Tag: erik prince
DOGE With Guns: Blackwater Boss Wants $25 Billion For Army Of Deportation Goons

DOGE With Guns: Blackwater Boss Wants $25 Billion For Army Of Deportation Goons

Politico reported yesterday:

A group of prominent military contractors, including former Blackwater CEO Erik Prince, has pitched the Trump White House on a proposal to carry out mass deportations through a network of “processing camps” on military bases, a private fleet of 100 planes, and a “small army” of private citizens empowered to make arrests.

The blueprint — laid out in a 26-page document President Donald Trump’s advisers received before the inauguration — carries an estimated price tag of $25 billion and recommends a range of aggressive tactics to rapidly deport 12 million people before the 2026 midterms.

Okay dear readers, let's leave aside for the moment the obvious grenades concealed in this hare-brained, off-the-surface-of-this-fucking-planet Muskian idea. And let’s ignore that it comes from multimillionaire cowboy Erik Prince, brother of the odious and ignorant Betsy DeVos, the last machete-wielding dim bulb Trump put in charge of the Department of Education in his first term. Let's forget for the time being the criminal record of Blackwater in Iraq, where its contractors in 2007 killed 17 Iraqis and wounded 20 in the infamous Nisour Square massacre in Baghdad; four were convicted of murder and of course later pardoned by Donald Trump.

Instead, let’s do the White House a favor: We will assume that Trump decides to go along with the Erik Prince proposal on the theory that he applies to everything he does as president of the United States, which is figure out right up front how much he can skim from every billion-dollar contract he eyeballs coming down the pike for him to sign.

So let's do the cuckoo clock calculations for this crackers-among-the-synapses plan to deport millions of undocumented immigrants who, as of this date, haven't even been located yet. Prince says give me $25 billion and I'll round them up and get them all on planes for Guantanamo or someplace anyway before the midterm elections.

The first math we’ll do is calculate the number of days between now and election day on November 3, 2025, so that we can get started figuring out how many people Erik Prince and his camo cowboys would have to round up every day: 616 days to go. That means every single day they would have to locate, arrest, detain, notify of their rights under relevant immigration law, schedule a hearing before an immigration judge, and then carry out the deportation order for 19,480 undocumented immigrants – if, in fact, they can get a judge to issue such an order. That would be 811 potential deportees every hour, which works out to about 14 human beings a minute.

Prince's proposal contemplates hiring 2,000 attorneys and paralegals just to screen the detained undocumented immigrants before they would be referred to another gang of 2,000 attorneys and paralegals that would represent them. Prince proposes a novel solution to the incredible number of deportees they would have to handle every day: mass deportation hearings. How those would be conducted with even a modicum of due process isn’t explained in the $25 billion Prince proposal, because of course it isn't. There wouldn't be any due process, so they would lose the very first challenge to the whole fucking thing that made it before a judge. And then multiply that out, with more judges and more hearings, and you can see about how successful the entire Erik Prince cowboy clusterfuck is likely to be.

But math and the details and the law and the due process and the hearings don't even scratch the surface of what is truly troubling about Prince’s $25 billion boondoggle.

According to Politico, Prince is proposing a kind of DOGE with guns: “Prince suggests deputizing 10,000 private citizens, including military veterans, former law enforcement officials and retired ICE and CBP officers, giving them expedited training and the same federal law enforcement powers of immigration officials.” Got that? He's going to run a want ad for 10,000 yahoos and issue them 10,000 sets of full camo; 10,000 bulletproof vests, each of which can cost upwards of $700 to $800; 10,000 AR-15 full-automatic rifles costing about $1500 each, because Prince’s yahoos aren't gonna put up with namby pamby semi-auto models, don'tcha know; and they'll of course need 10,000 pairs of Oakley S1 Ballistic Shocktube Tactical Sunglasses at $233 a pop, because what self-respecting Blackwater camo-cowboy would settle for anything less?

You already know from what happened with Blackwater in Iraq what's going to happen on the streets of the good old USA. People are going to get shot by trigger-happy Blackwater hired guns. Most of them will be undocumented immigrants, but it's a virtual certainty that ordinary citizens will be caught up the chaos of arresting and detaining nearly 20,000 people per day.

Prince has assured the Trump White House that there's nothing to worry about. He says they've already got 49 airplanes lined up to carry out the deportations. Let's see…at 19,480 per day, that's 397 deportees per flight. Even the latest version of the Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner holds only 300 to 330 passengers, so unless Erik Prince has managed to lay his hands on a bunch of 747’s and A380’s, he's telling a lie to the Trump White House about how many people he can manage to fly out of the country every day, at least until he comes up with the rest of his 100-plane “fleet.”

But hey! The whole fucking thing is one gigantic scam-o-rama to put megabucks in the pockets of Erik Prince and whoever else he decides to spread the wealth around to.

Does the name Donald Trump sound like a likely candidate?

