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Mercenary Leader Operated His Own Private Spy Network

Domestic operatives infiltrated liberal groups to look for dirt

Manny Otiko
4 min readFeb 11, 2022
Erik Prince (YouTube screengrab)

Erik Prince, founder of the infamous Blackwater mercenary company, is a very scary individual. (Blackwater went through many name changes before it was bought by a group of investors.)

Prince, the brother of former Education Sec. Betsy DeVos, not only has far-right views, but he also has the money and connections to make things happen. He also has no qualms about war profiteering, has his own private army and the military hardware to back them up. And he was once a CIA contractor.

Prince also seems to be involved in many recent scandals. Apart from making money off the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, his private military firm was also involved in a 2007 shooting incident that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead.

Naturally, since Prince is a wealthy white man, he’s never been brought to justice, although the company was barred from Iraq and fined by the U.S. government. Some low-level Blackwater employees also went to jail…

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Manny Otiko
Manny Otiko

Written by Manny Otiko

Manny Otiko writes about race, politics and sports. He has been published in Salon and LA Weekly. Follow him at @mannyotiko.bsky.social

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