Blackwater's Owner Has Spies for Hire, Ex-U.S.
Operatives Dot Firm's Roster
By Dana Hedgpeth
First it became a brand name in security for its work in
Iraq and Afghanistan. Now it's taking on intelligence.
The Prince Group, the holding company that owns Blackwater
Worldwide, has been building an operation that will sniff out intelligence about
natural disasters, business-friendly governments, overseas regulations and
global political developments for clients in industry and government.
The operation, Total Intelligence Solutions, has assembled
a roster of former spooks -- high-ranking figures from agencies such as the CIA
and defense intelligence -- that mirrors the slate of former military officials
who run Blackwater. Its chairman is Cofer Black, the former head of
counterterrorism at CIA known for his leading role in many of the agency's more
controversial programs, including the rendition and interrogation of al-Qaeda
suspects and the detention of some of them in secret prisons overseas.
Its chief executive is Robert Richer, a former CIA
associate deputy director of operations who was heavily involved in running the
agency's role in the Iraq war.
Total Intelligence Solutions is one of a growing number of
companies that offer intelligence services such as risk analysis to companies
and governments. Because of its roster and its ties to owner Erik Prince, the
multimillionaire former Navy SEAL, the company's thrust into this world
highlights the blurring of lines between government, industry and activities
formerly reserved for agents operating in the shadows.
Richer, for instance, once served as the chief of the CIA's
Near East division and is said to have ties to King Abdullah of Jordan. The CIA
had spent millions helping train Jordan's intelligence service in exchange for
information. Now Jordan has hired Blackwater to train its special forces.
"Cofer can open doors," said Richer, who served 22 years at
the CIA. "I can open doors. We can generally get in to see who we need to see.
We don't help pay bribes. We do everything within the law, but we can deal with
the right minister or person."
Total Intel, as the company is known, is bringing "the
skills traditionally honed by CIA operatives directly to the board room," Black
said. Black had a 28-year career with the CIA.
"They have the skills and background to do anything anyone
wants," said RJ Hillhouse, who writes a national security blog called The Spy
Who Billed Me. "There's no oversight. They're an independent company offering
freelance espionage services. They're rent-a-spies."
The heart of Total Intel operations is a suite on the ninth
floor of an office tower in Ballston, patterned after the CIA counterterrorist
center Black once ran, with analysts sitting at cubicles in the center of the
room and glass offices of senior executives on the perimeter.
A handful of analysts in their 20s and 30s sit hunched over
Macintosh computers, scanning Web sites, databases, newspapers and chat rooms.
The lights are dimmed. Three large-screen TVs play in the background, one tuned
to al-Jazeera.
The room, called the Global Fusion Center, is staffed
around the clock, as analysts search for warnings on everything from terrorist
plots on radical Islamic Web sites to possible political upheavals in Asia,
labor strikes in South America and Europe, and economic upheavals that could
affect a company's business.
"We're not a private detective," Black said. "We provide
intelligence to our clients. It's not about taking pictures. It's business
intelligence. We collect all information that's publicly available. This is a
completely legal enterprise. We break no laws. We don't go anywhere near
breaking laws. We don't have to."
Total Intel was launched in February by Prince, who a
decade ago opened a law enforcement training center in Moyock, N.C., that has
since grown into a half-billion-dollar business called Blackwater Worldwide.
Prince has nine other companies and subsidiaries in his Prince Group empire,
offering a broad range of security and training services. (One, Blackwater
Security Consulting, is under scrutiny because of a Sept. 16 shooting incident
in Iraq that involved some of its armed guards and in which 17 Iraqi civilians
were killed.) Prince built Total Intel by buying two companies owned by Matt
Devost, the Terrorism Research Center and Technical Defense, and merging them
with Black's consulting group, the Black Group. Devost, a cyber security and
risk management expert, is now president of Total Intel.
Devost runs day-to-day operations, overseeing 65 full-time
employees. At the Global Fusion Center, young analysts monitor activities in
more than 60 countries. They include a 25-year-old Fulbright scholar fluent in
Arabic and another person with a master's degree in international affairs,
focused on the Middle East, who tracks the oil industry and security in Saudi
Arabia.
Black and Richer spend much of their time traveling. They
won't say where. It's a CIA thing. Black called at midnight recently to talk
about Total Intel from "somewhere in the Middle East."
"I don't spend a lot of time telling people where I am as
part of my business," he said. "I am discreet in where I go and who I see. I
spend most of my time dealing with senior people in governments, making
connections."
Black, who also serves as vice chairman of Blackwater
Worldwide, said he also does "a lot more mundane things like go to conferences
and trade shows," looking for business opportunities. "I'm going to have to go,"
he said. "My guy is motioning for me. I have to go meet people."
Who?
People.
Government people? Business people?
All kinds.
The company won't reveal its financial information, the
names of its customers or other details of its business. Even looking at an
analyst's screen at its Global Fusion Center wasn't allowed.
"No, no," Richer said, putting his hands up. "There may be
customers' names on there. We don't want you to see."
In their conference room overlooking the Global Fusion
Center, Total Intel executives fired off a list of some of their work. Are some
recent bombings at major cities in India isolated incidents or should you pull
your personnel out? What are the political developments in Pakistan going to
mean for your business? Is your company popping up on jihadist Web sites?
There's been crime recently in the ports of Mexico, possibly by rogue police
officers. Is the government going to be able to ensure safety?
Since 2000, the Terrorism Research Center portion of the
company has done $1.5 million worth of contracts with the government, mainly
from agencies like the Army, Navy, Air Force, Customs and the U.S. Special
Operations Command buying its data subscription or other services.
To Black and Richer, one of the most surprising things
about being in the private sector is finding that much of the information they
once considered top secret is publicly available. The trick, Richer said, is
knowing where to look.
"In a classified area, there's an assumption that if it is
open, it can't be as good as if you stole it," Richer said. "I'm seeing that at
least 80 percent of what we stole was open."
As he's no longer with the CIA, Richer said he's found that
people are more willing to share information. He said a military general in a
country he would not name told him of the country's plan to build its next
strike fighter. "I listened," Richer said.
"We talked business and where we could help him understand
markets and things like that." At the end of the conversation, Richer said, he
asked the man, "Isn't that classified? Why are you telling me this?"
Richer said the man answered, "If I tell it to an embassy
official I've created espionage. You're a business partner."