US "Security" Companies Offer "Services" in Haiti

[sabrina 1]

Disaster Capitalism! For a short while I hoped the enormous humanitarian crisis in Haiti would shame some of these profiteers into either refraining from profiting from it, or, and I know this was extreme optimism, that some of them might find themselves so moved by the heartbreaking tragedy, that they might volunteer some of their services. Logic told me this was futile wishful thinking which it was:

http://rebelreports.com/post/341031627/us-security-companies-offer-services-in-haiti

By Jeremy Scahill

The Orwellian-named mercenary trade group, the International Peace Operations Association, didn’t waste much time in offering the “services” of its member companies to swoop down on Haiti for some old fashioned humanitarian assistance disaster profiteering. Within hours of the massive earthquake in Haiti, the IPOA created a special web page for prospective clients, saying: “In the wake of the tragic events in Haiti, a number of IPOA’s member companies are available and prepared to provide a wide variety of critical relief services to the earthquake’s victims.”

> snip

In 2005, while still a leading member of IPOA, Blackwater’s owner Erik Prince deployed his forces in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Far from some sort of generous gift to the suffering people of the US gulf, Blackwater raked in some $70 million in Homeland Security contracts that began with a massive no-bid contract to provide protective services for FEMA. Blackwater billed US taxpayers $950 per man per day.

The current US program under which armed security companies work for the State Department in Iraq—the Worldwide Personal Protection Program—has its roots in Haiti during the Clinton administration. In 1994, private US forces, such as DynCorp, became a staple of US operations in the country following the overthrow of Jean Bertrand Aristide by CIA-backed death squads. When President Bush invaded Iraq, his administration radically expanded that program and turned it into the privatized paramilitary force it is today. At the time of his overthrow in 2004, Aristide was being protected by a San Francisco-based private security firm, the Steele Foundation.

This organization broke away from Blackwater after the murders in Iraq which took the lives of 17 Iraqi citizens, and for which, so far, there has been no accountability.

I would like to know if any of the money donated for the victims will go to pay these mercenaries. And if so, I think we should be given a list of which 'charities' will be paying for their 'expertise'.

I don't know who paid Blackwater to go to NOLA, but their mission there was not to help the victims, it was to protect the wealthy.

Haiti was already a failed state as a result of being subjected for so long to neo-liberal policies. Privatization of everything. The Global Capitalists have had a field day in Haiti, and this is their tragic creation.

I hope this tragedy, which many believe would not have been as devastating had the infrastructure not been so degraded and had there been more government-run organizations, like the Fire Department eg. is a warning to anyone who has been supportive of such policies in this country and elsewhere.

The following CNN headline, will probably be seen as a justification for more 'security' measures. Anderson Cooper graphically describing this incident. It works to gain support for 'law and order' even though it is apparently not widespread.

But buried deep in the article is what maybe should have been the headline, especially considering the massive devastation caused by this disaster:

Looting Reported as Desperation Grows in Haiti

Earlier Monday, Kenneth Merten, the U.S. ambassador to Haiti, said that "overall, people are very calm."

To make sure I do not inadvertently contribute to bringing mercenaries to Haiti, I will donate only to Doctors Without Borders.

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. The International Red Cross actually

But what would I know.

[sabrina 1]

2. Not sure I understand..

Is your comment an answer to my question 'who pays the mercenaries'? I honestly don't know but would be surprised if the Red Cross used donations for that purpose.

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. I'll explain the Red Cross, no matter whether it is a NATIONAL society

or the International Society CANNOT work with Mercs for ahem security... PERIOD

It is in the Geneva Convention, which is a Red Cross matter. Kind of the Red Cross got it going...

So if you want to guarantee, iron clad, that it does not go to Mercs, that's the group you give money to.

Notice I did not say American Red Cross... though they cannot either... silly world wide movement.

[sabrina 1]

9. Okay, thanks for the clarification.

Interesting that they are forbidden from working with mercenaries. I wonder if the Geneva Conventions were written today, considering the moral climate that we live in, would they include a ban on paying mercenaries.

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. Read on XVI century Italy and the Condotieri

we are getting closer to that environment.

Why the Prince warns his king that a King that works with Mercs will loose his throne sooner or later.

[sabrina 1]

15. I'm not familiar with that, but

hiring a private army to protect heads of state would seem to be risky. I remember when we first heard that the U.S. had mercenaries in Iraq. Most were shocked, as we thought that was illegal. When doing some research on who they were, I discovered that many, especially the British, hired not very reputable individuals from some of the world's most brutal armies. Since they work for the money, it probably wouldn't be too difficult to find a few who could be bribed.

