{"id":1886,"date":"2004-04-01T14:59:00","date_gmt":"2004-04-01T18:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.meehawl.com\/Blogfiles-wp\/?p=1886"},"modified":"2004-04-01T14:59:00","modified_gmt":"2004-04-01T18:59:00","slug":"soldiers-of-misfortune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.meehawl.com\/Blogfiles\/2004\/04\/01\/14\/59\/soldiers-of-misfortune\/","title":{"rendered":"Soldiers Of Misfortune"},"content":{"rendered":"

Who were these “American civilians” and why were they in Fallujah? They worked for Blackwater Security Consulting<\/a>, a military contractor or, if you’re a fan of older terminology, a mercenary outfit. Notably, last December it was revealed that Blackwater equips its mercenaries with lethal new flesh-shredding blended-metal bullets<\/a> that are proscribed for regular US soldiers<\/a>, and probably illegal under international law<\/a>. This is what flesh looks like after being hit by a couple of these nasty bullets:
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Blackwater Security Consulting provides security training and guard services to customers around the world. It is one of five subsidiaries of Blackwater USA, based in northeastern North Carolina about a half-hour’s drive from the world’s largest naval base in Norfolk, Virginia … Blackwater President Gary Jackson and two other company leaders are former Navy SEAL commandos … The company’s security-consulting business connects former special forces troops with jobs that may involve protecting people or places, or training foreign militaries.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Blackwater is one of the firms that have poured an estimated 15,000 private security agents into Iraq since Saddam Hussein’s fall. The company guards food shipments in Fallujah.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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The US is hiring mercenaries in Chile to replace its soldiers on security duty in Iraq. A Pentagon contractor [Blackwater<\/strong>] has begun recruiting former commandos, other soldiers and seamen, paying them up to $4,000 a month to guard oil wells against attack by insurgents. Last month Blackwater USA flew a first group of about 60 former commandos, many of who had trained under the military government of Augusto Pinochet, from Santiago to a 2,400-acre (970-hectare) training camp in North Carolina.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Apart from Chile, the other popular source for military recruits is South Africa. The United Nations recently reported that South Africa “is already among the top three suppliers of personnel for private military companies, along with the UK and the US.” There are more than 1,500 South Africans in Iraq today, most of whom are former members of the South African Defense Force and South African Police.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Private military companies (PMCs) (mercenaries, in oldspeak) manning the occupation administration’s front lines are now the third-largest contributor to the war effort after the United States and Britain … In industry jargon, these companies’ manpower is split into Iraqis, “third-country nationals” (Gurkhas and Fijians) and “internationals” (usually white first-worlders). Iraqis get $150 a month, “third-country nationals” 10-20 times as much, and “internationals” 100 times as much.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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The most dangerous creatures lurking in The Great Dismal Swamp that spans the Virginia-North Carolina line are not the 600-pound black bears, rattlesnakes or water moccasins. Rather, they’re the men and women (soldiers, sailors, SWAT teams and civilians) taking aim with live ammo in the 5,200-acre Blackwater Training Center … Most everything else at Blackwater is real: the guns, the ammo, and the scrubbed soldiers in camouflage gear. The feeling, howver, is surreal: a dreamlike world of regimented violence amid the peaceful woods and fields, now populated by staunch soldiers with oiled black weapons.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/a>EXTRA: Blackwater is hiring<\/a>! Blackwater is especially interested in any ex-military willing to train the oil-rich<\/a> but human rights-poor<\/a> dictatorial regime<\/a> in Azerbaijan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Earlier here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Who were these “American civilians” and why were they in Fallujah? They worked for Blackwater Security Consulting, a military contractor or, if you’re a fan of older terminology, a mercenary outfit. Notably, last December...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t