Guess what Blackwater has been up to recently?

 Blackwater's name is mud these days. That's why they've been known as Academi since 2011.
   The name may have changed, but the practice of getting rich on Pentagon contracts hasn't.

 Statistics released on Tuesday reveal that the rebranded private security firm, known since 2011 as Academi, reaped over half a billion dollars from the futile Defense Department push to eradicate Afghan narcotics, some 32% of the $1.8bn in contracting money the Pentagon has devoted to the job since 2002.

Academi has collected $569 million taxpayer dollars for “training, equipment, and logistical support” to Afghan forces conducting counternarcotics. That's twice as much as the second-largest contractor, Northrop Grumman.

 So how has that counter narcotics effort been going in Afghanistan? If your metric is reducing the supply of opium, the results are not very good.

 Afghanistan is the source of 80% of the world's illicit opium products, according to The United Nations' 2014 World Drug Report.
   Afghan opium cultivation has increased by 7% from 2013 to 2014 and production increased as much as 17% over the same period, the UN reported in November. "Authorities "are worried that a record opium harvest in Afghanistan will flood global heroin markets this year," Reuters also notes.

 Opium is one of the primary sources of revenue for the Taliban and is partly responsible for the resurgence of the group, which has caused President Obama to delay the withdrawal of our troops.
  Of course the Afghani government takes an even bigger share of the narco-money than the Taliban does. Afghanistan is considered by many to be a narco state.

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 Well, at least Blackwater made a profit out of the whole mess. READ MORE