DAKAR, Senegal – In 1996, at 15 years old, I went to see “Metallica” at the old PalaVobis arena in Milan (Italy), the city I grew up in. It was my third big concert after AC/DC and Green Day and according to some of my friends, who had no particular opinion about me attending the first two, Metallica was instead considered quite an odd choice for a young, black Italian like me. As some other heavy metal bands of the 90s, Metallica drew crowds relatively not that favorable towards “my kind”. I was supposed to enjoy rap and hip hop, while punk, ska and rock were already a bit strange, grunge too (Pearl Jam was my favorite), but better stay away from those crazy, angry white dudes all dressed in black and covered in rings and chains. I couldn’t even understand their lyrics. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed (and still do) some of their music: great songs like “One”, “Nothing else matters”, “Enter Sandman”, and, maybe above all else, “The Unforgiven”. Those pieces of art contributed to get me through some pretty “interesting” times while growing up in Italy.

The stadium was fully packed and the atmosphere electric. All sorts of feelings run through the veins during the first big concerts of our lives. Even before it began, I lost all my friends in the crowd but I didn’t care, everything was going perfectly. I knew most of the songs played at the beginning, “The Black Album” was raging on and we all kept singing along with James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich as if we were old friends at a campfire. A small dream come true. Then “One” began with the sound of guns and the voice from a distant newsroom, those harsh words I tried to translate in Italian a few days before suddenly made sense, even though I couldn’t completely understand them.

But then, out of nowhere, something hit me in the stomach, literally. “What the f— was that?” was my first thought as I almost kneeled down on the floor in the middle of the crowd. I turned my head to the right and then I received another strong blow, on my left hip this time. I looked up and I finally saw who was responsible for all of it: a young woman, I can still see her clearly. Dark hair and lips, dressed all in black, chains by the belt of her strapped-up jeans and all over her shirt’s pockets, heavy boots and the angriest expression I’ve ever seen on a human face ’till then. I was staring at her and dared to mumble: “Why are you hitting m--”, and before I could finish that short sentence, she kicked me again in the stomach as hard as she could. Now the arena felt totally silenced, nobody around us was moving. A wide, empty space formed between me and her as the people were simply watching a different show from the one they paid for. I really couldn’t understand what was happening. For the last time I asked: “Why are you…” and, of course, I received another violent kick. She was fearless (or on drugs). I was fairly big for a 15-year-old but she was a woman. Still, it did hurt.

By then I already learned that valuable lesson: never hit a woman, no matter what, so I knew I couldn’t respond. I felt that the only solution was to stop asking questions and get away. After giving her a last, very confused look, I began retreating, leaving the scene with both hands covering my stomach. Sometimes, though, seconds outlast minutes. As I turned around to leave, I noticed that while most faces were pretty shocked or sad about what they'd seen, a couple of young men were giggling behind me. Only then I understood what must have really happened: one of them (maybe both) took advantage of the chaos to touch or grab that woman from behind, leaving the scene without a trace and disappearing amidst the (white) crowd but without going too far in order to enjoy the consequences of his action. As she turned around to respond to a potential sexual assault, she blamed the person that was most “foreign” to her. I knew that because, especially during my formative years as a black man in Italy, similar episodes were occurring me quite regularly. How can you convince someone of your innocence when that someone gets hurt in the middle of a concert? Everywhere is loud, too much chaos, talking things through, through a storm of people, is not an option. You can’t defend yourself, the person has already a made-up mind on whom to blame. The best solution in that context was to simply leave the scene.

So, Erik, just to be clear: you remind me of those two guys, smiling at the small war zone they provoked just to put the blame on someone else and walk away with no repercussions.

THE “AMERICAN PRINCE”
Prince, a last-name definitely difficult to live up to. In your case, it makes me think of two very different books equally important for our Western literature (and probably the world): the French “The Little Prince” and the Italian “The Prince”, by Niccolò Machiavelli. I’m quite sure you never cared so much for the former but you must have on your bedside table the latter. You and I have quite a few “acquaintances” in common all over this small world, mostly in the US and Africa. I’ve been “watching, waiting, holding my breath” during the highs and lows of your evolution that now, in my opinion, got out of hand.  