[nadinbrzezinski]

16. This is a good place to start

this is history repeating itself

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condottieri

[sabrina 1]

19. Thanks, just glanced it throught it, book-marked to read

later when I get back home. All I recall about the use of mercenaries was that they seem to appear throughout history, not only as 'bad guys' but at the period in a country's or Empire's history when they are in decline.

[clear eye]

34. I usually prefer to donate to groups w/ less history of corruption.

Not implying that they involve themselves in the politics of the countries they help, but I can't help remembering the Elizabeth Dole scandal. Also Charity Navigator gives them only a mediocre rating, indicating excess expenditure on headquarters salaries and perks. When they are the only group in troubled area as may happen when a gov't is very suspicious, I will donate to them if I can afford it.

A Red Cross spokesperson on MSNBC the other day say that the response in donations from the U.S. had been extremely generous (possibly due to the cell phone donation method available & widely publicized) and suggested that people might want to donate to other groups as well.

One such group doing longterm excellent work in Haiti is Action Against Hunger. I describe it a little in another post downthread.

[malaise]

3. Fuck them

Keep all those mercenaries out of Haiti.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. Well the Marines are not there to do that

so you think the Upper Crust will trust the local cops?

Yes, I am being really serious.

Dime on the dollar most of them will get contracts with the upper crust, and that includes Preval.

[malaise]

11. The upper crust are already out of Haiti

They all have dual citizenship - Haitian and something else.
Rest assured that Preval has his own security - trusted goons like all leaders in these parts.

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. Not quite his security was under the ruble

not that in that case I cry much. One of the people the Mexican Rescue team pulled out was his head of security, as well as securing some of their guns.

But it is not just to physically protect the upper crust, but their assets. I mean you'd hate to have the house or the dealership run by the unwashed masses.

[sabrina 1]

12. Preval should be wary of hiring mercenaries.

If at any time he doesn't toe the line, he might meet the fate of Aristedes who also was guarded by mercenaries and who appear to have assisted in the coup.

I agree they will be hired to protect the elite in Haiti.

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. That's whose been doing the job for years

[gateley]

4. Scahill deserves a medal. And I hope he's watching his back.

We would be unaware of so much of the Blackwater/Prince/etc. stuff were it not for him. I'm so appreciative of his hard work.

[malaise]

17. +1

He's one of the best

[sabrina 1]

18. I agree, he's a hero, a real journalist. Bill Maher

asked him once, or maybe it was a guest on the show, if he was worried about his safety. I don't remember what he said but I'm sure he is. If we had more real journalists the few who are brave enough to actually report on real news, would be a lot safer. Unfortunately what passes for journalism gets worse every day.

Which is why people like him are a treasure.

[happy_liberal]

6. noooooooooooooooooooooooooo

I can't take it anymore :grr:

[gratuitous]

8. "Offering" their services? Like, for free?

Somehow I don't think that's the case. But let it never be said that there isn't a situation so horrific that someone, somewhere, won't be trying to turn a buck off it. It doesn't have to be that way, but the same people who can skim a couple of dollars off the ocean's surface where the ship went down (figuratively speaking), work doubly hard to make sure the system doesn't change.

[galileoreloaded]

20. American soldier costs $1M per year, and these guys are costing us $365K

NOT approval, but if those numbers are true, then I understand the push to use them.

[sabrina 1]

21. That may be, but I think it's more likely that they

are useful because they can be used in ways the legitimate military cannot. Eg, it has now been revealed that Erik Prince worked with the CIA and his mercenaries were engaged in political assassinations. They have no loyalty to anyone, any country.

Another thing I though was illegal, political assassinations ~ I read somewhere today that someone asked 'who are we ~ what have we become'. Good question ~

[nadinbrzezinski]

22. No, they cost more

a US Soldier costs 1 M to train equip and deploy over the course of an enlistment.

These guys charge ten times as much.

Why do you think there have been ahem fights in places like Iraq between the troops and this scum?

[sabrina 1]

23. That's what I thought. Don't they get paid something like

over $300.00 a day?

I remember also when Republicans would slam Dems, like Kerry, for questioning how the 'money for the troops' was being spent. Back then most people were not aware of how much of those supplemental amounts were going to mercenaries. Considering the size of the mercenary army in Iraq, more than half must have been paid out in contracts for these private armies.

Dems had to have know this though and probably could have easily slapped down that taunt from the right. At the time I think most Americans would have been shocked to know that their tax dollars were not going to the troops, but to an army made up of sometimes of people who are not even American. And the news never bothered to inform the people either.

