“BLACKWATER”, BY ANY OTHER NAME IS STILL BAD FOR AMERICA

…Blackwater.....sorry, Academi, military contractors in the Afghani opium fields.

Call it what you will, but private military contractors should be outlawed in the United States.

How many of you remember that name, “Blackwater”.   

 

Yes, I am referring to the company now called Academi that was originally founded in 1997 by Erik Prince and Al Clark. This private military contractor was formerly known as Blackwater, but after a score of bad publicity while operating in Iraq and Afghanistan, the company was renamed as The US Training Center in 2009, and then it became "Academi" in 2011 by its new owners.  The current CEO is Craig Nixon and the company is still headquartered in Arlington, Virginia.

 

Even though they have been trying to keep a low profile, this company is still one of the most profitable private military operations in the world. 

As to their current business operations, their name may have changed, but their practice of getting rich on US Pentagon contracts hasn't.

 

...A Blackwater, now Academi Helicopter

 

Academi is the Pentagon’s largest contractor by taking 32% of the $1.8 billion dollars that was devoted for eradicating narcotics in Afghanistan, mainly from the Afghan opium production. That's twice as much contract income as the second-largest Pentagon contractor, Northrop Grumman.

Yes, Academi received $569 million taxpayer dollars for “training, equipment, and logistical support” to their Afghan forces for conducting their counter-narcotics efforts.

So, you ask, just what kind of results have they had in their efforts to eradicate narcotics in Afghanistan?

Well, opium is one of the primary sources of revenue for the Afghan Taliban and opium is partly responsible for the resurgence of this Afghan military group.  The resurgence has been the cause for President Obama to delay the withdrawal of US troops in Afghanistan.

Of course the Afghani government takes an even bigger share of the narco-money than the Taliban does. For that reason, Afghanistan is considered by many nations to be a narco-state.

But how good have Academi’s efforts really been?

Well, opium production has steadily risen from 71,000 Hectares in 1994 to 224,000 Hectares in 2014.  And how big is 1 Hectare?  One Hectare is 2.47 acres.  So, if you do the math, that’s over 550,000 acres of opium poppies. 

Doesn’t sound like we are getting our tax money’s worth for Academi’s pathetic efforts does it?

In fact, Afghan opium cultivation has increased by 7% just from 2013 to 2014 and opium production increased as much as 17% over the same period, according to the UN report in November.  Reuters also notes: "Authorities are worried that a record opium harvest in Afghanistan will flood global heroin markets this year."

Academi in its former Blackwater incarnation have an infamous history in Afghanistan. Blackwater once set up shell companies to disguise its off-shore business practices, according to a Senate report.  This was done so that its contracts would be unimpeded by the killing of Iraqi and Afghan civilians by Blackwater employees.

But to put all this in the words from our Wall Street businesses: “At least Blackwater made a profit out of the whole mess.”

Spoken like a true leech, that feasts on the backs of the American tax payer.

Copyright G.Ater  2015