Evil Taking Sides: Erik Prince or Viktor Bout?

The Iraqi army is demonstrably inept after billions spent on training and equipping them.

employment of this fact by erik prince is classic irony

of course! the day after we get a new republican bazillionaire governor in my state, i read about the unholy union of viktor bout and john ashcroft

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/03/viktor-bout-ashcroft-law-firm-seeks-new-trial

Convicted Russian arms trafficker Viktor Bout says he has evidence to justify a new US trial and has hired the law firm of former US attorney general John Ashcroft to help him pursue his case.

Bout, 47, is serving a 25-year prison sentence following his conviction in 2011 for conspiring to kill US soldiers by way of his agreement to sell weapons to a Colombian rebel group.

According to filings on Monday with the US district court in Manhattan, Bout hired the Ashcroft law firm and Alexey Tarasov, a Houston-based lawyer, to help him obtain a new trial based on unspecified “newly discovered evidence”.

On Monday, US district judge Shira Scheindlin granted Bout until 1 Jan 2015 to formally seek a new trial, allowing his new lawyers more time to examine the issues.

Bout’s deadline to seek a new trial had been Monday, but he said the office of US attorney Preet Bharara in Manhattan was “not opposed” to a 60-day extension.

Michael Sullivan, a partner at Ashcroft’s firm and former US attorney in Massachusetts who would work on the case, declined to comment. Tarasov did not respond to requests for comment.

A spokeswoman for Bharara declined to comment.

Bout’s challenge follows the refusal in September 2013 by the federal appeals court in Manhattan to overturn his conviction, which he claimed followed a “vindictive” prosecution and his improper extradition from Thailand to face US charges.

Jurors convicted Bout of having agreed to sell arms to informants posing as members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), which the US government had deemed a foreign terrorist organisation, and conspiring to acquire and export anti-aircraft missiles.

Co-defendant Richard Chichakli, a dual American and Syrian citizen, was convicted of conspiracy charges last December.

Bout is in a medium-security prison in Marion, Illinois, and is not eligible for release until 15 December 2029. He was the subject of a 2007 book Merchant of Death.

Ashcroft served from February 2001 to February 2005 as US attorney general under President George W Bush.

The case is US v. Bout, US district court, southern district of New York, No 08-cr-00365.

and this

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2014/10/23/erik-prince-on-blackwater-verdicts-a-lot-of-politics-surrounding-this/

The founder and former CEO of the Blackwater Worldwide security firm said Thursday that the conviction of four of his former employees for their roles in the 2007 fatal shooting of 14 unarmed Iraqis was unexpected, and raised questions whether they received a fair trial.

“Well, there was certainly a lot of politics surrounding this and the fact that the federal government spent tens of millions of dollars on this, now trying it seven years after the event, and 7,000 miles from where it happened,” said Erik Prince, in a phone interview. “Certainly, it adds a lot of politics to it.”

Prince’s comments were his first since a federal jury in Washington convicted the Blackwater guards Wednesday after deliberating for weeks. The jury found them responsible for the deaths as well as the wounding of 17 other people in Baghdad’s Nisour Square. The incident is considered one of the lowest points of the Iraq War, and prompted a backlash against the use of private security firms, especially Blackwater.

like lol seriously? the legal system isn't treating these two evil clowns fairly? wtf.

I suspect things might not have gone so well for his former employees if they were tried in Iraq

that's what i mean
i have no idea what he's complaining about
these guys are such whiners!

god, what a jerk

The founder of Blackwater, once the world’s most notorious security contracting firm, seemed stumped by his interrogator’s question.

Could Erik Prince — a former Navy SEAL who reportedly worked as an undercover CIA operative — specify how much of his best-selling memoir he wrote himself? “I don’t know, because — I don’t know,” Prince said during a day-long deposition at a Northern Virginia law office about a year ago.

“Do you have a specific recollection of writing any of this book?” the opposing attorney asked. “Absolutely,” Prince replied.

“And can you identify for me, by chapter number or page number, where that written contribution is?”

“No, not right now,” Prince said, “I can’t.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/blackwater-founder-erik-prince-goes-to-war-against-a-former-business-partner/2015/01/01/23385e8a-6f39-11e4-893f-86bd390a3340_story.html

viktor bout got his commissary privs taken away because he brewed tea in his cell with trace amts of alcohol in it, but those restrictions have been lifted so he is free to buy crap and contact his family again
thank goodness
http://sputniknews.com/us/20160113/1033032028/bout-prison-restrictions-lifted.html

I move to add Paul Manafort to this thread https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Manafort

Back in court to argue for a new trial:

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-crime-bout-idUSKBN12V1TZ?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews

He claims Andrew Smulian was a government informant and therefore there couldn't have been a viable conspiracy between them to sell weapons. Smulian served a year in jail, Bout will probably do twenty five.

It's highly unlikely that Bout will win but hopefully they have been building other cases against him on the off chance.

https://magazine.atavist.com/the-mastermind

this is engrossing!!

three episodes in and while the author in episode 1 or 2 seems to imply that this guy's business compares with that of guys like viktor bout and el chapo, so much of this story makes it seem like small potatoes -- there's the fact that this guy came up as an internet troll, his whole schlubby look, and then there's the "fargo"-esque hit job on the real estate broker and general nobody-ness of most of the peripheral characters. still, great reporting and can't wait to finish tonight

That's helpful, thanks! Might check it out over winter break.
Downside to this thread being bumped is imagining what sort of awful things Steve Bannon will do to place/more like keep himself in the esteemed company of the most evil humans working in the global evil industry today.

