Would be comical if it wasn’t so pitiful and disturbing in equal measure
June 23, 2024 11:48 AM   Subscribe

Military contractor Erik Prince started a private WhatsApp group for his close associates that includes a menagerie of right-wing government officials, intelligence operatives, arms traffickers, and journalists. We got their messages. from Off Leash: Inside the Secret, Global, Far-Right Group Chat [The New Republic; ungated] [CW: the quiet part, out loud]

Among the group’s hottest topics:

• The “Biden Regime,” which a consensus of Off Leash participants who weighed in view as an ally of Islamic terrorists and other anti-American forces that needs to be crushed along with them and its partners in the deep state, such as former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley, who “deserves to burn in hell,” Lara Logan shared with the group chat.

• The shortcomings of democracy that invariably resulted from extending the franchise to ordinary citizens, who are easily manipulated by Marxists and populists. “The West is at best a beautiful cemetery,” lamented Sven von Storch, whose aristocratic German family fled the country after World War II to Chile, where their son was raised before returning to the land of his ancestors, where he married the granddaughter of the Third Reich’s last de facto head of state, who was convicted at Nuremberg.

• Israel-Palestine, a problem that Michael Yudelson, Prince’s business partner at Unplugged, which markets an allegedly supersecure smartphone, said should be handled by napalming Hamas’s tunnel network. “I would burn all those bastards, and have everything above ground, everything left of Gaza, collapse into this fiery hell pit and burn!” he wrote.

• The Houthi rebels in Yemen, whom Yoav Goldhorn, who was an Israeli intelligence officer until last year and now works for a Tel Aviv–based security contractor headed by former senior national security veterans, thinks should be “dealt with” as soon as possible to ensure they don’t grow from “an inconvenience to a festering mess [that] will eventually require an entire limb to be amputated.”

• And most of all, Iran, which participants agreed, with a few exceptions, also needed to be wiped out. Saghar Erica Kasraie, a former staffer for Republican Representative Trent Franks when he served on the House Armed Services Committee and whom, according to her LinkedIn profile, she advised on Middle East issues, urged that the Islamic Republic’s clerical leaders be targeted by weaponized drones that “take them out like flys 😎.”
posted by chavenet (40 comments total) 52 users marked this as a favorite
 
Wow, this was very interesting to read. Thanks for the post.
posted by joannemerriam at 12:35 PM on June 23 [5 favorites]


“If we band together … we can damage the other side like no one has ever seen before!”

It apparently never occurred to any of them that their confidentiality might be compromised not by sophisticated cyberwarfare specialists but by old-fashioned leakers, which was virtually inevitable given the group’s size.


Wish in one hand, shit on everyone in the other; see which one gets fed up first.
posted by dannyboybell at 12:52 PM on June 23 [8 favorites]


His hopes were shared by many other Off Leash participants, among them Horatiu Potra, a Romanian mercenary who has recently been operating in the mineral-rich, conflict-plagued Democratic Republic of Congo. ... Potra wrote. “Surely there will be a strong man like Erik”...
"Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater, has appeared in yet another UN report on sanctions violations, this time in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The UN Group of Experts monitoring the country’s arms embargo claimed they have evidence that Prince attempted to broker a deal to deploy 2,500 Latin American mercenaries in the country’s war-torn, mineral-rich North Kivu region. The Group presented these findings in its most recent report from December 2023, but it seems to have gotten little attention. ...
"The alleged Prince deal highlights the need for action by the US authorities and the international community. If the UN Group’s allegations are true, Prince — a US citizen — likely acted as a broker of defense services, which is regulated under US arms export laws. Defense services include overtly military services provided to foreign actors, like military training, operating or maintaining weapons systems, or advising commanders. Yet it excludes providing armed security. Despite this distinction, it is highly likely that other contractors providing both military and security services in the DRC are engaging in or directly enabling offensive combat operations, suggesting “security” services could easily and fluidly become “military” or “defense services” in nature. Furthermore, the US has a blanket ban on arms exports to the DRC with narrow exceptions that require UN approval, and the UN Group’s reporting suggests that Prince’s alleged activities did not take place with proper notification and approval. US export authorities should consider whether the evident risks posed by the services Prince allegedly brokered violate these laws." [inkstickmedia]
posted by HearHere at 12:59 PM on June 23 [6 favorites]


