"Substantial civilian military force on the ground in Iraq"

[DemoTex]

Thus spake the security guru who lead-off "Hardball" tonight, in response to Tweety's question about Falluja. Finally, a spade called a spade. We have confirmation that there is a US mercenary force doing military duty in Iraq.

[DrWeird]

1. I don't know how many more oxymorans I can deal with.

nt

[DemoTex]

4. Yeah. I guess a real candid disclosure whould have been:

"Substantial mercenary force on the ground in Iraq." Certainly less oxymaroonic.

[boobooday]

2. And what kind of "rules of war" do they follow?

None? Are they free to do whatever they want?

Are they "Liberation Specialists?"

http://www.wgoeshome.com

[theHandpuppet]

17. These rules -- ie, NONE

US retaliates over war crime immunity demand

By Bill Vann
5 July 2003

In a further bid to place US officials and military personnel beyond the reach of war crimes prosecution, the Bush administration cut off military aid to about 35 countries that failed to meet a June 30 deadline for signing bilateral immunity agreements.

Washington had demanded such deals with all the countries that have signed on to the International Criminal Court (ICC), using the threat of the aid cutoff to impose its will on foreign powers that are considered US allies. At least 90 have reportedly resisted the US blackmail effort. The Bush administration claims that 51 nations have signed immunity agreements, seven of them “secretly.”

<snipping>

The American Servicemen’s Protection Act of 2002, a measure passed by Congress, mandated the aid cutoff. The measure includes what some have dubbed the “Hague invasion clause,” a section that authorizes the US military to use “every possible means” to free any US citizen jailed on the orders of the ICC, which is based in The Hague.

The US action only underscores in the crudest possible fashion that the only form of international justice Washington will permit is that of the victor against the vanquished, of the major imperialist powers against the impoverished and oppressed nations.

This principle is already incorporated in the treaty governing the ICC’s jurisdiction, which allows any country to try its own citizens if they are accused of war crimes and reserves ICC proceedings for those cases in which a defendant’s country is unwilling or unable to do so. Even if a US official or military officer were accused of war crimes before the tribunal, the case would immediately be referred to the American courts.

<snipping>


Actually, the immunity deals sought by Washington protect not only uniformed soldiers and government officials, but all US citizens as well as foreign contractors working for the Pentagon or other US agencies. Presumably, any American mercenary engaged in war crimes in another country would be immune from prosecution, as would any foreign mercenary working under the direction of US military or intelligence.

More at:

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/jul2003/icc-j05_prn.shtml

[hexola]

3. "WWIII Incorporated" hard at work...

[tridim]

5. So when these A-Teams get smoked

do the numbers count as combat casualties? Are these forces payed out of the ~$170billion or are they payed out of some secret budget? Like the trillions that the Pentagon can't account for?

[Zookeeper]

6. Important questions. How do we get the answers? n/t

[BeFree]

15. Heard that up to $15 Bn was budgeted for these guys

How do we find out for sure? Maybe our free press will investigate? Don't hold your breath....






Welcome to DU KleverKittie.

[PfcHammer]

7. And how does BLS treat them

Are these openings treated as created jobs ?

[bloom]

8. I was wondering about that...n/t

[jimshoes]

22. I'm guessing Yes

Just a guess though.

[newyawker99]

26. Hi KleverKittie!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[NoPasaran]

9. Private Security Forces

Prague, 2 April 2004 (RFE/RL) -- Thousands of security contractors are currently guarding people, buildings, and businesses in Iraq.

It's a huge and growing industry -- up to 180 companies are estimated to be operating in Iraq, some with contracts worth millions of dollars.

It's also a dangerous job. In Al-Fallujah this week, four security contractors were shot and burned in their cars, their mutilated bodies dragged through the streets. They were working for a U.S. firm, but many are employed by British companies.

Christopher Beese works for ArmorGroup, which has staff in over 30 countries. He says the work in Iraq is not so different from providing security in other parts of the world.

"In Iraq to secure the interests of civilian contractors we supply security officers as escorts. The conditions in Iraq mean they will necessarily be armed, for the minimum required to protect against the threat. But it's not much grander than that, it is commercial security albeit at the heavier end," Beese said.
MORE http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2004/04/554f69c6-f57e-480a-96e9-b1b8b205357f.html

Of course, there was a time when Americans took a dim view of mercenaries:

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

Recognize that?

[DemoTex]

10. Are "Private Security Forces" (read for-PROFIT) covered by Geneva?

I think not. The corollary is are they bound by Geneva?

[htuttle]

11. Protocol I says mercenaries 'can be neither combatants nor POWs'

The "International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries", adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1989 outlaws the use of mercenaries altogether.

http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/0/d5edd61038ecf47fc12563cd002d6e50?OpenDocument

[lolly]

12. Aren't they prohibited?

Doesn't the Geneva Convention proscribe the use of mercenary forces in combat?

btw--does anyone remember AWOL asking for permission to "shoot without question" any protesters it deemed a threat in London? Think they wanted the same privilege somewhere else. Sounds like something a mercenary troop would want.
Didn't somebody also turn up an item on AWOL's expense fund for thousands of dollars for private security forces--this for a man who is supposed to have the best government-paid security force already?

Am I being paranoid, or are we seeing the real army and government security force being pushed aside and the real power being given to these for-hire, accountable-to-no-one private forces?

[jimshoes]

23. I'm curious....do these private sector military types

have a spiffy black uniform with little chrome s's on them or anything like that.

[NoPasaran]

13. An even better question

Might be are private (for profit) forces permissible in war zones under international law? Not that the Busholini regime with its total contempt for legality would care one way or another.