That, and Erik Prince's sister being named Secretary of Education.

i found this piece in long form's year-end countdown. it was #2

Aaaaaamd there's Erk Prince

Wondering if he'll be Secretary of Defense, if he has some kind of immunity.

Nooooooooo I already can't sleep :(

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-domestic-conspiracy-that-gave-trump-the-election_us_587ed24fe4b0b110fe11dbf9

Unfortunately for all our nightmares. Nothing we didn't know or couldn't have guessed.

Only now they have installed themselves at the highest levels of the government, which iirc they have been milking rather substantially for their own profit (in God's name??) at taxpayer expense.

I feel despondent about this but how I feel doesn't matter. They are in charge now and we have to figure out how to protect ourselves ;_; I'm going to get hyped at the march on Sat and keep my head up, as usual.

Erik Prince currently winning the evil-off.

got a flurry of google alerts today for both of them today :(

was reminded of Erik Prince when reading this first-person narrative https://www.autostraddle.com/i-was-trained-for-the-culture-wars-in-home-school-awaiting-someone-like-mike-pence-as-a-messiah-367057/

esp here

They don’t care if their war for Christ hurts humans they see as living wrongfully, because they are capital “R” Right and that’s what matters. Their Rightness, they believe, comes from God Himself. Their beliefs are callous and without empathy, prioritizing dogma over people. These beliefs are dangerous. Many of us who have come out as queer, trans, or even merely gone to college, have lost family because of this worldview. A single powerful person who is convinced of their own Rightness with no thought of introspection is dangerous. We now have a government full of them.

Aha!

Blackwater founder held secret Seychelles meeting to establish Trump-Putin back channel

And now

https://www.thenation.com/article/blackwater-founder-implicated-murder/

That's from 2009

Oh...

aggggghhhhhh erik prince is on npr right now giving his pitch for privatizing the war in afghanistan
he's describing describing describing the problem and then he inserts his miracle solution -- "hire people to go there for a long time"
fuck this evil person

Blackwater murder conviction thrown out, other sentences overturned. I represented 6 victims of these crimes. 1/ https://t.co/gs2I5kHLfS

— Paul Dickinson (@prdickinson) August 4, 2017

More on Prince pushing for private army in Afghanistan:

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/presidential/20170804_ap_1333648611dd46b4868d591f4ed7c9ff.html

this guy sends me over the edge, i almost can't read about it anymore

Erik Prince on MSNBC, asked for precedent for his give-mercs-Afghanistan proposal: "East India Co, not that I'm advocating colonization..."

— Spencer Ackerman (@attackerman) August 8, 2017

NY Times gives Prince op-ed space.

GROSS

Disgusting.

doctor doom: doombots, not the fantastic four, will save latveria

for future reference here's how you promote your war profiteering in way that won't offend people. https://t.co/hjMWtYRUeW pic.twitter.com/j7hDRon0GJ

— Adam H. Johnson (@adamjohnsonNYC) August 30, 2017

all war pigs are war pigs

NYTimes's super secret op-ed editorial process https://t.co/cV3RKq2FCs

— Adam H. Johnson (@adamjohnsonNYC) August 30, 2017

oh cool, an editorial star chamber

Yes, the gravely serious and secretive editorial process that makes important decisions to publish things like Erik Prince's op-ed and a piece opining that Despacito is really important in Trump's America.

The fact that people like Erik Prince, Paul Manafort, others whose names I don't even know yet are scooching and elbowing their way into increasingly powerful positions is freaking me out
international misery exploiters
they are literally THE WORST

This Niger situation has to have Prince’s fingerprints all over it.

Source in Saudi Arabia says American private security contractors are carrying out'interrogations' on princes and billionaires arrested in crackdown

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5108651/American-mercenaries-torturing-Saudi-princes.html

This guy’s a contender:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Nader_(businessman)

Betsy DeVos is a greed wraith
I am aware she and Erik Prince are part of the same greedy horrible family and yet she distinguishes herself from the war profiteering/misery-based capitalism by actually taking things away from people. She is truly disgusting.

https://jacobinmag.com/2018/09/richard-devos-amway-multi-level-marketing-conservatism

i can't possibly read any more about this person or her family

Okay sorry you're right, it just makes me more infuriated. But so many people in my life want to "humanize" them or praise their philanthropy or get close to their power, I have a sort of compulsion to shout about them into the void.

i used to and then i realized how much it aggravated me, and that being aggravated to that degree (fairly extreme) was hurting me directly in ways that were harming me and i had to stop. in more peaceful times it seems tenable, but not right now. things are too awful!

no one in my life is trying to humanize/valorize them at all, so it's almost like self-abuse to roll around in their malevolence. for me, i mean.

Ugh -- this guy!
my god
i tried to read this and felt like i was drowning

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/07/us/politics/erik-prince-project-veritas.html

Yes although my first reax was:

Using a different alias the next year, the same undercover operative infiltrated the congressional campaign of Abigail Spanberger, then a former C.I.A. officer who went on to win an important House seat in Virginia as a Democrat. The campaign discovered the operative and fired her.

Sooooo not a very good underground operative then? The Dem candidate won the "important" race AND discovered the mole and fired them? Cool cool. I wonder how much money Erik Prince made out of that? Probably a whole lot.

I have to hope that being a "former CIA officer" was helpful in that regard.