[Reader-list] Open Season Iraq: Blackwater Founder Implicated in Murder

[Paul Miller]

I just thought I'd pass this along.
Paul aka Dj Spooky

Explosive Allegations: Blackwater Founder Implicated
in Murder
By Jeremy Scahill
The Nation
August 4, 2009
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090817/scahill

Sworn statements filed in Federal Court also allege that
Blackwater founder Erik Prince launched a "crusade" to
eliminate Muslims and Islam.

A former Blackwater employee and an ex-U.S. Marine who
has worked as a security operative for the company have
made a series of explosive allegations in sworn
statements filed on August 3 in federal court in
Virginia. The two men claim that the company's owner,
Erik Prince, may have murdered or facilitated the murder
of individuals who were cooperating with federal
authorities investigating the company. The former
employee also alleges that Prince "views himself as a
Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and
the Islamic faith from the globe," and that Prince's
companies "encouraged and rewarded the destruction of
Iraqi life."

In their testimony, both men also allege that Blackwater
was smuggling weapons into Iraq. One of the men alleges
that Prince turned a profit by transporting "illegal" or
"unlawful" weapons into the country on Prince's private
planes. They also charge that Prince and other
Blackwater executives destroyed incriminating videos,
emails and other documents and have intentionally
deceived the U.S. State Department and other federal
agencies. The identities of the two individuals were
sealed out of concerns for their safety.

These allegations, and a series of other charges, are
contained in sworn affidavits, given under penalty of
perjury, filed late at night on August 3 in the Eastern
District of Virginia as part of a seventy-page motion by
lawyers for Iraqi civilians suing Blackwater for alleged
war crimes and other misconduct. Susan Burke, a private
attorney working in conjunction with the Center for
Constitutional Rights, is suing Blackwater in five
separate civil cases filed in the Washington, DC, area.
They were recently consolidated before Judge T.S. Ellis
III of the Eastern District of Virginia for pretrial
motions. Burke filed the August 3 motion in response to
Blackwater's motion to dismiss the case. Blackwater
asserts that Prince and the company are innocent of any
wrongdoing and that they were professionally performing
their duties on behalf of their employer, the U.S. State
Department.

The former employee, identified in the court documents
as "John Doe #2," is a former member of Blackwater's
management team, according to a source close to the
case. Doe #2 alleges in a sworn declaration that, based
on information provided to him by former colleagues, "it
appears that Mr. Prince and his employees murdered, or
had murdered, one or more persons who have provided
information, or who were planning to provide
information, to the federal authorities about the
ongoing criminal conduct." John Doe #2 says he worked at
Blackwater for four years; his identity is concealed in
the sworn declaration because he "fear[s] violence
against me in retaliation for submitting this
Declaration." He also alleges, "On several occasions
after my departure from Mr. Prince's employ, Mr.
Prince's management has personally threatened me with
death and violence."

In a separate sworn statement, the former U.S. marine
who worked for Blackwater in Iraq alleges that he has
"learned from my Blackwater colleagues and former
colleagues that one or more persons who have provided
information, or who were planning to provide information
about Erik Prince and Blackwater have been killed in
suspicious circumstances." Identified as "John Doe #1,"
he says he "joined Blackwater and deployed to Iraq to
guard State Department and other American government
personnel." It is not clear if Doe #1 is still working
with the company as he states he is "scheduled to deploy
in the immediate future to Iraq." Like Doe #2, he states
that he fears "violence" against him for "submitting
this Declaration." No further details on the alleged
murder(s) are provided.

"Mr. Prince feared, and continues to fear, that the
federal authorities will detect and prosecute his
various criminal deeds," states Doe #2. "On more than
one occasion, Mr. Prince and his top managers gave
orders to destroy emails and other documents. Many
incriminating videotapes, documents and emails have been
shredded and destroyed."

