KABUL (TCA) — The Afghan Office of the National Security Council (NSC) on October 4 said the government would consider all legal options against anyone who tries to privatize the war in Afghanistan, Afghan broadcaster TOLOnews reported.
The move comes on the back of a campaign by the founder and former CEO of US’s Blackwater security company, Erik Prince, who for the past few weeks has been promoting the idea of privatizing the war in the country by using contractors.
In its statement, the NSC rejected outright the notion and said “in no manner does the government of Afghanistan condone this destructive and divisive debate.”
The NSC said the debate around privatizing the Afghan war would “add new foreign and unaccountable elements to our fight.
“This idea violates the principle that Afghans determine their own future. Afghan security and defense forces, under the framework of all applicable laws of the country, have the primary responsibility and authority for safeguarding the noble values of Islam, our national sovereignty, and the independence and territorial integrity of our beloved country and people.”
The NSC emphasized the war on terrorism is led — and will continue to be led — by Afghan national security and defense forces with the support of its international allies.
“Under no circumstances will the Afghan government and people allow the counterterrorism fight to become a private, for-profit business,” the NSC said.
Prince has held numerous interviews with the media over the past few weeks and just late last month he spoke to TOLOnews about his plans to privatize the war.
He said his forces could change the situation in the country within six months.
Defending his plan, he said: “I would say six months after the program is fully ramped up, you have a very different situation on the ground, I will commit to that.”
In an earlier interview this year, with the UK’s Independent, Prince again pitched his plan, while last month he told The Hill in an interview that it was not accurate to call it a privatization. “It’s really a rationalization,” he said.
“You have 15,000 US troops, you have 30,000 contractors there already. This plan brings both of those numbers way down 2,000 active duty, 6,000 contractors, that’s it,” he continued.
His plan however has been met by resistance from a number of circles and on August 28, US Defense Secretary James Mattis said “it is probably not a wise idea”.
Prince’s plans appear to include 3,600 “contracted veteran mentors” from Blackwater who would be deployed to Afghanistan – 36 for each Afghan unit and for two to four years at a time.
He also stated that the contractors would be equipped with airpower, weapons and would be joined by NATO and Afghan forces on every mission.
He stated that Afghans would be in the lead of this mission all the time, under Afghan rules of engagement and under Afghan rule of law.
“If one of these contractors I am recommending, does an evil act, intentionally injures a child or something like that, they could be held accountable under the uniform code of military justice here in Kabul, investigated, trialed, incarcerated back in their home country. We have a clear path for accountability,” he said.
Prince is an American businessman and former US Navy SEAL best known for founding the government services and security company Blackwater USA, now known as Academi.
Between 1997 and 2010, Blackwater was awarded $2 billion in US government security contracts, more than $1.6 billion of which were unclassified federal contracts and an unknown amount of classified work.
For nine years – between 2001 and 2010, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) allegedly awarded his company up to $600 million in classified contracts and it became the largest of the US State Department’s three private security companies.
Blackwater however came under increasing criticism after the Nisour Square massacre in September 2007, in which Blackwater employees opened fire in a crowded square in Baghdad, killing 17 Iraqi civilians and seriously wounding 20 more.
