Business operations in Libya: United Nations: Trump supporters help warlords

Saturday 20 February 2021

Update
Business operations in Libya
United Nations: Trump Supporter Helps Warlords

Eric Prince is best known as the founder of the controversial US security company Blackwater. According to a United Nations report, the former soldier was also involved in the Libyan civil war. Trump supporter is said to have planned a secret mercenary operation and smuggling weapons for the secret war, which is General Hafter for the ceasefire.

According to a confidential United Nations report, Eric Prince, the founder of the US military company Blackwater and the famous Trump supporter, was one of the main participants in a secret mercenary operation in Libya. According to a panel of UN experts, in April 2019, the Prince proposed a military campaign to the Libyan chieftain Khalifa Haftar in Cairo to help the common man in his fight against the country’s internationally recognized government. The United Nations report, which was presented to the Security Council on Thursday, is available in parts of the German press agency.

Accordingly, this so-called “Operation Opus” should support its march on the government in Tripoli with a program for the hijacking and killing of armed aircraft, reconnaissance flights, boats and high-class enemy persons. The Prince then brought war planes to Libya and thus violated the weapons for the civil war country.

Prince as Trump’s “informal advisor”

The dpa had already reported about the mission in May, citing UN experts – but without knowing that the prince should have been closely associated with her. The former chancellor soldier has repeatedly garnered attention in recent years with close contacts with former President Donald Trump and his environment. In late 2019, Trump was dubbed Prince an “informal advisor” by the Wall Street Journal. He is also the brother of former US Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos.

“Operation Opus” was performed in Libya in summer 2019, mainly by Western mercenaries from Australia. Eric Prince clearly played a central role in planning and logistics. According to the United Nations, people were in service to security companies in the United Arab Emirates.

20 people by cargo plane to Benghazi

At the end of June, at least 20 people were aboard a cargo plane in Amman, Jordan. They came from Australia, France, Malta, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States. His war civil war was Benghazi in the east of the country, the stronghold of the once powerful General Chalifa Haftar, who launched an invasion of the capital Tripoli in the west in 2019. There he wanted to overthrow the internationally recognized unity government of the country, which was also backed by the USA and a large part of the West.

However, Halter’s allies included the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Russia, France and Egypt. Despite the embarrassment, many of these countries sent arms and mercenaries to the country, which by then had been a prolonged proxy war. But the Haftachar front on Tripoli was stuck and eventually was turned down, due to the foreign support of others besides the unity government of Italy, Qatar and Turkey.

The following loss of power by Hafter contributed to the recent development towards peace: Recently, representatives of the two conflicting parties elected a new joint transitional government after months of negotiations. It aims to pave the way for national elections in December.

During the heated phase of the battle for Tripoli, Huffter – as the United Nations report points out – apparently turned to the high-profile military network Prince. United Nations experts bring three aircraft used in “Operation Opus” into contact with the US: an “Antonov AN-26B” from a Bermuda company, a Lesa T-Bird light attack aircraft from a Bulgarian company, and a Pilatus. PC-6 ISR. An Austrian company aircraft.

The companies that owned these aircraft were “controlled” by Prince and used in the operation before they were paid. “No one has been able to arrange the sale of these aircraft in such a short time,” said UN experts.

“Operation Opus” never really took off

To his critics, the prince symbolizes the crossing of private military companies into war zones around the world. In 2007, Blackwater Company employees killed 14 unarmed civilians in Iraq. Four personal security guards sentenced to prison were pardoned by former US President Donald Trump shortly before Christmas.

According to UN experts, however, “Operation Opus” never set foot in Libya and was abruptly canceled a week after its introduction. The group boarded boats in the port of Benghazi and reached Malta after a 15-hour voyage across the Mediterranean Sea. The decision to evacuate was apparently made as General Huffter dissented the military equipment he had purchased and threatened mercenaries.

According to a new UN report, members of “Operation Opus” were brought back to Libya in April and May 2020 to locate and destroy high-quality targets. But this effort also had to be scrapped due to better air defense of the government in the west. Last year, according to UN information, the operation was planned and carried out in at least eight countries: Emirates, Jordan, Malta, Libya, Angola, Botswana, South Africa and the United States.