Let me first list you some of the events I think you’re responsible for and then I’ll explain why: 2005, South Sudan, “Salva Kiir was sworn in as president following the death of his predecessor, John Garang, in an unexplained helicopter crash, and Blackwater’s sales pitch to the Bush administration was that protecting the new leader would support U.S. policy objectives”, from AI. Then there are the Obama years where you couldn’t do much but planning your come back. June 18, 2013, Michael Hastings’ death; 2019, the beginning of the Venezuela’s crisis, we all know how it ended; January 3, 2020, one of your drones killed the Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani; in 2020, some of the over 100 incidents of vehicles driving into protests between May 27 and September 27 (some of the church, schools and metro shootings as well); October 2020, Hunter Biden's laptop; January 6, 2021, the Capitol riot, even your big sister resigned from the Trump administration the next day (maybe what her little brother organized was too much even for her); May 9, 2023, the death of David Miranda, Glenn Greenwald’s husband (I can’t believe the official narrative); July 13, 2024, Trump (second) assassination attempt (because the first one you organized didn’t have much of an impact worldwide), really sloppy work, by the way, and you could have chosen a less biblical name for the “culprit”; May 28, 2025, Haiti; June 3, 2025, Ecuador prisoners; June 21, 2025, Iran bombing; June 27, 2025, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda conflict; July 10, 2025 (my birthday, funny enough) you arranged the five African presidents meet with Trump at the White House; August 2025, the Trump-Putin Alaska meeting; September 10, 2025, Charlie Kirk’s assassination (Candace Owens is getting closer); December 2025, the rhetoric about the Nigerian Christians killings and the following bombing of the country (plus a few attacks); January 31, 2026, Nancy Guthrie’s kidnapping (what a message, interviewed by Savannah Guthrie, Robin Wright didn’t lie well enough about not knowing how to reach Spacey but that’s another story). All this to finally get to the current conflict with Iran, your main obsession and wet dream, I really don’t buy your “criticizing” Trump’s actions now, too little too late anyway.

As in the movie “The Devil’s Advocate”, though, you showed how vanity is definitely the devil’s favorite human sin. After your highest low, the “Nisour Square massacre” in Baghdad in 2007 (I was in Iraq in 2004) and its devastating consequences, not only for your reputation but for your company as well, you began a new strategy to get back on the horse: you turned to the Hollywood propaganda machine. You were still quite young and angry with some people in D.C. (Leon Panetta in particular). Unfortunately for you Barack Obama became your boss and, later on, the Edward Snowden’s case produced “The Intercept”, launched by your main archenemy (an Iranian, of course): Pierre Morad Omidyar, founder of eBay. Probably thanks to your Jeffrey Epstein’s links, you were able to have him photographed next to Richard Branson, the latter ready to fall because of his own Epstein connection (Branson calling Mandela on the phone from his yacht’s bathtub, what a disgusting scene, you must agree).

US podcasters are trying to unravel what’s been happening during the last decades but Candace Owens, Shawn Ryan, Tim Dillon, Julian Dorey, Joe Rogan, Patrick Bet David, Whitney Cummings (did you really kill three people for Kevin Spacey? Quite a message for all the others), they probably never thought of becoming investigative journalists, they don’t know the rules of this here game. They lived in their podcast-bubble for years and now they’re forced to finally wake up. Tucker Carlson (that you kept monitoring for years, at least until you got on his podcast) and Megyn Kelly are a different case (the feud between her and George Clooney, hilarious, he used to go around East Africa with that nerd of John Prendergast, but let me stop here). For people like me and you, able to live through different worlds for decades, we see things differently (by the way, I couldn’t stay on your IG account for more than 24 hours, too much violence in the metros, you love that stuff but…).

Now, let me explain the “why”.

YOUR “STATE OF PLAY”
“State of Play” (2009), where you needed to kill a black man right at the beginning (your obsession with black people is quite curious), was a movie that had too many footprints of yours. Kevin MacDondald directed it (not to be confused with Kevin B. MacDonald, the white supremacist); Robin Wright starred in it (not to be confused with Robin B. Wright, the journalist). Russell Crowe, that after “The Gladiator” kept being used for propaganda purposes, was one of the actors you arranged to get on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast the first time (as with Peter Berg, John “Shrek” McPhee, and other of your acquaintances ready to lie for you or completely ignorant about your true “dealings”). “State of Play” talks about a fictional mercenary company named “PointCorp” that seems responsible for the killing (always in a metro, like in “House of Cards”, but I’ll get back to that later) of “Sonia Baker”, the lead researcher for a Democrat Rep. from Pennsylvania (again, like in House of Cards) played by Ben Affleck, a guy with a great spirit but a “troubled” existence and easy to manipulate.

