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-Mud
ex-Jade Falcon
Bounty Hunter
Joined: 04-Nov-2003 00:00
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Nightmare
Lyran Alliance
Kommandant-General
Joined: 03-May-2002 00:00
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 Posted: 02-Apr-2004 08:11 Post subject: RE: The Modern Mercenary (true) |
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Can't be bothered to register, but I suspect this article is about those private "security" companies.
Here's more on them, quite interesting. Dated 2002.
http://www.publicintegrity.org/bow/
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Vampire
Free Worlds League
Lieutenant Colonel
Joined: 05-Feb-2002 00:00
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Location: Spain
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| Posted: 02-Apr-2004 08:15 Post subject: RE: The Modern Mercenary (true) |
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What about copypasting mud? 
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Oafman
Draconis Combine
Tai-sho
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Location: United States
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| Posted: 02-Apr-2004 11:30 Post subject: RE: The Modern Mercenary (true) |
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Yeah, it asked us to register for some sort of acct.
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-Mud
ex-Jade Falcon
Bounty Hunter
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| Posted: 02-Apr-2004 15:16 Post subject: RE: The Modern Mercenary (true) Full text version |
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sorry guys...i was in a hurry when I posted this...here's the full version.
Private U.S. Guards Take Big Risks for Right Price
By JAMES DAO
Published: April 2, 2004
OYOCK, N.C., April 1 — Nestled inconspicuously amid the pinelands and horse farms of northeastern North Carolina lies a small but increasingly important part of the nation's campaign to stabilize Iraq.
Here, at the 6,000-acre training ground of Blackwater U.S.A., scores of former military commandos, police officers and civilians are prepared each month to join the lucrative but often deadly work of providing security for corporations and governments in the toughest corners of the globe.
On Wednesday, four employees of a Blackwater unit — most of them former American military Special Operations personnel — were killed in an ambush in the central Iraqi city of Falluja, their bodies mutilated and dragged through the streets by chanting crowds.
The scene, captured in horrific detail by television and newspaper cameras, shocked the nation and outraged the tightly knit community of current and former Special Operations personnel. But it also shed new light on the rapidly growing and loosely regulated industry of private paramilitary companies like Blackwater that are replacing government troops in conflicts from South America to Africa to the Middle East.
"This is basically a new phenomenon: corporatized private military services doing the front-line work soldiers used to do," said Peter W. Singer, a national security fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington who has written a book on the industry, "Corporate Warriors" (Cornell University Press, 2003).
"And they're not out there screening passengers at the airports," Mr. Singer said. "They're taking mortar and sniper fire."
The Associated Press identified three of the victims as Jerry Zovko, 32, an Army veteran from Willoughby, Ohio; Mike Teague, a 38-year-old Army veteran from Clarksville, Tenn.; and Scott Helvenston, 38, a veteran of the Navy.
Blackwater declined to identify the dead men, but issued a statement: "We grieve today for the loss of our colleagues and we pray for their families. The graphic images of the unprovoked attack and subsequent heinous mistreatment of our friends exhibits the extraordinary conditions under which we voluntarily work to bring freedom and democracy to the Iraqi people."
Though there have been private militaries since the dawn of war, the modern corporate version got its start in the 1990's after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
At that time, many nations were sharply reducing their military forces, leaving millions of soldiers without employment. Many of them went into business doing what they knew best: providing security or training others to do the same.
The proliferation of ethnic conflicts and civil wars in places like the Balkans, Haiti and Liberia provided employment for the personnel of many new companies. Business grew rapidly after the Sept. 11 attacks prompted corporate executives and government officials to bolster their security overseas.
But it was the occupation of Iraq that brought explosive growth to the young industry, security experts said. There are now dozens, perhaps hundreds of private military concerns around the world. As many as two dozen companies, employing as many as 15,000 people, are working in Iraq.
They are providing security details for diplomats, private contractors involved in reconstruction, nonprofit organizations and journalists, security experts said. The private guards also protect oil fields, banks, residential compounds and office buildings.
Though many of the companies are American, others from Britain, South Africa and elsewhere are providing security in Iraq. Among them is Global Risks Strategies, a British company that hired Fijian troops to help protect armored shipments of the new Iraqi currency around the country.
