Blackwater's World of Warcraft
Need a private-label armored vehicle? A detachment of Chilean infantrymen? A special forces "engagement team"? Erik Prince's expanding global private army is at your service—and the war in Iraq was just the beginning.
When blackwater founder Erik Prince took his seat before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform last October, in the midst of a firestorm over the killing of 17 civilians in Baghdad by his contractors the previous month, the 38-year-old was at the helm of a fast-growing global business—and had the confidence to match. Sporting a neatly pressed suit and a fresh military-style haircut that evoked his service as a Navy seal, Prince had been prepped by crisis-management specialists from the Beltway PR firm Burson-Marsteller, and throughout the tense four-hour hearing he leaned back frequently to confer with his lawyer. A private man who seldom gives interviews, he nevertheless seemed at ease in a room filled with politicians, cameras, and reporters. He extolled his men's professionalism—"I believe we acted appropriately at all times"—and bristled at the term most commonly used to describe his line of work. "The Oxford dictionary defines a mercenary as a professional soldier working for a foreign government," he said. "We have Americans working for America, protecting Americans."
The truth is a bit more complex. As profit margins in the private security industry have narrowed—Blackwater clears just 10 percent on its primary State Department contract, Prince testified—the ceo has increasingly looked beyond American shores. More and more of his foot soldiers now come from Third World countries, and his corporate network is aggressively pitching for business from foreign governments. (It has already trained naval commandos in Azerbaijan and has been hired to train special forces troops in Jordan.) In his most ambitious moments, Prince has set out a vision in which his companies would act as for-profit peacekeepers, working with the United Nations and other international organizations in conflict areas around the world. Even Blackwater's marketing materials are infused with the imagery of global humanitarianism; one of the company's recent ads shows a tiny malnourished infant being spoon-fed and proclaims the company's intention to "provide hope to those who still live in desperate times."
Yet the most important vehicle for Prince's global aspirations isn't Blackwater proper, but Greystone Limited, a company he quietly founded in 2004 as his firm's "international affiliate." According to Chris Taylor, a former Marine Recon soldier who until May was Blackwater's vice president for strategic initiatives, Prince sought to build a new brand. "Blackwater has a sexy name and people pay attention to it," Taylor says, and sometimes that high profile "may not fit the proposed mission." In particular, he says, "international opportunities" were to be "looked at through Greystone."
Nearly all of the 20 or more companies Prince has launched or acquired over the years are U.S. based. Greystone, however, was incorporated in the Caribbean tax haven of Barbados, although it is managed from Blackwater's headquarters in Moyock, North Carolina. (The Barbados address and phone number listed in the federal government's contractor database trace back to a firm that specializes in shielding corporate revenues from U.S. tax authorities.) "As far as I know, they were the same company with different names," notes a contractor who worked for Blackwater in Iraq.
Unlike Blackwater, Greystone has managed to stay almost entirely out of public view, and it remains a mystery even to industry insiders. Doug Brooks, president of the International Peace Operations Association, a trade group of which Greystone was a member until late last year, couldn't say what the company does. (Blackwater pulled out of the group last October after the ipoa launched an investigation into its conduct; Greystone followed suit in November.) Neither could R.J. Hillhouse, a political scientist and private-security expert who follows the industry closely. Even a spokesman for the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security, which has issued contracts to Blackwater on which Greystone works as a subcontractor, admits he has never heard of the company.
Despite—or perhaps because of—its close-to-the-vest MO, the company has built up a certain mystique. One contractor we spoke to said he was present when Greystone managers arrived to claim their office space at Blackwater's Baghdad headquarters. They were a different breed from the "yee-haw cowboys" that filled Blackwater's ranks, and their tattoos indicated backgrounds in elite military units like Marine Recon, the Navy seals, and the Green Berets. "They didn't talk to the other Americans," he said, let alone foreigners. "They had different bodies, different mentalities, and used different language. They had a different professional attitude."
Greystone's managing director is a 40-year-old ex-seal named Christopher Burgess, who first met Prince while the pair was in training for the Navy's elite unit. Burgess rarely grants interviews, but he agreed to answer some of our questions in writing. Asked why Greystone had chosen to incorporate in Barbados, he responded that the country "is a well known business center with established business practices and banking systems."
Tax benefits aside, at least one industry observer has suggested that offshoring Blackwater's sister company may have been an attempt to skirt strict regulations on the export of military services. Burgess disputes the notion. Greystone, he said, seeks "State Department licensure for all security services overseas," and complies with "other trade controls and restrictions." Taylor admits that taxes were a factor, but says the primary goal was to better position Greystone for international contracts. "It's a matter of focus and efficiency," he says. "I don't think it obfuscates anything."
