Blackwater's Prince building mercenary force with apartheid-era 'hit squad' officer

Blackwater's Prince building mercenary force with apartheid-era 'hit squad' officer

www.rawstory.com

The northeast African country of Somalia has been one of the world's most notorious failed states for more than two decades. Its current government has been pushed out of most of the country's territory and now controls a fraction of the capital city, and high-seas piracy off the country's coast has been the scourge of shipping companies for years.

But for Erik Prince, founder of the notorious security contractor formerly known as Blackwater, that's not a reason to flee the country -- it's a financial opportunity.

(visit the link for the full news article)

I dont think hiring a bunch of mercenariness will help the situation in mogadishu , it might actual intensify it. Somalia has very strong very independent fighters and will with no doubt pick up arms and fight, we are at a time of privatized warfare , we are spiraling back to the fuedal age. the idea that Somalia's long-running, chaotic civil war could be "privatized" to the benefit of for-profit security contractors has alot of people worried

www.rawstory.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Depends on how they plan on going about and doing it.

A pretrained and ready military force has always been a national leaders option, and often best resource.
From Caesar and his Gaulish Cavalry mercs, to whom he accredits as his best fighting force, to Napoleon and his Celtic mercenaries. They have been involved in history is all its horror and glory.

To say a temporary army is not a good option, I contest and would debate to the contrary.

Nation building is not easy, but many borders would not have been redrawn, if it were not for those willing to fight.

is that guy prince the anti-christ. will his mercenary army one day be called on to control the population of america after it has been reduced to rubble, effectively making him dictator.

Only one response. About damn time.




[edit to add second line]

Finally the pirates are going to have their arses handed to them.

Looks like OPEC has finally had enough of their crap.

Great, send the warmongers into Mogadishu ... let them be with their own kind. They certainly won't all come back out again, GOOD.

As to the pirates ... half the world's navies are fighting a few fishermen with ak47's? AND LOSING??

Isn't that like Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and a few hundred other places? Thousands of soldiers LOSING to a few angry flower farmers?

I'm not understanding the reference to "apartheid era" ... could you please elucidate or make corrections if necessary, it is highly misleading to this story.

reply to post by FeeBanks


I just read about this tonight, intersting to say the least. I have a family member who works for the company formally known as Blackwater now, he's in afghanistan now, the stories about this company are amazing.
Could be a special project for TPTB to test out something they have in mind for the future.

The reason our naval forces are losing to "fishermen with AK's" is because it is practically impossible to find them. It's not like you can sit out there in a destroyer and look for a sonar ping to attack.

Modern pirates use small, fast moving watercraft. They are usually armed with an assortment of AKs, PKMs, and RPGs. Their intended targets are slow moving cargo ships armed with fire hoses, that are chosen at random.

An attack on a ship can happen without warning in a matter of minutes. As soon as they manage to get aboard, it's over. The crew has no way of fighting back.

Erik Prince wants to cash in and stem the flow of pirates attacking these ships, I say go for it. In fact, where do I sign up? Nobody else is doing the job.

reply to post by allenidaho


"Your" naval forces are about as effective as your land forces

A single AWAC is all thats needed, or helicopters, or subs, any one of a million solutions to this problem. There is clearly something amiss. Heck give either of us a machine gun and a fast boat and we'd have more success.

But no, this is not as simple as it is portrayed.

Somali pirates guided by London intelligence team The Guardian

Document obtained by Spanish radio station says 'well-placed informers' in constant contact by satellite telephone

I suppose next you'll tell me they cannot intercept sat phones without a warrant?

What is an awacs going to do for you? It's used primarily to detect aircraft and missiles. And even if it were used for naval traffic, you are looking for tiny boats in a sea full of tiny boats. The somali coast is littered with actual fishermen. How do you differentiate between the innocents and the pirates? In addition, AWACS aircraft use a magnetic detection system for finding submarines. Wooden boats don't show up.

A submarine is pretty much useless in this situation. They have no topside guns. They have torpedoes and ballistic missiles. A torpedo most likely isn't going to hit the right target if you aim it at a fast moving wooden hulled boat. Especially when it is moving near larger, slow moving steel hulled boats. Using acoustic or magnet torpedos, you are still screwed.

Helicopters, however, would be very helpful.

Originally posted by harryhaller
Great, send the warmongers into Mogadishu ... let them be with their own kind. They certainly won't all come back out again, GOOD.

As to the pirates ... half the world's navies are fighting a few fishermen with ak47's? AND LOSING??

Isn't that like Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and a few hundred other places? Thousands of soldiers LOSING to a few angry flower farmers?

Who is "losing" ?? Piracy continues to grow for simple economic reasons, the rewards far outweigh the risks!

If we start using the old naval rules of executing Pirates, the piracy problem would drastically reduce. THAT and probably a week or so of aerial bombardment of Coastal ports in Somalia and Yemen would cripple Piracy in the short term. Plus, the addition of armed guards on ships would seriously hamper Pirates too.

The problem today is obviously a lack of adequate punishment for Piracy. The international forces patrolling the sea lanes are mostly uncoordinated and most of the pirates work in gangs across nations. Also, most Shipping companies don't exactly reveal details of their ships in danger. Further, I think there needs to be an international intelligence mechanism to track and infiltrate pirate groups and determine their suppliers of weapons and boats to put a stop to both of them!

There are many solutions that are possible but today, the economics dictate that it is simply just cheaper to pay off the pirates if a ship is captured than escalating the violence.