Waxman on Blackwater Hearing today: Erik Prince is witness, 10 Eastern

[rodeodance]

time---I believe they said it will be on cspan3 just now.

Hearing on Private Security Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan

On October 2, 2007, the Oversight Committee will hold a hearing to examine the use of private security contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The following witnesses are scheduled to testify:

* Erik Prince, Chairman, the Prince Group, LLC and Blackwater USA
* Ambassador David M. Satterfield, Special Adviser, Coordinator for Iraq, Department of State
* Ambassador Richard J. Griffin, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Diplomatic Security and Director of the Office of Foreign Missions, Department of State
* William H. Moser, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Logistics Management, Department of State

[rodeodance]

1. Darrel Issn was on WJourn and house floor calling it a WITCHHUNT

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

2. Methinks Issa doth protest too much.

[flyarm]

3. leopards don't change their spots..neither do monsters!! Issa is owned..

lock stock and barrel..

he is the white house call boy..

fly

[in_cog_ni_to]

4. Here's a link to C-SPAN 3 for those who wish to watch it! This is going to be GOOD!

http://www.cspan.org/watch/cs_cspan3_wm.asp?Cat=TV&Code=CS3

[AnnInLa]

5. Who is Erik Prince?

Erik Prince is 37 years old. He founded Blackwater in 1997 with money he inherited from his father, Edgar Prince, the head of Prince Automative. The elder Prince and his wife were major Republican and conservative activists and funders. And Prince himself co-founded The Family Research Council with Gary Bauer and apparently provided the key early funding for the group.

snip
Prince's sister, Betsy DeVos, is married is the former Chair of the Michigan Republican Party and her husband is Dick DeVos, failed candidate for governor of Michigan and scion of the DeVos family, founders of Amway and major funders of Republican and conservative causes.

Amway is privately owned by the DeVos and van Andel families. And to give some sense of the scale of their political giving, according to a 2005 Center for Public Integrity study, Dick & Betsy DeVos were the fifth largest political givers in the country during the 2004 election cycle. Richard DeVos Sr. & his wife were ranked third. And Jay Van Andel was ranked second.

Let's just say they give some real money to the Republican party and its candidates. And of course there are the DeVos Family Foundations which give money to conservative causes.

Back back to Betsy's brother Erik Prince, founder and CEO of Blackwater. Back in 1990 Prince interned for Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA). Blackwater's lobbyist in DC is Paul Behrends, a former Rohrabacher aide who he met when the two worked for the congressman. Later he interned in the first Bush White House. But after doing so, he and his father broke with President Bush and supported the insurgent candidacy of Patrick J. Buchanan.

more at: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/054744.php

[B3Nut]

6. so Dick DeVos is Prince's BIL....wowie.

MAJOR fundies. If you drive through Grand Rapids, it's DeVos this and Van Andel that. Very powerful and terrifying right-wing dynasties. They would fall all over themselves to establish a theocracy...it seems to be what they're trying to do.

Todd in Cheesecurdistan