The scion of a prominent and politically connected Michigan family, Erik Prince followed in his father's entrepreneurial footsteps. Edgar Prince was a billionaire auto-parts maker who provided seed money for conservative activist Gary Bauer's Family Research Council. After his father's death in 1995, Prince combined his inherited wealth and Special Forces background to launch Blackwater.
The company's original business goal was modest—training state and local cops to be better marksmen. But then came the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and with them a bonanza for the private security industry. Since then, Prince's holding company, Prince Group llc, has come to include numerous ventures. Among them are Presidential Airways, an air-charter and cargo-transport firm; Pelagian, a maritime security operation with its own 153-foot vessel, helipad-equipped and outfitted for training and disaster response; and defense projects to make high-tech armaments such as mine-resistant armored vehicles and surveillance blimps. In February 2007, Prince rounded out his operations with Total Intelligence Solutions, a "one-stop" intelligence and risk consultancy for the private sector staffed by former cia officials.
The total of the Prince Group's federal contracts, some of which are classified, is hard to ascertain. But according to government records, Blackwater alone pulled in close to $600 million in fiscal year 2006—an impressive figure considering its annual take from government work was well under $1 million prior to 9/11. Its checks come from a host of agencies, including the departments of State, Defense, and Homeland Security, and the cia, which, a European Parliament investigation alleges, has hired Prince's air-charter company to transport terrorist suspects to secret interrogation sites. (Blackwater denies any involvement in rendition flights.)
The Prince business model calls to mind an earlier generation of private security companies typified by South Africa-based Executive Outcomes and U.K.-based Sandline International. Through the 1990s, these companies deployed private armies for the embattled regimes of countries such as Angola and Sierra Leone, waging war against rebels allegedly in exchange for diamond and oil concessions. Although both are now defunct, their alumni remain among the industry elite; Tim Spicer, Sandline's former ceo, now runs Aegis Defence Services, which contracts with the Pentagon to coordinate security for all reconstruction projects in Iraq. And as Executive Outcomes founder Eeben Barlow wrote in a memoir released in South Africa last year, the main difference between his company and those now working in Iraq "under the guise of security companies" may simply be that Blackwater et al. have government backing. "After we had blazed the path for military consultancy and advisory work," he wrote, "companies realised that the military market was an open playing field."
None, perhaps, realized it more than Greystone, which has set out to meld government and corporate business into a seamless global web. In February 2005, the company was inaugurated at an exclusive event at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Washington, D.C. There, a carefully selected coterie of foreign dignitaries and international businessmen strode past armored vehicles conspicuously parked near the entrance. Inside, they browsed tables stocked with military-grade weapons and equipment, including uniforms, boots, knives, and gas masks, according to one invited guest. The keynote speaker was Cofer Black, the former State Department and cia official who, as head of the Agency's Counterterrorist Center, famously promised after 9/11 to deliver Osama bin Laden's head to the White House in a box of dry ice. Just two weeks before the Ritz-Carlton shindig, Black (now chairman of Total Intelligence Solutions) had joined a parade of officials leaving government service to work for Prince. In his speech, he urged attendees to consider our "changing world," the "far different threats" America faces, and the "creative solutions and approaches" required to deal with them.
Black's rhetoric closely echoed Greystone's promotional materials. "In today's grey world," reads one of the company's pamphlets, "the solutions to your security concerns are no longer as simple as black and white." Greystone offers clients full protective details staffed by special operations, law enforcement, and intelligence personnel "for any threat scenario around the world." It is prepared to train indigenous forces "in developing a capability to conduct defensive and offensive small group operations." Greystone contractors can stage mock "red team" attacks on secure installations to identify potential vulnerabilities. The company will work "in support of national security objectives as well as private interests" and is prepared to deploy "proactive engagement teams"—suggestive of offensive forces, not just security guards. Prince's companies maintain a small fleet of aircraft, including Little Bird helicopters, commonly used in Special Forces operations, and casa-212s, rugged turboprops with high-mounted wings for moving cargo or up to 28 passengers. Blackwater also has sought to acquire at least one Embraer Super Tucano fighter—a lightweight plane used by several Latin American governments for counterinsurgency, pilot training, and monitoring. In an early promotional video (see motherjones.com/greystone), Greystone operators, some wearing black ski masks, are shown doing everything from handing out food to refugees and protecting diplomats to jumping out of airplanes, running cars off the road, and landing strike teams on Iraqi rooftops—all to a synthesized drum-and-bass soundtrack.
