Testimony lifts veil on secretive Blackwater boss
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - Since founding Blackwater USA a decade ago, Erik Prince has gone to great lengths to avoid attention, trying to prevent photographers from taking his picture and demanding that his contractors never speak with reporters.
The veil of secrecy was lifted Tuesday as the former Navy SEAL was called to Congress to defend his security company against allegations it covered up the killings of Iraqi civilians.
Prince, a 38-year-old native of Holland, Mich., started Blackwater with a few commando buddies from the Navy, using millions of dollars he inherited from his family's auto-parts fortune. For its headquarters, he chose a tiny community called Moyock, on a remote, empty stretch of North Carolina swampland.
A year after leaving the Navy in 1996, he founded Blackwater primarily as a training center for law enforcement, and colleagues speak privately about his well-intentioned eagerness to improve the nation's security.
After the 2001 terrorist attacks, Blackwater expanded to become the largest of the State Department's three private security contractors. Since 2001, it has earned more than $1 billion in federal contracts.
The company first drew public attention in 2004, after four Blackwater contractors were killed while escorting a convoy through the Iraqi city of Fallujah. Photographs of the men's mutilated bodies hanging from a bridge remain an indelible image of the war.
When the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform investigated that incident earlier this year, Prince sent Blackwater's attorney to represent his company. A few months later, he grew visibly uncomfortable on stage as photographers snapped his photo at a technology conference in suburban Raleigh. Conference officials later asked the photographers not to publish the photos.
When in public, the former Navy Seal often uses his hand to shield his face from cameras. Former and current colleagues demur when asked about him, not willing to betray Prince's loyalty or annoy the secretive leader of the nation's best-known private security company.
"He's trying to run a business and run it professionally under strenuous conditions," said Scott Traudt, operations manager for Cohort International, a Lebanon, N.H.-based competitor. "Realistically, there's ongoing projects by (terrorist groups) to collect data on private contractors.
"I appreciate and understand his efforts to protect his family. The guy needs his privacy."
Prince's family has long-standing ties to the GOP in Michigan, where his sister, Betsy DeVos, once served as chair of the state Republican Party, and her husband, Dick DeVos, unsuccessfully ran for governor in 2006.
Prince, who currently lives outside Washington, himself has given more than $200,000 to Republican causes since 1998.
On Tuesday, Prince sat alone at a long witness table before the House committee, at times turning to consult with an attorney seated behind him during nearly four hours of testimony.
"We strive to perfection," Prince said, noting that 30 contractors have died working for Blackwater. "We drive to the highest standards. But the ... bad guys just have to get lucky once."
He seemed overwhelmed at first as he defended his private security company, Blackwater USA, from a barrage of criticism. Almost all of it came from Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee who see him as a war profiteer and his guards as trigger-happy thugs who routinely terrorize Iraqis.
As the committee's hearing progressed, so did the media-shy Prince.
At the end, he was even a little cocky.
When Rep. Paul Hodes, D-N.H., a junior member of the committee, thanked him for showing up, Prince said he was "glad to come here and correct some facts."
Later, Hodes asked whether he would provide the committee with dollar figures for a particular contract.
"I'll get my people right on it," Prince answered in a tone that suggested he might not.
Throughout the lengthy session, Prince vigorously rejected charges Blackwater guards operate on the fringe while protecting State Department personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"I believe we acted appropriately at all times," Prince told the committee.
His testimony came as the FBI is investigating Blackwater personnel for their role in a Sept. 16 shootout that left 11 Iraqis dead. The incident and others, including a shooting by a drunk Blackwater employee after a 2006 Christmas Eve party in Baghdad, led to pointed questions by lawmakers about whether the government is relying too much on private contractors who fall outside the military courts martial system.
"We're not getting our money's worth when we have so many complaints about innocent people being shot," said committee chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., at the hearing's conclusion. "And it's unclear whether they're actually being investigated by the State Department, because we haven't had any cooperation."
The committee agreed not to look into the Sept. 16 incident during Tuesday's hearing after the Justice Department requested that Congress wait until the FBI concludes its investigation.
