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The Prince and the Punishment
Gratitude is a fruit of great cultivation;
You do not find it among gross people.— Samuel Johnson, Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides
It’s hard to understand why he’s mad. The settlement sounded like such a good deal for him and his company. And furthermore, he’s trying to sell the company and the settlement will probably help that, and to make things even better, he now lives happily in Abu Dhabi where it is harder to sue him. (He moved hurriedly in August. It had nothing to do with the lawsuits he was defending. He needed to get there quickly so his children could enroll in school. School started on August 15.) Here’s why Eric Prince’s petulance is hard to fathom.
On August 21, 2010 it was announced that Xe, formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide, the company founded by Eric Prince in 1997, had settled State Department allegations of hundreds of export and other violations b y agreeing to pay fines of $42 million. According to the New York Times, the illegal activities for which it was fined included “illegal weapons exports to Afghanistan, making unauthorized proposals to train troops in south Sudan and providing sniper training for Taiwanese police officers.” Xe signed a $120 million contract with the State Department to provide security services at new U.S. Consulates in Harat and Mazr-e-Sharif in mid-June of 2010. If the settlement and the contract are netted out, Xe will net $78 million on the two deals.
Although the fines seem like a lot of money to those not involved in such things, in fact they are a small price to pay. Here’s what Xe got in exchange for paying the fines: the company is now able to once again bid on and get contracts with the government, something it would have been barred from doing had it pled guilty to criminal conduct. (Since 2001 it’s been paid hundreds of millions by the U.S. Government for activities it conducted in Afghanistan and Iraq. It can now look forward to many hundreds more.) Here’s something else it got for paying the fines: it won’t be subject to any criminal charges on account of those transactions. Not that all its criminal type legal troubles are over. According to reports there is still an ongoing federal probe to see whether the company bribed Iraqi officials; five executives have been indicted on weapons and obstruction of justice charges; and two former employees face federal murder charges in connection with the death of two Afghan civilians. Whether those charges would impact its ability to get government contracts is unclear. What is also unclear is whether the investigation of Xe requested by Senator Carl Levin in February from the attorney general might yet result in criminal charges that could impact its ability to get government contracts. (In February Senator Levin, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, asked Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate whether Xe had made false or misleading statements in bidding for an Army contract in Afghanistan.) What is clear is that for the present, Xe is once again able to bid on government contracts and stands to make millions of more if its bids are accepted.Mr. Prince no longer lives in the United States. According to court documents filed in a case brought by former Xe employees against Mr. Prince accusing him of defrauding the government, Mr. Prince has moved to Abu Dhabi. In addition to enrolling his children in good schools, he reportedly hopes to continue the very profitable line of work in which he has been engaged, in Africa and the Middle East. According to colleagues there’s another reason he moved. They told the New York Times, Mr. Prince is bitter about the “legal scrutiny and negative publicity his company had received.” It’s hard to imagine why he thought his company, facing the kinds of charges described above and having settled the charges described above, would be surprised at the absence of favorable publicity. The offenses for which it’s been fined as well as those still being investigated, rarely earn their perpetrator applause.
Mr. Prince’s colleague who spoke to the NYT also said that Mr. Prince needed “a break from America.” Mr. Prince is an heir to a “Michigan auto parts fortune.” Michigan is in America. His family made its fortune in America and that fortune enabled Mr. Prince to make millions more. I am confident his “break from America” will not have any adverse affect on his fortunes and I am sure he does not want it to be perceived as a lack of appreciation for all America has done for him. He probably just moved because Abu Dhabi has really good schools. It’s too bad he didn’t stay in the town in which he lived and worked and help to improve the schools there.
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16 Comments so far
Show AllMay Mr. Prince find compassion, fairness, and honesty extended to him to the same degree he has extended it to others.
Well said!
Prince of Darkness.
after prince's storm troopers blew some guy away in iraq or whereever, they made sure to leave the rest of the family a gospel tract. b/c they all, esp. prince, luv them some jeebus.
Bring America Back !!!!
**Blackwater does and always has smacked of being a
'CIA' subcontractor company with dirty trick missions
extending way far beyond the contracts publicly on file.
**When we view those pictures of King George and Prince
Bandahar holding hands in public, it cements why Mr Prince and his fam moved to Saudi. All 19 of the alleged 9/11 Hijackers were found to have Passports issued from the
United Arab Emirates. NOT, from Afghan, Nor Iraq,
Nor Iran, But from the UAE.
**They sure have good schools there in Arabia.
**Another Bush affiliate==Halliburton== is a good name
to scratch for when looking for Fraud in all things
involving "OIL" ! Whether its Iraq or an exploded
Oil Rig in the Gulf of Mexico.
Now, how do I ask my fearless leader why we are doing business with a foreign company in effect? With people that would prefer to be Dabians (?) than Americans.
