Eurasia Press & News
Private Military Companies, Soldiers of Fortune, Multi-National Investment Corporations and the enterprise of Mercenarism go hand-in-hand back to the time of antiquity’ when armies were predominantly comprised of foreign soldiers of fortune, private investors, multi-national business corporations and mercenary groups and individuals who were either primarily or solely concerned, not with the freedom and welfare of others but, with the business of seeking for themselves the acquisition of as much power, riches and gain as they could.
The first accounts of such mercenarism was recorded by Xenophon in Anabasis when he noted Cyrus’s use of ten thousand mercenaries against his brother Artaxerxes in a bid for the Persian throne in 401 BCE. The Persians used Greek mercenaries to fight against Alexander the Great, who in turn brought more than 44,000 mercenaries to Asia Minor to fight against them. And so it has gone unchanged ever since.
In the 2,000 years that since have followed….. the endless wars of conquest still continue in places like Ukraine, with new names for all the power grabbers, oligarchs, mercenaries, war contractors, back-stabbers, betrayers and profiteers. Now it’s the forces of Biden’s America and Stoltenberg’s NATO forces, aligned with Zelenskeyy’s Western Neo-Nazi Ukrainians, who, together, remain engaged in a decades-long civil war with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and the Russians allied with those Russian-speakers in the Eastern Ukraine, each with their own mercenary armies fighting and dying on behalf of one or the other.
However, in this civil war, this time around the political leaders among the Americans and Europeans no longer choose to fight with their own boots on the ground. Instead, they serve more like passive new 21st century versions of the old world mercenaries, unprepared and unwilling to risk their own necks, but instead support the Western Ukrainians, not with their own bodies, blood and dying, but with all the latest high-tech military hardware and the wherewithal to do all the fighting and dying for them.
Some would call it the height of cowardicness, when the rich and powerful oligarchs of the Western World can now opt for a new form of world war that conveniently uses surrogate humans to do all the killing and dying for them.
This time all the murdering of the much-hated Russians by Neo-Nazi Western Ukrainian forces, at the behest of America and NATO’s own Neo-Cons, Neo-Nazi’s and Globalists, especially suits many ordinary Americans, Canadians and Brit’s who have their own axes to grind with Russia, real or propagandized, to believe about Russia in this Civil War. For over a year they have been prepared to passively approve of the billions of their own tax payer monies, they can ill-afford, along with the latest drones, missiles, tanks, fighter jet and bombs. Whether they know it they, too, are mercenaries willing to kill innocent Russians in this bloody Civil War. The Left in the world are perhaps the worst of all. They simply remain moot about it all, as the needless cycle of murder and mayhem endlessly continues.
THE SPIN OF THE WAR IN UKRAINE AS IT READS TODAY
The recent Wall Street Journal (WSJ) produced a documentary that’s a slick piece of propaganda on Russia’s private Wagner Group. Coming from the WSJ, should tell the reader all they need to know which way the spin will go in. “Shadow Man: Inside Wagner, Russia’s Secret War Company”, reveals the way private military companies attempt to hide the sumptuous flow of riches they amass and how those resources ultimately connect to the Kremlin, the White House or wherever.
But what it doesn’t mention is the enormously rich and powerful multi-national corporations, like Blackrock, that continue to fund and amass colossal fortunes from their involvement in the businesses and investments that depend upon and continue to feed from so many wars, still on-going, to be found through every part o the world. Nor did the WSJ documentary explore the multitude of private military companies, like the original paramilitary organization Blackwater, that since the wars in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Sudan and elsewhere has since turned into a multi-hydra-headed snake or chameleon that continually shape-shifts into many different names and symbols that represent some form of corporate asset-management, risk assessment or head-hunting of skilled black-ops military personnel as military components of many other similar war investment corporations like Blackrock.
THE DARK INNER-WORKINGS OF WAGNER COMPANY
Inside Wagner, Russia’s Secret War Company | WSJ Documentary – YouTube
The WSJ documentary features John E. Smith who claims, “Wagner is nothing like what Americans might understand as a private military company. Wagner are mercenaries for hire. They massacre, rape, betray governments, their leaders and innocent civilians without any conscience. They exploit and loot natural resources, and they carry off much of this back to the Kremlin or whoever their next ‘boss’ it is to whom they swear allegiance for so long as it suits them .
