Cheney era when they were turned loose and granted
contracts so vast these companies have (in some cases) struggled to fulfill
them.
Just as Aegis (Tim
Spicer) has straddled the Anglo-American world, the Pentagon once had strong
ties with the now defunct Executive Outcomes based in Apartheid South Africa.
The US had long backed South Africa especially in the wars that engulfed the
south of the continent. South Africa served as Washington's regional proxy
during much of the Cold War. But by the 1980's the posture toward the Apartheid
regime was shifting – and Washington would more or less wash its hands of it as
the Cold War came to end. However there were still interests (in both the US
and UK) that found some of the militarists of the old regime to be useful. This
is in part the story of Executive Outcomes, another rather notorious private
military contractor (PMC).
After a rocky start,
mired in some of the confusion and rapidly changing alliances in the sunset of
the Cold War, Executive Outcomes would later play a role in the former British
colony of Sierra Leone and its civil war. The company which undoubtedly
inspired the PMC in 2006's Blood Diamond also
possessed serious firepower in the form of fighter jets and helicopter gunships.
It would also go on to sign various contracts with mining and oil companies.
The controversial organisation would later be caught up in a scandal involving
the civil war in Somalia. The reporting revealed ties to Blackwater's Prince
and the ubiquitous Central Intelligence Agency. While Executive Outcomes
represented forces of a largely defunct South African government, its continued
ties throughout the 1990's were to London, Washington and New York.
Australia has its share
of private security companies. Aside from the aforementioned Aegis, the company
known as Paladin also demands consideration. Tied to the Canberra security
Establishment, Paladin is undoubtedly an arm of the Australian government and
functions in the same capacity as its various mercenary cousins. As expected it
operates in the Southeast Asian theatre with connections to Papua New Guinea
and Singapore – another Anglo-American regional ally and sometime proxy. The company which also has many business
connections is currently mired in a massive scandal involving money laundering
and corruption in reference to its detention centre contracts and domestic
spying – COINTELPRO-type infiltration and monitoring of Left-wing groups. There
are certainly suggestions of anti-Environmentalist activity which would make
sense if the company does indeed (as rumoured) have connections to the
lucrative and very powerful Australian mining sector.
While the ties to the
US are less overt in the case of Paladin, the organisation's ties to the Australian
military Establishment indicate that in general terms it's on board with (if
not often a direct agent of) the Anglo-American Establishment (the so-called
Five Eyes) as well as the trilateral ANZUS bureaucracies and interests – all
mechanisms and structures of the American dominated Western Order.
And what of Kroll Inc?
An investigative firm with ties to Establishment stand-ins AIG, Marsh and
McLennan, and the Carlyle Group, the global firm has been accused of corporate
espionage and in the eyes of many is simply a front for the CIA – or at the
very least a corporation with ties to it. It's a private firm and yet it's hard
to separate it from the US Establishment and its interests.
I find it strange (if
not a little rich) that suddenly The Intercept is worried about American
security and its standing vis-à-vis its rival powers. Do these journalists wish
to advocate for the security state? Or is that they just can't stand Erik
Prince and want to smear him – but don't really know how?
Prince is a
reprehensible person and yet he's part of a larger reprehensible world – a world
of murder and lies. That's what the Special Forces and the intelligence sectors
are all about. Some players are worse than others to be sure, but such
comparisons are futile and provide no moral clarity. Prince should be called
out and exposed but in doing so one cannot help but take note of the similar
players and actors that also inhabit those spheres – and thus such an
investigation would expose many proxies and agents of US intelligence,
something The Intercept was once interested in pursuing. But now that it has
attained a degree of standing and respectability – the online magazine
continues its ideological retreat.
The truth is there's a
whole world of private armies and paramilitary groups. Many large corporations
have their own intelligence and security services, this is especially true of
those involved in international resource extraction. Other companies will
contract out the work. While many have their dark and dirty sides, more of than
not they are playing 'above board' in terms of the Anglo-American Deep State –
in other words they work with the CIA or MI6 in overseas sectors. This is often
to their advantage. And if they refuse or work against US state interests they
will often find that the powers that be are working with their competitors.
It's an immoral world
and those who pretend otherwise are either deceived or trying to sell you
something. The Intercept story regarding Prince and Wagner contains some useful
information but lacks both context and the moral clarity it pretends to possess.
----
*For the sake of ease
I just continue to call Prince's organisation Blackwater. He's changed the name
more than once and has generated numerous subsidiaries but they're all Erik
Prince and they're all more or less incarnations or permutations of the
original Blackwater.
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