Founder of Blackwater security co. writing memoir

[July 09, 2013]  NEW YORK (AP) -- The founder of the private security firm Blackwater Inc. is writing a memoir.

Erik Prince has a deal with Portfolio, an imprint of Penguin Random House. The publisher announced Monday that the book, currently untitled, is scheduled for November.

Prince, a former Navy SEAL who has rarely spoken to the media, said in a statement released by Portfolio that he was anxious to counter Blackwater's controversial image.

"Hundreds of American citizens employed by private military contractors, or PMCs, would lose their lives helping our government wage wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, only to have their memory tarnished by the unfair and/or ignorant depiction of PMCs as profiteers, 'jackbooted thugs,' or worse by the media and the political establishment that asked for our help in the first place," Prince said. "It's partly to honor their memory that I've written this book."

Blackwater was founded in North Carolina in 1997 by Prince, whose book will also challenge numerous reports that his company was awarded no-bid security contracts from the U.S. government at the beginning of the Iraq War. Blackwater became the focus of international scrutiny and ongoing legal action when guards were involved in a series of high-profile shootings.

A group of investors bought Blackwater from Prince in 2010 and renamed it.

[Associated Press]

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