"They have the ability to do whatever tickles your pickle," says one private-security contractor. "They have services literally from A to Z. Aviation. Special operations. Rescue. Ransom. You name it. If you got the money, they got the honey. You can hire 17 James Bonds with Arnold Schwarzenegger in charge, or you can knock on the same door and tell them, 'I'm a Kuwaiti businessman and would like protection for my convoys between Kuwait City and Baghdad, but I only have half a million dollars a month.' Greystone will take the contract, and they'll hire grunts."
In addition to being a regular subcontractor for Blackwater in Iraq, Burgess said Greystone has also been hired directly by "foreign governments and private sector clients to provide static security, K-9 support, [vulnerability] assessments, aviation maintenance and management, and training." He wouldn't specify clients or countries of operation "due to operational security concerns," except to say Greystone has worked "in various Middle Eastern countries."
The company has also registered with the UN's procurement division, theoretically allowing it to compete for international peacekeeping contracts; speaking at a 2006 conference in Amman, Jordan, Black suggested that Blackwater could rapidly dispatch a brigade-size force to, say, Darfur. Taylor, the former Blackwater VP, says: "You just can't deny the capability that Erik Prince has developed to assuage human suffering around the world."
So far, though, the world seems disinclined to take advantage of Greystone's capabilities: In late December, after we asked a UN official about the company's presence in the organization's procurement database, Greystone and Presidential Airways were removed from the list; a UN source told us it was a temporary move pending an investigation into "ethical" concerns. For its part, Blackwater has tried to crack the African market with a bid to train South Sudanese security forces long engaged in battle with the country's Islamic regime, although a company spokeswoman says it has no current contracts to do so. Writing in the Lebanese daily An-Nahar late last year, Sudan's ambassador to Lebanon said that Blackwater had sought permission to enter Sudan under "a different name"—Greystone.
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Though not attributed, this reads an awful lot like Scahill's book on Blackwater?!
Prince couldnt hold a candle to Mike Hoar! Old Mad Mike went through the Belgium Congo in !65 like a red hot bayonet into a suckling pig. Up Third Para's! Gun's forward, Open Fire!
Blackwater is another name for raw sewerage. The joke is obviously on us.
Hmmm, very interesting. I guess Mark Penn was really earning his money from Blackwater (while, of course, he was earning money driving Hillary's campaign over the cliff.)But clearly Blackwater got their money's worth from Penn and Burson-Marsteller, since Hillary has never uttered a single word against Blackwater. Since Mark Penn tells anyone who will listen that he writes every word coming out of her mouth, who would be surprised.
My question is when Mark Penn style slime mixes with Blackwater slime, how do you tell the difference?
is it just me or does it seem like a separate military is being built at tax payer expense which doesn't have to follow the usual rules and can answer to unknown backers or political patrons.....?
this is the type of profit for killing groups that bush has allowed to prosper-if you give enough in donations to republicans, the world is yours to screw
This country was nearly kept from becoming a free nation by the likes of Blackwater. How did this outfit ever get licensed to operate in the first place? This is just one more example of the destruction of the "Great Experiment". Mr Prince and all his kind should be disarmed and institutionalized as the menace to society that they are. Hopefully in a cell between Bush & Cheney.
Maybe its more like the East India Company?
I do believe these people are the inspiration for the fictional "Ravenwood" in the TV series "Jericho". They need to be stopped. Not one more tax dollars for these criminals!
they have created a more chaos. I Certainly believed this is one more way, were some of this big business people are making an opportunity to make big money.
Meet your friendly new national police force (who will be driving those 10,000 mysterious armored vehicles the Pentagon has ordered) after mission one has been accomplished.
You'll fly their friendly skies on an all expenses paid one way trip to Gitmo, where one of those spanking new cells that are abuilding will be waiting for you if you've been making a problem of yourself.
Rotsa ruck!
Interesting how Scott Horton's posting,"Blackwater’s Gray Zone", in Harper's Mar.21 notes this article but not Scahill.
Low profit margin? It sounds like the makings of an international war lord operation that would make most of its money through criminal operations as has already started in Iraq. What about the Bush connection? Joseph E. Schmitz who George W. appointed Inspector General of the Department of Defense left to become COO and legal advisor of the Prince Group, the parent company of it all. Oh yeah, and Schmitz is also Jeb Bush's brother-in-law, married to sisters. Isn't that handy? The Cosa Nostra must be green with envy.
