[00:00] When Eric Prince goes to the CIA and says, "Yeah, I'll do all these things for you. We've got assassination squads. We've got interceptors. We've got boots on the ground. We'll do anything you want. I want a billion half dollars." And then the CIA wires it the next day. Is it CIA? Not really. Everybody's from the CIA. Everybody's getting rich. But the thing is is how do you control people who don't actually work for you? You can't. Can you explain to people what private intelligence is?
[00:30] >> Oh, sure. I actually did it for for several years. Um, private intelligence really is is what it sounds like. You're doing exactly what you did at the CIA, whether it's analysis or operations. You're just not using classified information to do it. And I'll give you an example. Um, I got a call from a criate billionaire one time and he said that he had one daughter, just one daughter,
[01:01] who was going to inherit all of his wealth and she was engaged to this bum, this Greek criate guy who lived in London. And he said, "I don't like this guy. I don't want this guy anywhere near my money or my daughter, and I need for you to find out as much about him as you possibly can. And I said, "Okay, so uh what's my budget?" And he gave me a number. I flew to Cyprus. I I bribed a
[01:33] police captain, uh to to give me all the secret police files. I flew to London. I did surveillance on this guy's building. And finally, it took me about six weeks of of working full-time. And I I got back to the billionaire and I said, "Yeah, he's a bum and he's cheating on her." So, I said, "First of all, he's been stealing money from her." And he
[02:05] used the money to buy some warehouse in London. And I had satellite pictures of it from Google Earth or Google Yeah. Earth. And uh I said, "He's gone in with with some partners. There's like an Armenian guy and a Turkish guy." And they all went in. They're losing money, but they used your money, I said, "To buy the place." He told your daughter it was for something else. And then he just took the money and bought this warehouse. So that money's gone. He's trying to buy a mansion in London
[02:36] because he thinks as soon as he gets married, he's going to live happily ever after. It's all about the money. And I said, "And besides that, he has multiple drug arrests." He's like, "What?" And I said, "Yeah, it was smuggling." He was smuggling drugs from Israel into Cyprus. He got caught, got arrested, paid off some judge, so he was never prosecuted. Um, the Brits think that he's smuggling drugs there. So the old man went to his daughter and he he told her, "You're
[03:07] being scammed." So that's operationally private intelligence. Private analysis is different. It's actually a lot more fun. So I went into business for myself in the years between when I left the LO in or the year and a half between when I left the loit in I went to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and then I picked it up again when I left the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. So, one of my big I I had three big clients. I had the ninth largest mutual um sorry,
[03:38] the ninth largest um hedge fund in the world. I had a mutual fund and I had the largest mining company in the world. And then I did I did a contract for an oil company as well. So, they would ask very very specific questions. Who's going to win the Romanian municipal elections in September? I'm like, I don't know anything about Romania. So,
[04:08] where do you go? You go to LinkedIn, right? I'm Orthodox and everybody in Romania is Orthodox. So, I send connection requests to every everybody who looks interesting who happens to be Orthodox in Romania. It's like 60 people. and I say, "Hey, I got this question. You know, one guy gave me private polling data." So, I said to the client, and I said, "It would help me in the in the analysis. It would help me if
[04:38] I knew why you cared who is going to win the municipal election." And they said, "Sure. We're thinking of buying a silver mine. And the silver mine is underneath a village. And to mine the silver, we have to destroy the whole village. So if the socialists win, they're not going to let us do it. >> And if the conservatives win, they'll just relocate everybody and we'll just destroy the thing and take the silver. And I said, "Well, the polls say the
[05:09] conservatives are going to win." And so they bought the mine at the pre-election price. The conservatives win. They move everybody out of the village. The company destroys the village and takes out billions of dollars worth of silver. Another one was this one was kind of funny. This company, they buy an oil field um or they they didn't buy it, they lease an oil field, but they lease it for like 99 years in Oman, and it's
[05:40] right on the border with Yemen. And none of them had any idea at the time that al-Qaeda controls the border of Oman and Yemen and you're not going to be able to get anywhere near that oil, not within 50 miles of it. So they they wanted to know um if the Omanis if they approached the Omanis and offered to pay for the Omani military to force al-Qaeda out, would the Omanis do it or should they just
[06:10] walk away from this oil lease? So, I went to Oman. I talked to the minister of oil and the deputy minister of oil. I talked to the deputy uh intelligence service director and I I kind of knew all these guys like we had met. We weren't like buddies or anything, but we had met. So, when I asked for the appointment through the Omani embassy, they said yes, yes, come and come and you know, we'll have a conversation. So, I went back to the company and I said I said, "They're going to gouge you, but
[06:41] they'll push al-Qaeda out of your oil field." And so, they were able to drill for the oil. That's what private intelligence is. >> So, when you tell stories in that context, it just it it makes it seem like you're not makes it seem, you're like a high-speed private investigator. >> That's really what it comes down to. Yes. >> Are you familiar with Black Cube? >> No. Nope. don't know that one. >> They're uh they're a private intelligence firm that is staffed by uh they're an Israeli
[07:13] private intelligence firm that is all exad guys. Um >> and they allegedly >> uh I think David Boy is the head attorney on the Epstein. >> Oh, sure. >> Allegedly David Boy used it on someone. See, the Israelis have no compunction at all about violating any law that gets in their way. And then they say, "What are you going to do about it?" >> Yeah. Uh, we'll get there in a second
[07:45] because I want to I want to ask you, so you mentioned um private intelligence. You're not using classified information to do it is what you said, >> right? >> Um, but what about what about when the agency works with private intelligence firms? because I I read um Leon Petta's book who was CIA director in the Obama administration as well as Secretary of Defense, >> but he he mentioned um he starts talking about he's like, "One of the first things I did was shut down this program that was I forget how he described it, either controversial or unnecessary or
[08:16] something like that, but he gave no detail." And I was like, "What the hell is he talking about?" >> So, I look it up and it was the it was a Blackwater assassination program to go after targets globally. And long story short, he ended up outing Eric Prince to uh the House Intelligence Committee by name. Eric Prince was operating I guess as a knock or had a 2011 file. >> That's why Eric Prince lives in Dubai now and not in the United States. >> So I guess my my question to you then is like I had no idea and also Blackwater was involved in stealing secrets.
