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Exit Interview: Outgoing Blackwater Chief on Why He Owes No Apologies
Sara D. Davis / AP Photo
After 11 years at the helm of the controversial military company he founded, Erik Prince is stepping down. In an interview with The Daily Beast, he talks about why he’s proud of Blackwater’s work, the future of the company, and whether he expects the Obama administration to keep his firm on the payroll.
In an interview with The Daily Beast, Erik Prince, the outgoing CEO of Blackwater Worldwide, said his decision to step down from the company today, along with longtime executive Gary Jackson, is part of the business' natural evolution.
“We've been at this for 11 years,” Prince, a former Navy SEAL, said. “The military rotates leadership every 1½ to two years. Myself and Gary, we've grown this thing from when it was nothing and it was time to turn it over to the next generation of leadership.”
“I’d say [Blackwater] performed above and beyond the scope of our contract and did exactly what our customers hired us to do,” Prince said.
Prince said that Blackwater's new president, Joe Yorio, would be better suited to cement its position as a large-scale international company rather than the smaller domestic operation he founded in 1997. He likened the process to “sending the business off to college.”
“In Joe Yorio you find a guy who's smarter at business than I am,” Prince said. “I'm an entrepreneur and idea guy; he's a professional businessman.”
The move comes amidst a brutal stretch for Blackwater Worldwide in which the company has suffered major financial setbacks and watched its public image disintegrate in the press.
In December, federal prosecutors charged five Blackwater employees with 14 counts of manslaughter and 20 counts of attempted manslaughter, the result of an investigation into a 2007 shootout in Baghdad in which some 17 Iraqis were killed. According to prosecutors, at least 14 Iraqis—all civilians—were killed directly by Blackwater employees, who allegedly fired a grenade into a girls' school and shot at unarmed innocents fleeing the battle. A sixth employee has pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the case. The remaining defendants' attorneys contend they were acting in self defense.
The case cemented Blackwater’s reputation for trigger-happy recklessness that's led critics in Washington and the military to condemn the company for failing to professionally carry out its operations.
When asked about the charges, Prince declined to address specific allegations regarding its employees serving in Iraq.
“I'd say we performed above and beyond the scope of our contract and did exactly what our customers hired us to do,” Prince said.
In December, he rebutted critics who derided the company as beholden to no law but its own with an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, arguing that the current trial showed that its members were within the scope of the law and that their operations save American lives.
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Spasticula
I hope you get ass cancer, Eric, maybe even before your trained seals are told to fire on crowds of Americans.
Peter0000
Thanks to Eric and the Blackwater organization. Your service to this great Nation is greatly appreciated by this American. Disregard the appeasers. Continue to do what you can to protect our Nation.
peskime
Can you say Douche Bag?
troutcor
A. Blackwater does not do offensive operations? I guess that's how those 17 civilians got killed.
B. Blackwater is needed because the U.S. military is smaller than it used to be? Other way around. Blackwater and other mercenary firms and their allies in the Bush junta saw a profit opportunity by outsourcing yet another public function and took it.
C. Blackwater is poster boy for everything wrong with America. Giant profits first, violence second, people last.
Prince and his colleagues are scum.
surlybastard
Good riddance. What does it say about the US if it has to rely on mercenaries. And that crap about how these are veterans serving their country again? If they wanted to keep serving their country they'd put a real uniform back on.
roger37
I really love the Adolf haircut.
Redhead5050
These mercenaries have no business performing the duties of our military personnel. The reason that the ranks of this group of murderers for hire has grown is because of the huge pay compared with our military personnel. Pay our military more, and the ranks will grow. Save us money on "contracts" with these murderers and our real military heros will reap the rewards. Further, I don't want the likes of this man or his band or killers policing the streets of America in any way shape or form.
easton
I am with most of the other posters here, except Peter0000 (he is such a zero he repeats it 4X). If military veterans want to serve the country they can re-enlist. They will be honored for doing so, instead of being looked upon as mercenaries out to serve their own wallets. The idea that you can serve your country in a military capacity and make a fortune is nuts. And if the need is great enough, bring back the draft. Don't follow Peter's advice and appease big business.
jaguarxjs
There is no lower form of scum on the planet than mercenaries. Mercenaries are accountable to now one, and they cut and run when the money isn't there, a nation as great as America should be spending the money wasted on mercenary scum like Erik Prince and using it to give our troops, who actually risk their lives instead of shooting civilians, to get them better equipment, better pay and better care when they are wounded fighting our countries war.
It's sickening that any tax payer money should spent paying cowards like Erik Prince, and for what, to ruin America's reputation and commit murder and rape in Iraq.
Nothing burns me up more than this topic.
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n--Y--wantingbryanl1
I for one would like to know what Prince's firm and employees were doing the few weeks prior to 911 and post 911? Any deployments to New York?
kinky-neo-con
I love Mercenaries... awesome stuff.
"BIG BOY RULES":
GET PAID BIG MONEY TO TRAVEL TO FOREIGN LANDS, MEET INTERESTING PEOPLE, AND KILL THEM! (and not have to put up with military-govt. chicken shit)
SIGN ME UP ASAP!
kinky-neo-con
LMAO, all these "MERC" haters... (i.e. uppity liberals) I dont see them going out and enlisting/serving America, too busy reading the Daily Beast (yes, Im a Conservative American Patriot who reads the daily Beast... gotta know your enemy! -HA)
bigwurzz
This guy is a scumbag and should be in jail for conspiracy to commit murder and not doing interviews. From gunning down civilians to raping their employees Blackwater has shown that it is one class act (insert sarcasm).
Kinky neo con: You neo cons are all kinky with your trips to the mens bathroom and support of gay prostitutes so no need to preface. Also, how old are you? 15? PS: Conservative and Patriot don't really go too well together these days. Instead of signing up why don't you come spend a night in my neighborhood without a gun? Then we would see who the real pu*sy is.
bigwurzz
Why was my post removed? Nothing incendiary about it.
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