'They want money for his body ( Dyncorp Mercenary)

[saigon68]

Cape Town - Three weeks of tense uncertainty ended for a mother from George and her two daughters on Monday when they received official news that their husband and father, who has been missing in Iraq for the past three weeks, was dead. The department of foreign affairs told Marleen Pretorius on Tuesday that a rebel group in Iraq had proven that they had killed her husband, Herman "Harry" Pretorius.

http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_1584996,00.html

"On top of that, they want a ransom to release the body. They (the rebels) have sent photos of Harry's body to his bosses in Iraq to prove that he is dead. The people there identified him from the photos." she said

Pretorius, who worked for the American company Dyncorp as a bodyguard, went missing on August 16 when Iraqi rebels ambushed and attacked a convoy in which he was driving one of the vehicles.

He was injured in a landmine explosion that initially forced the convoy to stop. His colleagues had to retreat after a shootout with the attackers and they left the heavily wounded Pretorius behind.

On Edit: Hundreds of these mercenaries have been killed there already-- we hardly ever hear anyof this Halliburton has lost something like 75 people.

[UpInArms]

1. guess they will have to part with some of the $1000 per day

pay that the mercenaries are getting from the US treasury.

[alittlelark]

2. I'll bet they keep 'em on the payroll for a few

weeks after they die- when possible.

[leetrisck]

3. Someone's loved one

Prayers -

[Radius]

4. My thoughts exactly (nt)

[el_gato]

7. Mercs get no sympathy from me, he shoulda thought about his family

But he obviously cared more about killing people than he did about his own child.

[MUSTANG_2004]

8. Who says he was a killer?

According to the quote, he was driving a truck in a convoy when he was killed, hardly the description of a hardened killer who "obviously cared more about killing people than he did about his own child."

If all he was doing was providing security for convoys, he was hardly a mercenary killer.

[seemslikeadream]

11. There's big big problems with Private Military Contractors

Here's just a start

The privatisation of war

· $30bn goes to private military
· Fears over 'hired guns' policy
· British firms get big slice of contracts
· Deals in Baghdad, Kabul and Balkans

Ian Traynor
Wednesday December 10, 2003
The Guardian

Private corporations have penetrated western warfare so deeply that they are now the second biggest contributor to coalition forces in Iraq after the Pentagon, a Guardian investigation has established.
While the official coalition figures list the British as the second largest contingent with around 9,900 troops, they are narrowly outnumbered by the 10,000 private military contractors now on the ground.

The investigation has also discovered that the proportion of contracted security personnel in the firing line is 10 times greater than during the first Gulf war. In 1991, for every private contractor, there were about 100 servicemen and women; now there are 10.

The private sector is so firmly embedded in combat, occupation and peacekeeping duties that the phenomenon may have reached the point of no return: the US military would struggle to wage war without it.

While reliable figures are difficult to come by and governmental accounting and monitoring of the contracts are notoriously shoddy, the US army estimates that of the $87bn (£50.2bn) earmarked this year for the broader Iraqi campaign, including central Asia and Afghanistan, one third of that, nearly $30bn, will be spent on contracts to private companies.
more
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1103566,00.html


US contractor recruits guards for Iraq in Chile

Forces say experienced soldiers are quitting for private companies which pay more for similar work

Jonathan Franklin in Santiago
Friday March 5, 2004
The Guardian

The US is hiring mercenaries in Chile to replace its soldiers on security duty in Iraq. A Pentagon contractor has begun recruiting former commandos, other soldiers and seamen, paying them up to $4,000 (£2,193) 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.

From there they will be taken to Iraq, where they are expected to stay between six months and a year, the president of Blackwater USA, Gary Jackson, told the Guardian by telephone.

"We scour the ends of the earth to find professionals - the Chilean commandos are very, very professional and they fit within the Blackwater system," he said.

Chile was the only Latin American country where his firm had hired commandos for Iraq. He estimated that "about 95%" of his work came from government contracts and said his business was booming.

"We have grown 300% over each of the past three years and we are small compared to the big ones
more
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1162442,00.html

and maybe if you have time
The Dogs of War
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=125&topic_id=9558&mesg_id=9558

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[denverbill]

5. I'd pay the ransom, with radio transmitter encoded bills.

Then hold their bodies for ransom.

[Nlighten1]

6. GPS might be better.

:) And then air-mail them a cruz missle.

[jpgray]

10. Dyncorp is very familiar with that sort of thing

Having run a sex slave ring in the Balkans, including many minors.