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Blackwater: El auge del ejército mercenario más poderoso del mundo (Jeremy Scahill, 2007)

El Prince Group and Blackwater Worldwide podría considerarse el brazo armado del fundamentalismo cristiano reconstruccionista. Creada por Erik Prince, hijo de Edgar and Elsa Prince, cuya fundación caritativa entrega grandes cantidades de dinero al fundamentalismo cristiano reconstruccionista (1), y cuya propia fundación, la Freiheit Foundation, hizo lo propio hasta 2006 (2), esta empresa de seguridad alcanzó notable renombre como proveedora de «servicios de seguridad» durante la guerra de Irak, vía la creación de un ejército mercenario (3) que, entre otros orígenes contaba con 1,000 hombres de nacionalidad chilena.

Tras las acusaciones a las que fue sometido en su propio país, Erik Prince vive actualmente retirado en Arabia Saudita, país que no dispone de acuerdo de extradición con los Estados Unidos (4).

La inmensidad económica de los contratos con que fue agraciado por Donald Rumsfled, el secretario de defensa de los Estados Unidos con George W. Bush durante la guerra de Irak (entre ellos, $.750,000,000 desde 2004) le han permitido la adquisición de material de guerra avanzado, tales como aviones de combate y helicópteros armados (5).

Blackwater ha cambiado su denominación a Xe Services, y podría haber mudado su actividad a la de suministro de equipos especializados de seguridad (6).

Fundadores:

Erik Prince, Al Clark

Erik Prince es hijo de Edgar and Elsa Prince, de la Edgar and Elsa Prince Foundation, fundación caritativa que entrega grandes cantidades de dinero al fundamentalismo cristiano reconstruccionista, y que contribuyó también a la creación de Blackwater

Presidente:

Gary Jackson

Año de fundación:

1997

Misión declarada:

Servicios de seguridad

Fuentes

American Fascists, American Religious Right, American Theocracy, Blackwater: The Rise of The World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army, ExxonSecrets, Media Matters Action Network: Transparency, Muckety, NDDB, Religion Dispatches, Right Web, Right Wing Watch, Theocracy Watch, Sourcewatch,  Saving Ourselves, Wikipedia + elaboración propia.

Jeremy Scahill (2007) – Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army – ISBN: ISBN 1-56025-979-5 – Nation Books, New York

Referencias

1. Ben Van Heuvelen – The Bush administration’s ties to Blackwater – Salon – 02/10/2007 – http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/10/02/blackwater_bush
   «Both Edgar and Elsa have been affiliated with the Council for National Policy, the secretive Christian conservative organization whose meetings have been attended by Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Bremer, and whose membership is rumored to include Jerry Falwell, Ralph Reed and Dobson. The Edgar and Elsa Prince Foundation gave the CNP $80,000 between July 2003 and July 2006.
2. Eric Prince – IPS Right Web – http://www.rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/Prince_Erik
   «Erik Prince is the founder and chairman of Blackwater Worldwide—now known as Xe Services—a controversial private security firm whose activities in Iraq and elsewhere have led some observers to term it a modern-day “mercenary army.”[1] A major contributor to the Republican Party, Prince is also a prominent backer of numerous conservative causes and rightist groups.»
3. «Chris Hedges – What If Our Mercenaries Turn on Us? – The Philadelphia Inquirer – 03/06/2007  – http://www.truth-out.org/article/chris-hedges-what-if-our-mercenaries-turn-us
   «Erik Prince, who founded and runs Blackwater, is a man who appears to have little time for the niceties of democracy. He has close ties with the radical Christian Right and the Bush White House. He champions his company as a patriotic extension of the U.S. military. His employees, in an act as cynical as it is dishonest, take an oath of loyalty to the Constitution. But what he and his allies have built is a mercenary army, paid for with government money, which operates outside the law and without constitutional constraint.»
4. Pendiente
5. Chris Hedges – What If Our Mercenaries Turn on Us? – The Philadelphia Inquirer – 03/06/2007  – http://www.truth-out.org/article/chris-hedges-what-if-our-mercenaries-turn-us
   «Blackwater, barely a decade old, has migrated from Iraq to set up operations in the United States and nine other countries. It trains Afghan security forces and has established a base a few miles from the Iranian border. The huge contracts from the war – including $750 million from the State Department since 2004 – have allowed Blackwater to amass a fleet of more than 20 aircraft, including helicopter gunships … Blackwater also recently opened a facility in Illinois («Blackwater North») and, despite local opposition, is moving ahead with plans to build another huge training base near San Diego. The company recently announced it was creating a private intelligence branch called «Total Intelligence.» …
6. Jeremy Scahill (2007) – Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army – Nation Books, New York – http://www.namebase.org/sources/iW.html
   «Blackwater USA changed its name to Blackwater Worldwide, and now it’s been changed again to Xe, in an effort to rid themselves of the Blackwater stigma. The parent company is called EP Investments LLC. While this book does an excellent job of covering Blackwater’s rise to stardom, just two years later the company finds itself in very different circumstances … [Blackwater has also constructed] the world’s largest private military facility – a 7,000-acre compound near the Great Dismal Swamp of North Carolina.»
7. Natasha Lennard – Blackwater still making major deals with U.S. in Afghanistan – Salon, 05/12/2012 – http://www.salon.com/2012/12/05/blackwater_still_making_major_deals_with_us_in_afghanistan/
   Blackwater, which now goes by the name “Academi” to sound less like an army of pillaging mercenaries, is still making major no-bid deals with the U.S. military in Afghanistan. Wired’s Spencer Ackerman reported Wednesday that Blackwater will play “landlord” to U.S. Special Operations Forces in the country. Thanks to a no-bid deal worth $22 million, U.S. Special Ops have moved to a new Blackwater-owned and operated base — Camp Integrity. «
8. Jim Harger (2013) – Erik Prince is back with book defending Blackwater’s role in war on terror – Michigan Live, 19/11/2013 – http://www.mlive.com/business/west-michigan/index.ssf/2013/11/erik_prince_is_back_with_a_boo.html
   “About a dozen of Prince’s detractors were gathered outside of the Acton Institute’s headquarters prior to the event. The group hoisted signs and shouted slogans that labeled Prince as a “war criminal.” Tom Burke, chairman of Left Forum of Grand Rapids, said their signs were aimed at alerting passers-by that Blackwater was fined $50 million by the U.S. government for smuggling arms in 2012. Mike Franz, a local coordinator for MoveOn.org, questioned why a religious organization like the Acton Institute was playing host to Prince. ”
9. Jim Harger – Erik Prince tells his side of the Blackwater USA story at the Acton Institute – Michigan Live, 18/02/2014 – http://www.mlive.com/business/west-michigan/index.ssf/2014/02/erik_prince_tells_his_side_of.html
   “Prince, who estimated his company became the world’s largest employer of former special operations soldiers at its peak, defended the work his operatives performed in Iraq and Afghanistan on the behalf of the U.S. State Department.”
10. Erik Prince (2013) – Civilian Warriors: The Inside Story of Blackwater and the Unsung Heroes of the War on Terror – Portfolio Hardcover – – ISBN: 9781591847212 – 416 Págs.
    «Above all, Prince debunks myths about Blackwater that spread while he was forced to remain silent-myths that tarnished the memory of men who gave their lives for their country but never got the recognition they deserved.”