The 4 dead contractors in Iraq, according to rumor...

[DoNotRefill]

from a normally reliable source, were three former Navy SEALs and one former Army Special Forces person.

They weren't amateurs.

Just thought you'd like to know.

[DarkPhenyx]

1. Of course they weren't.

These companies never hire amateurs for these positions. Where did you think SEAL's and SF went when they got out? Not all of them of course. But many.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

5. Latin America...but we had a glut of them

so we needed to strike up a war in the mid east...you know...supply and demand

[Name removed]

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[nothingshocksmeanymore]

2. No no no you just don't get it

They were boy scouts sent to Falulah to provide humanitarian aid :eyes:

Now of course we will get revenge but wasn't this whole fucking war to get revenge? The good old American need to drwon our national pain and suffering with bombs?

[4morewars]

3. we used to call them mercenaries

that doesn't make it any less horrific. But that's the way it is going to be, we shouldn't be there. I'm sure some of our guys are doing things they shouldn't be doing, or eventually they will. Remember mai-lin(sp?)?

[FreakinDJ]

6. We mention the "Black Hawk" syndrome 1 year ago

We said it would come to this.

[leftofthedial]

20. that's why they need mercenaries

mercenaries do things that would be illegal for the military to do.

[FreakinDJ]

4. They were Mercs

Short for Mercenaries

What else would you call them

[DoNotRefill]

10. I don't think they were true mercenaries....

True mercenaries fight just for money. They don't care what the cause is, or which side they're on, just how much they're paid. I doubt that Blackwater would have been the highest bidder in the region.

I think the term "paramilitaries" is more accurate. Paramilitaries are irregular forces, hired for money, but also driven by ideology.

I doubt that if Saddam had offered them 5K a month more in salary that they would have worked for him...

[Must_B_Free]

7. Live by the Sword...

[Octafish]

8. They were human beings.

And should be treated with the utmost respect they deserve. Same goes for all of the thousands who have died because of George W Bush's illegal and immoral invasion. May he be judged by a jury of his peers -- meaning the likes of Al Capone, J Edgar Hoover, and Richard Nixon -- for the smirking, unelected sociopathic moron is responsible.

[alcuno]

9. They were fathers, brothers and sons who died a horrible death.

I know that many former military personnel are hired by these private firms. Someone said yesterday that these guys were likely armed to the teeth and it really didn't matter.

[TinaTyson]

11. Doesn't make it any less sick.

[nostamj]

12. huh??? not a rumor at all

CNN reported they were MERCENARIES. so did CBS for that matter.

and reported that they are just behind Britain as far as total deployment in Iraq.

The Coalition of the Contracted

[DoNotRefill]

14. I was talking about their background....

which I haven't seen reported yet.

[nostamj]

15. part of both stories

professional soldiers from 'western countries'

it may have been covered on NBC or ABC but I didn't see those 'casts

[kera]

17. brown on cnn has just interview one of those contractors

and he said that they are former military well trained and armed to the teeth, he also said that they get paid 1000 a day that why they chose to work in iraq

they also some of the same contractors in iraq

[Zorra]

13. No surprise. Mercenaries Article.

Mercenaries 'R' Us
By Bill Berkowitz, AlterNet
March 24, 2004
With the casualty toll ticking ever upward and troops stretched thin on the ground, the Bush administration is looking to mercenaries to help control Iraq. These soldiers-for-hire are veterans of some of the most repressive military forces in the world, including that of the former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and South Africa's apartheid regime.

In February, Blackwater USA, a North Carolina-based Pentagon contractor, began hiring former combat personnel in Chile, offering them up to $4,000 a month to guard oil wells in Iraq. The company flew the first batch of 60 former commandos to a training camp in North Carolina. These recruits will eventually wind up in Iraq where they will spend six months to a year.

"We scour the ends of the earth to find professionals – the Chilean commandos are very, very professional and they fit within the Blackwater system," Gary Jackson, the president of Blackwater USA, told the Guardian.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=18193

[acmavm]

16. Scour the Earth to find them, do they? That's interesting, do they respond

to ads in the Mercenaries Be Us want ads? How do you find people like this?

And they are very professional, are they? Now, that's an interesting word for it.

[DoNotRefill]

21. If you've got the credentials....

You'd know who to talk to about the work.

My understanding of events (from second-hand sources, so judge the reliability accordingly) is that the mission demanded compromises in SOP which ended up being terminal.

[Name removed]

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