Blackwater CEO Thick as Thieves With Bush, Christian Right

The CEO of embattled Blackwater USA has deep ties to the GOP and the religious right, beginning with a college internship in the first Bush White House. Erik Prince’s security firm's federal contracts have grown from under $1 million in 2001 to over $1 billion today, and he's made personal donations of $300,000 to Republicans and their causes, Salon reports.

Prince’s father was key to the creation of the Family Research Council, and his mother has served on the board of Focus on the Family—two evangelical institutions inextricable from the current administration. Prince is also affiliated with the shadowy Council for National Policy, where Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld supposedly mingle with Ralph Reed and James Dobson. (More Erik Prince stories.)