Prince calmly cast his company as a scapegoat for broader problems associated with the government's reliance on security contractors and the murky legal authorities that govern them. He said his guards are courageous individuals who face the same threats and high-stress environment as U.S. military personnel, and noted 30 Blackwater personnel have been killed and no Americans have died under the company's watch.
Often leaning back to listen to the advice of his lawyer, Stephen Ryan, Prince repeatedly refused to say whether former Blackwater employees were guilty of murder and said it should be up to the Justice Department to pursue charges against contractors who commit crimes overseas.
In the case of the Christmas eve shooting, Prince said the company fired and fined the individual.
"But we, as a private organization, can't do any more," he told the House panel. "We can't flog him. We can't incarcerate him. That's up to the Justice Department. We are not empowered to enforce U.S. law."
The Blackwater chief executive said he supports legislation that would guarantee his employees and other private security companies working for the State Department are subject to prosecution in U.S. courts. The House was expected to consider such a bill, sponsored by Rep. David Price, D-N.C., on Wednesday.
At the same time, Prince said the government's decision to include the FBI in the investigation of the Sept. 16 incident is proof that oversight and accountability already exists.
Waxman said he was particularly concerned to learn the State Department advised the company on how much to pay the families of Iraqis killed by Blackwater guards. Internal e-mails later revealed a debate within the State Department on the size of the payment, Waxman said.
"It's hard to read these e-mails and not come to the conclusion that the State Department is acting as Blackwater's enabler," he said.
Administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation of the Christmas Eve shooting is ongoing, said the incident had been referred to federal prosecutors in Seattle, where the former Blackwater employee now lives, but there has been no public announcement of any charges.
State Department officials who testified after Prince said the criminal prosecution of such cases was out of their hands and should be handled by the Justice Department.
"They're the prosecutors. The State Department isn't the prosecutors for the U.S. government," Richard Griffin, assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security, told the oversight committee.
David Satterfield, the Iraq coordinator for the State Department, said the U.S. and Iraqi ministry established a commission to examine use of contractors in Iraq. A separate U.S.-led panel, staffed with several independent advisers, is reviewing the security practices of diplomats.
"The secretary of state has made clear that she wishes to have a probing, comprehensive unvarnished examination of the overall issue of security contractors working for her department in Iraq," he said.
Waxman expressed frustration at the State Department representatives for not providing more information about Blackwater and its conduct in Iraq.
"We've had a better response from Blackwater then we've had from the State Department in getting information," Waxman said to Satterfield. "Does that bother you as much as it bothers me? Or do you have to find out whether you feel that way or not?"
Waxman also cited a November 2004 crash in Afghanistan of a plane piloted by Blackwater pilots as an example of what he said is the company's cavalier attitude about how it operates.
The crash of flight "Blackwater 61" killed the Blackwater crew and three U.S. military passengers. According to information gathered by Waxman's staff, the Blackwater pilots lacked experience flying in Afghanistan, yet were joy riding through a valley before crashing into a canyon wall.
Prince acknowledged pilot error led to the crash, but said his company's aviators often fly missions in difficult conditions. He said the military violated its own rules by loading people and explosives on Blackwater 61. But Blackwater flew the mission anyway because that's what its government customer wanted.
"There is no FAA in Afghanistan," he said.
Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia, the committee's top Republican, said the State Department is "trying to get it right," but its oversight of security contractors "seems to have some blind spots as well."
There's little data on contractor performance, Davis said, "so it's impossible to know if one company's rate of weapons-related incidents is the product of a dangerous 'cowboy' culture or the predictable result of conducting higher-risk missions."
Davis said concentrating on Blackwater won't answer questions about the use of security contractors.
"Nor are we likely to learn much by focusing on one sensational incident still under investigation," Davis said.
Prince would not discuss his company's finances, although he did say his salary was more than $1 million in 2006. Blackwater is a "private" entity, Prince said, and disclosing profits and losses would give his competitors an unfair advantage.
"We're not hiding anything," he said.
Blackwater, headquartered in Moyock, N.C., is the largest of the State Department's three private security contractors with nearly 1,000 personnel working in Iraq. The others are Dyncorp and Triple Canopy, both based in Washington's northern Virginia suburbs.
