I'm not sure about this one. I was in Iraq in 2004 and 2008. I worked very closely with Blackwater, Triple Canopy and Dyncorp. The vast majority of the members in 2004 were all former spec ops guys, there was a large change from then to 2008. In 2008, the recruitment opened up a lot more positions to former soldiers and marines without spec ops training. This was because the number of security members were greatly increased. The vast majority were involved in personal protection of VIP's and even as protecting people like me while traveling outside of the green zone. I was not aware of any that were involved with CIA operations. I had limited involvement with the CIA in Baghdad, there was only one agent there in charge, the rest were contractors. While they were all special forces types, they were not from any of the big three Personal security companies. I don't recall the name of their contract company, but it was a name that I had never heard before, nor have I heard the name since. I have a hard time believing Erik Prince has gone off the reservation. I have never met the man, but the guys that served with him respected him as a patriot and a man of honor. The portrayal of security contractors as mercenaries for hire is probably the same percentage as bad police officers. The CIA is only interested in sociopaths. The majority of spec ops guys are screened for mental defects such as this and eliminated from the program. Perhaps the CIA picks these guys up and trains them privately and puts them to work. I just don't know. None of the hundreds of security contractors I worked with were ever involved in offensive work. Maybe that was a smaller group that I never provided tech training with, or perhaps they had their own gear. Either way, I would have come across them because our team provided the encryption for their in country radios. No one had the encryption keys but us and we loaded every single handheld, vehicle and aircraft radio in the entire country. The article calls out Blackwater by name, but that company name has been dead for well over a decade. The name changed to Zi or Xi or something but he sold the company to some investment group and has been living outside the country in the middle east, I think for the Abu Dhabi monarchy or something along those lines. The article seems to have a lot of inaccuracies and seems like there was no research and just a smear campaign. I'll look into what Prince is doing now and post what I find.
Okay, this article talks about Erik Prince's history and what he is doing now. I didn't know he was Betsy Devos' brother.
I also forgot to mention a lot of Police Officers joined these security companies to serve overseas because of the pay. I actually know a couple that didn't have any military background. They have since returned to law enforcement. Neither of these two are sociopaths, just had ex-wives that drowned them in debt and this was a way to pay all that debt off.
Most.cops that worked for BW stayed on the PSD side and never saw any agency people.
I was a bomb dog handler, so I was invisible. They would send me to search Iraqis that the Cia was going to interview when they brought them inside our lines. After 9 cia got got blown up they didn't go near anyone until we ran dogs around them.
Dyncorp was mostly in the North AOR. I spent a bit of time is Mosul, Kirkuk and Irbil. This was Kurd country and the overall sentiment among the Kurds was predominantly Anti-Saddam and anti-Bathe party. We were even staying in a Chaldean neighborhood while in Erbil and were able to freely mingle with the residents there. They even had a fake 7-11 convenience store there. I thought that was awesome.
I'm sure there were bad apples in all the companies, I'm just am not buying the simplistic narrative of they were all evil mercenary types that were robbing, pillaging, murdering rapists. I think that is more of a UN security force thing. 60k rapes over 10 years is a UN statistic, whereas there may have been a handful of bad actions on Blackwater over the same 10 years. I just get the impression that this was a article that looks like a smear against Prince and by association against Trump.
By the time I got to Iraq 2011 the war was still on but winding down. In fact Biden came and declared it over and they had to force people to watch his lame speech.
Blackwater did some bad shit. Hate to admit it because I also know they did some amazing shit too.
But, of prince is deep state influenced I would not be surprised
This ^^^. I worked with the same players in AFG. Prince was a confidant of Trump and Trump put Prince's sister, Betsy DeVos, as Secretary of Education. If Academi has a presence in UKR, it's most likely part of the plan to stand up a non-Nazi, trustworthy, fighting force, IMO.
The article I linked stated that Prince sold the company to some investors and they formed Academi. Prince left the company and started doing other ventures. I don't think he is associated with Academi at all and has no financial interest in it.