Not to worry. Co-cowboys like Steve Bannon are already on the case, recommending that Trump jump on the Prince plan. “People want this stood up quickly, and understand the government is always very slow to do things,” Bannon informed Politico, excavating a nugget from his deep store of right-wing political wisdom.

See? We're already halfway there. Steve Bannon gets to say military shit like “stood up” as he's dishing out his expert advice to the White House. That's almost as good as strapping on a vest and grabbing a full-auto AR15 and putting on your $233 Ballistic Shocktube Tactical Sunglasses and getting out there in the street and arresting a few undocumented immigrants yourself, isn't it Stevie?

Lucian K. Truscott IV, a graduate of West Point, has had a 50-year career as a journalist, novelist, and screenwriter. He has covered Watergate, the Stonewall riots, and wars in Lebanon, Iraq, and Afghanistan. He is also the author of five bestselling novels. You can subscribe to his daily columns at luciantruscott.substack.com and follow him on Twitter @LucianKTruscott and on Facebook at Lucian K. Truscott IV.

Hillary Clinton

Hillary Chartered Free Flights For Afghan Women While Erik Prince Charged $6500

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos

As conditions in Afghanistan worsen daily, reports have indicated that individuals are not only eager to volunteer but are showing overwhelming support to welcome Afghan refugees. Organizations and people alike are coming together in efforts to bring Afghan asylum-seekers safely into the U.S. While some nonprofit organizations are urging people to donate miles and partnering with relocation centers to bring refugees to safety, others are advocating for donations to gather funds to fly refugees out.

But organizations aren't the only ones flying vulnerable refugees out of Afghanistan as people surround Kabul airport. After warning of the "huge consequences" of withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan, Hillary Clinton has reportedly been chartering flights out of Afghanistan for the country's at-risk women.

According to The New York Times, Clinton and her team have been trying to aid potential Taliban targets in leaving the country by offering seats to Afghan journalists on a flight her team arranged to help women at risk. While the journalists did not take the flight, some women and children did. The effort comes as some individuals are trying to fill the gap by donating money to charter flights as evacuation projects are becoming increasingly difficult.

"Last week, the evacuation options to get women's rights activists out came largely from an informal network of powerful, connected, some very wealthy people, some trying to literally charter private jets to evacuate women thought to be Taliban targets," Marie Clarke, the vice president of global programs at Women for Women International, told The Guardian.

Many Afghan families are struggling to find the funds necessary to fly out, so these chartered planes make a significant impact. But of course, not everyone is like Clinton—some people, like former Blackwater CEO Erik Prince, are attempting to monetize the desperation of the Afghan people by offering flights for $6,500 per person instead of for free, Daily Kos reported.

Clinton's efforts to help Afghan women come as no surprise. While some may see it as her attempting to gain social clout, the reality is that not only was Clinton hush-hush about her efforts, but she has supported women's rights in Afghanistan prior to this current situation.

During a United Nations (UN) meeting last year, which was sponsored by the Group of Friends of Women in Afghanistan and led by the Afghanistan Mission to the UN, Clinton emphasized the role of Afghan women and the importance of "encouraging women's participation," noting that it "is not only the right thing to do; it is the strategic and necessary thing to do for peace, prosperity and security."

She continued: "It is clear that Afghan women are rightly afraid not just for their rights and the Constitution that was written to protect them, but literally afraid that the gains they have made with all of our help will be washed away in a rush to achieve a peace that will not hold anyway. This is not just morally wrong. This is dangerous."

"We must not allow a reign of terror against [Afghan] women and girls. The women of Afghanistan have come too far to be excluded from the negotiation table while their rights are being stripped away. It is also true that we cannot allow that to happen to Afghan women and girls because there is a direct correlation between what will happen in the country, in the region, and indeed the world because of that," Clinton said during her speech at the UN meeting.

According to The Independent, in addition to making efforts to rescue at-risk Afghan women, Clinton also spoke with Canada's prime minister, Justin Trudeau, about the escalating crisis and what he can do to help.

"I also spoke last night with former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton," Trudeau said on Tuesday, according to the Washington Examiner, adding that Clinton "shares our concern for Afghan women and girls" and "urged Canada to continue our work."

Clinton had warned what the humanitarian consequences of a withdrawal from Afghanistan would be following the two decades the U.S. spent in the country.

"This is what we call a wicked problem. There are consequences both foreseen and unintended of staying and of leaving," she told CNN in May. Clinton noted that the U.S. was facing "two huge consequences" of withdrawal: the threat from the Taliban and the number of refugees the situation would likely create as a result.

Of course, while we all wish we had access to chartered planes to help those in need, we don't. But there are other ways you can help bring Afghan refugees to safety. For those who are interested, you can donate flight miles and vouchers by following the steps explained here. Additionally, if you are an AirBnB host and are willing to host a refugee family, you can learn more about that process here.