[nadinbrzezinski]

24. Well the 1M \ soldier is comming from Afgnanistan

but the logistics costs would mean 3 million\merc

People really do not understand that a gallon of fuel on a Humvee, not the most efficient of vehicles to begin with, is about 25 dollars in Kabul.

And yes a lot of the money has gone to mercs, also because we have privatized functions the army used to do, like oh cooks.

[sabrina 1]

25. Democrats never protested the money going to mercenaries

They played along with the guilt trip being laid on them when Republicans accused them of 'not wanting to support the troops'.

And back then the troops weren't getting much of the equipment they needed or even proper drinking water.

The media insisted on calling them 'contractors' and they cannot have been unaware of what most people on blogs knew by then.

I'm reading the link you posted above ~ very interesting 'history repeating itself' as you said. I'd like to know when Congress okayed the use of mercenaries in war zones.

[nadinbrzezinski]

26. I am not defending that practice

in my view Mercs should be lined against the wall and just shot. Which is by the way the status they have under International Humanitarian Law... they are seen as spies.

I despise Mercs, they just increase the pain.

And yes, history is repeating... empires on the decline hire Mercs to try to hold off the inevitable.

[sabrina 1]

28. No, I didn't think you were.

I was just remembering the big fight over funding for the troops when Kerry was a candidate and was accused of 'voting against it before he voted for it'. I remember rightwingnuts going wild over Kerry 'wanting to deprive the troops of what they needed etc.' I wish I had known how much money was going to mercenaries back then. And was just wondering why Kerry, who had initially asked for an accounting of the money, didn't point that out.

I agree with you re mercenaries except for shooting them. Just firing all of them and forcing them to work at a decent, honest job would be fine with me. It is despicable to make a living from other people's misery and I don't understand when it became okay with this government to allow this to happen.

[nadinbrzezinski]

29. You want a date? Sec Def Chenney formalized

it

The whole mess of the BRAC was to privatize a lot of the force

[sabrina 1]

32. On the website I posted below about mercenaries

and the companies who hire them, it does say they are 'legal'. And it says that before the eighties they did not really exist. But I couldn't find an actual date where Congress approved of the US using them in war zones.

Cheney formalizing them would not be a surprise. He's a sick man. But what's scary is how we have just accepted them without any dissent whatsoever.

[EFerrari]

27. Who could have predicted that vultures would descend upon Haiti.

[sabrina 1]

31. It's really disturbing to think that somewhere while the rest of the

world is offering free, humanitarian assistance to the Haite's people, there are these greedy, soulless people who see this tragedy as 'great opportunity' to profit from.

Their job description I found on this site:

http://www.tenntimes.org/2008-election/elections/07-issues/jericho/jericho-08.htm

Private Military Companies can be defined as

A legally established multinational commercial enterprises offering services that involve the potential to exercise force in a systematic way and by military means and/or the transfer or enhancement of that potential to clients. The potential to exercise force can materialize when rendering, for example, a vast array of protective services in climates of instability (on land and sea). Transfer or enhancement, on the other hand, occurs when delivering expert military training and other services such as logistics support, risk assessment, and intelligence gathering. It is a ‘potential’ to exercise force because the presence of a PMC can deter aggressors from considering the use of force as a viable course of action.

If these people are hired, poor, hungry people will not be safe ~

[laststeamtrain]

30. K & R - n/t.

[clear eye]

33. There is another aid group, complementary to DWB, which is safe to donate to.

Doctors w/o Borders provides solely medical assistance. They often work side by side in many suffering parts of the world w/ another int'l aid group, Action Against Hunger which specializes in providing clean water, sanitation, sometimes shelter, and food. Action Against Hunger has a top rating w/ Charity Navigator (indicating that it uses its funds well), and has been working in Haiti for 25 years focusing strictly on its mission and avoiding politics. It never asks Haiti or the U.S. gov't for payment and uses Haitians as much as possible for support and staffing. It has never called upon an outside security force there. It will remain in Haiti helping the people long after the other groups have left.

Here is their online donation page: https://www.actionagainsthunger.org/donate/earthquake-haiti?s_src=homepage&s_subsrc=haiti

The are facing a monumental task. Fortunately they had bases far enough away from Port-au-Prince that many of their staff survived. Please be generous.

[sabrina 1]

35. I had never heard of them. Thanks for the link

I will pass it around. They sound wonderful. Haiti is going to need long-term help and groups like that will need support for a long time.

I am glad they were not harmed, good to know they were there before the Earthquake also as Haiti's hunger problem was really bad for a long time.

Action Against Hunger ~ I will remember that, thank you.