U.S. Commandos' New Landlord in Afghanistan: Blackwater

reply to post by AGWskeptic


they are getting $150k annual and up....no uniform with a flag, no life insurance, no "God and Country"

I thought about it in '08...it was the "No God and Country" that stopped me.

reply to post by AGWskeptic


My husband just fixes trucks (although he is actually trained to do medic too). He's been over to the desert 4 times, getting ready for the fifth. I told him I wouldn't stand for it. I don't care if it would pay all of our bills off. Those people are scary. They used to come into the bar I worked at and they were just....no words can describe the arrogance level on some of these men. I even had one follow me home.

I never heard much about the following back in January. Afghanistan is just an extension of "narco" operations...

The US Department of Defense has transferred its armed efforts in Latin and Central America in the War on Drugs to Academi, the private military contractors formerly known as Blackwater, reports BBC Spanish. Before they altered their branding to be known as Xe, then most recently Academi, Blackwater underwent immense criticism for a series of scandals involving contract employees executing civilians throughout the Middle East.

That same company that trained contractors to mercilessly slay helpless Iraqis will now be ushering military contractors south of the border to help combat the War on Drugs there, the outlet reports. With the Constitution only legally allowing the Pentagon to get away with so much, the BBC reports that the transition of control to private contractors will allow them to get away with what “US military forces are not allowed or not encouraged to do.”

The company previously known as Blackwater is just one of several private contractors that have been awarded contracts out of the Department of Defense, reports BBC, and their specific deal will award them several million dollars towards “providing advice, training and conducting operations in drug producing countries and those with links to so-called ‘narco-terrorism’ including Latin America.”

What’s more, it is reported, that those contracts were no-bid agreements authorized by the Pentagon. Under such deals, the DoD forks over federal funds to private companies without ever seeking better offers from competitors.

As long ago as 2007, the Pentagon was considering billions of dollars worth of contracts to private contractor aid in the War on Drugs, but the BBC reports that the latest deal will actually aid in the “transfer” of control out of Washington and instead put the actions of enforcing drug production and trafficking in the hands of civilians, not servicemen bound by certain rules and regulations.

Additionally, the transition will allow the government to usher billions into the War on Drugs, but to the public it will appear as if the effort is, on the periphery, nothing more than another DoD contract. Opposition has long existed to the lengthy War on Drugs, and by continuing the efforts in Central and South America without relying on further Pentagon expenditures, less money will appear to be focused on ongoing operations.

I can't corroborate the BBC source..

rt.com...

I could have sworn I had also read something a while ago about private security like this being allowed to operate within the country.... which I find truly scary.


You ever see one of those thriller movies (I'll use "Edge of Darkness" as a recently watched example) where you've got these private mercenary type teams operating outside of the government but seemingly above the law?

Yeah... that's pretty much Blackwater, or Academi or whatever they're called now, for those who don't know....

Originally posted by antonia
reply to post by projectvxn

 

My husband told me the last time he was in country about some of their actions. I remember him telling me one of their men actually hit one of the Afghan mechanics with the butt of his rifle for absolutely nothing. Poor phil just said "What the hell are you doing", the man literally just shrugged and walked away.

And people wonder why the Afghans want to kill us.

I hear lot of stories from some of my 11x and cavscout friends. There is no reason to use these guys. And they have essentially no oversight. Being downrange with people like that makes me nervous.

You know, not that I want the US to be involved in all this Occupying other nations or Nation Rebuilding when wars are 'over' but goddamn... give these jobs to the military. Screw Defense Contractors and now Blackwater (for whatever the hell they're doing over there). Our soldiers clear the path with life, blood and sanity so that these schmucks can be paid billions most of it with our tax dollars to spread capitalism.

The crap we do in the name of democracy is sick and wrong enough without screwing our soldiers and vets... they're the ones fighting, let them be the ones to cash those big checks... man wtf are we doing? Let me off this goddamn freight train.

The question here is: Are they legal/lawful combatants ?

What are we going to say when they are captured and their heads lobbed off to line the mountain paths as ornaments ?

I would really like to hear any opinions from soldiers serving alongside them mercenaries.

reply to post by Maxmars


Didn't Monsanto buy them after that scandel....never mind he just has a contract with them to infultrate anti-GMO groups...link

reply to post by iwilliam


something like this?

reply to post by Symbiot


What a load of hogwash. If anything they are employed to protect and assist the trafficking much like what the CIA are doing in Mexico.

How can you ever trust an entity that's built around doing the countries dirty work??? I'm sure these "blackwater, Xe, Acadmia" guys could easily get away with murder within our own borders and I'm sure MANY have....

Question- Do military contractors (like the ones in this story) have to follow the Geneva Conventions?

I'm assuming they do not...

reply to post by jhn7537


No, it only applies to uniformed soldiers of countries which have signed the treaty. As Academi is an independent outfit with no country they have signed no treaty and are not bound to the Geneva convention.

