Monsanto’s Covert Ties to Blackwater: Corporate Power and Private Intelligence in the Modern Era
How a Multinational Corporation Leveraged Private Security Firms for Intelligence Operations and the Suppression of Activism
Mercenaries, former CIA, and black ops agents are battling it out with a ragtag group of civilian activists on behalf of an evil multinational corporation hellbent on mutating private citizens in the name of corporate profits...
Sounds a bit like a Hollywood production, doesn’t it? Maybe Jason Statham’s latest movie or a new “Fast and Furious” flick featuring Michelle Rodriguez?
If we could only be so lucky. As it turns out, this is another chapter in the ongoing controversy surrounding Monsanto, now a subsidiary of Bayer, and its multi-billion-dollar empire.
Monsanto has a long history of hiring outside contractors and private security firms to monitor and manage potential threats to its interests, including civil rights groups, activists, and individuals.
Back in 2010, Monsanto confirmed that it had enlisted the services of organizations like Blackwater—a private military company known for its involvement in controversial U.S. military operations—to provide “Monsanto’s security group with reports about activities or groups that could pose a risk to the company, its personnel, or its global operations.”
Monsanto’s Empire
At its peak, Monsanto was generating billions of dollars in revenue. As of 2023, Bayer, Monsanto's parent company, reported global revenues of €50.7 billion (approximately $54 billion USD), although a portion of these earnings is from Bayer's broader pharmaceutical and agricultural businesses.
The controversies surrounding Monsanto continue to impact its public image, mainly due to the backlash from its production of genetically modified seeds and agrochemicals.
Monsanto has consistently demonstrated strong financial performance with an expected growth rate that fueled Wall Street optimism.
Today, Bayer, as Monsanto's parent company, faces a more complex financial situation, including legal battles related to Roundup, its controversial herbicide, resulting in billions of dollars in settlements.
Blackwater’s Clandestine Work
The Nation published an article in its October 4, 2010, edition, revealing how internal Blackwater documents detailed their clandestine work for multinational corporations, including Monsanto:
“[E]ntities closely linked to the private security firm Blackwater have provided intelligence, training, and security services to US and foreign governments as well as several multinational corporations, including Monsanto, Chevron, the Walt Disney Company, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, and banking giants Deutsche Bank and Barclays, according to documents obtained by The Nation.”
By January 2008, a covert relationship between Blackwater subsidiary Total Intelligence Solutions (TIS) and Monsanto was solidified. [1][2][3] Cofer Black, the chair of TIS, met with Kevin Wilson, Monsanto’s Security Manager for Global Issues, in Zurich, where Monsanto reportedly agreed to pay Blackwater agents as much as $500,000 to infiltrate anti-Monsanto organizations.
This effort included gathering intelligence on activist groups and even infiltrating them "legally."
As The Nation reported:
Black wrote that Wilson "understands that we can span collection from internet, to reach out, to boots on the ground on legit basis protecting the Monsanto [brand] name.... Ahead of the curve info and insight/heads up is what he is looking for."
Black added that Total Intelligence "would develop into acting as intel arm of Monsanto." Black also noted that Monsanto was concerned about animal rights activists and that they discussed how Blackwater "could have our person(s) actually join [activist] group(s) legally."
In an email to Blackwater founder Erik Prince and other Blackwater executives, Black confirmed that TIS was to act as the "intel arm of Monsanto," tasked with protecting the corporation's brand from threats posed by animal rights activists and environmental organizations.
To fully grasp the potential magnitude of this operation, one need look no further than Black, as reported by The Washington Post:
"Total Intelligence Solutions, has assembled a roster of former spooks -- high-ranking figures from agencies such as the CIA and defense intelligence -- that mirrors the slate of former military officials who run Blackwater.
Its chairman is Cofer Black, the former head of counterterrorism at CIA known for his leading role in many of the agency's more controversial programs, including the rendition and interrogation of Al-Qaeda suspects and the detention of some of them in secret prisons overseas."
Corporate Spying and Covert Operations
Covert intelligence and infiltration tactics employed by Blackwater and its subsidiaries on behalf of corporate entities represent a shift in how powerful multinationals handle dissent and manage threats to their profitability.
As RJ Hillhouse, a national security blogger, wrote in 2007, TIS provided “Fortune 500 companies” with CIA-level capabilities for gathering information and conducting covert operations.
“In the old days, a corporation had to spend millions lobbying select Senators and Congressmen and the White House to move the US intelligence apparatus to support such activities in line with its corporate interests. Now they can cut out the middle man.”
