It's the best way I could think of to describe him. He grew up on the fringe side of Christianity that gets off on murdering Muslims, and heads a mercenary group that goes over to the middle east to murder Muslims (yes, including innocent ones, on purpose)

Anyway, seems like he's trying to save face now, which is interesting. I wonder why he cares all of a sudden...

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/02/blackwaters-prince-steps-down/

Quote :

" The founder and CEO of Blackwater Worldwide, Erik Prince, reveals in the new issue of "Vanity Fair" that he will no longer be involved in the company's operations. In an article dated Dec. 2, Mr. Prince says he is resigning from the private security contractor and plans to turn it over to its employees and a board. Mr. Prince founded in Blackwater in 1997. The private security contractor, recently renamed Xe Services, had worked closely with CIA, the State Department and the US military. It became one of the world's most respected but also reviled defense contractors following a September 2007 incident in which Blackwater guards shot and killed Iraqi civilians in Baghdad. The shooting, which Blackwater claimed was in self defense, triggered international outrage and led to the State Department to drop end the company's contracts to protect its diplomats in Iraq. Over the past year the company has become a target of multiple federal investigations. "I'm through", says Mr. Prince in the magazine article. The 40 year-old heir to a Michigan auto-parts company, says he plans to become a high school teacher. Mr. Prince claims in the interview that he has worked for the CIA spy since 2004, performing missions ranging from inserting personnel into troubled areas to assembling hit teams whose mission was to target and kill Al Qaeda members. Mr. Prince says Blackwater, based in Moyock, N.C., is paying $2 million monthly for his legal bills. "I put myself and the company at the CIA's disposal for some very risky missions, but when it became politically expedient to do so, someone threw me under the bus," he tells Vanity Fair. Some of Mr. Prince's legal woes stem from accusations that the CIA hired Blackwater for a plan to capture and kill terrorists."

12/2/2009 7:57:15 PM

The best way you can think to describe him is by equating him to a terrorist that has perpetated the murder of thousands of innocent Muslims, Christians, Jews, etc the world over?

Get a grip dude. No one is going to debate you or take you seriously when you engage in this type of hyperbole.

That being said, I do think Erik Prince is generally a pretty shitty guy.

12/2/2009 9:05:19 PM

^ what he said

12/2/2009 9:07:50 PM

Erik Prince is a punk that ran a second-rate mercenary company which has been so badly disgraced, they had to change their name to a spelling that even people in the security field can't pronounce correctly and thus refer to his outfit as the "PMC formerly known as Blackwater."

I don't know if the term "respected" is appropriate for Xe; in the security policy studies field they're viewed as a bunch of trigger happy wannabes who couldn't get jobs with a respected PMC like MPRI (if you want to study up on an extremely effective and influential PMC, MPRI is an excellent case study).

My two cents, anyway.

12/2/2009 10:05:58 PM

^^
^^^

But I said AMERICAN! That's one hell of a modifier!

12/2/2009 10:39:03 PM

Erik Prince and Blackwater (Xe) are certainly worthy of discussion. He / they are certainly not UBL / AQ.


^^ Like them or not, believe they are legitimate or not, from an operational perspecitve Blackwater is anything but second-rate. I've worked with MPRI and I've got friends who have worked with Blackwater. From what I've heard, Blackwater is the more tactically effective company. Triple Canopy and others may be equally proficient and far more professional, but I wouldn't put Blackwater in the second rate category for what they specialize in.

I'm not saying that there aren't plenty of hyper-aggressive, Type A, "I've got a gun so fuck you" types in Blackwater, but they get a lot of shit done.

12/2/2009 10:41:22 PM

Goodnight...Erik Prince

12/2/2009 11:16:02 PM

i know a couple black dudes that work for them. we used to play paintball all the time. those guys rock.

12/2/2009 11:33:09 PM

Quote :

"someone threw me under the bus"

Too bad that's figurative.

12/3/2009 3:49:47 AM