"Barnett said he was a Trump fan in part because “the establishment hates” the former president, adding that the Russiagate scandal that led to his first impeachment had been cooked up by Democrats as part of a politically motivated attack to drive him from office. (An opinion I share.) When I told Barnett his remarks about the need for a new Nuremberg tribunal sounded like a call for an attack of the same type but against enemies of the group chat, he said he didn’t favor a politically driven kangaroo court but envisioned a scrupulously fair judicial process that “truly enables our country to move forward,” which could be ensured by establishing panels with impartial experts such as journalist Matt Taibbi, psychologist and commentator Jordan Peterson, and others of similarly “high integrity” to help determine who would be prosecuted."

Always good to have a reminder of where people stand. Not even going to touch the rest of that paragraph.

"Like me, you’re also tired of reading political drivel and propaganda that makes Pravda under Stalin look honest in comparison... I’m going to cover DC politicians and journalists like Hollywood celebrities – not the way they are worshiped by our current media masters" Cite.
posted by 1xdevnet at 1:40 PM on June 23 [13 favorites]


Also from the same folded site archive, "Sure, we all know Hillary Clinton heads one of the most corrupt political families in American history but what are you going to do?" "I’m also a serious writer with a long track record of success." Boy I sure do wonder how Ken got access to this group.
posted by 1xdevnet at 1:49 PM on June 23 [6 favorites]


Erik Prince, brother of Betsy deVos, son of some Billionaire.
“Every Billionaire is a policy failure.”
He’s proof. Like an anti-Batman.
posted by From Bklyn at 1:52 PM on June 23 [17 favorites]


I dunno, Batman definitely seems like a policy failure too.
posted by 1xdevnet at 1:53 PM on June 23 [42 favorites]


For people who fantasize about controlling global politics, they sure do throw "globalist" around as a dirty word pretty often. You have to wonder if some of them pause in the middle of their day plotting how to become rich on the downfall of nation-states as worldwide mining CEOs, political operatives of global superpowers, or heads of multinational private mercenary armies and think, "Wait, aren't we the globalists??"
posted by Avelwood at 2:07 PM on June 23 [24 favorites]


They’re Nazis, it just means “Jews”.
posted by Artw at 2:22 PM on June 23 [72 favorites]


it's a fuzzle, hyped as a riddle wrapped in the history of ENGIMA.

wait, realize what he's done yeah, the servant of the globalists just captured a bunch of chatty chat from the globalists and their minions.

what a blunt clever piece of leverage.
posted by clavdivs at 2:28 PM on June 23 [1 favorite]


July, 2021.
'Exclusive: Documents Reveal Erik Prince’s $10 Billion Plan to Make Weapons and Create a Private Army in Ukraine

DARING & CONQUEST: A CONVERSATION WITH ERIK PRINCE.'
posted by clavdivs at 2:47 PM on June 23 [2 favorites]


> They’re Nazis, it just means “Jews”.

I mean they're explicitly pro Israel, contain former members of Israeli intelligence, are explicitly advocating the Palestinian people falling into a first pit, and amputating Lebanon because they're at war with Israel.

I think you may want to rethink that take.
posted by constraint at 3:08 PM on June 23 [6 favorites]


the Russiagate scandal that led to his first impeachment had been cooked up by Democrats as part of a politically motivated attack to drive him from office. (An opinion I share.)

Oh for fuck's sake.
posted by Saxon Kane at 3:22 PM on June 23 [15 favorites]


As a Canadian, I want to know who the "right-leaning Canadian businessman" is.
posted by clawsoon at 3:26 PM on June 23 [5 favorites]


Once the cleansing was out of the way, security could be maintained by using “technology to identify sociopaths and keep them in their place.”
Sure, the genocidal fantasies are bad, but the worst part is the lack of self-reflection. /s
posted by clawsoon at 3:31 PM on June 23 [14 favorites]