Prince is a very poor role model for a Christian. He and his hoods are worse than the Mafia ever were. They are paid murderers.
Absolute power, corrupts absolutely!
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I have recruited many fine American Heroes for the PMI only to find that the very elite of the US Military have gone from zero to multiple-millionaires overnight and thing nothing of abusing the Hell out of the very "band of brothers" they would have laid their lives down for previously. Their tactics are similiar to Mafia Thugs and they will hurt anyone who gets in their way. They have done far more harm than good and they are out of control. But there is a lot of truth that will be coming out soon, just not soon enough for some of their victims.
Let's get real and read a history book or two. Mercenaries have been around as long as the cave men. Just look at the US Revolutionary War here-Hessians galore! So Erik Prince and his Blackwater cadre are not a new phenomenon. True, many mercenaries from all walks of life, especially former military men. They can behave like thugs and murderers. That's what they get paid for. I am not for mercenaries but the fact is that these guys have been around since time began and will stay around until time ends.
Right on, georgeinPA. They all belong in prison. Of course, if we really are in a War on Terror, the U.S. Military should be killing the Blackwater goons instead of working beside them.
And, to continue our tour of Ft. Leavenworth, on your left you'll see the entrance to the Blackwater wing, adjacent to the entrance directly ahead which leads to the Halliburton wing, both of these additions were built in just 90 short days under the current administration, construction began on 25 January, and was completed 25 April.
All of the cells in both wings are set up for solitary confinement, but are maintained in comfortable and professional fashion, as to do otherwise would be construed as cruel and unusual punishment, and definitely illegal. Nonetheless, none of these prisoners will ever see the light of day again, having been sentenced en masse in a 30-minute trial. There is some dispute as to whether or not the trial was in fact legal, but given the people we're dealing with here, it was also viewed as a fairly moot point. Next, we'll move on to the US Army fraud and larceny wing, which also has a full complement of 'lifers'...some serving several thousand concurrent life sentences...
;)
Bert08
siglo6,
All branches of the US Military are hiring. http://www.usmilitary.com
BLACK WATER IS ALREADY IN MEXICO ALL ALONG THE US/MEXICAN BORDER ON WHAT SIDE IT IS OPERATING ON IS TO BE DETERMINED BY THE US,YOU SEE THE DRUG CARTELS ARE NOT COMPETENT ENOUGH TO HAVE THAT KIND OF (INTEL) ON THERE OWN TO EXECUTE SUCH RAIDS AND EXECUTIONS IN BROAD DAY LIGHT AND AND EXACT TARGETS ? THE US CAN NOT AFFORD TO HAVE A STABLE ECONOMY NOR A STABLE MEXICAN BORDER AND THE LATIN AMERICAN COUNTRIES DO NOT HAVE THE SMARTS NOR THE INTELLIGENCE TO PROVE OTHER WISE THEY SEEM SUSPICIOUS BUT CAN'T PROVE IT AND THE ALL AMERICAN DOLLAR IS VERY MUCH IN FULL VALUE AND ABUNDANCE IN BORDER TOWNS ALL ALONG THE BORDER WITH CORRUPTION BEING HARD FOR THEM TO CONTROL AN ELIMINATE TOTALLY! BELIVE ME I KNOW! I WAS IN MEXICO FOR UP TO 5 YRS. GATHERING INTEL FOR OUR GOVERMENT WE KNOW ALL OF MEXICOS SECRETS AND THERE WEAKNESSES AS WELL AS WHOM WE CAN TRUST (AN ASSET)AND WHOM WE CANNOT TRUST (A LIABILITY AND POSSIBLE BREACH, OF INTEL. WE ARE VERY NAIVE TO THINK OTHER WISE , OR TO BELIVE THAT WE (THE US GOVERMENT DOES NOT HAVE ANY OPERATIVES IN MEXICO AND HAVE HAD THEM THERE FOR OVER A DECADE AS A TRAINING FIELD AND AS AN FIRST STRIKE FORCE IN CASE MEXICO IS INVADED BY OTHER UNFRIENDLY GOVERMENTS OR THREATS!?THINK ABOUT IT AND FOLLOW (THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD)SURELY YOU KNOW WHAT THAT IS ? IT IS A CODE WORD ? ALL SPECIAL FORCES TEAM MEMBERS KNOW! FORCE RECON,SEALS, DELTA,FORWARD OBSEVERS,PATH FINDERS,LONG RANGE RECON PATROLS,AND THE INFAMOUS DEADLIEST OF ALL (S.S.D.) BUT GENUINE C.O.B.R.A. UNITS OF VIET NAM JUNGLES AND DESERT LIZARDS THEY ARE THE ONES THAT EVERYONE FEARS WITH FATAL CONSEQUENCES BECAUSE OF THE SILENCE WHEN THEY ARE LET LOOSE BY THE GOVERMENT BELIVE ME BLACK WATER AND ALL THESE MERCs. INTERNATIONAL AND DOMESTICS WANT TO BE CAN NOT