The Great Dismal Swamp in North Carlolina. Nickname.......Blackwater
I like to fancy myself to be somewhat of an amatuer military historian. A couple of years back I read a few books on the 30 Years War which was fought in what is now Germany during the years 1618-1648. One of the characteristics of warfare during this period was the widespread use of mercenary armies by all sides.
One of the things I took away from my readings, besides the widespread suffering inflicted on the German population, was the fact that mercenary armies were exceptionaly dangerous, not only to the enemies they fought against, but also to their supposed friends and allies. The reason for this was that they were so difficult to control. Because of their annoying habit of setting fire to anything in their path that they couldn't carry off, German peasants began to plant potatoes instead of wheat because potatoes grew underground and couldn't be burned. And it made no difference to the mercenaries if they were marching through friendly or enemy territory, they weren't concerned with who won or lost the war, they were only there for the loot. And God help the king or prince who ran out of gold or silver to pay them, they would happily join the other side if the price was right. If a truce happened to be negotiated and the armies ordered to disband, well hell, they still had to earn a living somehow, so they just freelanced it as bandits. Famine and disease reduced the German population by an average of 1/3, in some areas 2/3 died, 1/3 of all German towns were destroyed. Winning the hearts and minds of the local population has never been one of the strong points of mercenaries. My boss's last name is Mong. You might think that he comes from Chinese ancestry, but in fact comes from German stock. He explained to me that his ancestor was a Hessian named Mung who fought for the British during the Revolution and when he decided to stay in America after the war, decided to change the spelling to hide the fact that he was German because the Hessian mercenaries were so despised by the colonists. I thought that all this was only past history. But the mercs have returned, and their name is Blackwater.
I enjoy doing historical research and so decided to do some research on Blackwater. I have a lot of questions. The first one is Who are these people?
Erik Prince, an ex-Navy Seal officer, was born in Holland,Michigan on June 6,1969, the youngest child of Edgar Prince, who co-founded the Family Research Council with Gary Bauer. The elder Prince was also a close friend of James Dobson. Erik Prince served as an intern in the White House when George H.W.Bush was president. When his father died in 1995, his mother sold the family buisiness, Prince Industries for 1.3 billion dollars. He then used his inheritance money to found Blackwater USA, now called Blackwater Worldwide, in 1997.He bought 6000 acres near the Great Dismal Swamp in North Carolina and built a training facility there. Blackwater is one of two companies making up the Prince Group, the other being Prince Manufacturing. Blackwater has four divisions, Blackwater Training Center, Blackwater Target Systems, Blackwater Security Consulting, and Blackwater Canine. There is also one subsidiary, Blackwater Vehicles. The Prince Group also owns Aviation Worldwide Services to provide air support for their operations. So far, they have trained 50,000 sercurity personel. The president of Blackwater is Gary Jackson, also an ex-navy seal. Cofer Black, a 28 year veteran of the CIA, is the vice-chairman. Joseph Schmitz, former inspector general for the Pentagon, is chief operating officer. Robert Richer, former Deputy Director of Operations for the CIA, was vice-president for intelligence until January 2007, when he formed his own company, Total Intelligence Solutions.
From an article by Corey Flintoff of NPR.
Prince has been a steady contributor to the Republican National Committee, giving more than $200,000 since 1998. He also has supported various conservative candidates, including President Bush, Sens. Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Rick Santorum (R-PA), Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA), and indicted former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX).
Other members of Prince's family have been active in Republican politics. His sister, Betsy DeVos, has served as chair of the Michigan Republican Party, and her husband, Dick DeVos, was an unsuccessful Republican candidate for governor of Michigan in 2006. Dick DeVos, a member of the conservative family that co-founded Amway, succeeded his father as president of that company.
Prince serves as a board member of Christian Freedom International, a nonprofit group that provides Bibles, food and other help to Christians in countries where they face persecution.
Another disturbing fact is that Donald Rumsfeld, before he resigned as Secretary of Defense in November 2006, made private contractors an official part of the US war machine declaring the US Total Force to be "its active and reserve military components, its civil servants, and its contractors--constitut[ing] its warfighting capability and capacity. Members of the Total Force serve in thousands of locations around the world, performing a vast array of duties to accomplish critical missions." This is the first time in our nation's history that the use of mercanaries have been officially sanctioned by the US government for use in our nation's conflicts. I believe this to be a very dangerous road we're heading down. They could be used to perform all kinds of tasks without the US government getting it's hands dirty. Interogation of terrorists suspects could be contracted to them. They could then use torture all they wanted and enable the government to deny that THEY use torture. A private corporation could use them to effect regime change in a government unfriendly to their interests. They could be used to spy on political enemies. The potential for abuse is endless. The fact that Blackwater is controlled by members of the extreme right, who happen to be be MY political enemies, is particularly disturbing. These people are not my friends. This diary is only a beginning, I will post others as I crawl deeper down the rat hole. A salute to diarist dengre, who inspired me to start this series with his diary Research 101.#1:Leverage your power.... My next question, What have these people been up to?
Let me end with another historical footnote. Although throughout history mercenary armies have been notoriously hard to control, there have been exceptions, but it usually takes an exceptional commander. One such commander was the great Carthagian general Hannibal. Because Carthage was primarily a sea power, it had to rely almost exclusively on mercenaries. When Hannibal invaded the Roman Empire during the Second Punic War(218-202 BC), he led an army of African, Spanish, and Gaulish mercenaries. Yet for the most part he was able to maintain discipline within this diverse army.
Unfortunately, George Bush ain't Hannibal.