"Special Operations": Blackwater Mercenary Prince Has a New $1 Trillion-Gig

10 February 2019

"Special Operations": Blackwater Mercenary Prince Has a New $1 Trillion-Gig

Ever wonder where or how or why all those PMCs [Private Military Contractors] don't get counted as American war troops or "Boots-on-Ground" in all of the fields of combat in The Middle East and Africa? Plausible denial that focuses on logistics and security, rather than paramilitary operations.
_________________________________________________________________________
Prince, the son of the late billionaire industrialist Edgar Prince, sold a rebranded version of Blackwater back in 2010, but he has other business interests. He runs a private equity commodities firm called Frontier Resource Group, that’s raising $500 million to mine metals in Africa and Asia to provide materials for electric cars.
_________________________________________________________________________

[Image from Bloomberg]

"Erik Prince, the former Navy Seal who founded Blackwater, hardly seems like the type who dwells on corporate niceties. He was, after all, America’s foremost mercenary executive.
But there he was in Beijing, bearing an unlikely gift for a man who might open China to a freelancer known for his band of private contractors. It was a copy of his Blackwater memoir, “Civilian Warriors.’’

Blogger Note: The image below left is from Prince's book, Civilian Warriors: The Inside Story of BLACKWATER and The Unsung Heroes of The War of Terror

He started out innocently enough as an EMT in Michigan

Prince, brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, has made no secret about his ambitions in China. But since he became chairman of Frontier Services Group in Hong Kong five years ago, CITIC, his mainland benefactor, has slowly cemented its grip on the firm. Prince stepped down as FSG Chairman in December to make way for a new boss from the conglomerate, which has amassed a bigger stake than Prince’s 9 percent.
. . . In an interview before the Xinjiang news broke, Prince dismissed concerns about his company’s work in China.

‘Proud American’

“I am a businessman, not a politician, but I am also a proud American who would never do anything against my country’s national interest,” Prince said in a phone interview.

The story from Bloomberg News by Blake Schmidt 09 Feb 2019

Erik Prince’s Belt and Road Map

Sources: Company filings and statements, reporting by Bloomberg

Note: Includes countries with operations that are publicly detailed . . .

. . . Critics are unmoved. The Xinjiang ceremony is more evidence that Prince is “serving the national interest of China, which competes directly with the U.S.,” said Sean McFate, a National Defense University professor who once built a private army in Liberia while working for U.S. military contractor DynCorp International. . . "

MesaZona > Table of Contents : Here's The Menu. Enjoy

10 February 2019

"Special Operations": Blackwater Mercenary Prince Has a New $1 Trillion-Gig

QOD: You can dig it