After raking in more than a billion dollars from its contracts in
Iraq, Blackwater is finally being forced to leave the country that it
has terrorised for so long. But the notorious mercenary firm's
departure will likely have more symbolic significance than any real
impact on the day-to-day lives of Iraqis.
First, only Blackwater as a corporate entity - which just changed its
name to Xe in an effort to shake its bad reputation - is being given
the boot. Iraqi officials have said that its operatives will be
allowed to stay in the country by switching companies, as long as
they have clean records. While this sounds reasonable, making that
determination will be next to impossible. According to US officials
and the contractors themselves, the actual number of shootings in
Iraq by private military companies is far higher than is publicly
acknowledged and they are rarely reported by the individuals involved.
Second, Blackwater never was a lone bad apple. The entire mercenary
industry is rotten and needs to be discarded. Consider Dyncorp and
Triple Canopy, the two mercenary outfits that will be filling the
hole left by Blackwater. In 1999, for example, Dyncorp employees were
implicated in a sex ring in Bosnia that involved the trafficking of
women and children as young as 12 years old. When whistleblowers came
forward to expose these heinous crimes, they were promptly fired.
And there is no sign that firm has cleaned up its act in Iraq and
Afghanistan. The US state department has repeatedly rebuked Dyncorp
for being unprofessional and "too aggressive". In one embarrassing
incident, a BBC correspondent actually saw a guard from the company
slap the Afghan transport minister.
<http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/20613>Link
--
Posted By johannes to
<http://www.monochrom.at/english/2009/02/blackwater-and-friends-no-mercy-for.htm>monochrom
at 2/19/2009 12:43:00 PM
