Are the Blackwater Security Guards Mercenaries?
Are the Blackwater Security Guards Mercenaries?
#1Are the Blackwater Security Guards Mercenaries?
Posted: 10/18/07 at 10:41am
I didn't think there was any question.
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U.S. denies contractors akin to mercenaries
U.N. panel concludes contractors are performing military duties in Iraq
The Associated Press
Updated: 11:00 p.m. ET Oct 17, 2007
GENEVA - The U.S. government on Wednesday rejected a U.N. report that said the use of private security guards like those involved in the shooting deaths of Iraqi civilians amounted to a new form of mercenary activity.
The report by a five-member panel of independent U.N. human rights experts said the contractors were performing military duties even though they were hired to be security guards. The killing of 17 civilians in Baghdad last month by Blackwater USA guards underscores the risks of using such contractors, said panel chairman, Jose Luis Gomez del Prado of Spain.
A spokesman for the U.S. Mission to U.N. offices in Geneva released a statement Wednesday denying the security guards were mercenaries.
“Accusations that U.S. government-contracted security guards, of whatever nationality, are mercenaries is inaccurate and demeaning to men and women who put their lives on the line to protect people and facilities every day,” the statement said.
“The security guards working for U.S. government contractors in Iraq and elsewhere protect clearly defined United States government areas, and their work is defensive in nature,” it said.
Although the use of mercenaries is discouraged in international rules of conduct of war, the hiring of foreign soldiers by one country for use in a third is specifically illegal only for the 30 countries that ratified a 1989 treaty. The U.S. and Iraq are among the many countries that never signed the accord.
[more at link]
U.S. denies security guards akin to mercenaries: U.N. panel concludes contractors are performing military duties in Iraq
#2will eric prince allow any democrats to live?
Posted: 10/18/07 at 11:19amnope, they're rent-a-cops.
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Fenchurch
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/16/06
#2will eric prince allow any democrats to live?
Posted: 10/18/07 at 11:24am
Yeah, but rent-a-cops need to make decisions about what they're doing too.
This argument is best summed up by the scene in the film "Clerks" where Dante and Randall discuss the morality of blowing up the Death Star in Star Wars while it was still incomplete with all the "contractors" still on board.
Funny ****e, but ironically topical.
"Fenchurch is correct, as usual." - muscle23ftl
#3Are the Blackwater Security Guards Mercenaries?
Posted: 10/18/07 at 11:37amWhat's the problem with calling them "mercenaries"? I don't get why that's objectionable.
#4Are the Blackwater Security Guards Mercenaries?
Posted: 10/18/07 at 12:00pm
Probably because the word has suck negative connotations.
Personnally, I find it disgusting that this administration has hired mercernaries and have given them carte blanche to murder.
wexy
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/19/05
#5Are the Blackwater Security Guards Mercenaries?
Posted: 10/18/07 at 10:35pmDamn straight . (no pun intended)
#6Are the Blackwater Security Guards Mercenaries?
Posted: 10/18/07 at 10:42pmAre Gays allowed in the Mercenaries?
#7Are the Blackwater Security Guards Mercenaries?
Posted: 10/19/07 at 9:14am
"Tell me, George, are those Blackwater security guards up in the rafters?"
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