Originally posted by antonia
reply to post by jhn7537

 

No, it only applies to uniformed soldiers of countries which have signed the treaty. As Academi is an independent outfit with no country they have signed no treaty and are not bound to the Geneva convention.

edit on 5-12-2012 by antonia because: added a thought

edit on 5-12-2012 by antonia because: opps

So, essentially every country can employ contractors to do their dirty work, and by doing so they technically wouldn't be breaking any rules...Great

Originally posted by antonia
reply to post by jhn7537

 

No, it only applies to uniformed soldiers of countries which have signed the treaty. As Academi is an independent outfit with no country they have signed no treaty and are not bound to the Geneva convention.

edit on 5-12-2012 by antonia because: added a thought

edit on 5-12-2012 by antonia because: opps

I did eight years in Iraq as a contractor. I fell under the Geneva Convention, it was right on my CAC card.

the only reason to have a private military force like this is to circumvent the constitution of the united states, the armed forces and the power of the president as commander in chief.

a blackwater/ze/acadami merc takes his orders from a ceo, the one that cuts his check.

the ironic part, people like the michigan militia groups are being called borderline domestic terrorists, and sadly they're probably be the ones fighting the private armies if shtf.

and if you hear seem speak, they sound like the patriots of old, like daniel boone and davy crockett.

Camp Integrity has been around for a few years, since 2009.

Here's another Wired article about it from March of this year.

www.wired.com...

Originally posted by AGWskeptic

Originally posted by antonia
reply to post by MajorMayhem

 

They do have cash to spare. They actually offered my husband 75K a year a few years ago when he thought he might get out.

edit on 5-12-2012 by antonia because: argh

I was offered 75k in 2003 for a 9 month tour in Iraq. And that included a 2 week paid vacation home in the middle with all my transportation cost included.

And I wasn't spec ops or anything fancy, just a combat medic/wardmaster.

A friends son went over last year as an IT guy working on computers in the green zone. He was there for a year and was able to build a new house when he got back.


They obviously have plenty of cash to spare.

I'm glad I have a level headed wife, she flat out refused to stay with me if I went. But for that kind of money it was very tempting. The first year is also U.S. income tax free according to the recruiter that talked to me.

Yeah, that's one of their biggest hooks, the tax free thing. Recruiters try to BS you.

The first $92.5K of earnings are tax free. That applies to any US non-governmental private civilian working overseas.

The rule applies as long as you're outside the US for 330 days in a 12 month period. If you're outside the US for less than 330 days, it's pro-rated.

Contracting companies are paid so much per person they're required to have on the ground by the US Govt as specified in the contract. Supposedly my last company was paid $400,000 per person. My company had about 1200 people on the ground in Iraq, just for the one contract.

They have plenty of cash to throw around.

Originally posted by iwilliam

Originally posted by Maxmars
reply to post by Zcustosmorum

 

No matter how repugnant we may think (or know) these private-industry soldiers have behaved. We must recognize that there is a certain element of 'propaganda' at play here.

Needless to say, there is little doubt about the history of these mercenary units. I can't help but remember when it started - and how the DHS made them a high-profit operation.

But now my friends and TRUE representatives of the American people, our uniformed soldiers, are shacking up with the very people who are virtually guaranteed to inspire at least one anti-American hate crime (the magnitude of which we won't know, until after it's too late.)

I wouldn't want to "shack up" with blackwater. Pretty sure I remember reading something about blackwater covering up repeated rape perpetrated by their mercenaries.

Yeah, there is a good reason they had to change their company name three times! They're over there comitting crimes and further tarneshing what little reputation our country has overseas. Our government continues to throw our tax payer dollars at these radical defense contractors in the millions of millions of dollars. Disgusting. You can't eat a meal or take a crap without running into contracted services overseas.

reply to post by bg_socalif


glica.org...

The UN disagrees with you. There is no consensus on that issue. Blackwater itself has argued it isn't subject to the Convention when faced with it's employees bad behavior. If you hold an ID card you are correct that you are protected by the convention, According to the convention itself:

Article 47 Geneva Convention Additional Protocol 1977
1. A mercenary shall not have the right to be a combatant or a prisoner of war.
2. A mercenary is any person who:
(a) is specially recruited locally or abroad in order to fight in an armed conflict;
(b) does, in fact, take a direct part in the hostilities;
(c) is motivated to take part in the hostilities essentially by the desire for private gain and, in fact, is promised, by or on behalf of a Party to the conflict, material compensation substantially in excess of that promised or paid to combatants of similar ranks and functions in the armed forces of that Party;
(d) is neither a national of a Party to the conflict nor a resident of territory controlled by a Party to the conflict;
(e) is not a member of the armed forces of a Party to the conflict
(f) has not been sent by a State which is not a Party to the conflict on official duty as a member of its armed forces.

Academi would argue since they hire American nationals they fulfill this. They do hire non-Americans though and send them to the area. However, a non-combatant defense contractor is considered protected by the convention. Academi is not sitting on the FOB twiddling their thumbs, we both know that.