In the movie Ben was chosen for that character who (spoiler alert) is the one finally responsible for her death (not the mercenary company, of course). But in real life Ben and his experiences in East Africa were carefully monitored and managed partly by Whitney Williams, a former political candidate from Montana (I don’t believe the narrative that she met Ben “by chance” in an airport in Tanzania and I detect a bit of a “Yellowstone” series vibe). Jason Bateman, who portrays the scared PR dude, was also in the movie The Kingdom (directed by Peter Berg, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear”). Harry Lennix, who plays the detective, needed to be called “Donald”, and you had Viola Davis playing the doctor in a morgue, of all places.

In the movie, at 15:03, fictional articles on Sonia Baker’s suicide are published on January 25, 2008 but, in real life, on the same date: “Attorneys representing Iraqi civilians filed a motion in a U.S. federal court seeking to hold Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater USA, personally liable for a series of fatal shootings in Iraq”; at 51:55 “Conway, North Carolina” is mentioned as PointCorp’s base but, in real life, your Moyock facility lies few kilometers away; at 52:18 the “Alpha Bravo Security” logo shows up and, in real life, you met and trained with Alpha Group, a Russian special forces unit; at 53:07, “Erick Garibay” is shown on a fictional website as the CEO of PointCorp as well as the date 1976, a date that, in real life, you describe as “the most revealing moment” of your life when, at 7-years-old, you stood up in front of the Berlin wall.

Let me continue a little. At 54:20, is shown an April 8, 2005 fictional article on mercenaries “being ambushed and mutilated” in Sudan but, in real life, in that same period “Blackwater was involved in selling satellite phones in Sudan without proper authorization from the U.S. State and Treasury departments”; at 58:09, the PointCorp insider (played by David Harbour) tells to a surprised “Cal” how PointCorp makes the real money inside the US, not in foreign lands: “Who was sent in for crowd control after Hurricane Katrina? Us.” and, in real life, you were involved so much that you even helped evacuate from the region some of Bill and Melinda Gates’ family members (another Epstein connection). Last but not least (and I’m sparing many other “strange coincidences”), at 1:58:22, the date February 29, 2008 is shown in one of the fictional articles while, in real life, during that same date: “Blackwater was at the center of intense legal and political scrutiny following the Nisour Square massacre in Iraq”. In the same fictional article, PointCorp CEO is called Erick Garibay.

“Erick Garibay” is the most interesting role, in my opinion. He’s played by Tuck Millingan, the PointCorp CEO, whose fictional name is not mentioned in the final credits of the movie and, notwithstanding his key role in the story, doesn’t even deserve to appear on the Wikipedia list of actors and characters (as of today, at least). Moreover, the CEO is called Erick (with an added “c”…of all names), but during the congressional hearing scene (starting at 49:20) his name suddenly changes into “Richard” Garibay (I believe a tribute to one of your mentors, Richard DeVos, your sister’s father-in-law). The director or editor of that movie made it almost impossible to see the plaque with “Richard Garibay” name on it, even though that was probably the only plaque deserving to be seen in that scene. And if Matt Damon is right: “Nothing in a movie is by chance”, all the props are (or aren’t) there for a precise reason. Ben’s character hides Richard Garibay’s plaque with his head and shoulders most of the times.  

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was another movie where your influence was able to shape the story. David Fincher, the director of many “House of cards” episodes, Rooney Mara (Kate’s sister), Robin Wright (again, this time as “Erika…Berger”), Daniel Craig (James Bond vibe), Charles Joel Nordström Kinnama, the future “Conway” in House of Cards. I don’t expect these actors to know why they were chosen to play those roles.

YOUR “HOUSE OF CARDS”
From movies you decided to expand your influence into a series like House of Cards (drawn from another British story, like with “State of Play”), the first one on Netflix. Thanks to your relationship with Beau Willimon (and his father?) and producer Dana Brunetti (with whom you worked on other projects like the movie “Captain Philips”), your inputs are everywhere. Kevin Spacey (that flew on Epstein’s plane to Africa with Bill Clinton, a friend of mine made that picture of them in Rwanda in 2002), Robin Wright (again, friends of mine actually worked with her when she also did her thing in the DRCongo), Kate Mara (Rooney’s sister, both chosen because of their real-life family history, similar to yours), and so on. Even in this series you show your obsession with black people: characters like Remy Danton, Terry Womak, Freddy, Rachel’s former teacher, Claire Underwood’s assistant in season 2, the delivery guy on the bicycle, etc, all of them in position of “servitude”.