Blackwater has had more shooting incidents than the other two companies combined, according to Waxman's report.
The veil of secrecy was lifted Tuesday as the former Navy SEAL was called to Congress to defend his security company against allegations it covered up the killings of Iraqi civilians.
Prince, a 38-year-old native of Holland, Mich., started Blackwater with a few commando buddies from the Navy, using millions of dollars he inherited from his family's auto-parts fortune. For its headquarters, he chose a tiny community called Moyock, on a remote, empty stretch of North Carolina swampland.
A year after leaving the Navy in 1996, he founded Blackwater primarily as a training center for law enforcement, and colleagues speak privately about his well-intentioned eagerness to improve the nation's security.
After the 2001 terrorist attacks, Blackwater expanded to become the largest of the State Department's three private security contractors. Since 2001, it has earned more than $1 billion in federal contracts.
The company first drew public attention in 2004, after four Blackwater contractors were killed while escorting a convoy through the Iraqi city of Fallujah. Photographs of the men's mutilated bodies hanging from a bridge remain an indelible image of the war.
When the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform investigated that incident earlier this year, Prince sent Blackwater's attorney to represent his company. A few months later, he grew visibly uncomfortable on stage as photographers snapped his photo at a technology conference in suburban Raleigh. Conference officials later asked the photographers not to publish the photos.
When in public, the former Navy Seal often uses his hand to shield his face from cameras. Former and current colleagues demur when asked about him, not willing to betray Prince's loyalty or annoy the secretive leader of the nation's best-known private security company.
"He's trying to run a business and run it professionally under strenuous conditions," said Scott Traudt, operations manager for Cohort International, a Lebanon, N.H.-based competitor. "Realistically, there's ongoing projects by (terrorist groups) to collect data on private contractors.
"I appreciate and understand his efforts to protect his family. The guy needs his privacy."
Prince's family has long-standing ties to the GOP in Michigan, where his sister, Betsy DeVos, once served as chair of the state Republican Party, and her husband, Dick DeVos, unsuccessfully ran for governor in 2006.
Prince, who currently lives outside Washington, himself has given more than $200,000 to Republican causes since 1998.
On Tuesday, Prince sat alone at a long witness table before the House committee, at times turning to consult with an attorney seated behind him during nearly four hours of testimony.
"We strive to perfection," Prince said, noting that 30 contractors have died working for Blackwater. "We drive to the highest standards. But the ... bad guys just have to get lucky once."
He seemed overwhelmed at first as he defended his private security company, Blackwater USA, from a barrage of criticism. Almost all of it came from Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee who see him as a war profiteer and his guards as trigger-happy thugs who routinely terrorize Iraqis.
As the committee's hearing progressed, so did the media-shy Prince.
At the end, he was even a little cocky.
When Rep. Paul Hodes, D-N.H., a junior member of the committee, thanked him for showing up, Prince said he was "glad to come here and correct some facts."
Later, Hodes asked whether he would provide the committee with dollar figures for a particular contract.
"I'll get my people right on it," Prince answered in a tone that suggested he might not.
Throughout the lengthy session, Prince vigorously rejected charges Blackwater guards operate on the fringe while protecting State Department personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"I believe we acted appropriately at all times," Prince told the committee.
His testimony came as the FBI is investigating Blackwater personnel for their role in a Sept. 16 shootout that left 11 Iraqis dead. The incident and others, including a shooting by a drunk Blackwater employee after a 2006 Christmas Eve party in Baghdad, led to pointed questions by lawmakers about whether the government is relying too much on private contractors who fall outside the military courts martial system.
"We're not getting our money's worth when we have so many complaints about innocent people being shot," said committee chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., at the hearing's conclusion. "And it's unclear whether they're actually being investigated by the State Department, because we haven't had any cooperation."
The committee agreed not to look into the Sept. 16 incident during Tuesday's hearing after the Justice Department requested that Congress wait until the FBI concludes its investigation.
Prince calmly cast his company as a scapegoat for broader problems associated with the government's reliance on security contractors and the murky legal authorities that govern them. He said his guards are courageous individuals who face the same threats and high-stress environment as U.S. military personnel, and noted 30 Blackwater personnel have been killed and no Americans have died under the company's watch.
