Travelers stranded by Baghdad airport shutdown(security contractor strikes

[maddezmom]

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Travelers were stranded when the London-based company that ensures security at Baghdad International Airport staged a strike to demand payment of money owed.

"Due to unresolved commercial issues between Global Strategies Group and its client, the Iraqi Ministry of Transport, GLOBAL has temporarily suspended its operation to manage security at Baghdad International Airport," the company said Saturday.

Its more than 500-strong force of men in tan did not show up Saturday, catching even US troops guarding the perimeter by surprise, one said on condition of anonymity.

"We didn't know until two hours ago," the soldier said. "We don't know when it's going to re-open."

~snip~

The company had not been paid for at least three months of work, said a company executive who asked to remain anonymous. A transport ministry spokesman referred calls to the national flag carrier Iraqi Airways.

more:
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050625/wl_mideast_afp/iraqtransportairstrike_050625114345

[Oversea Visitor]

1. Everything is fine

Just a shut down for maintances. Will open soon when our tanks and planes bomb the fuck out of them.

[thecrow]

2. I suppose they could always stop-loss these people

[tanyev]

3. I thought our military was still ensuring security at the airport.

And "travelers"? Tourists going to Iraq?

:wtf:

[dArKeR]

4. I thought our troops were too. I never saw a report in the American

Whore Press stating that Saddam International was under the control of a UK Blackwater mercenaries!

[DoYouEverWonder]

13. They privatized the airport right off the bat

but I thought it was Custer Battle(?) that ran the place?

[u2spirit]

17. Why let the millitary do it

when you can have a corporation do it for 3 times the cost and one third of the accountability all at taxpayers expense.

[sendero]

5. In addition to...

... realizing that going to war for the wrong reasons is a bad idea, history is going to conclude that the 'privatization' of our defense is perhaps one of the worst ideas the military has ever implemented.

Rumsfeld is going to go down in history as a complete idiot.

[Bob3]

6. Gee Tom Delay was right it is just like Huston

Sarcasm off.

[saigon68]

7. "BRING EM ON" shouted the AWOL CHIMPANZEE

[bahrbearian]

8. Airport Strike? Were is RayGun when you need him?

[maddezmom]

9. BBC: Transportation Minister wanted for questioning

Baghdad airport has been closed indefinitely in a dispute over payment for security.
The British company that provides security to the airport, Global, has withdrawn its services in what it says is a contractual dispute.

Military flights, however, are not affected.

Travelling out of Baghdad airport is hazardous enough at the best of times but now it is not possible at all, at least on civilian flights.

~snip~
It is not clear whether there is any connection but the Iraqi transport ministry is frequently accused of corruption.

A former transport minister is wanted for questioning over the issue.

The Iraqi government is also notoriously unreliable about paying its own employees.

more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4622563.stm

[bemildred]

10. Do they have the choppers on top of the embassy yet? nt

[dansolo]

11. I guess the trucks with bags of cash

Must have been diverted somehow.

[catmandu57]

12. WHAT? They want more fucking money

What the hell is wrong with these people? Somebody just throw them a fucking duffle bag and get on with it.

[Algomas]

14. Goddam uppity first world labor...

We need to outsource that work to some starving third world soldiers who will do the job for food and shelter.

[anitar1]

15. My,my, where did that money go ? n/t

[warrens]

16. They didn't want to pay me

Yeah, they didn't want to pay me

But they fucking well did

Trying to separate me from my money

Is like trying to separate me from my life

John Cale - Mercenaries

Which also goes:

Mercenaries are useless

Faithless and disunited

They have nothing to keep them in battle

Other than a meager wage

Which is just enough to make them wanna kill for ya

But never enough to make them wanna die for ya

Ready for war....

[daleo]

18. Can a security company stage a strike?

I think this is misleading. A strike is an industrial action by workers, this sounds like a company refusing to comply with the terms of a contract due to non-performance (i.e. they didn't get paid, they claim, so they won't perform their contracted duties). Totally different things.