Blackwater’s Prince Building Mercenary Force with Apartheid-Era ‘Hit Squad’ Officer
January 21st, 2011Via: Raw Story:
According to news reports published Thursday, Prince has partnered with an African-based security company, Saracen International, to win security contracts from the Somali government that would see the mercenaries fight the on-land part of the war against Somali high-seas pirates, and would also go after al-Shabab, the Islamist militant group that has the Somali government cornered in parts of Mogadishu, the capital.
According to the New York Times’ Mark Mazzetti and Eric Schmitt, Saracen’s head is Lafras Luitingh, a former officer in South Africa’s Civil Cooperation Bureau. During the apartheid era, the CCB acted as a hit squad, killing or attempting to kill anti-apartheid dissidents.
After apartheid ended, South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission found the CCB guilty of numerous killings. It has also been alleged that the CCB poisoned the water supply at a Namibian refugee camp, bombed a South African kindergarten, and even attempted to bewitch Bishop Desmond Tutu with a baboon fetus.
Luitingh was evidently a major in the CCB, and was in charge of its Zimbabwe operations.