Often leaning back to listen to the advice of his lawyer, Stephen Ryan, Prince repeatedly refused to say whether former Blackwater employees were guilty of murder and said it should be up to the Justice Department to pursue charges against contractors who commit crimes overseas.
In the case of the Christmas eve shooting, Prince said the company fired and fined the individual.
"But we, as a private organization, can't do any more," he told the House panel. "We can't flog him. We can't incarcerate him. That's up to the Justice Department. We are not empowered to enforce U.S. law."
The Blackwater chief executive said he supports legislation that would guarantee his employees and other private security companies working for the State Department are subject to prosecution in U.S. courts. The House was expected to consider such a bill, sponsored by Rep. David Price, D-N.C., on Wednesday.
At the same time, Prince said the government's decision to include the FBI in the investigation of the Sept. 16 incident is proof that oversight and accountability already exists.
Waxman said he was particularly concerned to learn the State Department advised the company on how much to pay the families of Iraqis killed by Blackwater guards. Internal e-mails later revealed a debate within the State Department on the size of the payment, Waxman said.
"It's hard to read these e-mails and not come to the conclusion that the State Department is acting as Blackwater's enabler," he said.
Administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation of the Christmas Eve shooting is ongoing, said the incident had been referred to federal prosecutors in Seattle, where the former Blackwater employee now lives, but there has been no public announcement of any charges.
State Department officials who testified after Prince said the criminal prosecution of such cases was out of their hands and should be handled by the Justice Department.
"They're the prosecutors. The State Department isn't the prosecutors for the U.S. government," Richard Griffin, assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security, told the oversight committee.
David Satterfield, the Iraq coordinator for the State Department, said the U.S. and Iraqi ministry established a commission to examine use of contractors in Iraq. A separate U.S.-led panel, staffed with several independent advisers, is reviewing the security practices of diplomats.
"The secretary of state has made clear that she wishes to have a probing, comprehensive unvarnished examination of the overall issue of security contractors working for her department in Iraq," he said.
Waxman expressed frustration at the State Department representatives for not providing more information about Blackwater and its conduct in Iraq.
"We've had a better response from Blackwater then we've had from the State Department in getting information," Waxman said to Satterfield. "Does that bother you as much as it bothers me? Or do you have to find out whether you feel that way or not?"
Waxman also cited a November 2004 crash in Afghanistan of a plane piloted by Blackwater pilots as an example of what he said is the company's cavalier attitude about how it operates.
The crash of flight "Blackwater 61" killed the Blackwater crew and three U.S. military passengers. According to information gathered by Waxman's staff, the Blackwater pilots lacked experience flying in Afghanistan, yet were joy riding through a valley before crashing into a canyon wall.
Prince acknowledged pilot error led to the crash, but said his company's aviators often fly missions in difficult conditions. He said the military violated its own rules by loading people and explosives on Blackwater 61. But Blackwater flew the mission anyway because that's what its government customer wanted.
"There is no FAA in Afghanistan," he said.
Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia, the committee's top Republican, said the State Department is "trying to get it right," but its oversight of security contractors "seems to have some blind spots as well."
There's little data on contractor performance, Davis said, "so it's impossible to know if one company's rate of weapons-related incidents is the product of a dangerous 'cowboy' culture or the predictable result of conducting higher-risk missions."
Davis said concentrating on Blackwater won't answer questions about the use of security contractors.
"Nor are we likely to learn much by focusing on one sensational incident still under investigation," Davis said.
Prince would not discuss his company's finances, although he did say his salary was more than $1 million in 2006. Blackwater is a "private" entity, Prince said, and disclosing profits and losses would give his competitors an unfair advantage.
"We're not hiding anything," he said.
Blackwater, headquartered in Moyock, N.C., is the largest of the State Department's three private security contractors with nearly 1,000 personnel working in Iraq. The others are Dyncorp and Triple Canopy, both based in Washington's northern Virginia suburbs.
Blackwater has had more shooting incidents than the other two companies combined, according to Waxman's report.