Remember them militarized police explorers? If that worried you than this'll surely get your (pet) goat: "residents of Hardin, MT, were alarmed last week when executives from the firm, American Police Force, showed up in the town, which does not have its own police department, with Mercedes SUVs bearing "City Of Hardin Police Department" decals."
The company is close to closing a deal which would give it control of a jail in the small Montana town in order to build a police training facility. APF's own website links itself to the U.S. Training Center operated by Xe--the private military security firm formerly known as Blackwater--but the link has been denied by Xe spokespeople. Ditto APF's claims to have worked with the U.S. government. Founder Michael Hilton, a U.S. citizen apparently originally from Montenegro, has a long criminal record which includes real estate scams, misdirection of funds and writing bad checks. A shady character indeed. Xe is almost certainly being truthful on this one.
The Raw Story blog studied Burke's Peerage and came across the fact that the APF coat of arms seems to be very similar to Serbian Prince Aleksandar Karageorgevich. (Born in White Lodge, England!) In fact, save the yellow border on the shield, replaced in the APF coat with two yellow fleurs-de-lis, and some variations in the crown, they are identical. The coat of arms also figures on the national flag of Serbia. Although the coat of arms of Montenegro is very different, its flag and coat also feature a crowned double-headed eagle.
Blackwater itself has been linked to the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, a link strenuously dismissed as conspiracy theory by both Blackwater (Xe) and the Knights of Malta. An official European Parliament report claims that Blackwater used Malta as a base of operations in support of CIA-rdered rendition of suspected terrorists.
The SMOM coat of arms also bears a resemblance to the APF/Alexander K. coats--ermine cape, crown, white cross, but then again, many other share these elements as well. It appears as there is a rather tangled history between the Yugoslav royal family and various Orders of St. John, and the SMOM, as a descendant of the Knights Hospitaller are also called the Order of St. John.
The patron of Freemasonry is St. John and the double-headed eagle is used as the symbol of the Scottish Rite. It is suggested that this is an alchemical symbol of the union of male and female elements in the personality. In Orthodox countries it symbolizes the dual sovereignty of the Emperor--religious and political--or his dominance over East and West. Which would lead chilling resonance to its use by APF...if it were indeed a Xe front. Blackwater is accused of having a secret crusader doctrine and a goal of establishing Christian supremacy in the Middle East.
Former Blackwater exec Joseph Schmitz is an honorary member of the SMOM. Blackwater was named by a wealthy scion by the name of Eric Prince. Evocatively named, reclusive, ultra-conservative, convert to Roman Catholicism, Prince has donated generously to Republican and conservative Christan organizations.
It has been said that Prince "“views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe...To that end, Mr. Prince intentionally deployed to Iraq certain men who shared his vision of Christian supremacy, knowing and wanting these men to take every available opportunity to murder Iraqis. Many of these men used call signs based on the Knights of the Templar, the warriors who fought the Crusades”."
Xe strikes us as an unusual name. We can only find one other use--it the abbreviation for Xenon--a noble (haha) gas. It is colorless, odorless and heavy. Not a bad symbol for a covert police force! The name is Greek and means "foreign(er)", "strang(er)" or "guest."
But the claims made by APF which link themselves to the U.S. Training Center and Xe appear to be perfidious. Their use of Yugoslav royal heraldry remains a mystery.
Not knowing where to go with this info, we emailed both Xe about their name and APF for some clarification about the coat of arms.
While we're waiting also though we'd post this nifty image from the APF of an earth tessellated for use as a giant chessboard because it meshes nicely with recent posts.
While we are eagerly awaiting a response to our inquiries, we hope it's not a jack-booted mercenary parachuting through the skylight. A simple email will suffice! We're not so worried though, APF appears to be a clever scam rather than some far scarier Xe shenanigan. But with Mr. "Hilton's" Montenegrin background, there may be some other weird Byzantine politics at play.
But long after the wool comes up and the APF exposed, Xe will still be lurking out there, odorless, transparent, heavy. Even scarier still, people like those in Montana will find nothing wrong in welcoming them with open arms, as long as some jobs are involved.