Thank you OC Weekly. We are honored by being recognized as the “best local blog in Orange County.” Our diversified team will continue to raise the bar to educate and inform our readers on a wide spectrum of stories. Hopefully the following post will result in an active debate on another aspect of the war in Iraq that is back in the news.
The following is my post from Jan 26th on the topic of Blackwater USA, a private firm operating in Iraq as we spend billions of dollars in rebuilding that country. We are told that Blackwater also provides security for visiting VIP’s and logistics support for our troops.
While I attempt to post stories that “have legs” this is one which just resurfaced due to a recent incident in which 11 Iraqi’s were killed by Blackwater employees.
In the same edition The LA Times just published TWO editorials on Blackwater. The first by Rosa Brooks entitled “Mercenaries R Us” and a second by Timothy Hsia entitled “The Outsourced War.”
Blackwater employees are, in most cases, retired US military who are well compensated for their services.
After revisiting my Jan 26th post (which follows) we would welcome your thoughts on the pro’s and con’s of companies such as Blackwater. Do private firms, in the process of rebuilding a country in a war zone, have the right to hire their own Army if you will, for their employee security?
From the Juice archives:
Government contracting.. “Outsourcing” military “soldiers of fortune”
Yesterday’s LA Times (1-25-07) had an interesting article entitled “Bush’s rent-an-army.” Jeremy Scahill peels back the onion on Blackwater USA to show the extent of a private “professional military, law enforcement, security, peacekeeping and stability operations firm who provides turnkey solutions.” Source Bill Sizemore, Virginian-Pilot news. Blackwater operates a 6,000 acre training facility for their “soldiers of fortune” in Moyock, NC.
In the Times story it claims that there are 48,000 private soldiers now in Iraq.
You should recall the story and photosof four private contractors who were killed with their bodies hung on a bridge back in 2004. They were employed by Blackwater.
After the first Gulf War Defense Secretary Dick Cheney retained the services of a subsidiary of Halliburton to study the use of a private military army in support of American soldiers in combat zones. In other words, “outsourcing.”
“The Geneva Convention expressly bans the use of mercenaries–individual soldiers of fortune who fight solely for personal gain.”
My question for Juice readers. How do you feel about the use of a private military that operates without any US government agency oversight?
This entry was posted by Larry Gilbert, on Friday, January 26, 2007.
3 responses to “Government contracting.. “Outsourcing” military “soldiers of fortune””
Anonymous Says:
1/26/2007 8:54 PM No mention of how many OC folks are working for Blackwater. If you’re a reporter in Iraq you certainly need Blackwater’s services – the military isn’t about to provide security for you. I’ve seen some concerns voiced in South American newpapers about the danger to locals being recruited by them – put the pay is very attractive.
How many Americans volunteered for the armed services to protect Halliburton employees or news reporters – not many I’ll bet.
Ron & Anna Winship Says:
1/26/2007 9:02 PM When they hung our boys on that bridge…in Falluja….we immediately sent $50 bucks to the Blackwater people for their families. Seems like a long time ago now. For prior service guys who basically know how to operate any weapon in the military arsenal and are too old to re-up….they sometimes become private security people for various projects around the globe. Iraq in this case…just seemed to be a great way to make $100K…..protecting various VIP’s or being outsourcing security for jobs the US Army and Marines think is less strategic than they want to engage in. There are always those special circumstances in virtually every country. There is no doubt that the indigenous people don’t like these “CIA look-a-likes” wandering around in Black SUV’s streaming “Get out of the way….you…so and so!”….In any event these guys all have families, are formally American Heroes…or have trained them and are putting their backsides on the line for cash no
doubt….but basically to protect American interests. Is it the right thing to do? Well, probably not….if we had a Draft in this country. But since not…who you goin call if you are in a war torn country and need security – Ghostbusters?
Anonymous Says:
1/28/2007 5:55 PM Deaths and dismemberments are not officially recorded on the contractors, so this is an easy way to keep “official” statistics lower by not reporting them like the military must.
This war is a PR nightmare. Cutting corners to quell some of the bad news is a face-saving move.
The eruption of gunfire was sudden and ferocious, round after round mowing down terrified men women and children, slamming into cars as they collided and overturned with drivers frantically trying to escape. Some vehicles were set alight by exploding petrol tanks. A mother and her infant child died in one of them, trapped in the flames.
The shooting on Sunday, by the guards of the American private security company Blackwater, has sparked one of the most bitter and public disputes between the Iraqi government and its American patrons, and brings into sharp focus the often violent conduct of the Western private armies operating in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, immune from scrutiny or prosecution.
Blackwater’s security men are accused of going on an unprovoked killing spree. Hassan Jabar Salman, a lawyer, was shot four times in the back, his car riddled with eight more bullets, as he attempted to get away from their convoy. Yesterday, sitting swathed in bandages at Baghdad’s Yarmukh Hospital, he recalled scenes of horror. “I saw women and children jump out of their cars and start to crawl on the road to escape being shot,” said Mr Salman. “But still the firing kept coming and many of them were killed. I saw a boy of about 10 leaping in fear from a minibus, he was shot in the head. His mother was crying out for him, she jumped out after him, and she was killed. People were afraid.”
At the end of the prolonged hail of bullets Nisoor Square was a scene of carnage with bodies strewn around smouldering wreckage. Ambulances trying to pick up the wounded found their path blocked by crowds fleeing the gunfire.
Yesterday, the death toll from the incident, according to Iraqi authorities, stood at 28. And it could rise higher, say doctors, as some of the injured, hit by high-velocity bullets at close quarter, are unlikely to survive.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2984819.ece
Knowing several contractors as well as those in uniform in theater, I have mixed emotions. I also have a great deal of trust in those I know who are there, doing the good deeds of trying to rebuild a society that has been neglected for so long and must be rebuilt from the ground up. Security must be maintained for any of this to work. Like it or not, it’s the truth. Without some form of private security, there will be no rebuilding, that is the reality. Does Blackwater do this job well? Seemingly or they wouldn’t be continuing to get the jobs. Do they screw up sometimes? Probably. Don’t we all…?
Carl.
Thank you for telling the truth.
Regardless how we feel about some of the private contractors responsible for rebuilding this war torn nation they have a responsibility to protect their employees. There are surely times when one or more security staff get trigger happy in performing their tasks. I doubt that Blackwater sanctions random killings.
anonymous 11:57 a.m.
Thank you for sharing “your own account” of what transpired. Were you there to witness the shootings or do you solely rely on one UK news account?
What provoked this exchange between Blackwater and those who died? Get the whole story before jumping to conclusions.
I am curious. Did you cry out when Blackwater employees were hung from a bridge in Iraq a few years ago?