Just a few good mercs.
Blackwater Worldwide has a worthy scary competitor these days; one that has or soon will eclipse its security, military and functional capabilities. But, founder and CEO Erik Prince isn’t losing any sleep over it. In fact, it was he who founded his chief competition in a re-energized effort to reach out to the international market. Being the ultimate in mercenary firms does have its advantages; at least when the firm’s CEO is so well-connected in Washington D.C.
Oh, there are many other bona fide merc firms; Aegis, Logicom, Triple Canopy and a whole host of others.
But, very few of them if any have obtained the level of success and notoriety that Blackwater has -- and that’s why Prince's efforts to diversify could be ominous for a lot of reasons.
Of course, Erik Prince doesn’t consider his reputation to be notorious -- even when he recently found himself in the middle of a firestorm surrounding the killing of 17 civilians in Baghdad by Blackwater employees.
At an appearance last October before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, sporting a expensive suit and military-style haircut, (and aided no less by a crash course in Beltway etiquette tutored by crisis-management specialists over at Burson-Marsteller) the 38-year old former Navy SEAL appeared unflappable in his delivery; the perfect executive overseeing thousands of equally perfect employees. (talk about living in a bubble)
By any estimation, Prince seemed right at home at the hearing filled to the brim with politicians, cameras and reporters; exuding confidence in giving his absolvitory explanations and non-contrite answers alike -- only pausing occasionally, leaning back in his chair and conferring with his attorney at times when at a loss for the appropriate [non-incriminating] words. Prince rarely talks to the press so when given a chance to laud the professionalism of his employees at the hearing, he didn’t hold back, whether it was warranted or not.
The inside story of Blackwater, "Blackwater's World of Warcraft," written by Bruce Falconer and Daniel Schulman appears in the March 20 edition of Mother Jones:
"I believe we acted appropriately at all times"—and [Prince] bristled at the term most commonly used to describe his line of work. "The Oxford dictionary defines a mercenary as a professional soldier working for a foreign government," he said. "We have Americans working for America, protecting Americans."
The truth is a bit more complex. As profit margins in the private security industry have narrowed—Blackwater clears just 10 percent on its primary State Department contract, Prince testified—the CEO has increasingly looked beyond American shores.
More and more of his foot soldiers now come from Third World countries, and his corporate network is aggressively pitching for business from foreign governments. (It has already trained naval commandos in Azerbaijan and has been hired to train special forces troops in Jordan.) In his most ambitious moments, Prince has set out a vision in which his companies would act as for-profit peacekeepers, working with the United Nations and other international organizations in conflict areas around the world.
Even Blackwater's marketing materials are infused with the imagery of global humanitarianism; one of the company's recent ads shows a tiny malnourished infant being spoon-fed and proclaims the company's intention to "provide hope to those who still live in desperate times."
At the height of Blackwater’s involvement in Iraq back in 2004, Prince decided on a new direction, and in 2005, he set about quietly forming a new company to operate internationally. Prince named the new brand, Greystone Limited. The new company lacks the notoriety of the Blackwater name but offers more "talent" for those international entities hesitant to deal with the bad publicity garnered in Iraq. And, going the way of so many other American companies doing most of their business overseas, Greystone Limited is based in the Caribbean island nation of Barbados – even though still managed from Blackwater’s headquarters in Moyock, North Carolina. Apparently, the Barbados address and telephone number that’s listed in the federal government’s contractor base leads to a firm specializing in shielding corporate revenues from the IRS in the United States.
So, for the most part, Greystone remains an enigma even to industry insiders. Until late last year, the company was a member of a trade group called the International Peace Operations Association but it followed the lead of Blackwater, (who pulled out of the organization in October after the IPOA launched an investigation into the firm’s conduct.) To this day, the president of the IPOA, Doug Brooks, claims no knowledge of what services Greystone Limited provides their clients.
Neither could R.J. Hillhouse blog, a political scientist and private-security expert who follows the industry closely. Even a spokesman for the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security, which has issued contracts to Blackwater on which Greystone works as a subcontractor, admits he has never heard of the company.
Despite—or perhaps because of—its close-to-the-vest MO, the company has built up a certain mystique. One contractor we spoke to said he was present when Greystone managers arrived to claim their office space at Blackwater's Baghdad headquarters. They were a different breed from the "yee-haw cowboys" that filled Blackwater's ranks, and their tattoos indicated backgrounds in elite military units like Marine Recon, the Navy seals, and the Green Berets. "They didn't talk to the other Americans," he said, let alone foreigners. "They had different bodies, different mentalities, and used different language. They had a different professional attitude."
Greystone's managing director is a 40-year-old ex-seal named Christopher Burgess, who first met Prince while the pair was in training for the Navy's elite unit. Burgess rarely grants interviews, but he agreed to answer some of our questions in writing. Asked why Greystone had chosen to incorporate in Barbados, he responded that the country "is a well known business center with established business practices and banking systems."