> I think you may want to rethink that take.
they are, literally:
S was later revealed to be Sven von Storch, born to a German family that left for Chile after World War II, whose wife, Beatrix von Storch, is the granddaughter of Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk, Hitler’s finance minister from 1933, the year he took power, until he killed himself in Berlin in April 1945, as Russian troops closed in on the bunker where he and the dregs of his loyalists were holed up. In his last will and testament, Hitler appointed von Krosigk to serve under Joseph Goebbels, his handpicked successor as chancellor, but since his minister of propaganda committed suicide the day after Hitler, von Krosigk became the Third Reich’s head of state during its final days. “Von Krosigk never wavered in his enthusiasm and labors for the Nazi cause,” prosecutor Alexander Hardy said during his trial at Nuremberg, where he was sentenced to 10 years for financing the concentration camps...
posted by HearHere at 3:33 PM on June 23 [10 favorites]


contain former members of Israeli intelligence

Having read the article, it looks like they are on friendly terms with group members who include highly-placed extremist right-wing German political party officials who are also Nazi sympathizers. What an odd timeline we are in, when Israelis join hand-in-hand with actual Nazis.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 3:38 PM on June 23 [24 favorites]


I don't find it difficult at all to reconcile the participants' various seemingly-contradictory identities (Israeli spies collaborating with Nazi spawn): the term useful idiot applies here, probably as perceived by both sides.

In the same way, if you look at it from a certain perspective the virulently anti-Semitic Evangelical crowd are always crowing how much they love and support Israel. Evangelicals love Israel exactly the same way farmers love their livestock, right up to the moment it's time for the prophesied slaughter.
posted by tclark at 3:44 PM on June 23 [33 favorites]


I think you may want to rethink that take

Oh boy do I not, online Nazi types fucking love Israel just like Israel loves Orban. Hypocracy and contradiction bother the far right not one single bit.
posted by Artw at 3:55 PM on June 23 [54 favorites]


Sure, the genocidal fantasies are bad, but the worst part is the lack of self-reflection. /s

I feel this way about Nuremberg and vampryes.
posted by clavdivs at 4:17 PM on June 23 [2 favorites]




1.
posted by clavdivs at 5:17 PM on June 23 [1 favorite]


The sad thing about this is it won't make a lick of difference to right-wing folks, and leftists already knew that this is how conservatives talk. I guess it's good for anyone that didn't know to find out. If you're not exactly like them (rich, white, straight, cis, hateful, egocentric) you're not human to them, and will be treated accordingly when they're in power. Film at f@#$ing 11.
posted by signsofrain at 5:18 PM on June 23 [5 favorites]


John Mills, a retired Army colonel who held a cybersecurity post at the Pentagon under Trump, was overcome with emotion when his hero appeared at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February. “Tears streamed down my face,” he wrote to the Off Leash group chat from the event. “DJT and the J6ers are in the house.”

Wait, did the big army man actually cry, or is he fantasizing about being the big army man crying that Trump always talks about?
posted by I paid money to offer this... insight? at 5:33 PM on June 23 [8 favorites]


At this point I'm not here to win theoretical hearts & minds, and feel-good points + $1.50 will buy me a cup of coffee, but it's still helpful to have specific names to tie to viewpoints like these when the selfsame people crop up later pushing an agenda. I think that a lot of the people mentioned in the article are deeply delusional about both the way the world is and their ability to effect change, but those ideologies don't live in a vacuum. Despite my snark about the writer's own positions and opinions and the risk that it just drives these folks further underground into Telegram and/or more radical positions while wearing the "persecution"/"cancel culture"masks, I'm glad to see exposés like this to see just how many and what kind of people buy into the mindset.
posted by 1xdevnet at 5:44 PM on June 23 [11 favorites]


Also from the same folded site archive, "Sure, we all know Hillary Clinton heads one of the most corrupt political families in American history but what are you going to do?" "I’m also a serious writer with a long track record of success." Boy I sure do wonder how Ken got access to this group.
posted by 1xdevnet at 16:49 on June 23
[3 favorites +] [⚑]


Were they jealous finding out there was a group chat they weren't invited to, or envious? I always get those two confused.
posted by I paid money to offer this... insight? at 6:12 PM on June 23 [2 favorites]


