Hammes described the effect of a profit-seeking approach in an interview with “Frontline”: “We get a little carried away, and then we gold-plate … They could do it, so they did, because it’s just money.”, Basically, the bigger the bases, the more fast-food franchises, the more salsa dance lessons — and the more money the firms make, while wrapping themselves in the flag. These functions include armed assignments in the battle space, including security of U.S. government officials, convoys and other valuable assets; as well as critical but unarmed roles that affect the mission’s success or failure, such as military interrogations, intelligence tasks and the movement of critical supplies like fuel or ammunition. A wrongful lawsuit against Blackwater, filed by the mothers of the four men killed, revealed that the employees had been sent on the mission without proper equipment, training or preparation. However, this would have involved publicly admitting that those involved in the planning — particularly then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld — were wrong in their slam of critics like Army Gen. Eric Shinseki, who warned that an occupation would require far more troops. Plus, the generals could avoid the career risk of asking for more troops. Michigan-born military contractor and former Navy SEAL Erik Prince is offering chartered flights out of . When the U.S. military shifted to an all-volunteer professional force in the wake of the Vietnam War, military leaders set up a series of organization “trip wires” to preserve the tie between the nation’s foreign policy decisions and American communities. The founder of the notorious, and now defunct, Blackwater, has been making headlines for trying to privatise the Afghan war. As the SUVs drive by, Western-looking men in sunglasses point machine guns at him. Blackwater, a private military contractor, is charging $6,500 each to evacuate those fleeing the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, according to The Wall Street Journal. (That it turned out to be such a perfectly round figure indicated that the estimate was actually what researchers call a “WAG,” short for “wild ass guess.”) In 2007, an internal Department of Defense census on the industry found almost 160,000 private contractors were employed in Iraq (roughly equal to the total U.S. troops at the time, even after the troop “surge”). The problem is, some of the most critical questions may yet go unasked. Unfortunately, however, contractors have also been involved in a pattern of abuses that go far beyond the recent Blackwater incident. The largesse was corruptible and it was corrupted. These figures mean that the private military industry has suffered more losses in Iraq than the rest of the coalition of allied nations combined. This book examines what sovereignty and security mean in an Arctic region that is changing rapidly due to the intersection of globalization, climate change, and geopolitical competition. While the media have largely moved on from these stories, Paula Bronstein remains passionately committed to bearing witness to the lives of the Afghan people. The losses are also far more than any single U.S. Army division has experienced. Mr. Prince's former company, Blackwater, . In turn, there are many, many others, such as the running of fast food restaurants, which need not be governmental and can be left to the private market. The firm became much maligned in the press and some circles of the US government over its actions while under contract to US government departments and agencies. Erik Prince was already considered a controversial figure, to put it extremely mildly, particularly in connection to the war in Afghanistan. Ninety-five U.S. Marines and soldiers were killed and almost 500 wounded in the street-by-street fighting that followed. Here is the original video description posted with this: "Videos posted by Harper's Magazine show the . “It’s misguided luxury … Somebody’s risking their life to deliver that luxury,” Hammes says, adding, “Fewer vehicles on the road creates less tension with the locals, because they get tired of these high-speed convoys running them off the road.”. The Blackwater mess has roiled Capitol Hill and shined light on the many questions surrounding the legal status, management, oversight and accountability of the private military force in Iraq, which numbers more than 160,000 — at least as many as the total number of uniformed American forces there. There are also reports that one Blackwater employee may even have pointed his weapon at his fellow contractors, in an effort to get them to cease firing. Biden: Come Back to Where Blackwater Rescued Me. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki called the killings a crime, announcing that his government was pulling Blackwater’s license to operate in Iraq and would prosecute any foreign contractors found to have been involved in the killings. BSC was originally formed as a Delaware LLC and was one of over 60 private security firms employed during the Iraq War to guard officials and installations, train Iraq's new army and police, and provide other support for coalition forces . Yet even this figure was a conservative estimate, since a number of the biggest companies, as well as any firms employed by the State Department or other agencies or NGOs, were not included in the census. And these are standard occurrences that go on in the regular course of contractor operations, where no one is actually harmed. As retired Army officer and New York Post columnist Ralph Peters notes, “Time and again, contractor shoot-’em-ups have either turned back the clock on local progress or triggered greater problems. The use of contractors in Iraq is unprecedented in both its size and scope. They are famous for shooting indiscriminately at vehicles or pedestrians who get close to their convoys.” In the leading newspaper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, Fahmy Howeydi, one of the most influential commentators in the entire Arab world, compared Blackwater “mercenaries” to al-Qaida, coming to Iraq’s chaos to seek their fortunes. Even worse is that incidents of contractor abuse have given America’s foes yet another weapon in the war of information so critical to winning in a counterinsurgency. Expert REVEALS, 'Become Agents of Change': What PM Modi Said During 4-hr Marathon Meeting With Top Bureaucrats, Watch: MS Dhoni Smokes Massive Sixes in CSK Practice Session Ahead of IPL 2021 Resumption. Erik Prince, seen during congressional testimony in 2007, has advocated privatizing the U.S. military . This is their personal account, never before told, of what happened during the thirteen hours of that now-infamous attack. 