PDA

View Full Version : Blackwater USA Says It Can Supply Forces For Conflicts



Gold9472
03-31-2006, 12:27 PM
Blackwater USA says it can supply forces for conflicts
Blackwater USA runs a 6,000-acre operation in Moyock, N.C. Its Web site states: “We are not simply a 'private security company.’ We are a professional military, law enforcement, security, peacekeeping and stability operations firm who provides turnkey solutions.”

http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=102251&ran=202519&tref=po

(Gold9472: Does anybody else see a problem with this? Our citizens aren't willing to join up to supply the amount of soldiers needed to fight in this illegal war, so we might have to pay people to do our fighting for us. Doesn't that tell you something?)

By BILL SIZEMORE, The Virginian-Pilot
March 30, 2006

Stepping into a potential political minefield, Blackwater USA is offering itself up as an army for hire to police the world's trouble spots.

Cofer Black, vice chairman of the Moyock, N.C.-based private military company, told an international conference in Amman, Jordan, this week that Blackwater stands ready to help keep or restore the peace anywhere it is needed.

Such a role would be a quantum leap for Blackwater and raises a host of policy questions.

Until now, the eight-year-old company has confined itself to training military and police personnel and providing security guards for government and private clients. Under Black's proposal, it would take on an overt combat role.

"We're low-cost and fast," Black was quoted as saying. "The issue is, who's going to let us play on their team?"

Unlike national and multinational armies, which tend to get bogged down by political and logistical limitations, Black said, Blackwater could have a small, nimble, brigade-size force ready to move into a troubled region on short notice.

Black's remarks were reported by Defense News, a military publisher that sponsored the conference where he spoke, the Special Operations Forces Exhibition.

Chris Taylor, a vice president at Blackwater's Moyock headquarters, confirmed the account.

"A year ago or so, we realized that we could have a significant positive impact with a small, professional force in stability operations and peacekeeping operations," Taylor said.

Blackwater is no stranger to volatile situations. As a security subcontractor escorting a convoy in Iraq in 2004, the company attracted worldwide attention when four of its workers were killed, mutilated and hung from a bridge in Fallujah.

Blackwater, most of whose workers are former members of elite military units such as the Navy SEALs, now provides security for the U.S. ambassador to Iraq under a contract with the State Department.

The reconstruction of Iraq has been hampered by insurgent activity, Taylor said, and Blackwater has the expertise to quell insurgent attacks if invited by the Iraqi government.

"We clearly couldn't go into the whole country of Iraq," Taylor said. "But we might be able to go into a region or a city."

Another place where Blackwater could help restore order, Taylor said, is the Darfur region of Sudan, where millions have been killed or displaced by civil strife. The company could send troops under the control of the United Nations, NATO or the African Union, he said.

Taylor and Black said the company would undertake such a mission only with the approval of the U.S. government.

Peter Singer, a scholar at the Brookings Institution who has written a book on private military companies, said the concept of private armies engaging in counter-insurgency missions raises myriad questions about staffing standards, rules of engagement and accountability.

"No matter how you slice it, it's a private entity making decisions of a political nature," he said.

"It gets dicey."

beltman713
03-31-2006, 01:02 PM
I always thought mercenaries were sort of frowned upon in the world and this country especially. Now we are letting mercenary companies operate freely in this country, and are even hiring them to do our fighting for us. What the hell is this country coming to?

Gold9472
03-31-2006, 01:11 PM
I always thought mercenaries were sort of frowned upon in the world and this country especially. Now we are letting mercenary companies operate freely in this country, and are even hiring them to do our fighting for us. What the hell is this country coming to?

Everything it's not supposed to be.

Partridge
03-31-2006, 01:39 PM
I always thought mercenaries were sort of frowned upon in the world

I guess it depends on who's paying them. Of course, if I remember rightly my days in boring Uni classes abour Early-Modern warfare, the reason mercenaries went out of widespread use in Europe was that they were up for sale to the highest bidder (and had no ideological commitments to any given war) and thus would often change sides mid war, probably even mid-battle!