A FORMER Blackwater employee and a former Marine who has worked as a security operative for the company have made a series of explosive allegations in sworn statements filed in a US federal court.
The two men say that the company’s owner, Erik Prince, murdered or facilitated the murder of people who were cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company.
The former employee also charges that Prince “views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe,” and that Prince’s companies “encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life”.
According to the award-winning investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill, writing for the Nation, both men say that Blackwater was illegally smuggling weapons into Iraq. They also charge that Prince and other Blackwater executives destroyed incriminating videos, e-mails and other documents and have intentionally deceived the US State Department and other federal agencies. The identities of the two individuals were sealed out of concerns for their safety.
declaration
The former employee, identified in the court documents as “John Doe #2,” is a former member of Blackwater’s management team, according to a source close to the case. Doe #2 alleges in a sworn declaration that, based on information provided to him by former colleagues, “It appears that Mr Prince and his employees murdered, or had murdered, one or more persons who have provided information, or who were planning to provide information, to the federal authorities about the ongoing criminal conduct.”
John Doe #2 says he worked at Blackwater for four years; his identity is concealed in the sworn declaration because he “fear[s] violence against me in retaliation for submitting this Declaration”. He also alleges, “On several occasions after my departure from Mr Prince’s employ, Mr Prince’s management has personally threatened me with death and violence.”
In a separate sworn statement, the former Marine alleges: “I have learned from my Blackwater colleagues and former colleagues that one or more persons who have provided information, or who were planning to provide information about Erik Prince and Blackwater have been killed in suspicious circumstances.”
Identified as “John Doe #1,” he says he “joined Blackwater and deployed to Iraq to guard State Department and other American government personnel.”
It is not clear if Doe #1 is still working with the company as he states he is “scheduled to deploy in the immediate future to Iraq”. Like Doe #2, he states that he fears “violence” against him for “submitting this Declaration”. No further details on the alleged murder(s) are provided.
The two declarations are each five pages long and contain a series of devastating allegations concerning Erik Prince and his network of companies, which now operate under the banner of Xe Services LLC. Among those levelled by Doe #2 is that Prince “views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe”.
The Declaration states that Prince intentionally deployed to Iraq certain men who shared his vision of Christian supremacy, knowing and wanting these men to take every available opportunity to murder Iraqis. Many of these men used call signs based on the Knights Templar.
The Blackwater boss reportedly operated his mercenary companies in a manner that encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life. For example, Erik Prince’s executives would openly speak about going over to Iraq to “lay Hajiis out on cardboard”.
Going to Iraq to shoot and kill Iraqis was viewed as a sport or game, according to the declarations of former employees. Prince’s mercenaries openly and consistently used racist and derogatory terms for Iraqis and other Arabs, such as “ragheads” or “hajiis”.
Radio Havana Cuba