My story in US publication Foreign Policy: The founder of the military contractor Blackwater, Erik Prince, has a new project. He’s aiming to raise $500 million to invest in the discovery, exploitation, and delivery of resources required to produce electric car batteries. Minerals such as cobalt, lithium, and copper are mostly found in conflict zones…
I recently published a major investigation into Blackwater founder Erik Prince and his aims to exploit resources and minerals in Afghanistan. It was published by the global broadcaster TRT World and created waves. Yesterday Prince himself was interviewed on the TRT World program, Nexus, and directly asked about my reporting that he travelled to Afghanistan…
My year-long investigation in TRT World, the global news network that reaches 260 million people in 190 countries, about Blackwater founder Erik Prince and his attempts to exploit Afghan minerals (plus here’s background to the making of this story that continues to… reverberate around the world): The founder of the notorious, and now defunct, Blackwater, has…
Eli Lake in The Daily Beast interviews the usually elusive head of Blackwater, Erik Prince, and details the fact that the private mercenary force was and may well remain an invaluable extension of the CIA: Founded in 1997 by Erik Prince, heir to an auto-parts family fortune, Blackwater had proved especially useful to the CIA…
San Diego Reader on a company that has thrived, despite major controversies, since 9/11. Almost the definition of disaster capitalism: … Last week, Gail Collins, an op-ed columnist for the New York Times, wrote a story about privatization. In the… article, Collins describes privatization efforts that haven’t gone so well. Some examples she listed were privatizing prisons,…
This is an interesting story in Melbourne’s Herald Sun but is the Australian government really hiring foreign mercenaries, men who operate beyond the law? Australia is boosting its ranks with foreign soldiers by offering cash bonuses of up to $200,000 and fast-tracked citizenship. Veterans have hit out at hiring “mercenaries” from countries such as America,…
Feeling the need to kill for fun in war zones where privatised thugs are order the day? This game is for you. Funnily enough, the players will be tasked with protecting UN principals:
The private mercenary company Blackwater, despite years of serious allegations of human rights abuses across the world, is only seeing bigger opportunities for expansion. The latest (via independent American journalist Tim Shorrock), is this: Blackwater, the notorious mercenary company now known as “Xe,” has a new Chief Operating Officer (COO) – Charles (Chuck) Thomas, formerly…
Oh the horrors: A federal judge denied a request by a former contractor, convicted of killing an Afghan civilian, for permission to return to Afghanistan for employment, according to a ruling made public Wednesday. Calling the request “ill-timed” and “the epitome of arrogance,” U.S. District Judge Robert G. Doumar flatly refused to give Virginia Beach…