Or for that matter companies that prefer foreign climes to being American companies?
They are certainly welcome to stay in Abu Dahbi, in fact pleasee keep yout sorry self there, but our trade policies and government spending MUST be changed.
Perhaps this has been said before.
Some go to fight for wars declared by ruling elite from our countries out of neccisity, and do it with a sense of duty and dedication, fighting for what they buy into as right. These people may be called heroes or patriots.
Some loudmouths simply repeat things to incite hate and make profit for themselves, and they call themselves and those who buy into their lines patriots and heroes.
And then there are those that profit from the death of humans in "enemy" countries by employing people who have no morals to do their dirty work and are hailed by second group as patriots and heroes, mainly because of the blood soaked money they make.
If the people in the third group then move to another country, close to the people they labeled as enemies, then they should be tried for treason.
Love
Zero
The US GOvernment does not only treat XE in this matter. A number of US drug Manufacturers were found guilty of crimes and misconduct as well, this including faked "drug test trials" that allowed drugs onto the market that KILLED people.
They received the same treatment. The Government, out of concern that had the firms been criminally charged they would have been unable to get Government monies via medicare/aid,did exactly as they did with XE.
The simple fact is this. It is indisputable.
Corporations inside the United States of America, including the very largest and most profitable, would go BANKRUPT without "Government Cheese".
Yet CEO's from these firms are the biggest advocates of gutting Social program spending for the nations citizens.
It is a giant CON that is being foisted on the peoples of America, one that is so blatantly obvious that any rational person would question the ability of the Citizens of the USA to THINK as they blandly wave those silly flags and march against "Illegal Immigrants" that "are robbing us blind".
He'll be back. The CIA and other groups will launch a public relations campaign to scare Americans into believing we need Xe to save us from the evil ones: whoever they are. Maybe it will be to shoot Teabaggers when they find out their ideas for reform have been shed like a used condom after the election of 2012. Maybe it will be to corral Baby Boomers whose SS benefits have been slashed by 40%. Who knows what the pretext will be but they'll be back to shoot the civilians the police and U.S. military is uncomfortable killing. They will be back!!! All hail the conquering heroes.
Who do you think will be subcontracted to guard and run the concentration camps, once our "leaders" decide that we must live under martial law.
I have the military manual for the treatment and use of civilians as forced labor. The military cannot house them, or interfere with the running of the camps where they are housed. They are to be picked up, worked, then returned to their camp until the next day.
What a wonderful country we have become. :-( My wife and I are in our 70's. This was a different nation then. We saw what was happening in the 60's. I've been warning the people since then, but the juggernaut rolls on, grinding the people, and now the world, into an ever finer powder as it extracts the last little bits of wealth from the people, and the last mineral wealth from the planet.
I don't have much hope, but have to keep trying. The alternative is to sink into apathy and await the coming of the beast.
Eric Prince was the guy Bob Dylan had in mind when he wrote "Masters of War'.
Hoa binh
I don't care about the People magazine aspects of this type of article, but there are usually a few tidbits of real interest - for instance, the Prince "auto parts fortune". So our Mr Prince may have inherited from his parents both a warped idea of Xtianity AND enough funds to start a company specializing in paramilitary authoritarianism, death, and destruction - because millions of Americans paid too much for parts for their cars? Commenters who often say this are right: It's always about unregulated capitalism.
Unfortunately, Mr. Brauchli hasn't been keeping up on recent history regarding national security state contracting. Federal law requires that any firm convicted of criminally defrauding the government be barred from contracting with the government for five years. However, built into that law is the provision that the government may supply a waiver in emergencies.
In fact, the longest that any defense contractor has been so sanctioned is five days. The contractors have made themselves essential to the mission, and if they can't get permission for contracts, the mission does not proceed. That's how compartmentalized and how dependent upon conglomerates the Pentagon has become.
Out of the thousands of investigations that were part of what was known as Operation Ill Wind, which looked into corruption in the Defense Dept. in the late `80s and early `90s, only one company truly suffered, Sperry-Rand. Its behavior was so egregious that the fines nearly totalled its annual income and the company was forced into bankruptcy. Whereupon it was purchased, at bargain-basement rates, by McDonnell-Douglas and went merrily along again as a defense contractor under another name.
Xe will continue to get contracts--no matter how badly it behaves--because it has made itself invaluable to the government. The real question is why the government thinks it simply cannot do without the services of Xe.
montag, Madam Hillary has a purse full of emergency waivers she carries with her!
Maybe Mr. Prince will now find himself on Barack Obama's short list of Americans living overseas with an unscheduled appointment with our Special Operations Forces! (+) Hell, maybe the job will be done by one of his old Navy SEAL buddies!
Didn't some other big entity move its HQ to Abu Dhabi?
Halliburton?
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