WAR: Video shows private security contractors shooting up Iraqi drivers

A video posted on the internet showing private security forces randomly shooting at Iraqi's has prompted two investigations. Four clips which appeared on a website that may have loose connections to a private security contractor shows personnel opening fire on civilian vehicles. A Irish or Scottish accent can be heard on one of the clips.

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This highlights the dangers of having these "private" security forces running around just about anywhere. The U.K. Foreign Ministry has confirmed that it is conduction an investigation as well as Aegis Defense Services who is loosely connected to the website which appears to have been set up by its employees. I wonder how many civilians have been hurt or killed at the hands of these yahoo's?

A QuickTime version of one of the videos...
www.abovetopsecret.com...

That's certainly an interesting method of "liberating" the Iraqis.

Weren't some of these "independent security contractors" (nice euphamism for "mercenary") also involved in a firefight with the USMC a while back?

The use of mercenaries, accountable to noone, is a poor substitute for real soldiers, who are accountable to their chain of command and to the UCMJ.



[edit on 11/27/05 by xmotex]

I find this horrifying and very sad. These people represent ALL of us. While the company is based in the UK, they are under contract to the U.S, and so by association this falls at our feet.

I cannot even begin to imagine what sort of person/people thinks shooting at and/or killing innocent people is entertainment or fun?! And, yes, they obviously felt it was entertainment, because they set their videos of themselves doing it to music!

I also must wonder how much of this is going on, because if they were willing to post online four "mild" videos of this stuff, what more are they doing they didn't dare post?

You can also see these videos compiled into one at the following link.
VIDEOS

PS...GREAT POST!!! LOLLL

I would also like to add that I think this is just plain murder, and every single one of them involved in this sort of this should be behind bars for the rest of their lives! You cannot justify this in any sort of way....

But who are THEY?
So far, not a lot of evidence about the creators of the video.

A "trophy" video appearing to show security guards

I didn't see any shooters at all in the compilation, just a gun barrel.
Are there more videos?

I am waiting for one of our war atrocity apologists to come in and say something like "well, if they didn't want to get shot, they shouldn't have been driving around in a war zone". The nerve of those Iraqis, thinking they can drive around in Iraq. They brought it on themselves!!!

PS: the video was originally found on a site created by employees of the security company in question. That's a fairly solid hint as to who is doing the shooting. Also, I have my doubts about how many Jihadis would set anything to an Elvis Presley song.

[edit on 11/27/05 by xmotex]

Thats hella messed up, at first i heard the contry music and i saw them shooting im like WTF LOL they from the south alright. But then i noticed you added that in lol fooled me!!

I dont think SO added it in, from the original article:

to me it appears they thought it might be an ambush or car bomb, look how the cars speed up suddenly, one even turns like you would if positioning to fire.....another swerving back and forth like its trying to catch up.


[edit on 27-11-2005 by namehere]

I saw a PBS documentary, called Private Warriors, that was about the security contractors in Iraq and Aegis was one of them.

Things were pretty rough over there and they did mention that Iraqis were getting killed but also said that during the two week period that the PBS crew were over there 18 private contractors were also killed.

It's been a while since I watched it but I think I remember them saying that they fire warning shots at cars that are too close to them, to make them back away.

I've watched the video and that's what it looks like they're doing to me.
Whenever a car would speed up to them they started shooting and kept shooting until they backed off.

They need to do this to protect themselves from VBIEDs (car bombs) which are very commonplace in Iraq.

There seems to be at least one or two new IED attacks or car bomb attacks posted on the Internet by Iraqi insurgents every day.

The threat is very real.

Here's the PBS documentary:
Private Warriors

Here's a few videos from just the first week of this month that shows some of the insurgent attacks:
iraqwar.mirror-world.ru...


[edit on 27-11-2005 by AceOfBase]

ok, if you watch the videos you can see that the driver slows down to let the ones they shoot at catch up....watch it again. At one point they almost stop. This is not defensive by any stretch of the term...it's MURDER for entertainment!

I'm sorry but nothing in those videos looks like a potential VBIDE attack to me.

Those cars are all well behind the shooters' and dont appear to be doing much of anything threatening... it appears to be exactly what it is, a bunch of psychos shooting up civilians for sport.

[edit on 11/27/05 by xmotex]

I slow down and stop when I'm driving because of traffic, not because I'm letting the person behind me catch up.

They probably slowed down because vehicles in front of them slowed down.

LMAO No way! In one of the videos there isn't hardly another vehicle to speak of! Also....they shoot up the car(s) then leave?! Let's assume you are right. They then shoot up the other vehicle and what? Leave? Is that what they are supposed to do? Aren't they supposed to check the other vehicle for something...anything? A body? A bomb? Survivors? No...they laugh, and then leave (at least in one of the videos). Doesn't that strike you as a bit strange at all?!!

[edit on 11/27/05 by maidenwolf]

What strikes me as strange is the fact that some of those cars kept coming towards them even after dozens, or possibly hundreds, of rounds had been fired.

Look at the video of that first car again.

Would you keep driving towards the gunfire like that?

The guy driving that vehicle was either trying to launch an attack or was a complete idiot.

jesus wtf was that bs that was alright murder i mean elvis presley prolly drinking jd while his buddy drives



fyi not everyone in iraq who drives cars have car bombs thats kinda retarded lol


this video kinda made it look like GTA or something

Man, I knew it wouldn't be long before someone jumped in and tried to rationalize this. They were being ambushed! It was a car chase! Yeah, right. Whatever.

If a video of someone shooting a baby came out, people would say, "These guys have it pretty tough. They're under a LOT of pressure. The shooter probably perceived the baby as a threat. These guys are professionals and they're always alert for attack from anywhere. After all, we all know that the Iraqis put IEDs in baby carriages. They are animals and will blow up their own children just to kill an "infidel", and you're fooling yourself if you think otherwise. They don't care about babies when their goal is world domination for Islam! Wake up! And I've read reports of babies actually being part of the insurgency, so ya never know. These people train their kids to hate us from birth. You can't see from that angle whether or not the baby had a gun. Can you prove it didn't? Besides, it might have been a plastic baby with an IED in it. Look at the video again, when the baby explodes, there's not enough blood for a real baby. It looks like ketchup anyway. The Iraqis do have ketchup, ya know, k? They hate us, but they'll still eat Western hot dogs and ketchup. You liberals are amazing. An Iraqi could cut off your head and you'd be making excuses for him. "



[edit on 2005-11-27 by wecomeinpeace]

So....anyone willing to up the troop numbers in Iraq to replace the mercs?

Chances are most of those people didn't know they were getting fired at until they got hit or their vehicles got hit. Gunfire fifty or a hundred yards away is not as loud as you might think, especially when you're in a vehicle with the windows closed, and even if you do hear it, you're not going to automatically know where it's coming from. For all we know the guy thought he was being fired at from behind, in which case the natural tendancy would be to stomp on the gas.

It'd be nice to ask the guy what he was thinking, unfortunately he's probably a little too dead to answer. Maybe you can ask his family, they may not be easy to find though, they've probably joined the insurgents by now.