Who are these "contractors?"

[LeahMira]

I guess I've always thought of mercenaries as sort of scummy individuals or heartbroken Frenchmen who joined the Foreign Legion.

Now, though, it seems that there are private companies in the US that are training people in military skills. Someone also mentioned that these "contractors" and their trainees are outside the oversight of the government.

Don't we have enough problems with the militia groups? Or are these an extension of the same groups? What happens with these "contractees" when they eventually return to this country? Will they be able to rejoin "normal" society? Or will they be the loose cannons? Or will they "contract" to some other country that needs warm bodies that shoot guns?

It bothers me a lot that private companies make their money by basically training paid killers.

What is the attraction? Why would someone join up with the contractors instead of the US military, i.e. Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force?

Should Americans be worried about the existence of these "contractors"... maybe in the same way that we should be worried about the School of the Americas, or are these folks even worse?

Does anyone know the facts about these "contractors?" What are the issues about these folks that we should be aware of? Anyone?

[no name no slogan]

1. Most are ex-military, and are "pre-trained" by our tax dollars

Many of the contractors that work for the likes of Blackwater are ex-military folk, who served in a specialized branch (Navy Seals, Army Rangers, etc.) and come "pre-trained" to do the jobs they're hired to do, like provide security, etc.

In other words, our tax money pays to train them, they serve their time, then go into the private sector and make $1,000/day working as mercenaries for private corporations.

Just yet another example of how our tax dollars are used to make profits for large corporations, while we keep paying more.

[havocmom]

13. " working as mercenaries for private corporations" making foreign policy

via their actions and with total disregard to any interests but the corporate agenda. That is really the frightening part. The corporations hire guns to force their wishes upon the world. Might be worse than shrub and Cheney in the WH where we can keep an eye on their antics at least part of the time.

US troops are at the mercy of the rage the hired private guns create in Iraq. One more example of military personnel held hostage by Halliburton, Betchel Brown and the rest of the profiteers/imperial merchant princes.

How are those supply lines holding, by the way? Our guys getting food and water or are Halliburton's drivers leaving them in the lurch?

[arcane1]

2. Blackwater USA is one of them

and they are as much "contractors" as they are "ballet dancers"

they are mercenaries plain and simple

do these people LOOK like 'contractors'?




"Blackwater USA is comprised of five companies; Blackwater Training Center, Blackwater Target Systems, Blackwater Security Consulting, Blackwater Canine, and Blackwater Air (AWS). We have established a global presence and provide training and tactical solutions for the 21st century."

Our clients include federal law enforcement agencies, the Department of Defense, Department of State, and Department of Transportation, local and state entities from around the country, multi-national corporations, and friendly nations from all over the globe.

We customize and execute solutions for our clients to help keep them at the level of readiness required to meet today's law enforcement, homeland security, and defense challenges.
Any and all defense services supplied to foreign nationals will only be pursuant to proper authorization by the Department of State.

Come to Blackwater, where the professionals train."


Gary Jackson
President


http://www.blackwaterusa.com/


Blackwater Training Center:



On over 6000 acres of private land, The most comprehensive private
tactical training facility in the United States.


and now for the GREAT NEWS:

ADDITIONAL LOCATIONS
"Blackwater USA has recently opened two new offices. The Baghdad and Kuwait City offices are open now"

[no name no slogan]

5. Blackwater may be source of the anthrax used in 2001-2002 scare

I heard this from somebody at a Congressional District meeting a couple nights ago, so I don't know the full details, but apparently the one suspect they have not eliminated in the post-9/11 anthrax attacks is connected to Blackwater USA, either as an employee or contractor.

Yet another reason to be VERY afraid of these organizations, IMHO...

[leanings]

3. Here.

http://www.nwcn.com/sharedcontent/nationworld/iraq/040204ccjccwiraqguru.e6e975ea.html

Those guys are fairly typical. I know a few people who do that work, and despite the pervasive ignorance here on DU, they are generally good folk. Mostly long-serving prior or retired US military who are motivated by certain things in addition to the money. Well, the US guys anyway. There are Chileans and South Africans who are probably there solely for the money and the action.

But despite all the "hired killers" stuff, no one can come up with an example of any of these guys killing anyone in a situation other than self defense. They do not engage in offensive operations, and in my opinion one would have to do so in order to be properly defined as a "mercenary". If not, then every civilian performing what would otherwise be a military function in a war zone is a merc, right down to the truck drivers and burger-flippers and medical personnel.

I'm not going to get drawn into a larger discussion about this, but if you're just looking into this you should be aware that there's another side.

[arcane1]

4. "do not engage in offensive operations"

in other words, they hang out in the back, with their top-of-the-line equipment and food, protecting the fat-cats and tycoons for $500-$1,000 a day, while our underpaid and poorly-equipped reservists are the ones getting shot up securing the area for those same tycoons and fat-cats.

Fuck them.

Funny how the US guys are motivated by 'certain things in addition to the money', but the Chileans and South Africans aren't :shrug:

Can't Americans do things soley for the money & action just like the rest of the human race?

