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By September, the U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan will be down to its pre-surge level of 68,000. For the next year after that, politicians and generals will debate how rapidly to bring additional troops home. And while all that happens, the world's most infamous security company will retain its big compound in the capital city of Kabul.
Academi, once known as Blackwater, operates a 435,600 square-foot "forward operating base" — which is what the U.S. military calls its warzone outposts — called Camp Integrity. Among other things, it's a hub for information about the sprawling campaign against Afghan narcotics. And it even has its own t-shirt for sale, shown above, on Academi's online swag store.
The little-known facility, located near Kabul International Airport, has been home to Blackwater/Academi's Afghanistan operations since 2009. The base features a "24/7 operations center, fueling stations, vehicle maintenance facility, lodging, office and conference space and a fortified armory," says John Procter, a spokesman for the company. Some online descriptions of Camp Integrity describe it as a hub for security contractors from different companies as well.
Camp Integrity is unlikely to close any time soon. "Camp Integrity plays a valuable role in serving as a forward operating base for Academi's employees and customers and will continue to do so as long as there is an operational need," Procter tells Danger Room, though he declined to discuss "personnel or specific clients" in Afghanistan.
Camp Integrity is a known quantity to the U.S. military. In February 2011, the Army Corps of Engineers gave a no-bid deal to the Blackwater subsidiary U.S. Training Center to house its personnel there.
The base supports a variety of contracts in Afghanistan, but there's one in particular that stands out. "Academi is responsible for providing all-source intelligence analyst support and material procurement for U.S. and Coalition Forces in Afghanistan through the Counter-Narcoterrorism Technology Program Office's (CNTPO) TORP 0236 Afghanistan Combined Joint Interagency Task Force (CJIATF) NEXUS Support Task Order," Procter says. In October, the obscure CNTPO office solicited a contract worth $875 million for "information" about Afghan drugs, part of a $3 billion global narcotics hunt that the Pentagon is outsourcing.
Blackwater/Academi hasn't always been so lucky. In late 2010, the company lost a $1 billion deal with the military to train Afghan police. That potential deal collapsed after personnel for Blackwater, operating under the company name "Paravant," took guns out of a U.S. armory that were intended for Afghan police usage. (And signed them out using the name "Eric Cartman.") One of the main reasons the deal fell through was because CNTPO lost an internal bureaucratic fight to wrest the training contract from the State Department.
Academi, rebranded for the second time in December, wants very badly to turn over a new leaf, at least in the public eye. The company, sold by founder Erik Prince in 2010, signed on a ton of Washington players to its board of advisers and pledged a new era of, well, integrity. It will still send mercs to dangerous places around the world. But it also wants to focus on its other longstanding business of training cops and soldiers.
And Academi even wants back into Iraq, to wash away the stain of the 2007 Nisour Square shootings by its former employees. With Afghanistan, the merc firm never left — and, whatever U.S. troops may do, it apparently won't leave any time soon.
Wired
