Erik Prince is the founder of Blackwater, the private military contractor that performed paramilitary and intelligence work for the Central Intelligence Agency in the post-September 11 period — including operation of the agency’s Global Response Staff program and, until its shutdown by Leon Panetta, a worldwide assassination program. Prince was a CIA non-official-cover officer with an internal 201 file.[1]
Public disclosure and Dubai relocation
Prince’s CIA affiliation was publicly disclosed when Panetta, on taking over as CIA Director in 2009, terminated the Blackwater assassination program and, in the course of explaining the decision to the U.S. House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, identified Prince by name. “That’s why Erik Prince lives in Dubai now and not in the United States.” He is described by John Kiriakou as having relocated to Dubai specifically to avoid U.S. legal exposure following the disclosure.[1]
Contractor model
Prince’s standard practice in building Blackwater was to populate the company’s board of directors with former CIA personnel and to install Cofer Black — formerly head of the agency’s Counterterrorism Center — as Vice President. Kiriakou describes the post-9/11 financial logic from the CIA side: “When Erik 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 and a half dollars.’ Then the CIA wires it the next day.”[2][3]
In popular culture
Prince is invoked, alongside Elon Musk, as the composite real-world figure for the dying billionaire protagonist in the 2025–26 film written and directed by Tyrell Vanto in which John Kiriakou made his acting debut.[4]