What about the time I rescued YOU? Erik Prince reminds Joe Biden of when he saved him from the Taliban...

[Miloch]

...as White House criticizes the Blackwater chief for charging $6,500 for seat
on Afghanistan evacuation flight

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9927887/Blackwater-rescued-Biden-Taliban-2008-founder-criticized-6-500-evacuation-flights.html

*Erik Prince, 52, spoke to Tucker Carlson on Wednesday for his Fox Nation show

*It was unclear when the interview was recorded but Carlson did not reference
the $6,500 evacuation flights from Afghanistan that Prince is reportedly staging

*Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, on Wednesday said that Prince - an
ex-Navy SEAL - was seeking to profit from 'pain and agony'

*Prince told Carlson how, in 2008, Biden's helicopter in Afghanistan made an
emergency landing in the snow and his contractors rescued him

*A blog detailing the account features contradictory claims of who was actually
responsible for rescuing Biden, John Kerry and Chuck Hagel

*U.S. military were present along with Blackwater contractors, it appears from
the comments - although both sides dispute the other's role in the rescue

The founder of controversial private military contractor Blackwater, who sparked
a furious reaction on Wednesday with his $6,500 evacuation flights from Kabul,
has told how his men helped to rescue Joe Biden from Afghanistan in 2008 when
his helicopter made an emergency landing.

Erik Prince, 52, was described on Wednesday by White House press secretary Jen
Psaki as having no soul, and of profiting from 'people's agony and pain'.

Yet Prince, who founded Blackwater in 1997, reminded that Tucker Carlson his
team rescued Biden himself.

Biden was the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at the time of the
February 2008 rescue, and was plucked to safety alongside John Kerry, then a
senator for Massachusetts; and Chuck Hagel, then a senator for Nebraska, from
the country.

Kerry went on to become Barack Obama's secretary of state, while Biden was vice
president and Hagel was defense secretary.

'They were on a congressional visit to Afghanistan in the winter and the U.S.
Army helicopter got lost in a snowstorm and sat down in Taliban territory on the
side of a mountain,' Prince told Carlson.

'U.S. military launched a ground convoy to get them and they got lost.

'And the Blackwater guys launched and we did not get lost and we rescued them
from Taliban territory. That was the winter of '08.'

Carlson asked: 'Are they grateful?'

Prince replied: 'You would think so, but no. I didn't get a Christmas card - I
have yet to. In their office they thanked the U.S. military.

'It was veteran contractors, doing their job, once again.'

Prince's interview on Biden was broadcast as The Wall Street Journal reported
the details of his $6,500 evacuation flights from Kabul.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday that she found the business
distasteful.

'We are evacuating people free of cost because that is the right step to take
and certainly we wouldn't be supportive of profiting off people who are
desperate to get out of a country,' she told reporters during her Wednesday
press briefing.

After being asked specifically about Prince's plans, she condemned the proposal
in harsher terms.

'I don't think any human being who has a heart and soul would support efforts to
profit off of people's agony and pain if they're trying to depart a country and
fearing for their lives,' she said.

Blackwater's role is disputed by members of the U.S. military, which was also
involved in the operation, according to comments on a blog post.

Soldiers from the 82nd Airborne and the Arizona National Guard were involved,
said one man, Shawn Dalrymple.

He said it was 'not these posers', referring to Blackwater.

Dalrymple added: 'As the commander of this unit I am totally at a loss for words
for such lies.'

Kerry's office issued a statement at the time stating they were rescued by U.S.
military.

'After several hours, the senators were evacuated by American troops and
returned overland to Bagram Air Base, and left for their next scheduled stop in
Ankara, Turkey,' a statement from Kerry's office said.

'Sen. Kerry thanks the American troops, who were terrific as always and who
continue to do an incredible job in Afghanistan.'

Prince, a staunch supporter of Donald Trump, whose sister Betsy DeVos served as
Trump's education secretary, is a highly controversial figure.

He first came under international scrutiny after his Blackwater contractors
massacred 17 Iraqi civilians in 2007.

Carlson did not ask him about recent allegations that he violated U.N. sanctions
by selling weapons to Libya; recruited spies to infiltrate liberal groups in the
U.S., and attempted to create a private army in Ukraine.

He has also faced accusations of breaking arms embargoes on Somalia and of
setting up a backchannel communications line with the Russian government.

Prince earlier this year denied, in a New York Times interview, playing any role
in an $80 million mercenary operation in Libya in 2019, insisting that key
findings of the U.N. investigation were entirely wrong.





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