Erik Prince
Credit: Bloomberg News
An ally of Donald Trump violated an arms embargo on Libya by sending British and other foreign mercenaries into the midst of the country’s civil war, UN investigations found in a report seen by US media outlets.
Erik Prince, a private security contractor and the brother of Mr Trump’s former education secretary, provided foreign mercenaries and weapons to strongman Khalifa Haftar to support his bid to overthrow the UN-backed Libyan government in 2019, the report findings alleged.
The confidential report is the result of an 18-month investigation and was delivered to the UN Security Council on Thursday and later leaked to the New York Times and the Washington Post.
According to investigators, Mr Prince pitched the $80 million mercenary operation to General Khalifa Haftar shortly after his assault on Tripoli, which began in April 2019 and sparked the country’s civil war.
Libya has been engulfed by violence since the overthrow of Muammar Gaddaffi’s dictatorship in 2011. The country has in recent years been split between a Government of National Accord in Tripoli, and an eastern-based administration, backed by General Haftar.
The brazen mission allegedly proposed by Mr Prince included plans to form a hit squad to track and kill Libyan commanders opposed to Gen Haftar — including some who were also European Union citizens, the New York Times reported.
Four days after Mr Prince’s reported meeting with Gen Haftar, the Trump administration publicly endorsed the militia leader, reversing US policy on Libya and supporting the assault on the capital.
It is not the first time that Mr Prince, a former US Navy Seal and the brother of Betsy DeVos, Mr Trump’s education secretary, has faced allegations over the use of privatised American military forces.
Mr Prince drew infamy as the head of the Blackwater private security firm, whose contractors were accused of killing 17 unarmed Iraqi civilians in Baghdad in 2007. Four contractors who were convicted in the incident were pardoned by Mr Trump a month before he left office.
The leaked report has raised questions over whether Mr Prince, a major donor and ally to the former Republican president, could have used his ties with the Trump administration to pull off the Libya operation.
It alleges that an associate of Mr Prince, who is accused of acting as an intermediary in the operation, attempted to buy US-made Cobra helicopters from the Jordanian military and assured officials in the country he had received clearances “at the highest level,” for the purchase and transfer of the aircraft.
The transfer of American military aircraft and heavy weapons to Libya is banned under UN arms embargoes and US law. The accusations in the UN report expose Mr Prince to possible UN sanctions, including a travel ban, if found guilty the New York Times said.
A spokesperson for Mr Prince told The Telegraph: “Erik Prince had absolutely nothing to do with any operation in Libya in 2019, or at any other time.”
According to the UN report, Jordanians officials grew concerned about the transfer and stopped the sale, forcing the mercenaries to source new aircraft from South Africa.
According to the report, a band of 20 mercenaries, which included Britons, Australians, South Africans and one American, arrived in Benghazi in June 2019 but enraged General Haftar who accused them of failing to deliver on a promise of US-made Cobra helicopters.
In light of the dispute, the mercenaries, who claimed to be working on a geological survey or an oil and gas project, left Libya by boat on June 29, making a 40-hour journey across the Mediterranean to reach Malta.
But the group left behind several attack aircraft and a long trail of paperwork that eventually led UN investigators to Mr Prince, the report alleged.
According to the New York Times, among the evidence listed in the 121-page UN report was a PowerPoint presentation shown to General Haftar which listed potential “high value targets” for assassination, including Abdulrauf Kara, a major commander in Tripoli, and two other Libyan commanders who hold Irish passports, suggesting the mercenaries were ready to target European citizens if necessary.
Investigators also obtained phone records that claim to show Mr Prince’s associate made several calls to the White House switchboard in late July 2019, after the mercenary operation had found itself in trouble, one official told the New York Times. It was unclear whether the associate spoke to anyone at the White House.
According to the New York Times, the group sometimes took inspiration from Hollywood in carrying out their plans. While attempting to secure the Cobra aircraft in Jordan, Mr Prince’s associate reportedly used the cover name Gene Rynack — a reference to a cowboy pilot played by Mel Gibson in the film "Air America».
Gibson is friendly with Mr Prince and hosted him in Abu Dhabi in 2013, according to the newspaper.
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