The monies from these private military companies, that some liken to war lords, buccaneers and free-booters, whose monies flow back through the corporate forms and then can be used to pay salaries. They can be used to launder monies pay everything weaponry that is a military need without coming through the Russian State or whatever other State their paid by. Its always going to be a whack-a-mole for the U.S. and other governments because the more companies that are sanctioned in this way, the more companies will be created to evade sanctions.”
WHO’S JOHN E. SMITH
Such a bold accusation should at once cause one to wonder, “Who is this John Smith connected to the WSJ and the war In Ukraine. For starts, he is the former Director of the U.S, Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the co-head of Morrison Foerster’s National Security Practice, as well as a member of the Global Risk + Crisis Management group and Investigation + White Collar group. He’s also a trusted advisor for clients seeking to ‘navigate’ through significant civil and criminal enforcement actions by the U.S. and other government prosecutors and regulators.
“Navigation” is one of those slippery duplicitous legal words used in place of words like evading or avoiding criminal prosecution and sanction regulations, among many other things, such as Russia using ‘ice-class ships’ that, in early 2022, in the midst of the West’s sanctions were used against Russia to maneuver around Russia’s ports in the winter.
Morrisen and Forester (also known as MoFo) that John Smith is partnered with, is an American multi-national law firm, with headquarters in San Francisco, with 17 offices throughout the U.S., Asia and Europe; and over 1,000 lawyers in key financial centers with another 130 lawyers strategically placed in key hubs in London, Berlin and Brussels. MoFo furthermore is nationally enhanced in 33 legal practice areas and regionally-ranked in 81 other legal practice areas.
So, the question is, Why is John E. Smith a former Director of the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets, co-head of MoFo, in a key WSJ piece of propaganda about Russia’s hidden mercenary groups instead of about the United States and the skullduggery of its own mercenary hydra-heded groups; like Eric Prince’s Blackwater/Academi/Blackwater USA/etcetera, and its mercenary companies, or Ukraine’s own private military company with its own octopi tentacles; such as The International Legion of Territorial Defenses in Ukraine, and their multitude off springs of military companies and corporations, about which the WSJ and John Smith should be exposing to the whole world, as well?
THE INTERNATIONAL LEGION OF TERRITORIAL DEFENSE OF UKRAINE
“The International Legion”, as it’s called, is also a little known or advertised foreign military unit that was founded on the 27th of February, 2022 at the request of President Volodymr Zelenskyy. By Ukraine creating its own foreign legion it joined with the more than 90 other nations that already have similarly created legionnaires and raised foreign armies. They know a good thing when they see it. Such ‘fight for pay’ foreign legions are equally alienated from whatever else is going on everywhere else in the world, bigger than themselves. A hodgepodge of all those that want to get into the action: romantics with hearts that have been deeply and irretrievably-broken in the past, or; those simply wanting to cash in in on untold riches for perpetuating the business of war and war-related commerce.
Witin one year later, however, in March 2023, an investigation by the New York Times revealed that those numbers of ‘soldiers of fortune’ had dwindled down to perhaps only 1,500 military personnel who still were actively fighting for the Ukrainian military for the same reasons that originally lead them there. Some had initially flocked to Ukraine from America or Canada, calling themselves everything from “Democracy Defenders”, “Freedom Fighters” or “Rambo Wannabes”, who quickly got cold feet once they realized they might be violating the United States Neutrality Act of 1794 for becoming embroiled in a foreign war. While others who initially fought for the Ukrainians did so for the same reason that foreign mercenaries always fight for every foreign country not their own who end up just quitting for the same reasons. Or still others who found that: the intensity of the savage fighting was something they couldn’t stomach for any number of reasons: the likelihood of simply dying in an unmarked dirt trench after blistering barrages of Russian artillery; some meaningless suicide mission, or; the horrors of so much savage fighting and bloodshed than they had ever known in their lives. was just too much to cope with, for even former hardened special forces members from such august groups as: U.S. Airborne; US Army Special Forces, Rangers, Delta Group; Navy Seals, to name but a few..
BLACKWATER MERCENARIES NATO’S SECRET WEAPON
When it comes to military black ops activities, Blackwater mercenary military units are no different in their activities or intent than America’s other clandestine black-ops units, Ukraine’s International Legions, or Russia’s Wagner Group.
According to some analysts the proliferation of mercenary groups in Ukraine can be attributed to Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater/Academi, who some refer to as one of “the grandfathers of mercenarianism in the 20th century”, who originally sold the CIA on the concept of effectiveness of a private black ops paramilitaries, operating on the shadowy edges of questionable semi-legal practices in the conducting of hybrid war operations on behalf of far-right, Neo-Nazi, crypto-guerilla elements within and on the edges of the American government.
