[news] Fascist Mercenaries Come to Iraq

Wed Jun 30 03:53:50 PDT 2004

 http://victoria.indymedia.org/news/2004/06/27491.php

Fascist Mercenaries Come to Iraq

<mailto:montfu65 at hotmail.com>

    Previously, I posted an article about Blackwater employing fascist
    mass murderers and torturers from the so-called dirty wars against
    leftists in Latin America. Now, it seems that former members of
    South Africa's secret police, who tortured and killed black
    activists during apartheid, are also mercenaries in Iraq.

Fascist Mercenaries Come to Iraq
gönderen: Posted by Gary Sudborough Sunday June 27, 2004 at 07:05 PM
IconoclastGS at aol.com <mailto:IconoclastGS at aol.com>

Previously, I posted an article about Blackwater employing fascist mass 
murderers and torturers from the so-called dirty wars against leftists 
in Latin America. Now, it seems that former members of South Africa's 
secret police, who tortured and killed black activists during apartheid, 
are also mercenaries in Iraq.

Will Iraq's mercenaries be brought to book?
By Lawrence Smallman

Wednesday 23 June 2004, 15:47 Makka Time, 12:47 GMT

Private security firms are costing Iraq billions of dollars

Unaccountable and unregulated, the thousands of mercenaries currently 
operating in Iraq may not remain untouchable for much longer.

US viceroy Paul Bremmer is to issue an order defining the status of 
foreign troops and workers in Iraq before 30 June, according to a senior 
official quoted by Reuters.

But the multibillion dollar question is whether Bremer's decree will 
spell out the legal status of so-called private contractors.

State and corporate secrecy protects more than 35 private security firms 
connected to the US and UK political establishments from accountability 
for their conduct.

Yet these same military companies provide more support to the US-led 
occupation than the British army, with estimates putting their combined 
strength in excess of 20,000 individuals.

Whether it is guarding pipelines, protecting US officials or even 
driving tanks - Iraq's continued occupation relies heavily on the 
private sector.

Contracting military work to modern-day mercenary companies directed by 
prominent politicians, statesmen and security officials has become big 
business.

David Claridge, a director of a London security firm, has estimated that 
Iraq contracts have boosted the annual revenue of British-based security 
firms alone from $320 million to more than $1.7 billion.

Legal position

With an absence of guidelines, accountability goes largely unregulated. 
It has become clear that some legal loopholes are so big that scandals 
such as at Abu Ghraib prison abuses can slip through.

Private contractors in Iraq have signed agreements that provide them 
with immunity from prosecution under Iraqi law.

So Iraqi families without huge amounts of money will have little 
recourse to the rule of law should they suffer at the hands of thousands 
of heavily armed but unregulated mercenaries.

Speaking to Aljazeera.net on Tuesday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) spelled 
out the legal theory.

"The state with authority over the military contractor remains 
responsible under international law for the contractor's actions," says 
HRW's Middle East director, Joe Stork.

"Maintaining discipline
of contractor employees is the responsibility
of the contractor's management structure, not the military chain
of command"

US military field manual

But mercenaries cannot be prosecuted under US military law except during 
declared war, according to the US military field manual.

The manual adds: "Maintaining discipline of contractor employees is the 
responsibility of the contractor's management structure, not the 
military chain of command."

Grey area

Military contractors who are US nationals could be prosecuted by a US 
federal court under the War Crimes Act of 1996, but not so the numerous 
British, South African and one Israeli firm currently in Iraq.

Additionally, contractors working for the US Department of Defense could 
technically be prosecuted under the toothless Military Extraterritorial 
Jurisdiction Act of 2000, known as MEJA.

MEJA was enacted in 2000 primarily to protect US soldiers and their 
dependents on US bases abroad, who became victims of crimes committed by 
military contractors with effective immunity from prosecution.

But MEJA remains untested because the Defense Department has yet to 
issue the regulations necessary to implement it.

Worrying trend

The need for regulation has become clear. The British/South African 
company Erinys, which won a $100 million-plus annual contract to provide 
security at Iraq's oil facilities and pipelines, appears to employ 
people with worrying backgrounds.

South African employee Francois Strydom, killed last January, had fought 
for the Koevoet pro-apartheid paramilitary in Namibia - according to 
Johannesburg's Mail and Guardian newspaper.

Only regular soldiers have been
questioned over Ghraib abuse

Another employee, Deon Gouws, was a former member of the South African 
secret police, Vlakplaas, and was charged by the South African Truth 
Commission for murdering an anti-apartheid activist in 1986.

A former South African judge, Richard Goldstein, has gone on the record 
as saying he knew of 150 former apartheid-era security operatives 
working as mercenaries in Iraq.

And to date, only regular US and UK soldiers have been brought to book 
for the Abu Ghraib scandal.

Friends in high places?

It may be that the former diplomats who run these private military 
companies, and thus supplement their countries' troop deployments, are 
also able to protect themselves from prosecution.

Former US president George Bush's Carlyle group is about as well 
connected to the political establishment as it is possible to be.

Its subsidiary, Diligence, was founded by a former CIA director - 
William Webster.

It is now owned by a former US ambassador, Richard Burt. Its deputy 
chairman, Joe Allbaugh, was the current president's campaign manager in 
2000.

Allbaugh has also founded another security firm, New Bridge Strategies, 
and signed a contract with Diligence.

Similarly, the numerous British firms are equally well connected. 
ArmorGroup is directed by former British foreign secretary Sir Malcolm 
Rifkind.

Aljazeera + Agencies

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