I'm not sure about this one. I was in Iraq in 2004 and 2008. I worked very closely with Blackwater, Triple Canopy and Dyncorp. The vast majority of the members in 2004 were all former spec ops guys, there was a large change from then to 2008. In 2008, the recruitment opened up a lot more positions to former soldiers and marines without spec ops training. This was because the number of security members were greatly increased. The vast majority were involved in personal protection of VIP's and even as protecting people like me while traveling outside of the green zone. I was not aware of any that were involved with CIA operations. I had limited involvement with the CIA in Baghdad, there was only one agent there in charge, the rest were contractors. While they were all special forces types, they were not from any of the big three Personal security companies. I don't recall the name of their contract company, but it was a name that I had never heard before, nor have I heard the name since. I have a hard time believing Erik Prince has gone off the reservation. I have never met the man, but the guys that served with him respected him as a patriot and a man of honor. The portrayal of security contractors as mercenaries for hire is probably the same percentage as bad police officers. The CIA is only interested in sociopaths. The majority of spec ops guys are screened for mental defects such as this and eliminated from the program. Perhaps the CIA picks these guys up and trains them privately and puts them to work. I just don't know. None of the hundreds of security contractors I worked with were ever involved in offensive work. Maybe that was a smaller group that I never provided tech training with, or perhaps they had their own gear. Either way, I would have come across them because our team provided the encryption for their in country radios. No one had the encryption keys but us and we loaded every single handheld, vehicle and aircraft radio in the entire country. The article calls out Blackwater by name, but that company name has been dead for well over a decade. The name changed to Zi or Xi or something but he sold the company to some investment group and has been living outside the country in the middle east, I think for the Abu Dhabi monarchy or something along those lines. The article seems to have a lot of inaccuracies and seems like there was no research and just a smear campaign. I'll look into what Prince is doing now and post what I find.
https://silentprofessionals.org/blackwater/
Okay, this article talks about Erik Prince's history and what he is doing now. I didn't know he was Betsy Devos' brother.
I also forgot to mention a lot of Police Officers joined these security companies to serve overseas because of the pay. I actually know a couple that didn't have any military background. They have since returned to law enforcement. Neither of these two are sociopaths, just had ex-wives that drowned them in debt and this was a way to pay all that debt off.
Most.cops that worked for BW stayed on the PSD side and never saw any agency people.
I was a bomb dog handler, so I was invisible. They would send me to search Iraqis that the Cia was going to interview when they brought them inside our lines. After 9 cia got got blown up they didn't go near anyone until we ran dogs around them.
Bw had two sides.
That’s good perspective. My brother did a stint with them when they were still Blackwater, had a similar impression.
But Dyncorp got away with a sordid crime ring because it was pretty well covered up.
Dyncorp was mostly in the North AOR. I spent a bit of time is Mosul, Kirkuk and Irbil. This was Kurd country and the overall sentiment among the Kurds was predominantly Anti-Saddam and anti-Bathe party. We were even staying in a Chaldean neighborhood while in Erbil and were able to freely mingle with the residents there. They even had a fake 7-11 convenience store there. I thought that was awesome.
Dyncorp is a CIA front company. They were booted from AFG for trafficking drugs, flying high, and transporting children from point a to point b.
I'm sure there were bad apples in all the companies, I'm just am not buying the simplistic narrative of they were all evil mercenary types that were robbing, pillaging, murdering rapists. I think that is more of a UN security force thing. 60k rapes over 10 years is a UN statistic, whereas there may have been a handful of bad actions on Blackwater over the same 10 years. I just get the impression that this was a article that looks like a smear against Prince and by association against Trump.
By the time I got to Iraq 2011 the war was still on but winding down. In fact Biden came and declared it over and they had to force people to watch his lame speech.
Blackwater did some bad shit. Hate to admit it because I also know they did some amazing shit too.
But, of prince is deep state influenced I would not be surprised
This ^^^. I worked with the same players in AFG. Prince was a confidant of Trump and Trump put Prince's sister, Betsy DeVos, as Secretary of Education. If Academi has a presence in UKR, it's most likely part of the plan to stand up a non-Nazi, trustworthy, fighting force, IMO.
The article I linked stated that Prince sold the company to some investors and they formed Academi. Prince left the company and started doing other ventures. I don't think he is associated with Academi at all and has no financial interest in it.
He's not. Constellis sucked up Academi. Prince has Frontier Services Group now.