RUSSIA’S MILITARY ATTEMPTS TO REIGN IN SOME OF THEIR OWN WAGNER MERCENARY FORCES
Russia’s Defence Minister, Sergei Shoigu, backed by President Vladimir Putin, has called for Russia’s own volunteer mercenary fighting forces, especially among the Wagner Group, to sign a contract of agreement by the first of July to no longer fight, not as a private army but as part of Russia’s Armed Forces.
Yet, up until the current insurrection, led by Prigozhin and his Wagner Group began in Russia on June 23rd, lead by Prigozhin and his Wagner Group, they preferred to call themselves the “PMC Wagner Group. Prigozhin’s objection to signing a contract with the Russian Army and direct loyalty to Putin himself should have at once been a ‘Red Flag’ to Putin and those loyal to himself that his mercenaries were preparing to betray him, as part of a well-planned and carried out with the assistance of many of Russia’s enemies in America’s CIA, Britain’s MI6and NATO.
Though commonly referred to as a “Private Military Company (PMC), the Wagner Group often considered as a proxy for the Russian government, with Putin, himself, as its commander-in-chief. As a creator of this mercenary army, its general Prigozhin often referred to Vladimir Putin as “his boss”, which, in light of the current insurrection was a bald-case of betrayal In the face of Putin’s continued support for Defense Minister Shoigu’s ultimatum; and the fact that Putin and Prigozhin continued to recruit volunteers into the Wagner Group for other covert military actions abroad: in Syria; Central African Republic, Mali and elsewhere. Not to mention that Wagner, right up to the insurrection, continued to work behind the scenes on Putin’s behalf and serve as the head of his personal ‘Pretorian Guard Protectors’; just as the CIA, Secret Service and secret private military companies help Biden in exactly the same way.
Originally, WAGNER is said to have recruited 80% of its volunteers from the prisons; not from among hardened criminals serving life sentence, but from among those serving lesser terms for lesser crimes with the added bonus incentive of after serving a specified agreed-upon time of military service within the Russian Army they would be awarded a full pardon from prison.
Some speculate that the Russian government is happy to keep using Wagner whenever Moscow wants to disavow itself with absolute plausible deniability from some hot, contentious military issue, as well as a way to obscure casualty figures on the battlefield by ascribing the losses to the Wagner Group.
PRINCE’S BLACKWATER – THE MOTHER OF ALL BLACK-OPS MERCENARY GROUPS IN AMERICA
Blackwater, is an infamous private military black-ops company, that was founded by Al Clark and its CEO Eric Prince, two of America’s dark state military oligarchs, one of whom comes from a family stepped in enormous wealth and well as right-wing politics.
The Prince family, considered to be the 88th Richest in America, possesses enormous financial wealth that comes from all sides of the family. Edgar Prince, the head of the family, founded Prince Manufacturing, headquartered in the family’s original hometown of Holland, Michigan. One source of his original wealth came from one of his simple inventions for automobiles, that its successor Johnson Controls, still includes within literally every automobile in the world: a simple mirror mounted on the reverse side of the passenger visor that allows the viewer to do their makeup, comb their hair, remove and eye leash, etcetera. Every new bought car in the world, with a mirror behind its visor, means that many more greenbacks, rubles, shekels, or whatever other denomination in the family coffers.
Eric Prince, following a stint as an officer within the U.S. Navy Seals, chose to use his vast personal wealth as a young military oligarch to personally finance the creation of Blackwater, that later became known as Blackwater Worldwide, a black-ops private military company version of Russia’s Wager Group. Prince continued to use his vast personal wealth to purchase 6,000 acres of the Great Swipe of North Carolina that became a major training center for special black ops operations.
NISSUR SQUARE MASSACRE BY BLACKWATER IN BAGHDAD IN 2007 CAUSES MASSIVE SPIN
But when the Nissur Square Massacre by Blackwater’s private military company occurred in Sept 16, 2007 it required a major overhaul of its name and image when members of its private military company arrogantly shot innocent Iraqi civilians: killing 17, injuring 20 while escorting a US Embassy Convoy. The world became enraged. Blackwater Worldwide military personnel were immediately found guilty: One guilty of First-Degree murder; Four guilty of 13 Counts of manslaughter; One guilty of 12 counts of attempted manslaughter; One guilty of 11 Counts of attempted manslaughter. However, President Trump later granted full pardons to all four.
