Master of War: Blackwater USA's Erik Prince and the Business of War [Hardcover]

Suzanne Simons (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 23, 2009

The name Blackwater, the world's largest private military contractor, became infamous early in the Iraq War, when four of its men were seized by a mob in Fallujah, murdered, and hung from a bridge for the world to see. Since then, Blackwater has expanded dramatically; its men have been involved in major scandals, including a shooting spree in Iraq that has now caused the Iraqi government to blacklist the company. As Suzanne Simons reveals in this first-ever inside look, based on extraordinary access to Blackwater founder Erik Prince, and dozens of his key employees, Blackwater is just the tip of Erik Prince's empire. He publicly reassures everyone that Blackwater only works for the U.S., and would never become a mercenary organization for other governments, yet he has another entire company dedicated to doing just that, hiring foreign nationals, working for well over a dozen different governments, and overlapping in crucial ways with Blackwater. In addition, he has a private spying company, run by former top CIA men, employing extraordinarily sensitive methods and technical sophistication, for rent by any interested party, from companies to governments. Finally, he is amassing an air fleet that is large enough to serve as a miniature air force, not just by purchasing planes and helicopters, but also by building his own unmanned drones. In short, the full story of Erik Prince and his now-crumbling empire is a story of one of the modern world's most influential military figures, and it has never been told. Prince is a man who shuns publicity except when absolutely necessary, to tamp down a scandal; even when he has wanted to tell his story, he has been shut down by his clients in Washington who won't stand for it. Instead, he has given Suzanne Simons hours of interviews; access to his staff; invitations to join him on trips to Afghanistan; and more. He is a fascinating figure, part deeply conservative, evangelical patriot; part rebellious, go-it-alone kingpin. He is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and his companies are worth billions. His empire dwarfs all of its competitors, to such a degree that even if the military wanted to wash its hands of him, they wouldn't be able to replace him.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

CNN executive producer Simons balances private and public accounts of Erik Prince, founder and owner of the country's most notorious private military contractor. In this often glowing, mildly critical portrait, Prince is depicted as a fierce individualist, visionary entrepreneur and patriot, an upstanding guy's guy, albeit born into enormous privilege, right-wing values and Beltway ties. A determined overachiever, Prince trained as a navy SEAL until his father's death led him to an enterprising idea to provide the training facilities SEALs needed. Certain contradictions ensue: Prince is known to be deeply religious, so his affair while his first wife is dying of cancer surprised many friends. Likewise, Prince's free market faith denigrates government involvement in business, but his Blackwater project only survived by means of hefty government contracts. Simons's premise—that all questions arising from Blackwater's relevance go back to one man—justifies emphasis on the personal, but the book is most instructive when straying to include Dick Cheney's impact on Pentagon outsourcing or General Sanchez's frustration over boundary confusion in Iraq between U.S. soldiers and the State Department's veritable private army. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Suzanne Kelly Simons is an Executive Producer at CNN based in Atlanta. She has also worked as a freelance anchor for CNN International since 1988 in both Berlin and Atlanta. She was a freelance foreign correspondent in Germany and covered the Kosovo conflict from Macedonia and Kosovo in 1999. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Harper; First Edition edition (June 23, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061651354
• ISBN-13: 978-0061651359
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #635,732 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not Much Here -, July 21, 2009

By 

Loyd E. Eskildson "Pragmatist" (Phoenix, AZ.) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Master of War: Blackwater USA's Erik Prince and the Business of War (Hardcover)

Simons begins "Master of War" telling us us that "No company has ever amassed Blackwater's size, strength, and full-service military capabilities . . . within a few short years it boasted more weaponry, manpower, and high-tech systems than many small countries." A good buildup, but the book fails to deliver any information of significance.

Erik Prince, its founder, grew up in a well-to-family (family business was sold for $1.35 billion after father died at an early age) with family friends that included Chuck Colson, Gary Bauer, and James Dobson. Erik's was admitted to the Naval Academy, but left in his sophomore year because of "overly stringent rules," then enrolled in and graduated from Hillsdale College, became a White House Fellow, and ended up transferring to Rep. Dana Rohrabacher's office. Prince became enamored with Navy OCS and becoming a Seal, which he accomplished. However, after about two years, Prince resigned at a time when his wife was battling cancer (eventually died) and his family was dealing with issues following his father's death.