13 Hours sets the record straight on what happened during a night that has been shrouded in mystery and controversy. The incident spotlights the issue of the role and conduct of U.S. security contractors in Afghanistan. According to the American daily, Eric Prince, the head of the Blackwater company, made the statement. They will describe an evident pattern of incidents as “mere anomalies,” portray private firms outside the chain of command as somehow part of the “total force,” or claim that “we have no other choice” but to rely on contractors, when it is rather about choices they’d rather avoid. Report: Erik Prince, founder of Blackwater, offers $6,500-a-seat flights from Afghanistan. Blackwater is a private military company often contracted by the U.S. and was responsible for a number of the worst atrocities committed in Iraq, including the Nisour Square massacre.Prince's company has also been accused of charging up to six times as . But while contractors have performed the missions asked of them, it does not appear that the massive outsourcing of military efforts has been a great boon to the counterinsurgency in Iraq. The same derailing of U.S. foreign policy has played out the last weeks in Iraq. Wanna Leave Afghanistan? When the history books are written about the Iraq war, they will point to several critical turning points in U.S. efforts to beat back the insurgency that flourished after the 2003 invasion and “Mission Accomplished” victory speeches were the order of the day. When putting other wars into current dollar amounts, the U.S. government paid just this one firm about $7 billion more than it cost the United States to fight the American Revolution, the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War and the Spanish American War combined. The private military company Academi — formerly Blackwater and, more recently, Xe — is the proud winner of a no-bid contract that will keep them profiting off Uncle Sam's wars for the next few years. The White House has criticised Erik Prince, the founder of the controversial private security firm Blackwater, who tried to sell tickets for a chartered flight from Afghanistan for $6,500 per head. Congress has been funding an entire pattern of private military outsourcing that it never explicitly voted on, and it is well past time to act. Ann Exline Starr, a former Coalition Provisional Authority advisor, described the difference between when she traveled with a U.S. military escort and with guards from Blackwater and another State Department-contracted security firm, DynCorp. Stumbled upon this video that allegedly shows Blackwater contractors going wild in Iraq. Hence, while private losses were just the “cost of doing business” for a firm in Iraq, they actually had an undisguised advantage to policymakers. Blackwater founder Erik Prince condemned the potential collapse of Afghanistan, following orders by the Biden administration for a troop withdrawal by the end of the month, saying that the Taliban . The lawmakers were transported back to the American base, according to Matthew Springmeyer, who was heading the Blackwater security in the choppers that day, according to the outlet. It's owned and operated by the security company formerly known as Blackwater, thanks to a no-bid deal worth . The private military industry was an answer to these political problems that had not existed in the past. It can’t win with them, but can’t go to war without them. But to the policymakers back in Washington, now feeling the pressure of the television news cameras, some sort of action had to be taken. Such firms are frequently described as “private security” or “bodyguards,” but they are a far cry from rent-a-cops at a local mall, or bodyguards for Hollywood celebrities. From 1997 to 2010, Blackwater reportedly received contracts worth around 2 billion USD from the government, 1.6 billion USD quite unspecified from Pentagon for operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and other places. With images of the contractors’ bodies being mutilated making the press and eerily echoing the killing of U.S. soldiers in Somalia a decade before, the Marines were ordered to seize the entire city, despite their protests that it would worsen the situation rather than solve it. What is telling about this episode is not merely the reaction in the press, but also how the contractor responded after the news broke. opening, behind-the-scenes look at the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The men you see in this photo below, to include our current President Joe Biden, owe their lives to the efforts of Blackwater and of the military units that came to their rescue that day in Afghanistan. Updated 7:50 a.m. U.S. Special Operations Forces have a brand new home in Afghanistan. Blackwater looks set to survive an Afghan government clampdown on mercenaries after Hamid Karzai was forced by his western partners to abandon a complete disbandment of private security companies. The founder of controversial private military contractor Blackwater, who sparked a furious reaction on Wednesday with his $6,500 evacuation flights from Kabul, has told how his men helped to . The White House has criticised Erik Prince, the founder of the controversial private security firm Blackwater, who tried to sell tickets for a chartered flight from Afghanistan for $6,500 per head. On Sept. 16, 2007, a convoy of Blackwater contractors guarding State Department employees entered a crowded square near the Mansour district in Baghdad, Iraq. 