MATCH THESE PEOPLE THEY ARE THE BEST (THE REPUBLIC OF VIET NAMs PRODUCT) EVER PRODUCED and walk this earth today in SILENCE!! THIS GOVERMENT CAN GUARANTEE IT AGAINST ANY DEADLY FORCE CONVENTIONAL OR NOT!THE ARCHIVES AND A SELECT FEW INCLUDING SENATOR MC CAIN CAN CONFIRM THIS! HIS LIBERATION WAS BROUGHT ABOUT BY THIS FORCE AND NOT ANY ONE ELSE BUT THE CREDIT WENT TO DIPLOMATIC PROCESS VENUE IN ORDER TO MAINTAIN THE OBSCURITY AND SILENCE OF THIS FORCE THE NVA KNEW THEY HAD NO OTHER CHOICE WHEN THEY LEARNED ABOUT WHAT WAS TO BE TURN LOOSE ON THEM ! SENATOR JOHN TOWER,PRES.NIXON,KENNEDYs,JOHNSON AND UNCLE GEORGE BUSH SENIOR THE DIRECTOR OF THE CIA THEN.ASK HIM?
Prince wants to portray himself as the all American patriot, hero and protector. As a former US military service member I find his behavior a disgrace on his prior service in the “real” US military. A real solder fights to defend his country, not to make a profit for himself or others. Now he is nothing more than a war profiteer and mercenary bagman in an over priced suit, paid for through the suffering and blood of others. Prince is the ultimate poster child for the Neo-Cons. Mercenary organizations and activities should be outlawed world wide.
Re: Jim Guinnessey’s comment. Jim please take your own advice. Try reading some books about logical thought and critical thinking. Your logic would have us living in a brutal and lawless world. Can you imagine someone using your caveman logic to defend a murder?
Will we eventually see a book burning, broken store fronts some minority group as the target to initiate a new super race?
Some controls must be put in place to prevent a reoccurance of a former police state that was separate from the regular army.
Soon we won't have the repubs (hopefully) to blame, so it is imperative that lobbying and all that goes with lobbying be carefully and fully controlled.
We should ask ourselves this question: What happens when Blackwater, etc, leave Iraq? They're not going away. They lobby and employ thousands of fighters.
I'd imagine we'll likely see them on the streets of NY, Boston, and LA within a few years, particularly if our more militaristic political leaders prevail in November.
Good news for military types: Lots of lucrative and exciting employment! And for tax paying Americans too: Couldn't Blackwater and other private security folks "maintain the peace" in Iraq and Afghanistan, collect the bill for their operations from the locals rather than from us tax payers and bring our troops on home? Hmmmm, possible, no? Couldn't oil companies pay them to do..... whatever.... to get the oil we are addicted to, rather than continue to have to lie about why we risk our soldiers lives, not in the defense of our country, but in the defense of a desired commodity? I say long live Blackwater--- but----should I ever see a Blackwater employee brandishing a weapon here in America to enforce the will of their employer-be it the government or a private individual or coorperation- on a fellow American citizen- I will open fire, period.
I never seen such a crew of "WHINERS" in my life. I am willing to bet:
1. 95% never served and when the stuff hits the fan loose their garbage mouths to praise of the troops that do.
2. Of that 95% I am willing to bet there are those who claim to be more than they ever could be... wannabe's.
3. Our nation was structured on "private" enterprise, a right all have to create a business, no matter what type for themselfs.
Why don't you whiners get off welfare? And you wannabe's join one of the services.
Mouth without experience is mouth without substance.
Get a life .. Blackwater Lives....
http://www.soft-vision.com/warriors
http://www.soft-vision.com/why
Brian, you might be right about 95% being "Whinners", as you called them. But, I think I have a right as a WW2 vet to expose and voice an opinion on any possibility of a threat to our freedoms!!
You are obviously a neocon with a desire to stiffle any voice that doesn't agree with yours. You might try a sniff of gas to know what its like, only you can turn it off. Or you might try going without food and water for long periods of time. Or you might watch your daughter or wife torn from you and know they will be raped and killed. Of course you won't experience any of that stuff, because there are people like the 95% and the 5% that care.