Blackwater is typical of the new breed. Founded in 1998 by former Navy Seals, the company says it has prepared tens of thousands of security personnel to work in hot spots around the world. At its complex in North Carolina, it has shooting ranges for high-powered weapons, buildings for simulating hostage rescue missions and a bunkhouse for trainees.
The Blackwater installation is so modern and well-equipped that Navy Seals stationed at the Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base in Norfolk, Va., routinely use it, military officials said. So do police units from around the country, who come to Blackwater for specialized training.
"It's world class," said Chris Amos, a spokesman for the Norfolk Police Department.
In Iraq, Blackwater personnel guard L. Paul Bremer III, the head of the civilian administration, among their other jobs. Around Baghdad, the Blackwater guards, most in their 30's and 40's, are easily identified, with their heavily muscled upper bodies, closely cropped hair or shaven heads and wrap-around sunglasses. Some even wear Blackwater T-shirts. Like Special Operations Forces, they use walkie-talkie earpieces with curled wires disappearing beneath their collars and carry light-weight automatic weapons.
In the northern city of Mosul, where Mr. Bremer met with about 130 carefully vetted Iraqis on Thursday, Blackwater guards maintained a heavy presence, standing along the walls facing the Iraqi guests with their rifles cradled. More than once, Iraqis and Western reporters moving forward to take their seats in the hall were abruptly challenged by the guards, with warnings that they would be ejected if they resisted.
The company also received a five-year Navy contract in 2002 worth $35.7 million to train Navy personnel in force protection, shipboard security, search-and-seizure techniques, and armed sentry duties, Pentagon officials said.
The rapid growth of the private security industry has come about in part because of the shrinkage of the American military: there are simply fewer military personnel available to protect officials, diplomats and bases overseas, security experts say.
To meet the rising demand, the companies are offering yearly salaries ranging from $100,000 to nearly $200,000 to entice senior military Special Operations forces to switch careers. Assignments are paying from a few hundred dollars to as much as $1,000 a day, military officials said.
Gen. Wayne Downing, a retired chief of the United States Special Operations Command, said that on a recent trip to Baghdad he ran into several former Delta Force and Seal Team Six senior noncommissioned officers who were working for private security companies.
"It was like a reunion," General Downing said.
Sheriff Susan Johnson of Currituck County, N.C., where the entrance to Blackwater is situated, said several of her deputies had been lured away by the company to work overseas.
"It's tough to keep them when they can earn as much in one month there as they can in a year here," Sheriff Johnson said.
But critics say the rapid growth of the industry raises troubling concerns. There is little regulation of the quality of training or recruitment by private companies, they say. The result may be inexperienced, poorly prepared and weakly led units playing vital roles in combat situations. Even elite former commandos may not be well trained for every danger, those critics say.
Representative Jan Schakowsky, Democrat of Illinois, has also argued that the United States' growing use of private military companies hides the financial, personal and political costs of military operations overseas, since the concerns face little public scrutiny.
In particular, Ms. Schakowsky has objected to administration plans to increase the number of private military contractors in Colombia, where three American civilians working for a Northrup Grumman subsidiary have been held hostage by Marxist rebels for more than a year. The three were on a mission to search for cocaine laboratories and drug planes when they were captured.
"I continue to oppose the use of military contractors who are not subject to the same kind of scrutiny and accountability as U.S. soldiers," Ms. Schakowsky said last week. "When things go wrong for these contractors, they and their families have been shamefully forgotten by their American employers."
Eric Schmitt, in Washington, and John F. Burns, in Baghdad, contributed reporting for this article.
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Havoc~Ronin
Federated Suns
Major
Joined: 13-Nov-2003 00:00
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| Posted: 02-Apr-2004 15:52 Post subject: RE: The Modern Mercenary (true) Full text version |
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Welcome to the future my friends. I have known quite a few of professionals in this field and what was a haphazard type of operation is now becoming big business. EO was the first one of this genre to be successful. They had the equipment, the people and the experience. Hell, they even through great parties.  Even if EO (S.africa) is no longer offically in existence, they are still active.
