The Afghan crisis is truly devastating. What’s worse is how Blackwater is making billions from military contracts. The private security firm’s founder is exploiting the situation and charging $6,500 per flight ticket out of the war-torn country.
Who is Erik Prince and why is he charging $6,500?
Erik Prince, a former US Navy SEAL officer is the founder of Blackwater, a private security firm. The former SEAL justifies the $6,500 flight cost for transporting people who are trapped inside their homes to the airport. This gamut is just another effort by Prince as he campaigns the need for privatizing warfare. After all, he has previously voiced the need to privatize the war in Afghanistan. Hence, Prince has been under the spotlight for a long time. He started out as the chief executive for Blackwater.
In 2007, the firm’s guards shot over a dozen of Iraqui civilians in Baghdad. The son of the auto-parts tycoon has provided security contracts across conflict zones from Central Asia to the Middle East. However, he renamed and sold the firm in 2010. But, he recently opened another firm called Blackwater USA that sells silencers, knives, and ammunition. For the past two years, Prince has been campaigning, rather unsuccessfully, to convince former President Donald Trump to replace American soldiers with Security contractors in Afghanistan.
Afghan crisis: Not the first time Prince took advantage of the war
“I don’t think any human being who has a heart and soul would support efforts to profit off of people’s agony and pain if they’re trying to depart a country and fearing for their lives,” said Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary.
The Afghan crisis is not the first time Prince was ‘heartless’. In 2012, the Blackwater founder was implicated in a UN report. The report claimed that he violated the arms embargo imposed on Somalia during its civil war in 1992. The allegation came to light after Robert Young Pelton, a journalist sued Erik Prince.
Additionally, he is also accused of violating a different UN arms embargo in Libya. Back in 2019, the firm allegedly supplied arms to a warlord who conspired to overthrow the democratic government in Libya. The firm was supplying arms and soldiers for a cost of $80 million.