Yeah, it's not even a secret that right-wingers and even rabid antisemites--namely of the fundamentalist Christian stripe--loves them some Israel because a) Israelis are the enemy of that other enemy: Muslims. And b) the existence of Israel is necessary to bring about the second coming of Christ, or some such nonsense that they nonetheless believe in.
posted by zardoz at 7:06 PM on June 23 [14 favorites]


Remember when these people’s ideological forebears began hemorrhaging from every orifice when they discovered there was a nefarious chat group called JournoList?
posted by Warren Terra at 7:09 PM on June 23 [8 favorites]


I live near his hometown. Let’s just say he was known for being a bully (and a bit deluded) for decades.
posted by beckybakeroo at 7:47 PM on June 23 [4 favorites]


beckybakeroo, can you expand on this? You're talking about Eric Prince (or Ken Silverstein?)
posted by Playdoughnails at 8:31 PM on June 23 [3 favorites]


As a Canadian, I want to know who the "right-leaning Canadian businessman" is.

My first guess was Kevin O’Leary. Seems like the sort of goober that would fit right In with this crowd. I wonder if the reporter didn’t actually pin down the actual identity, or felt some need to keep it semi-anonymous.
posted by jimw at 8:34 PM on June 23 [4 favorites]


The funny thing about these people is how much they think they know versus what's really happening. They're not on any inside loop. They are the future mid level leaders of the lunatic fringe, the future Brown Shirts. Like the first columns of troops Putin sent into Ukraine, they are intended to soak up the ammo from the initial waves of defense.

They will pay the price in the next Night of the Long Knives when it comes time for Trump (or whatever clone takes his place) to appear moderate and win back trust, after letting them rain terror on the public for a few years.
posted by CynicalKnight at 8:48 PM on June 23 [10 favorites]


> "For many “Christians Zionists,” and particularly for popular evangelists with significant clout within the Republican Party, their support for Israel is rooted in its role in the supposed end times: Jesus’ return to Earth, a bloody final battle at Armageddon, and Jesus ruling the world from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. In this scenario, war is not something to be avoided, but something inevitable, desired by God, and celebratory. What happens to the Jews and Palestinians is, to put it very mildly, collateral damage." [NBC]
posted by HearHere at 1:01 AM on June 24 [8 favorites]


there's also far-right folks who are pro-israel as they have these early crusader ideas about this country being a shining beacon of "western ideals" combating against everything else they hate about the middle east, and/or that it will make for a great base of operations for the eventual takeover of the region, and/or any other various and sundry political and military notions. israel should in no way be conflated with Jewish people at large, full stop.
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 3:16 AM on June 24 [12 favorites]


Having read the article, it looks like they are on friendly terms with group members who include highly-placed extremist right-wing German political party officials who are also Nazi sympathizers. What an odd timeline we are in, when Israelis join hand-in-hand with actual Nazis.
It's neofascism. There's no morals. There's no intellectual consistency. There is only what's needed to be said or done in the pursuit of power.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 5:07 AM on June 24 [14 favorites]


With Nazis and Likud in bed together, I am getting strong horseshoe theory vibes.
posted by hypnogogue at 5:37 AM on June 24 [1 favorite]


With Nazis and Likud in bed together, I am getting strong horseshoe theory vibes.

It's all about power. Netanyahu needs to stay in power to stay out of jail. He would sacrifice anything and anyone to stay in power at this point which is also why he's at his most dangerous and willing to work with the worst of the sociopaths and religious extremists.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 7:28 AM on June 24 [3 favorites]


I suspect there is a sizeable cohort of "Christians who loath and fear Jewish people taking over their territory and treasure, but fully embrace Jewish seizure of land held by Muslims"

ie, as long as they're doing it over there, what's not to like about a nice juicy conquest?
posted by CynicalKnight at 8:12 AM on June 24 [1 favorite]


"Fascists don't have beliefs, they have intentions." --A R Moxon
posted by Pickman's Next Top Model at 8:22 AM on June 24 [13 favorites]


want to fight nazis? give knives to the homeless

also bread, they can use the knives to cut it
posted by Rev. Irreverent Revenant at 5:03 PM on June 24 [1 favorite]


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