Yet Prince came out of it all smelling like a rose. He sold Blackwater for (US)&1.35 Billion in government security contracts; with Blackwater since awarded $82 Billion for its services to the government; of which $1.6 Billion was for more government classified security contracts; making it the largest U.S. State Department private security corporation, providing security for nearly 1,000 U.S. Base’s and embassy’s, worldwide. Prince once characterized Blackwater’s relationship to the U.S. military to that of, “the Fed Ex’s relationship to the U.S. Post Office.”
Review for your memory the whole sordid story:
The Blackwater Shooting (2007) | The New York Times – YouTube
Following the massacre in Baghdad in 2007, Blackwater, sought to re-brand itself with the use of a number of different covers each time from Blackwater, and Blackwater, U.S.A,, to Blackwater Worldwide, and then, as it kept morphing through other private military companies like ‘Constellis’ before being renamed yet again , in 2009, as;’X’e’ Services before becoming known as ‘Academi’, and yet still so many other private military companies that acted like talent scout agencies with clients highly skilled in military arts of all aspects of clandestine warfare and activities bordering on international terrorism, Triple Canopy one such mixture of: U.S. Army Special Forces; Delta Force operatives; Airborne; Rangers, and; Special Forces, skilled in everything from: black ops; high security risk management to providing maximum protection in dangerous areas of the Middle East like Iraq, Syria, Libya, the Sudan and Ukraine. Such low-profile private military companies have continued to proliferate and flourish like a cancerous growth,so many even as those like Blackwater U.S.A. fell under investigation for undue violent practices in Iraq, or Academi was fined $50 Million for arms trafficking.
The effort required to expose such constant name-changes in the dark mosaic world of private military company’s is an ever-continuing attempt to shed a troubled legacy that long ago turned Blackwater, and so many of its many later namesakes, into symbols for ex-military mercenaries throughout the world who continue to murder with impunity everywhere in the world; forever changing their identities with ever more innocuous, innocent-sounding names like ‘USTC Holdings’, or some other corporate makeover spin.
RUSSELL BRAND HAS THE LAST WORD
But what the hideous madness of the whole war in Ukraine, and now the betrayal of Prigozhin and his Wagner Group is really all about, was succinctly summed up by the English comedian and actor, Russell Brand, in his brilliant “Stay Free” political analysis of the current state of the war in, “Oh SH+T! Zelensky Just Said That!” that appears on YouTube.com.
To paraphrase Russell Brand’s coined saying, “Stay Free”, that is what every human being on earth is now desperately trying to do. Because what is ultimately at stake now is not just only whether the Russians and Eastern Ukrainian’s way of life wins, or America. NATO and Western Ukrainians Neo-Con, Neo-Nazi way of life wins, because whoever wins it will either be a colossal win or lose for all the peoples of the world who desire, not just for an end to this war but, the entire future yet to come: a world that is not just for, and utterly controlled, by the giant corporations, the corporists and the militarists of the world. Otherwise, it’s game over for real freedom and democracy. To know what is really at stake’s, take this moment to listen to Russell Brand’s flamboyant, loquacious take on all the madness.
Oh SH*T, Zelensky Really Just Said That?! – YouTube
Jerome Irwin is a Canadian-American writer who, in previous lives, has been involved in a wide range of diverse and varied worlds, including the Criminology profession with an American police department, and later for a brief-time in the capacity of clandestine communications with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. For decades, in various other professional capacities as an educator, researcher and writer. Irwin has sought to call attention to a broad spectrum of world problems pertaining to the degradation and unsustainability caused by a host of environmental-ecological-spiritual-ideological issues that exist between the conflicting world philosophies of indigenous and non-indigenous peoples.
Irwin is the author of the book, “The Wild Gentle Ones; A Turtle Island Odyssey” (www.turtle-island-odyssey.com), a spiritual odyssey among the native peoples of North America that over the decades has produced numerous articles pertaining to: Ireland’s Fenian Movement; native peoples Dakota Access Pipeline Resistance Movement; AIPAC, Israel & the U.S. Congress anti-BDS Movement; the historic Battle for Palestine & Siege of Gaza, as well as; the many violations constantly being waged by industrial-corporate-military-propaganda interests against the World’s Collective Soul. To examine a portion of the eclectic body of his work goggle: “Jerome Irwin, writer” The author and his wife are long-time residents on the North Shore of British Columbia.