[08:48] >> Like they had a network of spies. When you think about Blackwater, you think about boots on the ground, military contracts. people know that they ran the GRS program for CIA, but like what how how did how would a CIA how would the CIA work with a contractor like that? The first thing you do is the contractor appoints all former CIA people to its board of directors and then you make the former head of the counterterrorism center, Kofheer Black, your vice president. And then you hire all of Kofheer's buddies to be the head of your
[09:19] different divisions. So, is it CIA? Not really. It's quasi CIA. Everybody's from the CIA. Everybody's getting rich, right? Because remember, post 911, money was literally not an issue. I I told you in our last conversation that uh I don't know, four, five, six days after 911, I went up to Kofheer Black, again, the head of the CIS counterterrorism center, and I said, "Keoffer, I have an idea for an operation I wanted to pass by you." and
[09:49] he put up his hands and he says, "Whatever it is, just do it. I have so much money I can't possibly spend it all." And so I did it. So, you know, when when Eric Prince goes to the CIA and says, "Yeah, I'll do all these things for you. We've got assassination squads. We've got interceptors. We've got boots on the ground. We'll do anything you want. I want a billion a half dollars." And then the CIA wires it the next day. Then you can do whatever you want. But the thing is is how do you control people who don't actually work
[10:22] for you? You can't. And you risk them going rogue, which of course they do because it's their nature. If you're being if you're being contracted to run an assassination program, you're going to go out there and assassinate people. Well, everybody's human and you make mistakes and you convince yourself that, you know, Ahmed Schmmed is a really bad guy. And actually, nah, it's a cousin with a similar name, but you just put a bullet in this guy's head. Ah, okay. Yeah, you
[10:53] write a check for 100 grand to his widow and just move on. And that's not cool. It's a It's a crime. You can't just go around murdering people because you think they might be a bad guy. And so, Panetta, I never really liked Panetta just cuz he's not a nice guy, but um but Panetta was right to shut that down. Okay. So, um, what are the what are the legalities then of a
[11:25] Blackwater team going out to hit somebody as if a ground branch team would? It's is it like I think Title 10, Title 50, >> right? >> One's military, one's CIA. I can't remember which was which. >> Actually, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals just ruled on this. I'm going to say three weeks ago, four weeks ago. Um because that's that's a legitimate legal question that you're asking. What what are the legalities? It's never been tried before, right? Like the CIA has
[11:56] permission through the amended version of Executive Order 1233 to kill anybody in the world who poses a clear and present danger to the United States. Okay? And the CIA is going to decide who's the clear and present danger. And they're not going to tell you because you're not cleared, right? I'm not cleared. You're we're just gonna have to take their word for it. But they have the legal authority to kill people through 1233.
[12:27] Then they hire these contractors like, well, we have GRS, we have we have ground branch and marine branch and air branch, and we have all these these teams that are out there killing, kidnapping, blowing up, you know, whatever. but they're not agency personnel. They just work for these private companies like Blackwater. So, is that legal? And the the Ninth Circuit Court of
[12:57] Appeals said yes, it's legal. So long as they have a written contract, they are acting on behalf of the CIA and the CIA has presidential authority to carry out these operations. Mhm. That was just decided. And actually, I got a call from one of the attorneys in the case and he said, "I have no idea why nobody in the media gives a about this decision." And so I I told them I would write something, but there's nothing out there. Nobody paid any attention to this decision.
[13:29] And it it the reason I paid attention was because um it was Abu Zubeda who was the plaintiff in the case. Abu Zuba said, "These guys tortured me and I want to sue them. And the court was like, "Yeah, sorry. You got tortured." But they were acting on behalf of the CIA. And the CIA was legally permitted to torture people, so you're out of luck. What's up, guys? Thank you so much for taking the time to watch the interview. If you got anything out of this video at
[14:00] all, please like the video, leave me a comment, tell me what you thought of the video, uh, tell me who you'd like to see on the show. I really appreciate the support. It goes a long way on these platforms as you guys know. Most importantly, I have some excellent interviews coming up in the future that I'm really, really excited about. So, please subscribe to the channel so you don't miss any of them. But that's it. Thank you for your support. I really appreciate it and hope to see you again