The Nation cannot independently verify the identities of
the two individuals, their roles at Blackwater or what
motivated them to provide sworn testimony in these civil
cases. Both individuals state that they have previously
cooperated with federal prosecutors conducting a
criminal inquiry into Blackwater.

"It's a pending investigation, so we cannot comment on
any matters in front of a Grand Jury or if a Grand Jury
even exists on these matters," John Roth, the
spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's office in the
District of Columbia, told The Nation. "It would be a
crime if we did that." Asked specifically about whether
there is a criminal investigation into Prince regarding
the murder allegations and other charges, Roth said: "We
would not be able to comment on what we are or are not
doing in regards to any possible investigation involving
an uncharged individual."

The Nation repeatedly attempted to contact spokespeople
for Prince or his companies at numerous email addresses
and telephone numbers. When a company representative was
reached by phone and asked to comment, she said,
"Unfortunately no one can help you in that area." The
representative then said that she would pass along The
Nation's request. As this article goes to press, no
company representative has responded further to The
Nation.

Doe #2 states in the declaration that he has also
provided the information contained in his statement "in
grand jury proceedings convened by the United States
Department of Justice." Federal prosecutors convened a
grand jury in the aftermath of the September 16, 2007,
Nisour Square shootings in Baghdad, which left seventeen
Iraqis dead. Five Blackwater employees are awaiting
trial on several manslaughter charges and a sixth,
Jeremy Ridgeway, has already pleaded guilty to
manslaughter and attempting to commit manslaughter and
is cooperating with prosecutors. It is not clear whether
Doe #2 testified in front of the Nisour Square grand
jury or in front of a separate grand jury.

The two declarations are each five pages long and
contain a series of devastating allegations concerning
Erik Prince and his network of companies, which now
operate under the banner of Xe Services LLC. Among those
leveled by Doe #2 is that Prince "views himself as a
Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and
the Islamic faith from the globe":

To that end, Mr. Prince intentionally deployed to Iraq
certain men who shared his vision of Christian
supremacy, knowing and wanting these men to take every
available opportunity to murder Iraqis. Many of these
men used call signs based on the Knights of the Templar,
the warriors who fought the Crusades.

Mr. Prince operated his companies in a manner that
encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life.
For example, Mr. Prince's executives would openly speak
about going over to Iraq to "lay Hajiis out on
cardboard." Going to Iraq to shoot and kill Iraqis was
viewed as a sport or game. Mr. Prince's employees openly
and consistently used racist and derogatory terms for
Iraqis and other Arabs, such as "ragheads" or "hajiis."

Among the additional allegations made by Doe #1 is that
"Blackwater was smuggling weapons into Iraq." He states
that he personally witnessed weapons being "pulled out"
from dog food bags. Doe #2 alleges that "Prince and his
employees arranged for the weapons to be polywrapped and
smuggled into Iraq on Mr. Prince's private planes, which
operated under the name Presidential Airlines," adding
that Prince "generated substantial revenues from
participating in the illegal arms trade."

Doe #2 states: "Using his various companies, [Prince]
procured and distributed various weapons, including
unlawful weapons such as sawed off semi-automatic
machine guns with silencers, through unlawful channels
of distribution." Blackwater "was not abiding by the
terms of the contract with the State Department and was
deceiving the State Department," according to Doe #1.

This is not the first time an allegation has surfaced
that Blackwater used dog food bags to smuggle weapons
into Iraq. ABC News's Brian Ross reported in November
2008 that a "federal grand jury in North Carolina is
investigating allegations the controversial private
security firm Blackwater illegally shipped assault
weapons and silencers to Iraq, hidden in large sacks of
dog food." Another former Blackwater employee has also
confirmed this information to The Nation.