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Added-value of this summary: • Save time • Discover the surprising story of an unlikely player in the Iraq War • Expand your knowledge of American politics and warfare To learn more, read "Blackwater" and discover the fascinating ... The skies above Kabul have been abuzz over the past week with massive cargo planes flying out equipment amid the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.Some are flying out of Bagram Air Base, a monster . Written in language as simple as the details are disturbing, this book will forever change the way we think about the war. In dramatizing his February 2008 trip to Afghanistan "where my helicopter was forced down," Senator Joe Biden omits an important fact: His rescuers were the private security men of Blackwater Worldwide. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said: “I don’t think any human being who has a heart and soul would support efforts to profit off of people’s agony and pain if they’re trying to depart a country and fearing for their lives.”, US defence contractor has put a price on the lives of Afghans who want to flee from #Kabul. The 2004 Fallujah Blackwater incident occurred on March 31, 2004, when Iraqi insurgents attacked a convoy containing four American contractors from the private military company Blackwater USA who were conducting a delivery for food caterers ESS. Meanwhile, President Bush had been scheduled to meet with his Iraqi counterpart a mere eight days after the shootings. Found insideMeet Blackwater USA, the private army that the US government has quietly hired to operate in international war zones and on American soil. The Marines moved into the city in force and a major battle broke out. While the uniformed soldiers kept her safe, they also did such things as playing cards and drinking tea with local Iraqis. Another unanticipated setback for U.S. foreign policy occurred again in July of this year. Of the Blackwater contractors he noted, “Their aggressive attitude is not what you would say is trying to mitigate disagreements between two societies.”, These perceptions of a contractor force run amok help to undermine the very justification for the U.S. effort in Iraq. $6500 US dollars- that's the amount one has to pay if they want to reserve a seat on a chartered flight. PDF can be downloaded for free from: http://martenscentre.eu/publications/contracting-out-private-military-and-security-companies The global trend for contracting out the supply of military and security services is growing. Instead of having to justify the act, which potentially could collapse the government and plunge the nation into civil war, he was able instead to focus his propaganda and recruiting efforts on the Blackwater episode, describing it as “a cowardly attack committed by the so-called security company against our people without any justification.” As with others, he was clear to blame not merely the firm, but the wider American policy, describing how the firm had been allowed to recruit “criminals and those who have left American jails.” That this part is not truthful misses the point; the episode gave the other side a factual point on which to leverage their wider propaganda operations. As the U.S. government now finally debates the private military contracting issue, it must move beyond the obvious focus on shoring up accounting, oversight and even legal accountability. What will distinguish these accounts from histories of past wars is the new common denominator for each of these incidents: the private military industry. What matters is not merely the numbers, but the roles that private military contractors play. ), Prince, who is a former US Navy SEAL officer, had previously batted for privatising the war in Afghanistan. 'With an estimated 48,000 private security contractors at work in Iraq alone, corporate warfare is one of the fastest growing industries in the world. Journalist Armstrong's excellent book looks into how these companies operate. For Prince, the unlikely gambit represents the latest effort in a long campaign to privatise warfare. Guidance for the Brookings community and the public on our response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) », Learn more from Brookings scholars about the global response to coronavirus (COVID-19) ». It was one ambush in a war full of them. Prince will take his shots, and State officials will point to new investigations they are now launching to try to mollify congressional anger. A similar issue arose in Iraq after a September 2007 confrontation involving then-Blackwater . Updated 7:50 a.m. U.S. Special Operations Forces have a brand new home in Afghanistan. As an example of the costs to key efforts, he described how Iraqi employees of the national rail system were so intimidated by Blackwater escorts that they refused to meet with State Department officials there to help them with the reconstruction effort. The only thing agreed upon is the consequences: After a reported 20 Iraqi civilians were killed, including the couple and their child, who was subsequently burned to the mother’s body after the car caught fire, the Iraqi government and populace exploded with anger. The White House has criticised Erik Prince, the founder of the controversial private security firm . 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