HRC's State Dept contracted w/Blackwater while BW was being prosecuted for Libya arms deals

[leveymg]

Last edited Sat Mar 26, 2016, 03:39 PM - Edit history (1)

According to a report by Matthew Cole and Jeremy Scahill in The Intercept, Hillary Clinton's State Department offered fresh rounds of federal contracts to Eric Prince's notorious Blackwater company at the same time that it was being prosecuted for crimes in Iraq and, it is now revealed, while Prince was being investigated for violations of State Department administered laws restricting international arms sales to Libya. https://theintercept.com/2016/03/24/blackwater-founder-erik-prince-under-federal-investigation/

It has long been known that DOS did business with Prince's company, Blackwater and its successor, Xe Services and Academi, despite the fact that several of its employees were prosecuted for crimes in Iraq related to unjustified use of deadly force and transfer of arms. What we now see is that the company was also under active investigation for violations of State Department International Traffic in Arms Restrictions (ITAR) laws in a scheme by Prince to arm Libyan factions, now revealed by The Intercept.

As you read the following, bear in mind that the initial emails on Hillary's servers that came to light in 2013 were emails with Sid Blumenthal concerned activities by Blumenthal and other unnamed American "businessmen" to provide arms to the post-Ghaddafi Libyan regime and various contesting militias. This is exactly what Prince endeavored to do at that time:

What began as an investigation into Prince’s attempts to sell defense services in Libya and other countries in Africa has widened to a probe of allegations that Prince received assistance from Chinese intelligence to set up an account for his Libya operations through the Bank of China.

. . .

“You push the buttons on the company, but the main bad guy gets away and does it again,” said an official who tried to prosecute Prince.

Prince has run up against ITAR in the past. In 2010, Prince sold most of his equity in the companies that fell under the Blackwater umbrella. Claiming that left-wing activists, Democratic politicians, and lawsuits had destroyed his companies, he left the United States and became a resident of Abu Dhabi. The remnant of his network was renamed Academi LLC. Federal prosecutors eventually attempted to prosecute Prince’s former companies, culminating in a 2012 deferred prosecution agreement to settle a lengthy list of U.S. legal and regulatory violations committed from 2005 through 2008 when Prince was in charge, including ITAR violations.

(NOTE: HRC’S STATE DEPT WAS THE FOLLOW-ON CONTRACTOR TO CIA CONTRACTS WITH BLACKWATER)

A senior official involved with the Blackwater-related litigation, who has since left the government, told The Intercept that the Obama administration’s continued willingness to award contracts to former Blackwater entities while the case was active was a fatal impediment to a successful prosecution. The official, comparing the former Blackwater empire to a drug syndicate, added that prosecutors could not get anyone under Prince to testify against him personally. “This is very much the concern,” the former official told The Intercept. “You push the buttons on the company, but the main bad guy gets away and does it again.”
No criminal charges were filed against Prince.

In federal court filings, Prince’s former companies admitted to providing — on numerous occasions during Prince’s tenure — defense goods and services to foreign governments without the required State Department licensing. In some cases, they admitted to providing services even after failing to obtain a license from the State Department.

As part of their settlement with the government, Prince’s companies ultimately agreed to pay nearly $50 million in fines and other penalties and to implement compliance procedures to ensure such illegal activities did not continue. In September 2015, the deferred charges were dismissed after the U.S. government certified that the companies had “fully complied” with all of its conditions.

At that point, Prince was already deep into creating new companies registered outside of the United States and appeared poised to return to the conduct that had marked his time at the helm of Blackwater.

For those interested in the background, I have a long bio on the Prince and his parallels with UBL as a CIA contractor, here:

Looks like I'll have to so some updating.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/12/4/810764/-