Sir, you sure do not write like a senior AMerican warrior.
BTW: you answered to Brian. It was EAGLE TWO Who said that and I totally agree with him.
You are a whinner! Not a Patriot !
SEALTWO
in this world of violence, people do what comes in naturaly, they either deffend themselves or hire someone who will if they got the money.
at the end we all shall see...
who can press further.
Dr.Q
Most might... but we have reared a generation of sissy's spawned by the flower children of the 60's.
They'd rather praise allah than fight for freedom.
The "NEOCON" tag they use is just another one of their "sensitivity" labels.. and a cop out - don't look at me - look at him.
SEAL TWO who posted above you was SEAL TEAM II in Vietnam he is also a Korean War Combat Vet and like he said - and I will restate, most sound like 2 things who have posted here:
1. Whiners ( who call mommy when they stub their toe )
2. Wannabe more than they will ever be.
I wonder if their mothers had any kids that lived?
and thats a fact jack.
"Blackwater Lives" - get over it.
http://www.soft-vision.com/warriors
http://www.soft-vision.com/why
Eagles Up!
http://www.eaglesup.us
Why do firms like BW, GW, TC, et al. exist? Because there is a demand. A demand, in large part, by the US gvt. Why? Because it's cheaper and easier than having soldiers filling these positions. Don't vilify a company in a capitalist nation, nor the men volunteering to work for it, when the blame, should be placed a few tiers upwards. Be appreciative that there are Ugandans working for $20 a day to man a guard post, while your fat sons sit, unworried, playing 'first person' shooter games and eating cheetos, all but unaffected by our gvt's folly.
I agree with Brian. There is a use for the companies that employ us 'Mercs." With the Katrina scene merely an amuse-bouche, I'll be as scared and drawn to action as the rest when we inevitably start seeing them truly 'regulate' on American soil.
The fact that Scahill’s book was mentioned in the very first comment here is extremely important. I watched him on the Daily Show as Jon Stewart spouted that familiar line, ‘mercenaries aren’t a new thing...’ Stewart closed by ‘accidentally’ throwing Scahill’s book to the floor where it couldn’t receive the all-too-important plug via camera close-up. Of course mercenaries aren’t a new thing, that’s how we know to describe Blackwater as such. Their employment is simply a weathervane for the state of Empire and how close it may be to decline. The outsourcing of military for the purpose of expansion has always proven disastrous in the long term. There are many points of reference in the rise and decline of Empire, but as you can imagine monstrous private armies never usher in any golden era. That they’ve been used before is just a poor rebuttal to the question of why we need mercenary armies to protect our freedom.
"SEALS" WHY THEY WERE MERELY (UDTs)until HOLLYWOOD DECIDED TO GLORIFY THEM AND AFTER VIET NAM WE ARE SEALS NOW YOU SHOULD TREMBLE WHEN WE PASS ON BY POLITELY PUT! WHAT ABOUT THE 3rd FORCE RECON 3rd MARINES IstPLATOON ALPHA CO. AND CHARLIE CO. THRID PLATOON AND MIKE CO 1ST PLATOON UP IN I CORP INSIDE NORTH VIET NAM DO YOU KNOW WHAT A C.O.B.R.A. UNIT IS ?OF COURSE YOU DON'T YOU (SILLY RABBIT)TELL US WHAT THE PASSWORD WAS FOR ALL GRUNTS UP THERE JUST BEFORE THE 1STMARINE DIV, TOOK OVER FROM THE 3RD AND WHY DEEP WATER PIER WAS NAME AFTER? AND WHAT WAS CHINA BEACH BEFORE IT WAS CONVERTED TO AN R/R IN COUNTRY REC. IF YOU CAN ANSWER THAT THEN YOU ARE A GENUINE (UDT)AND I CAN RESPECT FOUL MOUTH (SWABBIES) FOR A JAR HEAD IS ALWAYS A JAR HEAD AND HE IS THE MOST DEADIEST WEAPON THE US HAS AND IF YOU COMBINE THAT WITH THE TRAINING OF A C.O.B.R.A. UNIT? WELL SORRY FOR ALL YOU LOSERS!!!!!!!! YOUR THOUGHTS ARE BUT WANNABE's' AND THE RUE TO YOU ALL!! you can not confirm your words because only the best of the best knew these answers!! so sorry for the unpoliteness but hard facts you see only some very few ELITE came to