In an effort to squash this story, Monsanto issued a public statement trying to distance itself from Blackwater:
Monsanto did not hire Blackwater nor did we approve of the firm infiltrating any groups as was suggested in the Nation article. In 2008, 2009 and early 2010, a firm called Total Intelligence Solutions (TIS) provided Monsanto ’s security group with reports about activities or groups that could pose a risk to the company, its personnel or its global operations. [...]
Prior to retaining TIS, Monsanto specifically [i]nquired about and was informed that TIS was a completely separate entity from Blackwater." [emphasis added]
While technically true, their effort proved at best a poorly constructed sleight of hand as The Nation had already reported that the same entity owns both Blackwater and Total Intelligence.
Additionally, back on November 2, 2007, The Washington Post reported:
"The Prince Group, the holding company that owns Blackwater Worldwide, has been building an operation that will sniff out intelligence about natural disasters, business-friendly governments, overseas regulations and global political developments for clients in industry and government.
The operation, Total Intelligence Solutions, has assembled a roster of former spooks -- high-ranking figures from agencies such as the CIA and defense intelligence -- that mirrors the slate of former military officials who run Blackwater. [...]
Total Intelligence Solutions is one of a growing number of companies that offer intelligence services such as risk analysis to companies and governments." [emphasis added]
The DeVos-Prince Connection
Erik Prince, founder of Blackwater, comes from a family deeply tied to conservative politics. His sister, Betsy DeVos, served as the U.S. Secretary of Education from 2017 to 2021 under the Trump administration, where she was one of the most prominent figures advocating for school choice and voucher programs.
The DeVos family remains one of America's most influential and wealthy conservative families, contributing significantly to Republican political campaigns.
Salon reported that before working in the Trump administration, Prince’s sister
[M]arried into the DeVos family, one of the country’s biggest donors to Republican and conservative causes. (“I know a little something about soft money, as my family is the largest single contributor of soft money to the national Republican Party,” Betsy DeVos wrote in a 1997 Op-Ed in the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call.)
She chaired the Michigan Republican Party from 1996 to 2000 and again from 2003 to 2005, and her husband, Dick, ran as the Republican candidate for Michigan governor in 2006.
The Bush-Blackwater Nexus
Questions about Blackwater's ties to the Bush administration and its use as a contractor in CIA operations emerged in the mid-2000s. Salon reported on Blackwater’s connections to prominent Republicans, noting that its founder had deep ties to right-wing Christian groups and that the firm had benefitted from lucrative government contracts.
Blackwater, now rebranded as Academi and later merged with other firms to form Constellis, continues to operate as a private security provider despite its controversial past.
Salon reported, "The ties between State and Blackwater are only part of a web of relationships that Blackwater has maintained with the Bush administration and with prominent Republicans." According to Salon,
Prince, who founded Blackwater in 1996 but reportedly took a behind-the-scenes role in the company until after 9/11, has connections to the Republican Party in his blood.
His late father, auto-parts magnate Edgar Prince, was instrumental in the creation of the Family Research Council, one of the right-wing Christian groups most influential with the George W. Bush administration.
Prince has also "been affiliated with the Council for National Policy, the secretive Christian conservative organization, whose meetings have been attended by Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and Paul Bremer, and whose membership is rumored to include Jerry Falwell, Ralph Reed, and Dobson."
The Bigger Picture
This reveals that companies like Monsanto, through partnerships with private security firms like Blackwater, have access to intelligence and covert capabilities that far exceed what is typical for civilian companies.
While Monsanto's public statement in response to these revelations attempted to distance the company from Blackwater, it is clear that the lines between private security and intelligence operations are increasingly blurred.
With billions at stake and the ability to bypass traditional government oversight, private corporations like Monsanto are able to defend their interests through covert means typically associated with government espionage.
As these tactics continue, the relationship between corporate interests, security firms, and the government remains a matter of concern.
Footnotes:
[1] The Nation connected two companies, Total Intelligence Solutions (Total Intelligence) and the Terrorism Research Center (Terrorism Research), to Blackwater's owner, founder, and former Navy SEAL, Erik Prince. The Nation reported that "Prince is listed as the chairman of both companies in internal company documents, which show how the web of companies functions as a highly coordinated operation." In short, Total Intelligence and Terrorism Research are subsidiaries of Blackwater.
[2] The Washington Post reported the connection between TIS and Blackwater back in 2007 as well. [Dana Hedgpeth, "Blackwater's Owner Has Spies for Hire"” Washington Post, Nov. 3, 2007, p.A01.]
[3] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Total_Intelligence_Solutions%2C_LLC
Featured Image: “Monsanto IS Poisoning You,” by EdFladung, Licensed May 30, 2013, under Attribution-NoDerivs (CC BY-ND 2.0).