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#  'Monstrous Human': Erik Prince Reportedly Charging $6,500 for Seats Out of Kabul

August 25 2021

Written by Andrea Germanos.

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**Blackwater founder Erik Prince** on Wednesday faced fresh accusations of being a war profiteer in response to [**reporting**](https://www.wsj.com/articles/in-kabul-private-rescue-efforts-grow-desperate-as-time-to-evacuate-afghans-runs-out-11629875097) that he's charging $6,500 per person for a seat on an evacuation flight out of Kabul.

The [**reporting**](https://www.wsj.com/articles/in-kabul-private-rescue-efforts-grow-desperate-as-time-to-evacuate-afghans-runs-out-11629875097) by the Wall Street Journal comes amid ongoing evacuations from Afghanistan of civilians, including at-risk Afghans, and follows President Joe Biden's Tuesday [**statement**](https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/08/24/defying-war-hawks-biden-plans-stick-afghan-exit-deadline) he still wants an August 31 deadline for the withdrawal of U.S. troops.

The *Journal* said that "chartered planes are flying out of Kabul with hundreds of empty seats," further reported that Prince would put an additional charge to get those trapped in their homes to the airport. However, it was unclear he had the capability to execute the flights.

"After making millions of dollars off the Afghanistan war, Erik Prince is back at it, exploiting people's desperation for cash," [**tweeted**](https://twitter.com/Abihabib/status/1430442655721267200%20) journalist Maria Abi-Habib. "Prince is charging $6,500 a person to get people out of Afghanistan while planes organized by NGOs leave Kabul empty."

Prince—the brother of former President Donald Trump's billionaire Education Secretary Betsy DeVos—previously [**pushed**](https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/07/12/notorious-war-profiteer-erik-prince-refuses-give-dream-mercenary-takeover-afghan-war%20) Trump to privatize the U.S. war in Afghanistan.

Last year, Trump [**pardoned**](https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/12/23/leaving-out-assange-who-exposed-us-war-crimes-trump-pardons-blackwater-guards-jailed) four contractors of the now-defunct Blackwater who were convicted of killing over a dozen unarmed citizens in Baghdad's 2007 Nisour Square massacre. Earlier this year, a United Nations report [**accused**](https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/02/20/report-illegal-80-million-arms-transfer-erik-prince-libyan-warlord-raises-question) Prince of violating an arms embargo by sending weapons to Libyan warlord and former CIA asset Khalifa Haftar.

*Andrea Germanos is a senior editor and staff writer at Common Dreams.*

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