A Swamp by Any Other Name Would Smell as Reek 2
Mike Gruss, writing in my local rag, considers the tendency of beseiged companies to change their names to something vaguely latinate and altogether uncommunicative so as to outrun their reputations. He mentions, Philip Morris Altria and Bell Atlantic/NYNEX Verizon (but unaccountably leaves out Southwestern Bell Cingular not-your-father’s AT&T).
Then he focuses on Swampwater, now T/A Xe Academi. A nugget:
Academi may be a top-notch training school, or it may be a place Arnold Schwarzenegger stopped by in “Total Recall.” No one knows because they’ve never seen the word before.
Then the natural instinct is to be afraid.
Which, given Blackwater’s history and pending lawsuits, might not be a bad thing.
A mercenary by any other name is still a gun for hire.
January 9, 2012 at 11:39 am
Of course, this is the company where the CEO ran off to Abu Dhabi because he could train a private army there and not worry about nasty relations in the US and being extradited for war crimes to other countries. In the meantime, “Academi” now doesn’t make the mistake of letting its managers get named much in the press. I would, however, be interested in seeing how many are US government natsec men who also act as security advisers to various presidential hopefuls on the sly. And a while ago Cryptome pointed out a Congressional hearing in which “Xe” was castigated for creating lots of shell companies with different names to act as fronts for various operational arms. We create the best in corporate mercenaries. Without 9/11 and US tax money, “Academi” wouldn’t the goto business for the world’s badmen, inevitable propper-upper of the Karzai regime etc, or even as few still seem to know — an arms manufacturer and exporter.
January 9, 2012 at 3:17 pm
Well put. I’ve followed their antics for years.