know (ADMIRAL ZUMWALT,AND ALEXANDER HAIG, PERSONALLY !AND WWERE ASSIGNED DUTIES AS PERSONAL COOKS,LAISONS,PROTOCOLS AND BODY GUARDS AFTER OUR R.T.D.s FROM UNCLE HOs back yard and WONDER WORLD UP AND DOWN HIS URINALS WITH SEWER RATS AND THE TUNNEL RODENTS THE CRYSTAL JARS CAME TO LIFE BY UNCLE HAIG AND MR.ZUMWALT BORN OUT OF NEED TO PENETRATE DEEP INTO UNCHARTERD TERRITORY AND EXECUTE PRECISE LONG RANGE EXTREME PREJUDICE CALCULATIONS THE BIRTH AND FORMATION OF ONE SILENT KILLER WAS AS THE C.O.B.R.A. UNITS!TO BE SECRET AND IN DORMANT STAGES AFTERWARDS FOR EVER MORE UNTIL REAWAKEN ! BE AWARE AND BE SCARED BE VERY SCARED THE SERPENT LIVES IN SILENCE AMONG US!!! WANNABEs SPEAK AND TALK YOUR TALK AND WALK YOUR FALSE WALK LEAN IF YOU WISH IN PRISON YOUR JUST OTHER FISH I'LL LISTEN TO YOUR SONG OF WANTING TO BE UNDER THE SEA IN AN OCTOPUS GARDEN IN THE SHADE? SO MEET ME IN THE BOTTOM AND BRING MY RUNNING SHOES FOR I DO NOT WALK YOUR WALK NOR TALK YOUR FALSE TALK AND I LEAN ONLY TO WHISPER MY NAME OBVIOUSLY YOU NEVER HEARD OF THE CHOLO CHAMPS NOR ANY RED NECK TRAMPS EVEN BLACK MAMBA KINGS YELL OUT WE ARE PRISONERS OF OWN DELIGHT SO WHY DO SAY YOU ARE WHOM,YOU WERE THERE?IF NO ONE KNOWS WHY WHOM WAS AND NOT EVERY WHERE YOU SEE MY FELLOW SCARE THERE, WE ALL JUST FOLLOW THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD TO NO WHERE?
You libs are still stuck on Blackwater? pathetic...
did you realize your acronym is F.A.G.?
We are sending people from South
America that were trained at the
School of the Americas over to Iraq.
The video's soundtrack is not drum-and-bass.
tao magh tao! dinky dao! number ten thou!(no man can ever see that which he never experienced nor can he hold his head up high and speak fact if his was never there no where to be? losers always pretend to be under the sea in an octo[deleted] garden in the shade and like to glorify there lies but still they have not found what they are looking for so they fantasize minute men or militia wannabes a (for real) soldier in some idiots mine of being a cop or a savior? lololololol!!!!!!!
Like all "private" enterprises, that lagally shouldn't be privatized, ate nothing less than a futher excuse for our terrorist government to deny accountability for their actions. When the seventeen Iraqi civilians were slaughtered, our government's excuse was that they had no criminal jurisdiction over these people: nor did the Iraqi "puppet" government by an agreement forced by the United Sates government. Who issues a license to purchase (illegal) automatic weapons and military equipment to private comapanies, a business license to use them; indirectly pays their salary to slaughter innocent people and then claims no responsibility or jurisdiction. Only the United States and Britain commits such terrorist atrocities. When I called my S senatorial offices asking them why private companies were allowed to purchase and use illegal automatic weapons and military equipment, they had no answer. I volunteered to sign criminal charges, but they claimed they didn't know where to send me. It's time to remove and replace ALL those in government by any means necessary when they are obviously the criminals.
Lots of tough guys here. Stick to your guns and save true patriots like myself your jumbled english. Blackwater in the US = the Gestapo. Wake up people.
Tough guys... BIG MOUTHS and obviously the minority.
Been there, done that.
I'll fight for my liberties HERE.
Bring home our soldiers...we are being pillaged and raped by our own government.
poetically put i say unto you i know why whom was never there and we all followed the yellow brick road home? ask to see the spider upon a deaf ear,as whom listens his mute with hand sign whom speaks to the blind man? there is you answers my crystal jar from the udt of 39 offten deep waters i did pier? i wonder how many young wannabes militia,minute men ,and border watchers can answer the poem of then soothsayers on wonder of viet nam? lolololololol!!!!!!!