I won’t respect the chronological order, I have no time for it, so let me start with a great Gerald MacRaney. He plays “Raymond Tusk” (that has enough of Elon Musk in him…by the way, did one of your guys really gave Elon that black eye at the White House?) whose bird-watching hobby reflects the same passion practiced by Tucker Carlson (you couldn’t resist mentioning it on his podcast), while in the baseball stadium scene (second season) there was an “I back the birds” sign on a baseball T-shirt, very subtle. The origami “Black Swan” made by Claire Underwood together with her cultivating tulips, of all flowers, makes me think that the former is one of your nicknames, among other things, and the latter reminds me of your “controversial 2010 appearance at Holland, Michigan's Tulip Time Festival”. “I’m sorry you lost your girlfriend” tells the former “Washington Herlad” journalist to the new editor that ends up in prison and then tries to shoot President Underwood, was that a message connected to the Michael Hastings story? Hastings, by the way, probably died the same way Neve Campbell’s character “LeAnn Harvey” did. 

“The Path to Peace” brochure that Lisa gave to Rachel reminds me of Turning Point USA, whose members were trained at your facility thanks to your relationship with Tyler Bowyer. The “Pick your six best actors” line given by Francis Underwood to the Republican majority leader during the Senate passing of a bill is also very telling. “To improve is to change…” demonstrates your admiration for Winston Churchill? Donald Blythe and his wife's story reminds me of what you must have endured with your own wife before she died of cancer. “You might have all the money, Raymond, but I have all the men with guns”, another great line delivered from Underwood to Musk…sorry, Tusk. “Space X” a fictional company where Remy Danton arranges for Conner to go working. And so on and on. It seems you even use the “Concept2 RowErg” rowing machine like the Underwoods do but I hope you don’t play videogames like Frank and Musk. One of the most interesting coincidences is the letter from Underwood to “President Walker” at Camp David, dated October 28, 2014. This date coincides with the publication of a reprint/paperback edition of your memoir “Civilian Warriors: The Inside Story of Blackwater and the Unsung Heroes of the War on Terror”.

By the way, you’re also connected to Pras Michel (who is risking a few years in prison and hopes for Trump to pardon him) “through the legal and political controversies surrounding foreign lobbying efforts in the U.S., particularly concerning a meeting in the Seychelles in 2016 involving associates of then-President-elect Donald Trump”, according to AI.

YOUR “VLAD-TV” PODCAST
This was the mistake. A big one. Until I came across this episode of Vlad-TV I couldn’t connect you to any of what I just wrote ’till now. But this appearance made me ask quite a few questions: why would a guy like you go on Vlad-TV? You can’t go on Joe Rogan, his podcast is too big, you simply sent your people. Shawn Ryan, unfortunately, still considers you his boss so we can’t have much truth out of his podcast, only pure Erik’s propaganda. But Vlad? Your narrative needed to be listened to by a big part of the black community through, of course, a white guy…but were you really that desperate? And the comments of that episode, hilarious, many were so positive about you, all coming from people that never heard of you before (by the way, more Africans know about you than Americans). Anyway, that interview made it all pan out into a different perspective for me. The cover photo I chose for this “opinion piece” of mine is a screenshot of a frame at 52:25, when you shushed Vlad as if he were a child getting accidentally too close to the truth (he’s another podcaster being used without knowing it, but on the Sean Combs/Sean Carter spectrum). You went voluntarily on Vlad-TV and you weren’t even paid, that should tell us something: what kind of mercenary are you?!

You got quite nervous when at 4:18 Vlad mentions the Prince/DeVos family connection; at 12:12 you said “It was an era of bases getting closed”, like in House of Cards; at 26:00 you say: “Iran is responsible for everything”, and that reminds me of that line murmured by Reymond Tusk: “America can be just as dangerous as Iran” to journalist “Ayla Sayadd”, played by Mozhan Navabi, a real life Iranian (as she starts investigating the “casino connection” in Missouri); at 30:42, you talk about the pardon by Trump, a recurrent theme in House of Cards, of course; at 33:37 about Hurricane Katrina; at 37:44 The Somali Project documentary (I did one too about the same subject); at 39:24 Piracy and the Maersk Alabama. Anyway, I’ll leave the rest as “footnotes”, but this one is important: at 1:21:09 you said: “I got crashed from 14 years of cancellation culture”, and now you’re back, right? Erik, you felt betrayed by your own country (I know the feeling, believe me) because of what happened in Iraq but you can’t go on like this: ICE agents, deportations, deposing presidents, wars everywhere, showing up in podcasts with Brian Harpol, etc.  