Despite Burgess’ dubious claim, there could be another reason why Prince and Burgess picked Barbados for a home base; an attempt to skirt strict U.S. regulations on exporting military services, a claim Greystone’s managing director flatly denies by saying that Greystone always seeks "State Department licensure for all security services overseas," and complies with "other trade controls and restrictions." Doug Taylor admits that taxes were a factor, but says the primary goal was to better position Greystone for international contracts. "It's a matter of focus and efficiency," he says. "I don't think it obfuscates anything."
If Blackwater’s success is any indicator, Greystone will soon be unable to remain obscure. When he formed Blackwater, Prince stated that his business goals were modest ones, such as training state and local cops to be better marksmen, but much like other contractors working for the Bush regime, Prince’s holding company, Prince Group LLC has grown exponentially; to twenty strong since September 11, 2001. Among them:
• Presidential Airways – an air charter and cargo-transport firm.
• Pelagian -- a maritime security operation with its own 153-foot vessel, helipad-equipped and outfitted for training and disaster response.
• Total Intelligence Solutions -- a "one-stop" intelligence and risk consultancy for the private sector staffed by former CIA officials, of which Cofer Black (former Coordinator for Counterterrorism at the U. S. State Department, and former Director of the CIA's Counterterrorism Center) is chairman.
• Various defense projects to make high-tech armaments such as mine-resistant armored vehicles and surveillance blimps.
Due to the classified nature of many of the Prince Group’s contracts, total assets are difficult to calculate, but Blackwater alone posted earnings of $600 million in fiscal year 2006, an amazing amount for a company with annual earnings of less than $1 million prior to 9-11. Blackwater’s U.S. government contracts include ones from:
• State Department
• Defense Department
• Dept. of Homeland Security
• CIA (which, a European Parliament investigation alleges, has hired Prince's air-charter company to transport terrorist suspects to secret interrogation sites. (Blackwater denies any involvement in rendition flights.)
However, forsaking the unfavorable media scrutiny that contractual relationships with the U.S. government have garnered the past few years, Greystone has chosen a different route than their parent company did when it first started out, seamlessly melding corporate business interests with the governments of their international clientèle.
"In todays grey world," reads one of the company's pamphlets, "the solutions to your security concerns are no longer as simple as black and white."
Greystone offers clients full protective details staffed by special operations; law enforcement and intelligence personnel "for any threat scenario around the world." It is prepared to train indigenous forces "in developing a capability to conduct defensive and offensive small group operations."
One private security contractor characterizes Greystone’s services this way:
"They have the ability to do whatever tickles your pickle. They have services literally from A to Z. Aviation, Special operations, Rescue, and Ransom. You name it. If you got the money, they got the honey. You can hire 17 James Bonds with Arnold Schwarzenegger in charge, or you can knock on the same door and tell them, 'I'm a Kuwaiti businessman and would like protection for my convoys between Kuwait City and Baghdad, but I only have half a million dollars a month.' Greystone will take the contract and they'll hire grunts."
In an early promotional video, Greystone operators, some wearing black ski masks, are shown doing everything from handing out food to refugees and protecting diplomats to jumping out of airplanes, running cars off the road, and landing strike teams on Iraqi rooftops—all to a synthesized drum-and-bass soundtrack.
The video can be found here.
According to Taylor, Greystone was once registered with the U.N.'s procurement division, which allowed the company to compete for international peacekeeping contracts, but was removed from the procurement database "temporarily" pending an investigation into "ethical" concerns. Prince Group’s Presidential Airways was also removed, presumably for the same reason.
Prince and his diversified group of companies, though, are positioned to endure. The Greystone model doesn't depend on America's wars: Whether the future of the business lies in what the industry calls "peace and stability" work or in providing "proactive" strike forces to private clients, some element of the Prince network is in a position to deliver.
"They're soldiers of fortune," says the security director of a well-known humanitarian NGO. "Today they are willing to do the bidding of the United States, because the United States is willing to pay them. Who are they willing to work for tomorrow?"
In my mind, that’s the overriding question; among a thousand others that should be asked and answered in the U.S. Congress, and perhaps even by an international commission. Just how large and diverse should private merc firms be allowed to become? The Prince Group’s (and other’s) ability to quickly summon a force that potentially dwarfs the combined military forces of many of the world’s governments is indeed an ominous development.
What happens when one of these companies sign a contract with a large corporation interested only in toppling a sovereign government for its natural resources? Hypothetically speaking, would that corporation then own that particular country?
In my opinion, if allowed to form at all, companies like the Prince Group should be subject to strict and continual congressional oversight and regulation, and bound by international ethical concerns. With climate change running its course across the world in the next decade and beyond, these merc firms could enter a beleaguered country in the name of peace-keeping then turn around and topple its government in a coup d'état – whether it’s of the bloodless or blood-filled variety.
It’s time for Congress to step up while these merc firms are still in their formative stages.
Before it’s too late to do so.
Mother Jones has covered the rise and operations of Blackwater extensively.
Peace