[theHandpuppet]

18. Actually...

... mercenary forces are, I believe, outlawed by the Geneva Convention.

[leanings]

25. Too bad they're not mercenaries.

Otherwise, you might have a point.

[theHandpuppet]

20. Here's the exact info

http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/1989a.htm

[jpgray]

14. As I said in the other thread, remember Dyncorp in Bosnia

This is a recipe for disaster, rampant corruption, and brutality by independent agencies given power and influence without significant oversight.

[BrotherBuzz]

19. Pete and Repeat

I think I posted this to you on the other thread, but I think it's a good summary and bears repeating.

www.insightmag.com/main.cfm/include/detail/storyid/163052.html

DynCorp Disgrace

<snip>

Johnston was on the ground and saw firsthand what the military was complaining about. "My main
problem," he explains, "was with the kids, but I wasn't too happy with them ripping off the
government, either. DynCorp is just as immoral and elite as possible, and any rule they can break they
do. There was this one guy who would hide parts so we would have to wait for parts and, when the
military would question why it was taking so long, he'd pull out the part and say 'Hey, you need to
install this.' They'd have us replace windows in helicopters that weren't bad just to get paid. They
had one kid, James Harlin, over there who was right out of high school and he didn't even know the
names and purposes of the basic tools. Soldiers that are paid $18,000 a year know more than this kid,
but this is the way they grease their pockets. What they say in Bosnia is that DynCorp just needs a
warm body Ñ that's the DynCorp slogan. Even if you don't do an eight-hour day, they'll sign you in
for it because that's how they bill the government. It's a total fraud."

Remember, Johnston was fired by this company. He laughs bitterly recalling the work habits of a
DynCorp employee in Bosnia who "weighed 400 pounds and would stick cheeseburgers in his pockets
and eat them while he worked. The problem was he would literally fall asleep every five minutes. One
time he fell asleep with a torch in his hand and burned a hole through the plastic on an aircraft." This
same man, according to Johnston, "owned a girl who couldn't have been more than 14 years old. It's
a sick sight anyway to see any grown man with a child, but to see some 45-year-old man who weighs
400 pounds with a little girl, it just makes you sick." It is precisely these allegations that Johnston
believes got him fired.

Johnston reports that he had been in Bosnia only a few days when he became aware of misbehavior
in which many of his DynCorp colleagues were involved. He tells INSIGHT, "I noticed there were
problems as soon as I got there, and I tried to be covert because I knew it was a rougher crowd than
I'd ever dealt with. It's not like I don't drink or anything, but DynCorp employees would come to work
drunk. A DynCorp van would pick us up every morning and you could smell the alcohol on them. There
were big-time drinking issues. I always told these guys what I thought of what they were doing, and I
guess they just thought I was a self-righteous fool or something, but I didn't care what they
thought."

The mix of drunkenness and working on multimillion-dollar aircraft upon which the lives of U.S. military
personnel depended was a serious enough issue, but Johnston drew the line when it came to buying
young girls and women as sex slaves. "I heard talk about the prostitution right away, but it took some
time before I understood that they were buying these girls. I'd tell them that it was wrong and that it
was no different than slavery Ñ that you can't buy women. But they'd buy the women's passports
and they owned them and would sell them to each other."

<lots more!>
www.insightmag.com/main.cfm/include/detail/storyid/163052.html

The Bush* plan in all things: Privatize the profits and Socialize the costs.

[mike1963]

16. Our very own Republican Guard. This is what we are 'fighting' for?

It's true, the inmates are running the asylum.
:eyes: :grr:

[OneBlueSky]

21. gotta wonder how this makes our men and women in uniform feel . . .

here are these guys getting paid a grand a day sometimes, while our friends, neighbors and co-workers who volunteered for duty are getting paid slave wages and have to buy their own body armor . . . this is wrong on so many levels . . .

[bobthedrummer]

24. Good point, it must really piss-off GI's and military families.

Really, really piss them off.
Mercenaries:grr::puke:

[Mari333]

27. GIs and military families mostly over there are Guard and Reserves

and they should have never been sent in the first place. If Bush gets back in, its going to be the draft.
www.bushdraft.com
Ive been pissed off since they took Michael and Ive been pissed since 2000, and Im still pissed off, and when he comes home Ill still be pissed off if that asshole Bush steals another one
The BushAdmin knows its fucked, concerning its troops, doesnt have enough to throw into their blackhole of a war, so they hire people, rather then start the draft now , which would mess up his re election plans
thats why you need to tell everyone you know
www.bushdraft.com
bring the troops home NOW

[laura888]

28. "civilian military force"

OK- what does this mean exactly?

Outsourcing of military jobs - right? These guys are paid way more than our regular military, with no benefits, with no accoutability. Who's giving orders?

if these guys are killed - will their surviving families have any benefits? if these guys brutalize iraqis - are there any consequences?

As another poster said - this is wrong on so many many many levels.

[laura888]

29. kick!

This is one of the reasons this conflict is wildly different - and worse! - than Vietnam

[Warren Stuart]

30. They don't abide by the same rules as the military

For instance the famous case of the "contractor" who shot an Iraqi in the buttocks with a special type of bullet made of "blended metal", this is a metal that splits apart upon impact. With ordinary bullets the Iraqi would have survived this injury, but with the blended metal (or magic) bullet he collasped dead on the spot.

Because of the Geneva Convention, regular soldiers are prohibited from using these types of bullets, but not contractors. I wouldn't be surprised if the Iraqi's hate the contractors more than the military.

[laura888]

31. don't know that "famous case." do you have a link? n/t