Prince decided to focus on providing training facilities for Navy Seals that would be superior to what he had experienced. Soon was providing assistance training local law enforcement, then began picking up Navy contracts after getting on the approved contractor's list. (Prince was also a major Republican donor, though the book does not link those donations to favors received.) Eventually became a contractor providing security for Paul Bremer in Baghdad - State Dept. supposedly lacked the ability to do so in a combat zone. Prince's wealth also allowed the company to provide helicopters, according to Simons.

Blackwater became famous when four of its contractors were killed and hung from a bridge in Fallujah. There were about 170 private security companies in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Blackstone alleges that it was constantly being blamed for the acts of the others - eg. running a U.S. division commander off the road, unwarranted killings of Iraqi civilians, etc. Blackwater started with $200,000 in contracts in 2000, and ended up with over $1 billion income in the next seven years. Simons explains very little of how that occurred. Blackwater employees were paid $500-$600/day for a variety of duties, including training Afghan police and other personnel.

Blackwater's downfall began in Sept. 2007 when it's contractors shot up the area in Nisoor Square - alleging they were fired upon first - 14-17 civilians were killed. By the time investigators initiated their inquiry, the evidence had been "cleaned up." Five contractors have been charged, one is cooperating with authorities; the company has not been charged. Regardless, the Iraq government banned Blackwater from operating within its borders.

"Master of War" offers little to commend reading it - my suspicion is that the author did little research beyond interviewing its CEO. If you're looking for an expose, this isn't it.

13 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding and Balanced Account, July 7, 2009

By 

Richard M. Kuntz (Evanston IL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Master of War: Blackwater USA's Erik Prince and the Business of War (Hardcover)

This excellent account compares favorably with Jeremy Scahill's 2007 book about Blackwater, in that it is based on interviews with Erik Prince and other key Blackwater execs, and reviews the private military contractor's accomplishments as well as failures. It also carries the story forward to the end of 2008, including all the legal difficulties at the end of the company's existence. It is very enjoyable to read but could have benefited from at least some footnoting of sources relied upon.

11 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Needy big government and the capitalist who fills that need!, September 13, 2009

By 

P. W. Dana (Metro-New York) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Master of War: Blackwater USA's Erik Prince and the Business of War (Hardcover)

I bought this book after hearing the author interviewed on NPR. The last book I read even remotely concerned with military history was Massie's excellent "Peter the Great", so I was surprised to find how riveted I was by "Master of War".

While the book seems to get off to a slow start, it begins in earnest with a fairly brief bio of Erik Prince, a seriously Type A man, who left the Naval Academy but who later trained as a Navy SEAL. Prince, having inherited some $1 billion from a family business, initially set Blackwater up as a law enforcement/special forces training facility, which expanded rapidly (thanks to Prince's deep pockets) into providing military zone security forces for the State Department and other government agencies. Blackwater burst into the public's eye with the murder and desecration of several of its "contractors", and with the highly publicized incident involving the murder of civilians in traffic in Iraq.

This book condenses to the very essence, the distinct differences between an enormous military and governmental bureaucracy, as opposed to the fairly nimble and adaptable capabilities of a business run with a nearly inexhaustible supply of immediate money, and an extremely zealous chief executive. When the State Department wanted security in Iraq, Blackwater provided it. When the US government believed that there was no clear picture of the number and operations of contractors operating at the behest of various US government agencies - it hired a contractor to provide that oversight.

The tale of Blackwater then becomes one of flouting and exceeding the mandate they were given. Blackwater calls the people they send out on these jobs, conractors, and treats them as such for tax purposes. This is a thin veil which should be pierced, as they then use this as a corporate excuse for lawless behavior performed by individuals while performing assignments for Blackwater.

That said, this is also a tale of American capitalism: Erik Prince saw a gaping hole in training, and security provision abroad, and used his financial wherewithal to fill that need - quickly. He is a driven man, with a business that he has set up with no board of directors to answer to. With his enormous wealth, he is able to deliver quicker than any governmental agency could ever hope to.

The lack of coordination amongst the various contractors, together with those well publicized incidents, as well as a plane crash (due to lack of proper training) - and the arrogant, lawless behavior of some of the contractors, ultimately lead to Blackwater being banned from operating in Iraq, and the beginning of Prince's withdrawal from daily operations of Blackwater.

The book left me feeling even more bewildered about the US war machine around the world: governmental inefficiencies exist on a much more massive scale than imagineable; private enterprise can fill some of those gaps; government is so big that it can't oversee the private contractors, let alone coordinate with other agencies to allow the various contractors to work cooperatively, much less under the ultimate purview of the US military command.

This book serves as a strong indictment of big government at its most critical, and its very worst, and chronicles a man who saw opportunity there.