CONCLUSION
Your friend Dick Cheney died when Zohran Mamdani got elected mayor of New York City and I wondered if you guys prepared for that during those long talks in Wyoming. Moreover, the more they talk about Jeffrey Epstein the less they talk about you (was the FBI busy cancelling your name from the files more than any other individual?). How can a connected person like you be mentioned only twice in the Epstein files: one is in the Robert Mueller investigation e-mails and the other one is after a February 14, 2020 “FOIA request” where you’re the only one to have a July 2021 “Full Denial Based on Exemptions” result, why is that? You must be special. If you really want to be that rising tide that lifts all the boats, as you often describe your father, you need to change strategy because until now you're just drowning all the boats around you (or bombing them, literally). Doesn't matter how many hours of podcasts you and your people are on or how many movies you are discreetly involved in. We should try, at least try, to create a world where everybody can profit.

So, Erik, here’s my proposition: let’s get a Tusker in one of NBO’s bars, you and me, man to man, you choose the place. Because notwithstanding all the violence you’ve been responsible for during these past two decades, inside and outside the US, I feel there’s always hope for redemption. And if you want to know something about me, I simply abide by that golden Arthur Miller’s rule:
“If only one knew that we’re all connected”.

MATTEO FRASCHINI KOFFI 
(freelance journalist/filmmaker)

FOOTNOTES:

VLAD-TV

40:04 meetings with Trump in 2016 and 2019.

41:02 meeting with Steve Bannon for taking over Afghanistan, April 2017.

47:15 meeting in early January 2017 (?) in Seychelles with a Russian banker close to Putin and an Emirati official. Backchanneling for Russia (like the Chinese character in House of Cards).

49:50 Besty DeVos and Project Veritas using Prince’s training facility in Wyoming.

50:50 The interview was apparently recorded during “the idiot UN General Assembly”, so early September 2024.

51:58 the January 6 Capitol attack, EP, who donated USD250,000 to the Trump campaign, gets nervous again. Rough editing of the video. He “shushed” Vlad once his sister is mentioned again. He talks about Mark Zuckerberg money to some States. “I was on the West Coast when that (January 6) happened”, EP feels to confirm that even though nobody asked where he was.

1:00:48 USA making peace with Russia to counter China (Trump-Putin meeting).

1:05:13 “Trump assassination attempt”, Prince asks “Which one?”.

1:10:30 “From 100ish defense contractors during Clinton to 5 now” (same story as per PointCorp in “State of Play”).

1:12:20 Prince went to Israel in November 2023 with a strategy to flood tunnels in Gaza thanks to the technology of a Texan drilling company.

1:14:32 Always blaming Iran for everything.

AL JAZEERA (Blackwater's Erik Prince: Iraq, privatising wars, and Trump | Head to Head)

LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOB4V-ukpBI

March 8, 2019:

31:41 Meeting with Trump (plus Don Jr., Stephen Miller, George Nader from Blackwater, and Joel Zamel Australian-Israeli agent) at Trump Tower on August 3, 2016.

36:33 building a wall on the Mexican border.

41:39 “Not a fan of Iran”.

SHAWN RAYAN PODCAST

LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwK_XLFOm_I&t=12418s

July 4, 2022:

3:12:10 Local administration matters more than regional or national (like Joe Rogan said).

3:13:58 Tariffs matter (like Trump).

3:26:58 Opium wars with China (like the Raymond Tusk-Frank Underwood meeting).

30:00:08 “I saw Trump only one (?) time when he was President in 2019”, a big lie.

PDB PODCAST (Iranian-American)

LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBfyyLLM3pc

February 29, 2024:

6:50 R.F. Kennedy, “Great guy” (like Trump/ and courting Joe Rogan).

8:29 birthday at 7 in Berlin in 1976 (State of Play).

11:50 Major base or range facility to be closed under B.R.A.C. (House of Cards).

37:40 Iranian surrogates kill Derek.

39:43 From 100 contractors to 5 (State of Play).

40:38 Jake instead of Johnathan Tepper.

50:40 Iranian arming the Houthis.

1:14:42 “Iranian communist finances the Intercept”.

1:23:06 “Chinese cyber-attack” (House of Cards).

1:46:00 Lobbying affairs (House of Cards – a black man playing the role, of course).

1:50:11 Stanfield Turner.

1:52:37 Shipyard workers (“Nobody in Washington gives a f--- about you!” – House of Cards).