Blackwater plans new mission: fighting pirates.
Blackwater plans new mission: fighting pirates.
The private security firm Blackwater is planning to offer a new service to make money: protection from the pirate-infested waters off the coast of East Africa. “Blackwater’s push to land its first antipiracy contract is part of a strategy to build its business outside its State Department security work in Iraq, which brings in between $300 million and $400 million a year.” The security company may be looking for new lucrative opportunities partly because the Iraqi government has now ratified a law stripping Blackwater contractors of immunity. Indeed, Blackwater spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell noted the legal benefits of operating in the open sea: “We would be allowed to fire if fired upon; the right of self-defense is one that exists in international waters.”
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Applicants for these positions must be missing at least one arm, leg, or any combination thereof. No experience necessary, desire to spindle, fold or mutilate helpful.
December 3rd, 2008 at 2:18 pmOr… people could stop taking cruises down “Pirate Alley”.
December 3rd, 2008 at 2:23 pm“We would be allowed to fire if fired upon;”
Since when has Blackwater waited to be fired upon?
December 3rd, 2008 at 2:24 pmahhh, mercenaries…
I’m so glad that our present administration feels so comfortable hiring them to do our dirty work…
/snark
December 3rd, 2008 at 2:24 pmIsn’t that kinda’ like letting the chicken guard the hen house.
Blackwater, though legal, are pirates too.
¶ AIO
December 3rd, 2008 at 2:25 pmHow long before Blackwater pukes start figuring out they can be pirates too? This happens all the time with drug warriors. Google “Zetas” sometime.
December 3rd, 2008 at 2:26 pmThis might be closer to what Blackwater is designed for. As long as they aren’t working for our State Department (or any other part of our government), and are hired by private entities who want to protect their ships, it seems like a win-win.
Piracy in the Gulf of Aden has gotten so bad that it’s truly hazardous for any ship to travel through there (even cruise ships — egad!), and it needs to be curtailed. But anybody wishing to attack the root problem instead of just treating the symptoms may want to ask themselves why it is that piracy is about the only job among Somalians where one can earn an adequate living.
December 3rd, 2008 at 2:26 pmraynman Says:
My belief has always been that if this country needs to hire mercenaries to do the work of our military it sends a signal that the people’s hearts are just not into whatever military adventure those crazy cats at the Pentagon have cooked up.
December 3rd, 2008 at 2:28 pmBlack water indeed.
December 3rd, 2008 at 2:31 pm“Blackwater, robbing one country at a time”
RIP
December 3rd, 2008 at 2:32 pmSGT Stephen R. Sherman
C CO 1-5 IN (STRYKER)
KIA 3 Feb 2005
Mosul, Iraq
CORPORATIONS WAGING WAR AGAINST CORPORATIONS.
December 3rd, 2008 at 2:35 pmrastaman Says:
CORPORATIONS WAGING WAR AGAINST CORPORATIONS.
Beared repeating. Keep it irie.
December 3rd, 2008 at 2:40 pmIn all seriousness, I’ll have to agree with misshusseinmolly in that commercial shipping should take responsibility for its own security, especially if they are operating in hazardous waters.
December 3rd, 2008 at 2:42 pmIt is incongruous that a ship loaded with tanks and weapons did not have the wherewithal to protect itself.
If oil tankers were transporting oil that actually belonged to the people from whose domain it came from, I could see providing national armed forces to protect it.
As it is, the oil companies should provide for their own security, and provide their own invasion forces should they decide to invade foreign, sovereign nations for their oil.
The United States allowed oil and weapons industries to march itself into invasion, at the cost of billions of dollars, thousands of lives lost, and many more thousands maimed and scarred. And then had to hire private mercenaries at the cost of hundreds of millions more to protect it’s own personnel.
Kick Blackwater out to sea, where Erik Prince can wander the high seas with a load of Amway products, fly his own skull and crossbones, and be forbidden to ever set foot on land again.
How do we know the existing pirates aren’t Blackwater subcontractors right now?? That would make perfect sense.
December 3rd, 2008 at 2:46 pmCreate a need, then charge billions to fix it.
How very inventave…They helped turn the sand red with Iraq citizen’s blood now they will continue their reign of terror on the sea’s…Both the shark’s and Blackwater will be happy..Where I live we have to pull a lever to empty the blackwater tank into the septic tank..When will America learn how to get rid of this blackwater…..Blessings
December 3rd, 2008 at 2:46 pmummm….i know blackwater are the bad guys and all, but this sounds too eff’n cool.
I wanna fight pirates!
December 3rd, 2008 at 3:00 pmI dunno, there’s a lot of swabbing and chipping and painting that goes on between skirmishes… ;)
December 3rd, 2008 at 3:04 pm“We would be allowed to fire if fired upon…”
December 3rd, 2008 at 4:07 pmWhiny bastards, in Iraq they got to fire all over the place even if NOT fired upon. Women and children cut in half just for being in the vicinity. Contractors shooting up cars for funsies. It’ll serve Blackwater’s bloodlust well to be able to blow people to shreds on the high seas. Innocent boaters beware…
They should fight pirates. Each group recognizes it’s own.
December 3rd, 2008 at 4:19 pmIMO, Blackwater ought to be declared a terrorist organization — and disbanded.
December 3rd, 2008 at 4:52 pmThis makes me want to go rent Yellowbeard. I love that movie. On second thought could someone get that for me as a christmas gift? Sort of a TP secret Santa type deal…
December 3rd, 2008 at 4:57 pmActually, this is precisely what mercenary organizations like Blackwater should be doing, if they exist at all.
December 3rd, 2008 at 5:01 pmI’m with Marlow.
What’s to prevent them from making deals with the pirates or extorting money from people?’
December 3rd, 2008 at 5:20 pmI dont see a huge problem with this. Unless these idiots start raping people on cruise ships, which is probably unlikely, there arent alot of innocent people for these guys to actually shoot in these situations..I think a hostile pirate ship will be hard to mistake for an innocent ship
December 3rd, 2008 at 5:24 pmAll well and good till they turn an oil tanker into an Exxon Valdiz, or “accidently” sink a cruise ship. Or will they set up shop with their weapons ON the tankers and cruise ships from which they’ll attack the pirates?
December 3rd, 2008 at 6:11 pmAround the 17th century, didn’t the European countries hire pirates as mercenaries against the pirates of other countries ?
Where is Errol Flynn ?
December 3rd, 2008 at 6:20 pm“We would be allowed to fire if fired upon; the right of self-defense is one that exists in international waters.”
… and they just luvs them to be able to fire, The BFG3000s are preferred.
That being said, there really is a need to constrain the piracy, although perhaps structural/economic changes might mitigate some of the reasons for the recent popularity of piracy.
The paying of ransoms, FWIW, only encourages such. Hard to tell a company that they should disregard the lives of their employees, but it does a disservice in the long run. But as long as insurance pays the tab, who cares, eh?
Cheers,
December 3rd, 2008 at 6:31 pmFittingly fighting their own kind.
December 3rd, 2008 at 6:47 pmI think they’d find the pirates a tougher bunch than they anticipate. These are Somalis,raised from infancy in a setting of street fights and guerrilla combat, absolutely inured to the prospect and spectacle of death. I’d call these people tougher than the average Blackwater bully who seems to prefer shooting into cars full of unsuspecting civilians from their armored transports. They get in little open boats and drive hundreds of miles into blue-water shipping lanes with machine guns and RPG’s ( a hit from an RPG will F-up damn near any boat out there since the New Jersey was retired) One RPG into an oil tanker followed by a demand that Blackwater be removed would finish them.
December 3rd, 2008 at 9:03 pm