Tracey Barnett: It doesn't get any dirtier than this in the world's first corporate war

In court documents the two men are referred to as John Doe #1 and John Doe #2 because their lives have already been threatened.

They say colleagues who have talked have died under suspicious circumstances. They don't want to be next. Not when you will be testifying against your former employer, a man like Erik Prince.

Remember the name - because it's not going away from the world stage any time soon. Doesn't ring any bells?

Prince's corporate headquarters are nestled in 2833ha of swampland in North Carolina. He has extra outposts and facilities in California, rural Illinois and Florida.

A fit 40-year-old former Navy Seal and H.W. Bush intern, Prince inherited a big piece of his father's US$1.3 billion fortune made from patenting lighted vanity mirrors for car visors. Father and son were proud of their far right, religious Republican roots.

You won't find many traditional suits in Prince's boardroom. In fact, the handles on the massive doors to his headquarters are fitted with .50-calibre machine-gun barrels. On the property is "R U Ready High School", replete with school hallways and taped screams to mimic the deadliest day of Columbine for training police assault teams, reports the Weekly Standard.

This is the headquarters of Xe [pronounced 'zee'], the latest renaming of a company once known as Blackwater. It is from here that Erik Prince controls private troops deployed in nine countries - with 20,000 more soldiers allegedly on call at a moment's notice, complete with helicopter gunships, aircraft, weapons and full support services, says Blackwater investigative author Jeremy Scahill.

Not many men can claim to be the sole private owner of what is arguably the world's largest and most elite private army for hire.

Though Prince might not see it that way. His is a calling beyond cash flow.

John Doe #2 wrote, "[Prince] views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe". He describes staffers using call signs based on the Knights of the Templar, the warriors who fought the Crusades, and executives who routinely bragged about "lay[ing] Hajiis out on cardboard".

Missionary zealot or not, Prince's business is booming. Blackwater's work in Iraq alone has reportedly reaped more than US$1 billion in government security contracts. In the first Gulf war, the ratio of soldiers to private contractors was 60-1. In Iraq, that ratio skewed to almost 1-1. Welcome to the first truly corporate war.

Prince's umbrella of companies now have a Maritime Division (with Somali pirates in their sites), a Security Division (Iraq and Afghanistan), a Domestic Operations Division (Bush called them in for Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans), a Canine Division (to train dog teams) and even a burgeoning little CIA with an Intelligence Division. There's no stopping their growth - and that's the problem. Under the declaration of former US Administrator of Iraq Paul Bremer, Blackwater had full immunity in Iraq under a US$21 million no-bid contract to keep him alive. The results weren't pretty. The two John Does, one a former US marine, the other formerly on Blackwater's management team, say that Prince generated substantial revenue by illegally smuggling weapons on his private plane. Staff reportedly "hotwashed" (destroyed) incriminating videotapes, emails and documents of excessive and unjustified deadly force to cover their tracks.

Today Blackwater is fighting on different fronts - investigations by the Justice Department over the Nisour Square shootings, where Blackwater staff reportedly killed 17 civilians in a traffic roundabout; the Inland Revenue Service for tax evasion, and in federal civil court in a suit by families of Iraqi civilian victims suing for war crimes and the murder of loved ones.

This is the residual stench of future corporate warfare, where a court martial has no meaning. Unlike enlisted soldiers, who are Blackwater employees accountable to - Erik Prince? When war is so thoroughly outsourced, we can only audit the books - and the bodies - after the funerals.

Today 70 per cent of intelligence spending is funnelled to private companies, according to Scahill.

"National duty is outbid by profits," Scahill told a Congressional hearing.

Xe is actively marketing their services to Fortune 500 companies too. Former CIA operatives with sensitive knowledge and contacts are now for sale to the highest bidder, be it foreign Governments or corporations. That may have always been true. The difference today is in the daunting scale of the sale.

This very day, Prince's lawyers are arguing before a judge in Virginia for a gag order against the Iraqi civilians, their lawyers and the press, citing national security. My guess is Prince is betting that if he can keep his private war business private, we won't fight to restrain him the next time. He might just be right.

www.traceybarnett.co.nz