Three Contractors Killed Near Baghdad Airport, AFP Reports

[floda]

Three Contractors Killed Near Baghdad Airport, AFP Reports
June 5 (Bloomberg) -- Three security contractors were killed in an ambush on their two-vehicle convey when it was on the road to Baghdad airport, Agence France-Presse reported, citing unidentified U.S. military officers.

The three were killed in a gun battle after their convoy was fired on by assailants hiding on the side of the road, AFP said, without providing the nationalities of those killed.

In a separate attack today a U.S. soldier was killed and three were wounded by a bomb attack on their vehicle in eastern Baghdad, AFP said, citing a U.S. military spokesman.

more..

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=adg.CC_.qVBY&refer=top_world_news

[I thought so.]

1. It comes with the territory.

HIGH PAY=HIGH RISK. Its the free market.

[rooboy]

2. Three more jobs open up in the Bush economy. n/t

[saigon68]

3. 3 more mercenaries bite the dust.

Have Gun Will Travel.

Wire: Bilgewater- Anywhere USA

[seemslikeadream]

4. Looking foward to the barbaque

on edit: any similarities to any thing purely coincidental

when i say bilgewater honey you know
what i mean and you better bring me some

there aint no thang in the wide world honey
that can cure my ills make me swallow my pills
like the water from under
your bridge bay-bay

so when the fisticuffs come round
and the dogs they done look drowned
and the question that yer askin
aint got no answer to be found

i say *splash it*
shove it down the drain
i say slurp it
suck it back up again
i say swirl it
like a hula hoop
like a baby with the croup
like the McLaughlin Group
like Salt n Pepa doin the SHOOP
like Rupert Holmes and Rupert Everett
like Chad Jones and Chad Everett
Shirley Bassey, Shelley Fabares
Ginger Rogers, Doris Day
Linda Lavin, Robert Reed
Soupy Sales is what we need
Charlie Parker, Helmut Kohl
(that’s right, Charlie Parker and Helmut Kohl)
Rosanne-no-last-name with a jelly roll
T-Bone Walker, T-Bone Wolk
T-Bone Burnett and James K. Polk
(our eleventh president.)
John and John and John and John
and John and John and John and John
(but not Jon, he’s weird.)

no one else will be allowed
cos two million’s company
and three’s a crowd

it is time for you to stop your sobbing
it is time for you to take a bath
it is time for you to eat a lot
it is time for you to take a nap

i saw you do
that do not
defy me or
i will have to
take your bilgewater pump
away.

[Rebel_with_a_cause]

5. The lipstick on this operation wore off a long time ago.

We're beyond having "a few loose ends to tie up." In fact, we're neck deep in things wet and odious, like vomit.

[riverwalker]

6. "security" contractors

We know what that means. 'nuff said.

[progressivebydesign]

7. Our local paper did a lovely piece on a local mercenary in Iraq

It's was surreal! Our local paper did a front page article about this guy. He's a former military guy, former security guard around the area, who hired on with Cochise. He does this 2 page interview, and they treat it like he's some damn romantic modern day gunslinger. He refers to himself and friend as "mall security guards with machine guns". It's was sickening. He said that he, and other "soldiers of fortune", are held to HIGHER standards than the military.. and can't just kill people or anything. (yeah, right).

The worst thing about this story? Is how people are painting this guys as some type of modern day free-lance patriot. His closing thoughts? He was going to work 2 more years, and put away 1 million dollars in salary (he makes at least 1k a day, tax free). He plans to move immediately with the money to a "central american country". "Where the beaches are warm, and the women are brown and beautiful", oh.. and he said he's moving so he'll never have to pay taxes on the money.. ever.

Our military is going without essentials, and these guys are pulling down 400k a year, tax-free.

[saigon68]

8. Thanks to the Taxpayer this MOTHER FUCKER will live large

This will stop under John Kerry.

P.S. I hope he doesn't get gonorrhea in central Amerika. LOL

[seemslikeadream]

9. Maybe he can help some of his partners in "life styles"

The Forgotten Hostages Oct. 8, 2003

Another illegal war - more hostages



CBS) At this moment, three Americans are being held hostage under heavy guard in the jungles of Colombia, hoping for a miracle.

Their story is probably one you don't know much about. But after hearing from them, it is one you will never forget.

They are hostages of a narco-terrorist group known as FARC, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia -- guerrillas with a violent history and a penchant for holding kidnap victims for years, and then, often, killing them.

The Americans fell into the group's hands when their plane crashed in the jungle more than eight months ago. The families of the hostages say the men they love have been forgotten.

They hope that will change tonight, because of what you are about to see and hear from the hostages themselves. Correspondent Dan Rather reports.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"To our country, we miss you and we hope we return one day. We're alive and well," says Keith Stansell, 38, a systems analyst.

"We expect to get out of here one day. We can't say for sure,” says Thomas Howes, 50, a professional pilot. “But our main concern is the welfare of our families."

"I'm a proud American,” says Marc Gonsalves, 31, also a systems analyst. “I look to you guys and I ask for a diplomatic solution to get us home safe, please."

A videotape of the three Americans - Stansell, Howes and Gonsalves - was made by Colombian journalist Jorge Botero. He made the trek deep into the jungles to a steamy, wooden shack.

Botero was escorted inside by a guerrilla commander, where he met the three Americans and recorded a tape to prove that they were alive and well – and ready to be traded for imprisoned members of the FARC Revolutionary Army being held by the Colombian government.

They are prisoners in a war most Americans don't even know is going on, even though the United States is deeply involved.