Eagle2 (lol) and Seal2 (lol) two sad ass dudes (maybe, its the internet) who refuse to watch anything other than Stallone, Schwartzenegger, or Chuck Norris films... LOL .. Any 'real' american/True Grit patriot wouldn't be reading 'Mother Jones' articles.... Sad really... I mean can i say 'I'm ex-spec ops' here in this little comment box... Would you believe me too.. get a life ..
oh P.S. John Wayne was gay...
well as we all can tell that to be or not to be ? that is the question ? for the code of the word until i corps of north viet nam ashua land of the jar and the valley of the dead we very few and i mean a very elite few can honestly say the poems of the spirit whom were there and if you can not say them than you were not present so do not even try all you waanabe soldiers of fortune and militias and border watchers you need to bleed first among us jars before you aim and point a weapon at me you idiots and foolish scum bags! feel free to join the marine corps and join a platoon in a fire fight first ? then tell me how you feel taking another human life regardless of race? it is not the same as a rabbit or a deer you idiots put yourself in anyones shoes and point a gun at your own child or point it at yourself( make sure it is not loaded first ) dum ass ! then think if that same person was to declare war on your country and comes upon you! with the same hate and the same rage you seem to have towards other people? think you damm idiot?
Blackwater
Its very easy to sit at home and moan about private armies and mercenaries.Too many films show mercenaries as blood thirsty murdering characters. I suppose some are or were but then I dont have experience of them. I can only speak from personal experience. I served in the British army honourably for 22 years as a Regular soldier and the rest as a reservist. A total of 35 years. So I guess you could say Im experienced.16 years of that service was in various Airborne units. I have seen four wars.
In 2004 I completed Blackwaters rigerous selection process to end up as the only Brit on a 50 strong ex pat team heading for Iraq.This was Blackwaters first big contract. Our foot soldiers were 150 former Chilean military. Everyone was picked for their experience and maturity including the Chileans.
We finally deployed to various locations and ended up fighting in the Militia uprising. We lost four guys in a security cock up in Falluja with their burnt bodies hanging on a bridge. The only people who can tell you what really happened are the guys who were killed. Everyone else can just guess and point fingers. Shit like this happens in war.
The team I was with were located in Karbala and were professional. We were polite to the Iraqi and our Principle who we were protecting in the CPA and in return they were polite to us. We had no need to flex our muscles. We had rules of engagement that were stricter than the military. If we screwed up we got sent home with a loss of wages. That was the worst that could happen to us and as we were out there for the money and to pay our bills at home we made sure we worked by the rules. Myself and an American team mate were shot on this tour but we were both lucky and they were just flesh wounds. We were contractors so our injuries will not be recorded and we are not eligable for the purple heart. I was getting well paid so instead of whinning I got on with the job.
We fought off nemerous attacks on our location and maintained security. The Iraqi CPA workers said they felt safe with our guys on the job. We were all former soldiers with loads of experience. Most were married men and just wanted to do a job they could do well and send the money home to put their children through school, pay for their house and other bills that most of them had run up when they had served as regular soldiers on poor military pay. There was not enough military to do the job so the US government had hired formers soldiers to do take their place. Common sense in my book.
I fired my rifle on many an occasion in the five years Iv been in Iraq. Iv used more ammunition in that time than all my 35 years in the British army. I was a Small arms weapons instructor so I dare say Iv hit what I fired at and as they were trying to kill me or the people I was protecting I dont have sleepless nights over it. I worked with and alongside the military. I fired in support of the military and as a former soldier I respect the military and our rules of engagement. Iv have never shot at anyone who did not need shooting at. I dont consider myself a murderer. My range was always a two way range. Iv been blown up twice and had to be casualty evacuated at one stage. I dont cry about it as I volunteered for the wages and accepted the consequences. I like my job and Im good at it. Its called job satisfaction. I hope to carry on doing it untill I can no longer attach my PKM to my zimmer frame.We are what we are and you need us. We do a good job and we fill the holes the military cannot fill. Our experience compliments the military. We can work alongside the military because we know the military. We are not civilian thugs hired to kill. You do get the occasional bad ones but then you get bad apples in all units. These are quickly weeded out and sacked. Word gets passed around and they dont get hired by anyone else. You cant afford to have cowboys in your team as they will get you killed.
Iv lost 7 friends dead in this time and a few wounded but still we go back. We are professionals.
You have to fight for peace and then you have to fight to keep it or some bastard next door will try to take it away. You need us so wake up, smell the coffee and get used to real life. We are at war in strange lands and against strange people so that you can sit in the safety of your own home and moan about us. We try to keep the trouble away from your back door. Remember that next time you have a moan about Mercenaries.
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this is so sad that these
this is so sad that these contractors killed all these people. They were just trying to defend themselves.
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