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[quote]Erik Prince, recently outed as a participant in a C.I.A. assassination program, has gained notoriety as head of the military-contracting juggernaut Blackwater, a company dogged by a grand-jury investigation, bribery accusations, and the voluntary-manslaughter trial of five ex-employees, set for next month. Lashing back at his critics, the wealthy former navy seal takes the author inside his operation in the U.S. and Afghanistan, revealing the role he’s been playing in America’s war on terror.
I put myself and my company at the C.I.A.’s disposal for some very risky missions,â€
Blackwater CEO: A CIA Spook and more.
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SirNitram
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#1 Blackwater CEO: A CIA Spook and more.
Half-Damned, All Hero.
Tev: You're happy. You're Plotting. You're Evil.
Me: Evil is so inappropriate. I'm ruthless.
Tev: You're turning me on.
I Am Rage. You Will Know My Fury.
Tev: You're happy. You're Plotting. You're Evil.
Me: Evil is so inappropriate. I'm ruthless.
Tev: You're turning me on.
I Am Rage. You Will Know My Fury.
#2
I think that's the least of the issues here. :/
To me, it's weirder to see that he was smart enough to create an outfit with these powerful combat and intelligence gathering capabilities but naive enough to think that he would not be thrown under the bus by the politicos as soon as the crap hit the fan. He didn't know the basic truth of politics: you either play the game or get played, and he was dealing with the CIA and Congress of all things. It's almost like he's an idiot savant or something.
On a similar note, for all that they were superbly trained and equipped, his goon squads were sorely lacking in PR training, perhaps because Mr. Prince never had that kind of background himself. You can get away with that when you are a part of a greater whole (like Uncle Sam), because then there's someone around to guide you, but as soon as you're an independent unit you can't get away with not knowing this stuff.
Then there are the ethical issues.
...
Yea, I don't think I need to go there.
OK, now in his defense, while he's made a number of terrible decisions, he's also clearly been screwed over, and while partially paying for national defense out of his own pocket (although he's certainly made a whole bundle of money too), and providing training and capabilities to government forces that the government were too cheap to provide themselves. I'm not getting sympathetic but it was an interesting read.
To me, it's weirder to see that he was smart enough to create an outfit with these powerful combat and intelligence gathering capabilities but naive enough to think that he would not be thrown under the bus by the politicos as soon as the crap hit the fan. He didn't know the basic truth of politics: you either play the game or get played, and he was dealing with the CIA and Congress of all things. It's almost like he's an idiot savant or something.
On a similar note, for all that they were superbly trained and equipped, his goon squads were sorely lacking in PR training, perhaps because Mr. Prince never had that kind of background himself. You can get away with that when you are a part of a greater whole (like Uncle Sam), because then there's someone around to guide you, but as soon as you're an independent unit you can't get away with not knowing this stuff.
Then there are the ethical issues.
...
Yea, I don't think I need to go there.
OK, now in his defense, while he's made a number of terrible decisions, he's also clearly been screwed over, and while partially paying for national defense out of his own pocket (although he's certainly made a whole bundle of money too), and providing training and capabilities to government forces that the government were too cheap to provide themselves. I'm not getting sympathetic but it was an interesting read.