1. Conservative Blackwater Founder Targeted

Blackwater’s major “sin” has nothing to do with Iraq, and everything to do with U.S. politics.
Congressional Democrats have made the firm, and its founder Erik Prince, the punching bag for their anti-Bush campaign.

One reason Washington insiders say Prince and company are being targeted is his unapologetic support for the GOP and conservative causes.

Now the security contractor is under scrutiny stemming from its involvement in the Sept. 16 shootings of up to 17 Iraqis in Baghdad while escorting U.S. State Department vehicles, and “some critics are questioning whether Mr. Prince’s political connections have propelled the company’s sudden rise,” The New York Times reports.

Prince, 38, is the son of Edgar Prince, founder of the Michigan-based Prince Corporation, an automotive parts supplier.

Edgar Prince was close to Gary Bauer, now the president of American Values, and James Dobson, founder of the evangelical organization Focus on the Family.

Erik’s sister Betsy married Dick DeVos, son of the Amway co-founder Richard DeVos. The elder DeVos is one of America’s most respected and influential Republicans. Last year, the younger Dick DeVos ran unsuccessfully as a Republican candidate for governor of Michigan.

Erik served as a White House intern under President George H.W. Bush, and worked for Pat Buchanan’s campaign in 1992. After college he joined the Navy Seals, but he left the Navy after his father died in 1995. His family sold the Prince Corporation for more than $1 billion the following year.

Prince’s experience with the Seals led him to found Blackwater USA, with a training facility in rural North Carolina, and after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Blackwater became a major security contractor in war zones.

Prince and his family have given hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republican candidates and other conservative and religious causes, according to the Times. He reportedly gave more than $500,000 to Focus on the Family from July 2003 to July 2006.

Erik Prince is “a visionary when it comes to military technology and asymmetric warfare, but he is also a bankroller of Republican and right-wing religious causes,” said Jeremy Scahill, author of the new book “Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army.”
But what does Prince’s politics have to do with the work he and his company do on behalf of the American taxpayer? When does being a conservative Republican open a government contractor open to congressional scrutiny?

During recent congressional hearings probing Blackwater’s operations in Iraq, Prince made the same point, saying he didn’t think his political contributions were “germane” to the inquiry.
Robert Young Pelton, author of “Licensed to Kill — Hired Guns in the War on Terror,” a book about contractors in Iraq, is one of the few journalists who has interviewed Prince extensively. Pelton described Prince’s politics as more “libertarian” than conservative.