Stansell, Gonsalves and Howes are contractors, like some of the thousands of American civilians now in Colombia. Many of them were hired by the U.S. government to search for and destroy cocaine production
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/10/06/60II/main576739.shtml

Part II: The Forgotten Hostages

"I have a message for the company that we work for, just remember one thing when you see the three of us here. We did a good job for you. Just take good care of our families. We see here in the press release that our contract has been changed to a company that we don't know about after our crash,” says Stansell.
What the three men didn't know was that ten days after their plane went down, California Microwave handed over the mission, their contract, to a newly formed company named Ciao.

The three learned this from a press release Botero brought them, which Stansell read to his friends: “Three years ago, the Pentagon awarded a contract to conduct surveillance in Colombia to California Microwave, a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman. Shortly after plane went down, California Microwave transferred the contract, along with the planes and pilots, to a new company called C-I-A-O … chow."

When their captors overheard the hostages talking about the new company, the FARC made it clear that the new name sounded suspiciously like the CIA.

"C-I-A-O. This happened after the crash. We don't know who these people are," says Stansell. “We're civilian contractors."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
60 Minutes II went to Northrop Grumman and asked about its new subsidiary, Ciao, which is now apparently in charge of planes and pilots in Colombia.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/10/08/60II/main577184.shtml

March 16, 2004
Hostage's Son Gets Support from Classmates


“A child has lost his father to a Colombian guerrilla group we need to take action now,” said Dylan Rawles.

The letters to Senators Richard Lugar and Evan Bayh were the idea of teacher Stacy Ireland. “As sixth graders we can make a difference working with our government in Noblesville and we can make a difference in United States,” said teacher Stacy Ireland.

No one wants to make a difference more than student Kyle Stansell. “I just have a feeling now, all this is being done. It's got to do something,” he said.

Kyle is the son of Keith Stansell. Stansell and the two other American hostages appeared in a documentary shot last summer in Colombia. It is the only visual evidence that the men are still alive.
“Then I see him on this and he's almost crying and I've never seen him cry in his entire life,” said Kyle.

http://www.wishtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1716114&nav=CPFQLZmj


U.S. adds to military presence in Colombia
Leftist rebels admit holding three Americans
Saturday, February 22, 2003 Posted: 10:17 PM EST (0317 GMT)



The bodies of two passengers were found shot near the wreckage of their crashed plane.

U.S. adds to military presence in Colombia
Leftist rebels admit holding three Americans
Saturday, February 22, 2003 Posted: 10:17 PM EST (0317 GMT)



The bodies of two passengers were found shot near the wreckage of their crashed plane.

CRAWFORD, Texas (CNN) -- A senior Bush administration official told CNN on Saturday that additional U.S. military personnel have been dispatched to Colombia, where leftist rebels have acknowledged holding three Americans captive.


Colombia's largest rebel group has said the lives of the three U.S. citizens are at risk if the government does not halt military operations in rebel-held territory.

In a communiqué posted Saturday on its Web site, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia -- known by its Spanish acronym, FARC -- acknowledged for the first time that it had captured three Americans who survived a plane crash February 13 in rebel-held territory.

The rebels also claimed responsibility for shooting down the plane, which they said had been on a mission to spy on them. Colombian and U.S. military forces have blamed the crash on mechanical problems.

"We can only guarantee the life and physical integrity of the three official gringos in our power if the Colombian military immediately suspends military operations and overflights in the area," said the communiqué, which was datelined "The mountains of Colombia, February 21."

The State Department refused to comment on the FARC announcement and repeated previous statements holding the FARC "responsible for the safety, health and well-being" of the Americans.

The United States "demands their safe release," a State Department official said.

The State Department official said the United States has "not authorized any group to negotiate" with FARC for the hostages' release.

http://216.239.39.104/search?q=cache:nM4LQCfeQ9oJ:www.cnn.com/2003/WOR...

[seemslikeadream]

10. More Money for Mercenaries

by Chris Shumway
In what has increasingly become an outsourced war, the Coalition Provisional Authority has just added half a billion dollars to the amount being spent on private security contractors. The role of such mercenaries has taken on new dimensions in Iraq. Heavily-armed personnel frequently engage in work traditionally done by the military, though they may not be sufficiently trained for the task and are not subject to the same regulations and public review systems as regular soldiers.


"There is no doubt that there is a growing demand for mercenaries or soldiers of fortune in Iraq," military analyst Slobodan Kljakic told IPS. Kljakic estimates that somewhere between 500 and 1,000 former Serbian mercenaries have already obtained contracts to work as security staff or bodyguards in Iraq.


More than 200 U.S. civilian employees, 36 of them working with Halliburton, have died in Iraq, according to the Washington Post. The increased risk of attack, which military sources say is due partly to the slow rebuilding effort and lack of jobs being provided to Iraqis, has some British officials calling for increased oversight of the hiring process for private contractors, the Financial Times reports.


Unlike U.S. soldiers, civilian contractors are not subject to provisions in the Uniform Code of Military Justice. "There are strict legal regulations on how you deal with soldiers when they commit crimes," Peter Singer, an analyst with the Brookings Institution, told the BBC. "You have the court martial system set up to investigate, prosecute and potentially punish them if they are found guilty. For the contractors, there is nothing like that," he said. (The Brookings Institution is a Washington-based think tank funded by corporate and foundation donations.)

Security personnel working for companies hired by federal agencies other than the Defense Department, or third-party contractors from other countries, are also exempt from the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act of 2000, which authorizes the U.S. to maintain criminal jurisdiction over American citizens working for or accompanying a member of the military while overseas.

more
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/shumway.php?articleid=2722