Blackwater Founder Eyeing Somalia

A war-ravaged and lawless country? Blackwater founder Eric Prince smells a business opportunity. Prince is reportedly secretly pushing controversial South African mercenary firm Saracen International to join Somalia’s civil war. Saracen appears to be run by Lafras Luitingh, a former officer in South Africa’s Civil Cooperation Bureau, an organization notorious for killing opponents of the apartheid government. And according to a Jan. 12 report by the African Union, Prince “is at the top of the management chain of Saracen and provided seed money for the Saracen contract.” Prince recently moved to Abu Dhabi, where he said it would be “harder for the jackals to get my money,” and is in the process of selling off his interest in Blackwater.