According to a confidential report from the United Nations Secretariat, Marshal Haftar (Cyrenaica) hired Erik Prince (founder of Blackwater and brother of the Education Secretary in the Trump administration) to assassinate leaders of the government of Tripolitania (Muslim Brotherhood).
The operation called “Project Opus” was reportedly carried out in two stages by twelve South Africans, five Britons, two Australians and one US pilot brought in from Jordan. In April 2019, six helicopters hailing from South Africa were dispatched to Benghazi via Botswana. However, an argument broke out with Marshal Haftar who considered that the rotorcraft were not in conformity with the contract. He was only interested in keeping a Bell Cobra attack helicopter and a small Bulgarian LASA T-Bird reconnaissance plane. The team and the rest of the equipment were not deployed and the men already on the spot pulled back to Malta.
A second attempt took place in June 2020, but was reportedly canceled due to Turkey’s new air defense systems set up in Cyrenaica.
The contract, worth $ 80 million, was operated by three companies based in the United Arab Emirates, whose military have been trained by Eric Prince.
The disclosure of this United Nations report comes as President Trump has just left the White House. It does not contain any new significant information, its contents having already been covered by the New York Times nine months ago [1]. By transferring this report to the Sanctions Committee for violation of the international arms embargo on Libya, the Biden administration is putting on a facade pretending to oppose the "civil war" in Libya, when it has just green-lighted the Pentagon to pursue "endless war" (Rumsfeld / Cebrowski strategy) throughout the "Greater Middle East".
[1] "By Air and Sea, Mercenaries Landed in Libya. Then the Plan Went South”, Declan Walsh, New York Times, May 25, 2020.
Stay In Touch
Follow us on social networks
Subscribe to weekly newsletter