Erik Prince - A Hero Like Ollie North?
Yes, that’s the verdict of Rep. Dana Rohrbacher (R-Ca.) in a new OC Register interview. Does that mean that Prince will be negotiating with Iran? It’s all quite confusing…
I picked this up from a throwaway article at TPM - apparently, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Ca) is a real fan of Blackwater CEO Erik Prince. The Orange County (Ca.) Register did an interview with Rohrabacher about Prince, who used to work in the congressman’s office. Here’s a few choice outtakes from the interview:
Prince, Rohrabacher said, has “had thousands of people involved in a warlike situation and has an insignificant number of bad eggs in that group.”
Apparently, Rohrabacher doesn’t quite have a handle on the number of incidents that Blackwater has been involved in that resulted in deaths and wounded casualties of Iraqi civilians. Perhaps he’s only keying on the drunk Blackwater guy that murdered the VP’s bodyguard. Yeah, I don’t imagine there’s too much of that going on - but dozens of other incidents? A few bad apples? Hmm.
“Erik Prince is doing everything he can to help his country,” Rohrabacher said. “He could be making ten times the money without anybody calling him names.”
Maybe it’s just me, because I didn’t watch the hearings, but I don’t recall reports of anyone on the House Oversight Committee calling Mr. Prince “names”. Frankly, he doesn’t quite seem to be the kind of guy who gets flustered by a few sticks and stones. And 10 times the money? Cripes, he’s making a billion a year off of the U.S. government right now. So, he could be making 10 billion doing something else? Damn, Dana - can I get a whiff of that business plan??
Here’s the real Republican money shot:
“Prince,” Rohrabacher said, “is on his way to being an American hero just like Ollie North was.”
Now, why doesn’t that viewpoint from Rohrbacher surprise me?
Yes, I noticed the North resemblance, too. One would have thought the Congress might have learned something from that encounter, but this one was just as scatterbrained as the North hearing.
The way to nail a guy like Prince is to say, “You’re here because the Iraqi government has demanded that you be thrown out. The suspension of your activities have already endangered US personnel by leaving them unguarded, and the behavior of Blackwater has endangered the mission in Iraq.”