US BLACKWATER TRIED TO TOPPLE LEGITIMATE LIBYA GOVT: UN REPORT

Sun 21 February 2021:

Private security contractor and ally of former US President Trump Erik Prince violated a United Nations arms embargo on Libya, UN investigators have found in a report detailed by US media on Friday.

The confidential report to the Security Council said that Prince in 2019 deployed a force of foreign mercenaries and weapons to strongman Khalifa Haftar, who has fought to overthrow the UN-backed Libyan government, according to the New York Times and Washington Post.

The $80 million operation included plans to form a hit squad to track and kill Libyan commanders opposed to Haftar — including some who were also European Union citizens, the Times said.

The UN report describes how a friend and former business partner of Prince traveled to Jordan to buy surplus, American-made Cobra helicopters from the Jordanian military in 2019.

When he was rebuffed by officials dubious of his official clearance, the mercenaries were forced to source new aircraft from South Africa, according to the report.

According to the report, the notorious security firm tried twice to overthrow the U.N.-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) in 2019.

The report stated that Prince sent foreign mercenaries and weapons to support Haftar against the GNA based in Tripoli.

Haftar, whom the UN report says Prince backed with weapons, is a former CIA asset who returned to Libya from Virginia after Qaddafi’s fall.

In 2019, he was accused by Amnesty International of actions that amounted to war crimes in the battle for control of Tripoli.

Then-President Trump in 2019 praised the strongman for his role in ‘fighting terrorism’ in Libya.

The mercenaries planned to form a team aimed at tracking down Libyan leaders and assassinating them, the report said.

Last December, then-U.S. President Donald Trump issued a decision to grant clemency to four U.S. security contractors who worked for Blackwater and were convicted of killing Iraqi civilians in 2007, a move condemned by Iraq.

The Blackwater firm, whose name has since changed, was founded by former Navy SEAL Prince, who is also the brother of Betsy DeVos, who served as education secretary under Trump.

Libya has been plagued by chaos since the ouster of late ruler Muammar Gadhafi in 2011.

On Feb. 5, Libya’s rival political groups agreed during U.N.-mediated talks in Geneva to form an interim authority that would lead the country to elections in December this year.