(WMR) -- Explosive affidavits filed in the US District Court in Eastern Virginia in Alexandria by two ex-employees of Blackwater have thrown more light on the murky operations of the private military firm and its chief Erik Prince.

Blackwater renamed itself Xe after it received a flurry of bad press following the killing by its security personnel of a number of Iraqi civilians on a Baghdad square on September 16, 2007. The two ex-employees are cited as �John Doe #1� and �John Doe #2� in their depositions in an Alien Tort Claims Act case brought against Blackwater by the families of the murdered Iraqis .

In his deposition, John Doe #1, a former Marine hired by Blackwater, alleges that Blackwater smuggled weapons into Iraq in bags of dog food. He also states that a number of people who provided or were prepared to provide information to authorities on the activities of Blackwater and Prince �have been killed in suspicious circumstances.� Doe #1 also confirms previous reports that Blackwater did nothing to prevent its personnel in Iraq from killing or seriously injuring Iraqi civilians.

John Doe #2�s deposition contains even more explosive revelations about Prince and Blackwater. Doe #2 states that Prince and his top manager, Gary Jackson, personally oversaw all Prince Group operations. Prince Group consists of Blackwater (Xe) and related firms. Doe #2 alleges that Prince transferred funds from Blackwater to another Prince Group firm, Greystone, to engage in money laundering and tax evasion.

Greystone was established in Barbados and WMR reported on the firm on October 13, 2007: �Blackwater USA�s international marketing branch, Greystone, Ltd., registered as an International Business Company in Barbados, is beginning to create a political stir in the Caribbean island nation.

Recently, Erik Prince, Blackwater�s chairman and CEO, testified under oath to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that Blackwater did not market foreign governments to provide security services. He testified that the only foreign contracts performed by Blackwater were under license from the U.S. government. However, Greystone�s website states the following about the subsidiary�s foreign marketing: �Greystone is an international security services company that offers your country or organization a complete solution to your most pressing security needs. We have the personnel, logistical support, equipment, and expertise to solve your most critical security problems.�

Prince seems to have omitted Greystone as a Blackwater firm during his congressional testimony. Or he perjured himself under oath. Blackwater�s presence in Barbados, under the corporate confidentiality regimes of the Caribbean island nation�s off-shore corporation hosting legal contrivances, has stirred up opposition in the country.

Bajans are pointing to Prime Minister Owen Arthur�s Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs Senator Lynette Eastmond, who has oversight authority for foreign corporations in Barbados.�

John Doe #2 also states that Prince �views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe.� He adds, �to that end, Mr. Prince intentionally deployed to Iraq certain men who shared his vision of Christian supremacy, knowing and wanting these men to take every available opportunity to murder Iraqis. Many of these men used call signs based on the Knights of the Templar, the warriors who fought the Crusades.�

The connection of Prince, a convert to Roman Catholicism and a member of the right-wing Opus Dei sect, to the Knights Templar is noteworthy. The last official Grand Master of the Knights Templar, Jacques DeMolay, was burned at the stake under orders of French King Philip IV. The Templars� loyalties were suspect by the king and Pope Clement V. Clement dissolved the Knights Templar as a result. DeMolay apparently cursed Philip IV and Clement V before his death in 1314. That same year, Philip IV died and Clement, according to a Masonic source, was defenestrated in Rome, dying as a result of his fall. The alleged cooperation between Opus Dei and the secretive Knight Templar Masonic sect is reminiscent of the past links between the Masonic P-2 (Propaganda Due) lodge and the Vatican.

Doe #2 also stated that Prince constantly used such racist terms as �rag heads� and �hajis� to refer to Iraqis and other Arabs. He also states that Blackwater employees with known drug, alcohol, and mental problems were returned to duty in Iraq over the wishes of corporate medical staff.

Prince is also accused of obtaining illegal ammunition from LeMas, a firm that produces bullets that explosively fragment after penetrating the body. Prince used the illegal ammunition to inflict maximum damage on Iraqis, according to Doe #2. The former employee also stated that Prince did nothing to stop Blackwater men from using prostitutes, including child prostitutes, at Blackwater�s �Man Camp� in Iraq. Prince is also accused of tolerating a wife-swapping and sex ring among his top executives in North Carolina. Prince had his general counsel, Joseph Schmitz (spelled Schmidt in deposition), investigate the ring and prepare a report. Schmitz is the son of the late ultra-right wing Representative John Schmitz (R-CA), who was embroiled in a sex scandal involving molestation of an infant boy, and the brother of Mary Kay Letorneau, a Washington state school teacher jailed for the statutory rape of a 13-year old male student (whom she later married).

Prince is also accused of smuggling illegal weapons into Iraq, including semi-automatic machine guns with silencers, aboard his firm�s private planes that flew as Presidential Airlines. The affidavit also states that Blackwater�s chief financial officer, Roy Mettinger, resigned and stated he was not willing to go to jail for Erik Prince.

The presiding judge in the civil case against Blackwater is T.S. Ellis, the same judge who permitted the government to drop the charges against two former American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) officials for espionage involving former Pentagon official Larry Franklin. Ellis approved the motion that saw Franklin not serve any prison time stemming from his conviction in the criminal case. 

Previously published in the Wayne Madsen Report.

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