[leanings]

6. Yeah, they "hang back"

and provide security, which is what they were hired to do, which is why they are properly referred to as "security contractors" instead of "hired soldiers". And while they're certainly well-paid, they're not necessarily well-equipped. In fact, they're having trouble getting equipment in-country. There's an Esquire article that discusses that problem, altho I don't have the link to it, and I've heard the same thing from other sources. Very few of them are guarding "fatcats and tycoons"; the guys killed in Fallujah were escorting civilian contractors who were delivering food to other Americans there. And, as I've said, the guys I know and the guys they're with aren't just over there for the money. The only US guys over there have substantial military experience, and while some may be there solely for the $ I would say the vast majority aren't. Believe what you will. I can't testify to the foreigners motives, and as they don't have a dog in this fight I would imagine they're there for the money. But those guys are just trying to make a living too, and they're not intentionally drawing fire, or protecting American combat troops, or kicking in doors, or calling in airstrikes on city blocks; they're there performing a needed service (security) that no one else can provide at the moment because the Iraqi police ain't trained up and the military doesn't have enough personnel. They are the only solution to that problem, and unless you're willing to entertain a substantial increase in the defense budget to replace them, they're here to stay.

And that's all I'm going to say on the matter.

[arcane1]

15. substantial increase in defense budget??

where do you think their $1,000 a day comes from?

on edit- none of them have a dog in this fight any more than foreign nationals do. The only ones who are benefitting from the invasion and occupation of Iraq are the corporations that are having the resources and industries signed over to them, against the Iraqi's will. Blackwater is protecting criminals.

[seemslikeadream]

16. Take a look a one PMC

http://www.globalrsl.com /



range of services



guest houses

[seemslikeadream]

17. Here's one thing that happens when war goes private

As foiled coup saga swirls, report says...
Mirror Reporter



AS the saga surrounding the capture of 67 terrorists at the Harare International Airport on Sunday evening dramatically unravels, a UK-based research institute has established that the British government is abetting the trafficking of small arms into conflict zones in Africa.

The institute, Africa Strategy, says about 142 mercenary companies based in Britain – including Sandline International, which succeeded the notorious Executive Outcomes that employed some former members of the 32 Commando of the apartheid South African defence forces captured in Harare – are allegedly using end user certificates from the British government in the arms trafficking. Executive Outcomes was set up in 1993 by Tony Buckingham and Simon Mann and has worked in Asia, Africa and South America. Most of its personnel were hired from South Africa.

The Africa Strategy research showed that most of the UK-based mercenary companies imported the arms into the country from the former Yugoslavia and other Eastern European states before shipping them to conflict zones in Africa and Asia.

“We looked at the figures and discovered that the production of new arms had fallen by over 80 percent in 2003 . . . 90 percent of the arms were now exported into Britain and most of the companies use end-user certificates from the British government,” the report says.

more
http://www.africaonline.co.zw/mirror/stage/archive/040314/national2898...

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

11. Oh puleeeze! Google private miltary contractor and war crimes and you

can rebut your own anecdotal information...especially in Bosnia, Sierra Leone and Columbia.

[seemslikeadream]

7. Here

[bigtree]

8. The hiring of mercenaries just gives the U.S. the illusion of clean hands

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1414845

[ellie]

9. My brother

is a former special forces officer. Twice a year he "trains" people from Blackwater, and not on how to move food in a convoy, either. He told my mom that the CIA pays Blackwater personnel and that they are former special forces people themselves.

[rustydog]

10. Most are ex-special forces from our militaries.

The attraction: 1000.00 dollars a day isn't chicken-feed gumby!
right now, there are about 18,000 mercenaries ( I'm sorry, contract workers) in iraq right now. some are GUARDING our TROOPS! and others guard convoys, hotels etc.

Where else can you make 85 to 1000 thousand a year? Well, in sunny Iraq it is possible!

[bobthedrummer]

12. A lot of them are big campaign contributors

Campaign Contributions of Post-War Contractors
http://www.publicintegrity.org/wow/resources.aspx?act=contrib
:grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr:

[seemslikeadream]

14. Bush, Pandora's Box and the Tiger

So, today, we have major fighting from the Shi'a, from the Sunni and whoever wants to join in to fight against the occupying forces from America, Poland, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Spain, El Salvador and Italy--with the Shi'a and Sunni infliciting heavy casualties on the Western Alliance of the bought-and-paid for, from your American taxpayer money (not to mention the mercenaries that have been hired from all over the world at a rate of $100,000 to $200,000 per year--by the way, they, the mercenaries guard Bremer, our man, not our military????what's that all about???) In fact, Skye news claimed that over 130 Western military and mercenary troops had been killed. Later, the U.S. military changed that and said only 12 had been killed, but hundreds of Iraqis.

As anyone who has ever been in war knows, you have no real idea of how many of your opponents you have killed; you only know of your own casualties. And, as usual, the U.S. military, like that of Israel, inflates the amount of kills of the enemy and lessens their own losses; we saw that in Viet Nam, in Korea before that, in Somali, in Afghanistan, and now in Iraq. But even if the Iraqis are losing at a rate of 4 to 1, there are millions of Iraqis to fight against America, and others from bordering countries, and others even as far away as China, who are coming in to fight against the Bush/Bremer army- of- the- paid-to-fight, and we have only 125,000 of our men there in Iraq, with few more to send. Our military is stretched between Afghanistan, Phillipines, Indonesia, Kenya, Germany, Japan, Korea and over 100 other places, and we have come down to sending our "national guard" to fight overseas.

Even if we have a draft, we cannot get enough men to deal with the Iraqis; several generals have made clear that we'd need over 500,000 men to just police Iraq, and that would be with minimum "resistance." But believe me when I say, we are going to be facing major resistance from here on out. I say this because at this point, the moderate Shi'a and moderate Sunni, and even many of the Kurds are coming out to fight against America--because they realize they are not going to get a democracy of any sort, only an occupation by America and a country run by American puppets, with contracts that have been let that will allow American companies and their friends to keep milking Iraq for decades or longer.

http://www.counterpunch.org/hamod04072004.html