Both individuals allege that Prince and Blackwater
deployed individuals to Iraq who, in the words of Doe
#1, "were not properly vetted and cleared by the State
Department." Doe #2 adds that "Prince ignored the advice
and pleas from certain employees, who sought to stop the
unnecessary killing of innocent Iraqis." Doe #2 further
states that some Blackwater officials overseas refused
to deploy "unfit men" and sent them back to the U.S.
Among the reasons cited by Doe #2 were "the men making
statements about wanting to deploy to Iraq to 'kill
ragheads' or achieve 'kills' or 'body counts,'" as well
as "excessive drinking" and "steroid use." However, when
the men returned to the U.S., according to Doe #2,
"Prince and his executives would send them back to be
deployed in Iraq with an express instruction to the
concerned employees located overseas that they needed to
'stop costing the company money.'"

Doe #2 also says Prince "repeatedly ignored the
assessments done by mental health professionals, and
instead terminated those mental health professionals who
were not willing to endorse deployments of unfit men."
He says Prince and then-company president Gary Jackson
"hid from Department of State the fact that they were
deploying men to Iraq over the objections of mental
health professionals and security professionals in the
field," saying they "knew the men being deployed were
not suitable candidates for carrying lethal weaponry,
but did not care because deployments meant more money."

Doe #1 states that "Blackwater knew that certain of its
personnel intentionally used excessive and unjustified
deadly force, and in some instances used unauthorized
weapons, to kill or seriously injure innocent Iraqi
civilians." He concludes, "Blackwater did nothing to
stop this misconduct." Doe #1 states that he "personally
observed multiple incidents of Blackwater personnel
intentionally using unnecessary, excessive and
unjustified deadly force." He then cites several
specific examples of Blackwater personnel firing at
civilians, killing or "seriously" wounding them, and
then failing to report the incidents to the State
Department.

Doe #1 also alleges that "all of these incidents of
excessive force were initially videotaped and voice
recorded," but that "Immediately after the day
concluded, we would watch the video in a session called
a 'hot wash.' Immediately after the hotwashing, the
video was erased to prevent anyone other than Blackwater
personnel seeing what had actually occurred."
Blackwater, he says, "did not provide the video to the
State Department."

Doe #2 expands on the issue of unconventional weapons,
alleging Prince "made available to his employees in Iraq
various weapons not authorized by the United States
contracting authorities, such as hand grenades and hand
grenade launchers. Mr. Prince's employees repeatedly
used this illegal weaponry in Iraq, unnecessarily
killing scores of innocent Iraqis." Specifically, he
alleges that Prince "obtained illegal ammunition from an
American company called LeMas. This company sold
ammunition designed to explode after penetrating within
the human body. Mr. Prince's employees repeatedly used
this illegal ammunition in Iraq to inflict maximum
damage on Iraqis."

Blackwater has gone through an intricate rebranding
process in the twelve years it has been in business,
changing its name and logo several times. Prince also
has created more than a dozen affiliate companies, some
of which are registered offshore and whose operations
are shrouded in secrecy. According to Doe #2, "Prince
created and operated this web of companies in order to
obscure wrongdoing, fraud and other crimes."

"For example, Mr. Prince transferred funds from one
company (Blackwater) to another (Greystone) whenever
necessary to avoid detection of his money laundering and
tax evasion schemes." He added: "Mr. Prince contributed
his personal wealth to fund the operations of the Prince
companies whenever he deemed such funding necessary.
Likewise, Mr. Prince took funds out of the Prince
companies and placed the funds in his personal accounts
at will."

Briefed on the substance of these allegations by The
Nation, Congressman Dennis Kucinich replied, "If these
allegations are true, Blackwater has been a criminal
enterprise defrauding taxpayers and murdering innocent
civilians." Kucinich is on the House Committee on
Oversight and Government Reform and has been
investigating Prince and Blackwater since 2004.

"Blackwater is a law unto itself, both internationally
and domestically. The question is why they operated with
impunity. In addition to Blackwater, we should be
questioning their patrons in the previous administration
who funded and employed this organization. Blackwater
wouldn't exist without federal patronage; these
allegations should be thoroughly investigated," Kucinich
said.

A hearing before Judge Ellis in the civil cases against
Blackwater is scheduled for August 7.