Erik Prince’s Brushback Pitch

By Spencer Ackerman
Friday, December 04, 2009 at 5:17 pm

In case you missed it, Blackwater founder Erik Prince outed himself as a CIA asset in an extraordinary Vanity Fair interview. Prince complained that powerful forces within the government were throwing him under the bus with anonymous press leaks about the private security company’s connections to very sensitive CIA programs. Still, the whole thing raised a question: what in the world is Prince up to?

Jeremy Scahill, Prince’s most determined journalistic foil, has an idea:

The term of art for what Prince appears to be doing in the VF interview is graymail: a legal tactic that has been used for years by intelligence operatives or assets who are facing prosecution or fear they soon will be. In short, these operatives or assets threaten to reveal details of sensitive or classified operations in order to ward off indictments or criminal charges, based on the belief that the government would not want these details revealed. “The only reason Prince would do this [interview] is that he feels he is in very serious jeopardy of criminal charges,” says Scott Horton, a prominent national security and military law expert. “He absolutely would not do these things otherwise.”

I’d say more, but I’m afraid for my life.

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een
Comment posted December 4, 2009 @ 6:17 pm

Keep praying for Scahill. Does he have protection?

strangely_enough
Comment posted December 4, 2009 @ 7:50 pm

So, do Prince's revelations mean that Cheney's snuff program was up and running, as opposed to Panetta, et al.'s assertions that it never got off the ground?

And, yeah, Scahill is making enemies of some very powerful people who have no problems with “extreme prejudice.”

chrisjay
Comment posted December 5, 2009 @ 11:51 am

In other words, the new rightwing Mafia, whose paramount values are silence and loyalty: same as the old Mafia.

Erik Prince, Blackwater, CIA, and the law « Later On
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monkeyweather
Comment posted December 8, 2009 @ 7:57 pm

No, Erik Prince WAS outed, but not by himself.
Considering the way the entire media is painting this man pretty black indeed, I'd guess he's one of the good guys. You just have to suspect the “facts” when every news organization starts singing the same song.
I'm sure there are plenty of elements in the US government that are none too pleased with the idea of an outfit like Blackwater being willing to train US civilians to combat. Our government these days is more inclined towards disarming the public, and armed citizens who are not under their thumb would make them frown.

monkeyweather
Comment posted December 9, 2009 @ 12:57 am

Anonymous
Comment posted May 14, 2011 @ 8:10 am

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