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Moonlapse Vertigo
Clan Goliath Scorpion
Star Captain
Joined: 02-Mar-2004 00:00
Posts: 207
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| Posted: 02-Apr-2004 16:04 Post subject: RE: The Modern Mercenary (true) Full text version |
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All you have to do is enter a username, then you can read the New York times free 
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Gangrene
Federated Suns
Leftenant General
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Location: United States
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| Posted: 02-Apr-2004 19:38 Post subject: RE: The Modern Mercenary (true) Full text version |
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I think this is bad, very bad. Every major civilization that came to rely on mercenary personnel for their military strength was destroyed shortly after. Just look at the Roman, Persian, or Greek empires. No amount of money can produce the same dedication as people fighting for their homes and country.
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Motown Scrapper
Clan Ice Hellions
Galaxy Commander
Joined: 24-Jul-2003 00:00
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Location: United States
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| Posted: 02-Apr-2004 20:31 Post subject: RE: The Modern Mercenary (true) Full text version |
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Quote:
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On 2004-04-02 19:38, Gangrene wrote:
I think this is bad, very bad. Every major civilization that came to rely on mercenary personnel for their military strength was destroyed shortly after. Just look at the Roman, Persian, or Greek empires. No amount of money can produce the same dedication as people fighting for their homes and country.
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O.K. what if the Mercenaries are hired by either corporations to protect assets and personnel or aid agencies for the same purpose.It would seem to me that it would make sense for either type of group to hire that form of security especially since a government involved in an invasion will not have either the time or the interest to provide that form of security for nongovernmental organizations
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Still crazy after all these years
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Nightmare
Lyran Alliance
Kommandant-General
Joined: 03-May-2002 00:00
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| Posted: 03-Apr-2004 08:53 Post subject: RE: The Modern Mercenary (true) Full text version |
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The main problem with mercenaries is that their use is prohibited. Thus they're called private security contractors instead. 
But on to other problems: who is watching these people? You have a load of ex-military, ex-police and others with big guns in hostile places. What are their rights when it comes to using those weapons, and who makes sure they follow the rules of war?
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A tree fall in the forest, and no one is around, and it hits a mime. Does anyone care?
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Gangrene
Federated Suns
Leftenant General
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
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Location: United States
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| Posted: 04-Apr-2004 00:39 Post subject: RE: The Modern Mercenary (true) Full text version |
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Private enterprise has always relied on hired soldiers for security. Its when the government starts that civilizations start having problems.
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Gangrene
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Gangrene
Federated Suns
Leftenant General
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 939
Location: United States
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| Posted: 04-Apr-2004 00:42 Post subject: RE: The Modern Mercenary (true) Full text version |
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Nobody checks the "private contractors." I'm sure they could be prosecuted in the world court for crimes against humanity, should they commit them, or in the court systems of the countries they may commit heinous acts in. But one reason governments use mercs is because they are largely unregulated, and can do things that are prohibited by internation law.
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Gangrene
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-Mud
ex-Jade Falcon
Bounty Hunter
Joined: 04-Nov-2003 00:00
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| Posted: 04-Apr-2004 10:19 Post subject: RE: The Modern Mercenary (true) Full text version |
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The only group that I trust less with guns than the government is the corporations.
For those of you who are literate or well-educated, I'll remind you of Machiavelli's stance on mercenaries.
"The mercenary captains are either capable men or they are not; if they are, you cannot trust them, because they always aspire to their own greatness, either by oppressing you, who are their master, or others contrary to your intentions; but if the captain is not skilful, you are ruined in the usual way."
Here's a link to the whole section in The Prince. It's good reading...especially for us btech mercenaries looking for the most efficient means of defrauding the great houses 
http://www.the-prince-by-machiavelli.com/the-prince/the_prince_chapter_12.html
[ This Message was edited by: -Mud on 2004-04-04 10:23 ]
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Sir Henry
Team Bansai
Senior Tech Specialist
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 4899
Location: United States
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| Posted: 05-Apr-2004 06:45 Post subject: RE: The Modern Mercenary (true) Full text version |
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Sound like the CorSec of Shadowrun may not be as far off as thought....
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Sir Henry
A Dragon in the disguise of a bunny, is still a Dragon.
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Seraph
Blighted Sun Battalion
2nd Company
"Seraph's Slaughter"
Major
Joined: 11-Mar-2004 00:00
Posts: 1744
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| Posted: 05-Apr-2004 19:43 Post subject: RE: The Modern Mercenary (true) Full text version |
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I will not vote Lofwyr for president.
(shadowrun thing)
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