BY THE time four former Blackwater security guards were sentenced last week to long prison terms for the 2007 fatal shooting of 14 civilians in Iraq, the man who sent the contractors there had long since moved on from the country and the company he made notorious.Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater, a former Navy SEAL and heir to a Michigan motor parts fortune, has spent the past few years searching for new missions, new fields of fire and new customers.He has worked in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates, and now focuses his efforts on Africa, with ties to the Chinese government, which is eager for access to some of the continent’s natural resources.Prince’s current firm, Frontier Services Group, provides what it describes as "expeditionary logistics" for mining, oil and natural-gas operations in Africa, and has the backing of Citic Group, a large, state-owned Chinese investment company.The private security industry that Prince helped bring to worldwide attention has fallen from...
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