Free Republic

Secret Blackwater tape might not be all it's hyped up to be about Erik Prince. A few media outlets claim they have a secret audio recording that contains 3,500 words made by Prince. It is a rare item because the Blackwater owner has always tried to ban journalists from his public speeches.Blackwater has dealt with a lot of controversy during the past five years. Erik Prince is the reclusive owner of the special operations company. He rarely gives public speeches and when he does he attempts to ban audio recording and videotaping. One media outlet claims they have obtained an...

Barack Obama‘s CIA Director John O. Brennan targeted Trump supporters for enhanced surveillance, intelligence sources confirm to GotNews’ Charles C. Johnson. The surveillance took place between Trump’s election on November 8 and the inauguration in January, according to White House and House intelligence sources. The focus was on General Mike Flynn, billionaire Erik Prince, and Fox News host Sean Hannity — all of whom had close ties to Trump before and after the November election and had helped the future president with managing his new diplomatic responsibilities. Hannity was targeted because of his perceived ties to Julian Assange, say our...

The State Department is denying charges it held up a security contract to protect the U.S. Ambassador in volatile post-conflict Libya. On an appearance last night on Piers Morgan Tonight , former Romney and United Nations spokesperson Ric Grenell said he’d been told by State Department officials that Academi “was set to go in and provide security for the Ambassador in Libya.” “They have been waiting,” Grenell said. “They've done some preliminary evaluations, but for two months, they have been waiting while the State Department decides to get the paperwork right." A second source with ties to Foggy Bottom confirmed...

Moscow believes information that Western, first and foremost American, mercenaries are operating in Ukraine to be true, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday. “We are waiting for answers, because we … have very strong suspicions that this might be true,” Lavrov said during an English-language interview with Bloomberg. SNIP----- According to the German Bild am Sonntag newspaper, around 400 elite commandos of notorious US private security firm Academi are allegedly helping Ukrainian authorities in a punitive operation against federalists in the country’s eastern regions. The newspaper said the Academi mercenaries have taken part in attacks against federalists near Slaviansk,...

Soldiers from a private US security company with a record of alleged atrocities in Iraq are supporting Ukraine’s security forces in the volatile east of the country, the German newspaper Bild reported Sunday. The report, citing Germany’s federal intelligence agency BND, said 400 of the heavily-armed men employed by the group formerly known as Blackwater were deployed in the vicinity of Lugansk where pro-Russian separatists are seeking self-rule. The BND declined to comment on the report, while the security company -- now known as Academi -- dismissed similar reports in March. Bild reported that according to a BND assessment, US...

The Russian government today claimed there are more than 100 American 'mercenaries' from a defense contracting company disguised as Ukrainian troops in the embattled former Soviet nation, a claim the American firm and top U.S. officials deny. ... The latest news relesae from Greystone, as posted on a company blog, is from September 2012, titled "New business in Russia" and simply says the company "provided executive protection services in Russia." In April 2012, the company announced it had been awarded a similar contract in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. ...

peculation was growing last night that American mercenaries had been deployed to Donetsk after videos emerged of unidentified armed men in the streets of the eastern Ukrainian city. At least two videos published on YouTube earlier this week show burly, heavily armed soldiers with no insignia in the city, which has been gripped by pro-Moscow protests. In one of the videos onlookers can be heard shouting 'Blackwater! Blackwater!' as the armed men, who wear no insignia, jog through the streets....