Erik Prince

Billionaire Ex-Blackwater Boss Exploiting Chaos And Misery In Kabul

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

With Afghanistan having fallen to the Taliban and countless Afghans desperately trying to leave the country, former Blackwater CEO Erik Prince has found a way to profit from the crisis, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The paper's Dion Nissenbaum reports, "Mr. Prince, whose Blackwater guards were convicted of killing civilians in 2014 while providing security for Americans during the Iraq War, said he was charging each passenger $6500 to get them safely into the airport and on a plane, and it would cost extra to get people who have been trapped in their homes to the airport. It remained unclear whether Mr. Prince had the wherewithal to carry out his plans."

Prince is the brother of Betsy DeVos, former secretary of education in the Trump Administration. When Donald Trump was president, Prince had an idea for getting U.S. troops out of Afghanistan: replacing them with a private security force. But that idea fell through.

Warren Binford, a University of Colorado law professor who has been helping with evacuation efforts in Afghanistan, told the Journal, "It's total chaos. What's happening is that we're seeing a massive underground railroad operation where, instead of running for decades, it's literally running for a matter of hours, or days."

The United States' 20-year war in Afghanistan started in 2001 following al-Qaeda's 9/11 terrorist attacks and has existed under four U.S. presidents: George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump and now, Joe Biden. Trump and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo worked out an agreement with the Taliban for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, and Biden followed through on the Trump/Pompeo agreement — although at a slower pace.

Mother Jones' Inae Oh, reporting on Prince's Afghanistan activities, reports, "Prince's plans to capitalize on tragedy come amid a broader effort by aid organizations to rescue as many people as possible as the U.S. struggles to process visas and evacuate both Americans still in the country and the tens of thousands of Afghans who worked from the U.S. government over the past 20 years of war…. Prince kept busy in recent years by overseeing operations to spy on so-called Trump enemies in government while misleading Congress in the Russia investigation. Now he's back, scrambling to make one last buck from the crisis in Afghanistan."

Bombshell Report Uncovers Right-Wing 'Sting' Plot Against McMaster, FBI

Bombshell Report Uncovers Right-Wing 'Sting' Plot Against McMaster, FBI

Undercover operatives from the right-wing Project Veritas worked with a former British spy and Betsy DeVos' brother Erik Prince to wage a smear and sting operation to discredit "deep state" federal government officials on President Donald Trump's enemies list while he was in office, including the White House National Security Adviser and unnamed FBI agents.

The New York Times broke the bombshell story, reporting that the "campaign included a planned sting operation against Mr. Trump's national security adviser at the time, H.R. McMaster, and secret surveillance operations against F.B.I. employees, aimed at exposing anti-Trump sentiment in the bureau's ranks.

""The campaign," the Times reports, "shows the obsession that some of Mr. Trump's allies had about a shadowy 'deep state' trying to blunt his agenda — and the lengths that some were willing to go to try to purge the government of those believed to be disloyal to the president."

"Central to the effort, according to interviews, was Richard Seddon, a former undercover British spy who was recruited in 2016 by the security contractor Erik Prince to train Project Veritas operatives to infiltrate trade unions, Democratic congressional campaigns and other targets. He ran field operations for Project Veritas until mid-2018."

Last year, The New York Times reported that Mr. Seddon ran an expansive effort to gain access to the unions and campaigns and led a hiring effort that nearly tripled the number of the group's operatives, according to interviews and deposition testimony. He trained operatives at the Prince family ranch in Wyoming.

The Times' extensive reporting, which runs about 2700 words, does not reveal who initiated or who bankrolled the campaign.

The Times reports the operation was run out of a Washington, D.C, townhouse that rented for $10,000 a month, and that it is not known if President Trump or his closest advisors, including family members, were aware of the operation or had anything to do with it.

"The operation against Mr. McMaster was hatched not long after an article appeared in BuzzFeed News about a private dinner in 2017. Exactly what happened during the dinner is in dispute, but the article said that Mr. McMaster had disparaged Mr. Trump by calling him an 'idiot' with the intelligence of a 'kindergartner.'"

Those allegations were never proven, although they echo what some others inside the administration, like first Trump Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, had allegedly stated.

In the end, McMaster resigned amid far right-wing attacks, but no recordings emerged of him calling Trump an "idiot."

Read the entire New York Times investigation here.




The Times' extensive reporting, which runs about 2700 words, does not reveal who initiated or who bankrolled the campaign.The Times reports the operation was run out of a Washington, D.C, townhouse that rented for $10,000 a month, and that it is not known if President Trump or his closest advisors, including family members, were aware of the operation or had anything to do with it.Last year, The New York Times reported that Mr. Seddon ran an expansive effort to gain access to the unions and campaigns and led a hiring effort that nearly tripled the number of the group's operatives, according to interviews and deposition testimony. He trained operatives at the Prince family ranch in Wyoming.

The Times' extensive reporting, which runs about 2700 words, does not reveal who initiated or who bankrolled the campaign.The Times reports the operation was run out of a Washington, D.C, townhouse that rented for $10,000 a month, and that it is not known if President Trump or his closest advisors, including family members, were aware of the operation or had anything to do with it.


Shop our Store

Headlines

Editor's Blog

Corona Virus

Trending

World