Erik Prince: Mercenary

[AnnaSofia]

Prince's latest wacky shenanigans:

Activists and Ex-Spy Said to Have Plotted to Discredit Trump ‘Enemies’ in Government

^New York Times link (quoted below).

Archive.org version (in case anyone hits a NYT paywall): https://web.archive.org/web/20210514025022/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/13/us/politics/mcmaster-fbi-trump-project-veritas.html

Quote

A network of conservative activists, aided by a British former spy, mounted a campaign during the Trump administration to discredit perceived enemies of President Trump inside the government, according to documents and people involved in the operations.

The campaign included a planned sting operation against Mr. Trump’s national security adviser at the time, H.R. McMaster, and secret surveillance operations against F.B.I. employees, aimed at exposing anti-Trump sentiment in the bureau’s ranks.

The group in question is Project Veritas (<-- Wikipedia link)

Quote

Project Veritas also experienced a windfall during the Trump administration, with millions in donations from private donors and conservative foundations. In 2019, the group received a $1 million contribution made through the law firm Alston & Bird, according to a financial document obtained by The Times. The firm has declined to say on whose behalf the contribution was made.

That same year, Project Veritas also received more than $4 million through DonorsTrust, a nonprofit used by conservative groups and individuals.

Quote

Central to the effort, according to interviews, was Richard Seddon, a former undercover British spy who was recruited in 2016 by the security contractor Erik Prince to train Project Veritas operatives to infiltrate trade unions, Democratic congressional campaigns and other targets. He ran field operations for Project Veritas until mid-2018.

Last year, The New York Times reported that Mr. Seddon ran an expansive effort to gain access to the unions and campaigns and led a hiring effort that nearly tripled the number of the group’s operatives, according to interviews and deposition testimony. He trained operatives at the Prince family ranch in Wyoming.

 

Quote

Mr. Seddon first came to know Mr. Prince in the years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, when he was stationed at the British Embassy in Washington and Mr. Prince’s company, Blackwater, was winning large American government contracts for work in Afghanistan and Iraq. Former colleagues of Mr. Seddon said he nurtured a love of the American West, and of the country’s gun culture.

He is married to a longtime State Department officer, Alice Seddon, who retired last year.

After Mr. Seddon joined Project Veritas, he set out to professionalize what was once a small operation with a limited budget. He hired former soldiers, a former F.B.I. agent and a British former commando.

Documents obtained by The Times show the extent that Mr. Seddon built espionage tactics into training for the group’s operatives — teaching them to use deception to secure information from potential targets.

One role-playing exercise involved a trainee being interrogated by a law enforcement officer and having to “defend their cover” and “avoid exciting” the officer.

Another exercise instructs trainees in how to target a person in an elevator. The students were encouraged to think of their “targets as a possible future access agent, potential donor, support/facilities agent.”

“The student must create and maintain a fictional cover,” one document read.

The early training for the operations took place at the Prince family ranch near Cody, Wyo., and Mr. Seddon and his colleagues conducted hiring interviews inside an airport hangar at the Cody airport known locally as the Prince hangar, according to interviews and documents. Mr. Prince is the brother of Betsy DeVos, who served as Mr. Trump’s education secretary.

 

Quote

Ms. Ledeen posted numerous negative articles about Mr. McMaster on her Facebook page. After The Times published its article about Mr. Prince’s work with Project Veritas, she wrote on Facebook, “We owe a lot to Erik Prince.”

 

 

 

 

[AnnaSofia]

Wonkette has a funny rundown of the story:

Veritas Goons Tried To Take Out Deep State In DC Honeypot Operation, Fell On Their Asses, As Usual.

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Everyone involved denied it, but the conspiracy-huffing loons already had their knives out for McMaster, whom they considered a "globalist." Plus Erik Prince, the ubiquitous mercenary ratfucker, was pissed that McMaster and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis had put the kibosh on his awesome plan to become viceroy of Afghanistan. (Yes, literally.)

 

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The plan was to hire a woman to stake out McMaster's favorite restaurant, sidle up to him with a hidden camera, and get him on film talking smack about Trump. Then they could get him fired and replaced with someone more to their liking. Viceroy time!

 

 

[AnnaSofia]

Well, it's not Viceroy, but wherever there's a buck to be made, the Prince of Bottom Feeders will be there

From Mother Jones:

Quote

As scenes of chaos and desperation mount ahead of the fastly approaching August 31 deadline to evacuate US troops from Afghanistan, Erik Prince, the notorious Blackwater founder, has identified a golden opportunity to make some cash on the final way out.

Prince, the Wall Street Journal reports, is currently charging $6,500 per person for a spot aboard chartered planes out of Kabul, a hefty rate that gets even more expensive if one should need assistance leaving their trapped homes.

His response to the criticism was to go on Tucker Carlson's show and claim to have once "rescued" Biden from Afghanistan.

New York Post:

Quote

“They were on a congressional visit to Afghanistan in the winter and their US Army helicopter got lost in a blinding snowstorm and set down in Taliban territory on the side of a mountain,” he told Carlson.

“And the US military launched a ground convoy to get them and they got lost and the Blackwater guys launched and they did not get lost. And we recovered them. We rescued them from Taliban territory. That was the winter of ’08,” he said.

Gregg Smith isn't having it:

[GreyhoundFan]

Guess who has just been indicted in Austria for arms trafficking?