April 4, 2017
Washington – The United Arab Emirates (click here) arranged a secret meeting in January between an American businessman supporting then President-elect Trump and a Russian close to President Vladimir Putin as part of an apparent effort to establish a back-channel line of communication between Moscow and the incoming president, The Washington Post reports.
Citing U.S., European and Arab officials, the Post said the UAE agreed to broker the meeting in part to explore whether Russia could be persuaded to curtail its relationship with Iran, including in Syria, a Trump administration objective that would be likely to require major concessions to Moscow on U.S. sanctions. The full agenda remains unclear, the newspaper said.
The meeting took place nine days before Mr. Trump’s inauguration and involved businessman Erik Prince, the Post reported. Prince, the founder of the security firm Blackwater and now the head of the Hong Kong-based company Frontier Services Group, has ties to Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon and is the brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos
U.S. officials said the FBI has been scrutinizing the meeting in the Seychelles islands in the Indian Ocean as part of the broader probe of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election and alleged contacts between associates of Putin and Mr. Trump, the Post reported. The FBI declined to comment, the newspaper said....
10 August 2016
Former Blackwater CEO and U.S. Navy SEAL (click here) veteran Erik Prince joined Breitbart’s Milo Yiannopoulos during the latest episode of The Milo Yiannopoulos Show to discuss Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and why he’s supporting him.
“You mentioned a moment ago that you hoped it would be Trump. Talk to us a little bit about your opinion of the Republican candidate,” Milo said. “I mean I’m guessing that you are, broadly speaking, a fan, and I’m guessing you think Hillary would be a disaster, but I don’t want to put words in your mouth. Give us your opinion on Donald Trump.”
“I like the fact that Donald Trump has been in the private sector. I like that he’s had to make a payroll. I like that he’s had to do projects” replied Prince. “I even like some of his projects that have gone bankrupt, because people that do things, and build things, and try things, sometimes fail at doing it, and that’s the strength of the American capitalist system. He sat across the table and fired people that didn’t perform in his business, and I’m not talking about the TV show, I’m talking about when hundreds of millions of dollars are on the line.”...
Business is good, huh, Erik? You have to know there is nothing like government money, is there?
April 3, 2017
By Tom McKay
Erik Prince, (click here) co-founder of notorious private military contractor Blackwater, traveled to the Seychelles islands in January to set up a secret back channel between President Donald Trump's administration and the Russian government, the Washington Post reported on Monday.
Interesting place, the Republic of Seychelles. Tropical paradise. Distant enough that a large jet liner could land and never be found, huh?
The meeting between Prince and a "confidant" of Russian President Vladimir Putin was arranged in secret by United Arab Emirates officials. According to the Post, Prince, an ardent Trump supporter, portrayed himself as an "unofficial envoy for Trump" during the meeting despite having "no formal role with the Trump campaign or transition team."
Can't deny what everyone else knows, Erik. Oh, yeah, Trump drank the Kool-Aid.
January 17, 2017
By Jeremy Scahill
In July, (click here) Prince told Trump’s senior adviser and white supremacist Steve Bannon, at the time head of Breitbart News, that the Trump administration should recreate a version of the Phoenix Program, the CIA assassination ring that operated during the Vietnam War, to fight ISIS. Such a program, Prince said, could kill or capture “the funders of Islamic terror and that would even be the wealthy radical Islamist billionaires funding it from the Middle East, and any of the other illicit activities they’re in.”
Prince also said that Trump would be the best force to confront “Islamic fascism.” “As for the world looking to the United States for leadership, unfortunately, I think they’re going to have to wait till January and hope Mr. Trump is elected because, clearly, our generals don’t have a stomach for a fight,” Prince said. “Our president doesn’t have a stomach for a fight and the terrorists, the fascists, are winning.”
Prince founded the notorious private security firm Blackwater, which rose to infamy in September 2007 after its operatives gunned down 17 Iraqi civilians, including a 9-year-old boy in Baghdad’s Nisour Square.
Whistleblowers also alleged that Prince encouraged an environment in which Iraqis were killed for sport. At the height of the Blackwater scandals in 2007, another prominent Trump backer, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, praised Prince, who once worked in his congressional office. “Prince,’’ Rohrabacher said, “is on his way to being an American hero just like Ollie North was.’’
Ultimately, Prince sold Blackwater and now heads up a Hong Kong-based company known as Frontier Services Group. The Intercept has previously reported on Prince’s efforts to build a private air force for hire and his close ties to Chinese intelligence. One of his latest schemes is a proposal to deploy private contractors to work with Libyan security forces to stop the flow of refugees to Europe....
White American boys won't be tolerated in Libya, Erik. They accept a proposal to help only to steal the munitions and remove the bodies to unmarked graves. Not a good idea.
That is so typical of Americans who just can't give up the war; they actually think others admire them as much as they admire themselves. They have an inflated ego with little character to match except for the bible they carry. They have to be sure to be on the right side of god when they die, or so they think. I don't believe arming Libyans will go over well with a christian god, will it, Erik?
