{"id":390558,"date":"2018-12-26T06:31:57","date_gmt":"2018-12-26T05:31:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/chilling-blackwater-ad-triggers-fears-of-trump-seeking-to-privatize-mideast-wars-rt-usa-news\/"},"modified":"2018-12-26T06:31:57","modified_gmt":"2018-12-26T05:31:57","slug":"chilling-blackwater-ad-triggers-fears-of-trump-seeking-to-privatize-mideast-wars-rt-usa-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/chilling-blackwater-ad-triggers-fears-of-trump-seeking-to-privatize-mideast-wars-rt-usa-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Chilling Blackwater ad triggers fears of Trump seeking to privatize Mideast wars \u2014 RT USA News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdni.rt.com\/files\/2018.12\/thumbnail\/5c22e3c1dda4c8e76d8b45be.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>        Blackwater, the controversial US private security company, has flagged its intent to resume business, taking out a full-page commercial in the latest edition of Recoil magazine with a chilling message declaring \u201cWe are coming\u201d<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The resurrection within the military contractors\u2019 market of notorious Blackwater, which, after numerous scandals and several rebrandings, is now known as Academi, has analysts looking deeper into US intent to withdraw from the wars in the Middle East. The advertisement in Recoil, made public after Defense Secretary Jim Mattis announced his resignation, prompted concerns that president Donald Trump might be seeking to privatize ongoing American engagements in Afghanistan and Syria, following the declared troops&#8217; withdrawal from the region.<\/p>\n<p>The main supporter of the idea of privatizing the US fighting in the Middle East has been Erik Prince, the former head of Blackwater. The longtime Republican sold the company in 2010 but has maintained communications with Trump, reportedly trying to lobby his inner circle to replace the US military presence in the region with mercenaries. Mattis, who served in the Persian Gulf War, Afghanistan and Iraq, firmly rejected the idea.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><strong><em>Trump has basically fired the very people who told him that it would not work and not to do it.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><em>\u201cWith Mattis now gone it is conceivable that Trump now may reevaluate\u201d<\/em> Prince&#8217;s proposal, Michael Maloof, former Pentagon security analyst, told RT.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"read-more-big\" href=\"http:\/\/www.rt.com\/op-ed\/437175-blackwater-prince-afghanistan-yemen\/\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n    <span class=\"read-more-big__container\"><br \/>\n        <span class=\"read-more-big__content\"><br \/>\n            <span class=\"read-more-big__subtitle\">Also on rt.com<\/span><br \/>\n            <span class=\"read-more-big__title\">Blackwater founder seeks to privatize Afghan war despite mercs getting butt kicked in Yemen<\/span><br \/>\n        <\/span><br \/>\n        <span class=\"read-more-big__cover\" style=\"background-image: url('https:\/\/cdni.rt.com\/files\/2018.08\/thumbnail\/5b8565e6dda4c8dc688b4619.jpg')\"\/><br \/>\n    <\/span><br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Whether or not outsourcing US wars to a private contractor will have any positive affect on the ground remains to be seen, Maloof explained, stressing that a <em>\u201cthree private military contractors for one US soldier\u201d<\/em> ratio currently set up in Syria and Afghanistan has failed to achieve much.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cErik Prince is very close to Trump,\u201d<\/em> the analyst pointed out, but <em>\u201che would have to bring very traumatic force and it\u2019s going to cost money and Erik Prince is getting paid by the US government.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a class=\"read-more-big\" href=\"http:\/\/www.rt.com\/news\/166704-blackwater-jury-baghdad-shooting\/\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n    <span class=\"read-more-big__container\"><br \/>\n        <span class=\"read-more-big__content\"><br \/>\n            <span class=\"read-more-big__subtitle\">Also on rt.com<\/span><br \/>\n            <span class=\"read-more-big__title\">\u2018Shoot first, justify later\u2019: US trial revisits 2007 Blackwater shootings<\/span><br \/>\n        <\/span><br \/>\n        <span class=\"read-more-big__cover\" style=\"background-image: url('https:\/\/cdni.rt.com\/files\/news\/28\/b3\/00\/00\/blackwater-jury-baghdad-shooting-.n.jpg')\"\/><br \/>\n    <\/span><br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The prospects of Blackwater\u2019s return to the mercenary market has distressed those few among American public who remember the notorious murder of 14 Iraqi civilians by the company\u2019s guards in 2007 in Nisour Square, Baghdad.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cI don&#8217;t think the American public would stand for a company that has committed so many crimes in the past,\u201d<\/em> political activist, Medea Benjamin told RT.<em> \u201cErik Price and mercenaries make money by continuing wars, not ending them.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a class=\"read-more-big\" href=\"http:\/\/www.rt.com\/usa\/398679-appeals-overturns-convictions-blackwater-guards\/\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n    <span class=\"read-more-big__container\"><br \/>\n        <span class=\"read-more-big__content\"><br \/>\n            <span class=\"read-more-big__subtitle\">Also on rt.com<\/span><br \/>\n            <span class=\"read-more-big__title\">Appeals court overturns Blackwater guard murder conviction, orders new trial<\/span><br \/>\n        <\/span><br \/>\n        <span class=\"read-more-big__cover\" style=\"background-image: url('https:\/\/cdni.rt.com\/files\/2017.08\/thumbnail\/5984cb85dda4c8eb518b4567.jpg')\"\/><br \/>\n    <\/span><br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>If you like this story, share it with a friend!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/usa\/447400-blackwater-returns-private-military\/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=RSS\">RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by <a href=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\">RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Blackwater, the controversial US private security company, has flagged its intent to resume business, taking out a full-page commercial in the latest edition of Recoil magazine with a chilling message declaring \u201cWe are coming\u201d The resurrection within the military contractors\u2019 market of notorious Blackwater, which, after numerous scandals and several rebrandings, is now known as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":390559,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-390558","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}