Dyncorp Primer.. Our media needs some help.. Should we help them?

[SoCalDem]

Let's help the poor little schlubs get some "background" so that the next time "private security" people are reported about, they might have a starting point..(in case there is someone there who might actually be interested in following a lead or two).. Outfits like this and others are why we do not have a draft anymore.. But they are paid exorbitant wages, do not have to "follow rules", and are so covert, that lots of their own families do not know what they really do..

Our military is being "outsourced".. the "supply" aspect of the military is no longer actually handled BY military people, so they get jungle uniforms in the desert, bad food,too little water, ill-equipped vehicles and weapons (but WE PAY TOP DOLLAR)... and by the use of mercenaries like Dyncorp, they skirt the issue that they have TOO FEW actual soldiers..

One question to ask yourselves.. Why should the world's biggest-baddest military in the world "NEED" security guards?? Aren't THEY (soldiers) there to BE the security??

This article is a starter.. kind of explains what they really are.. They have many facets, though, and seem to be EVERYWHERE..

Please add to the list, and we can e-mail the links around.. Maybe SOMEONE will start digging too :)

---

MARCH 1999 · VOLUME 20 · NUMBER 3
http://multinationalmonitor.org/mm1999/mm9903.07.html

G O V E R N M E N T O F , B Y, A N D F O R T H E C O R P O R A T I O N S


Corporate Soldiers
The U.S. Government Privatizes
the Use of Force
by Daniel Burton-Rose and Wayne Madsen



After having privatized in whole or in part nearly all other government functions, the U.S. government is now outsourcing the use of force. The latest stage in the privatization of military functions is the contracting out of training of Third World armies. The U.S. military establishment is relying not just on rag-tag groups of mercenaries, or front groups that do the bidding of the CIA or other intelligence agencies, but on genuinely independent corporations.

The Department of State has turned to Arlington, Virginia-based Military Professional Resources, Inc. (MPRI), a self-described "corporation of former military professionals ... ranging from commanders to tank gunners" to carry out its African Crisis Responsive Initiative (ACRI). At State Department prodding, seven nations, spanning the African continent, have already signed up for the program.

The ostensible purpose of ACRI is to create an indigenous peacekeeping force in Africa. Military forces from nearly all of the seven nations currently participating -- Benin, Ghana, Malawi, Mali, Senegal, Uganda and, most recently, the Ivory Coast -- have already received some training from the Fort Bragg, North Carolina-based 3rd Special Forces. In March 1999, Ghana received the first "follow-on training" of ACRI, with U.S. Special Forces overseeing the MPRI-conducted event. Senegal is to follow soon after.

Why use a private corporation to conduct military trainings? Government officials say privatization can save taxpayers money. In the case of ACRI, the State Department says MPRI and LOGICON, a huge Arlington-based electronics company, can do the advanced training cheaper, and more effectively, than the Army.

But whatever the cost savings, the privatization of military and quasi-military functions raises huge questions of accountability and the misuse of force that are sure to loom large as MPRI and other military service companies like South Africa's Executive Outcomes and the U.S. Dyncorp grow.


...snip

[plurality]

1. Don't forget to add Vinell Corp. to that list

They were most recently in the news as the victims of one of the attacks in Saudi Arabia last year.

They were responsible for the training of those lovers of human rights, the Saudi Army and Police. They also trained Turkish forces who promptly put that training to use against their Kurdish population.

[KoKo]

2. SoCal, I just questioned in another post whether Falujan's had a

bad experience with the "private security contractors" and that may have been why they had such exhuberance over mutilating the bodies and hanging them on the bridge.

I wonder if anyone will question what the backgrounds of those "private contractors" were. Is it possible they did some atrocity to a family in Faluja or elsewhere and were targeted for what they did?

I don't think we will ever know, and the media certainly won't do any investigating, but this seemed so horrendous, rather than just assuming it as a "radom act of violence," that there was more to it than that.

:shrug:

[SoCalDem]

3. That's why I started this.. hoping that we could all add links

and MAYBE find someone with a "voice", who would write soomething so that more people would know what is really going on..

News people are pretty lazy these days..:eyes:

and, since they are not "officially military", they probably do get involved in some pretty nasty stuff, that the military cannot dare do..so it's very likely that the locals "think" they ARE the military..

[plurality]

5. here's one

http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m1295/8_6/55309049/p3/article.jhtml?term=

In a caper reminiscent of the Reagan Administration's solicitation of funds for the contras, the United States managed to get Saudi Arabia, Brunei, Malaysia, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates to pony up more than one-fourth of the cost of the Bosnian military contract. Retired Major General Walter Yates runs MPRI's Bosnian operation, which is officially known as the Military Stabilization Program. The company's good fortunes in the Balkans are advertised on the firm's web page. The page shows a map headlined "Where in the World Is MPRI?" Arrows pinpoint Croatia, Bosnia, and Macedonia as centers of MPRI activity. Serbia is also mentioned as a country where MPRI mercenaries are active. MPRI has also helped set up a number of arms factories and military training schools in Bosnia that are staffed by veterans of the Croatian war against Serbia as well as Bosnian Croats and Muslims.

In early April, MPRI was caught off-guard when Bosnia's army arranged for millions of dollars worth of arms to be secretly transferred from Bosnian caches to KLA guerrillas in Kosovo and Yugoslav Muslims in the province of Sandzak. As a result of the arms transfers, the State Department "temporarily suspended" MPRI's "train and equip" program.

Retired Rear Admiral Eugene J. Carroll Jr., deputy director of the Center for Defense Information, says such weapons traffic is a predictable side effect of mercenary companies like MPRI. "The military loses control of material twice. First, they turn it over to a commercial enterprise, and they turn it over again," he says.

When it comes to supplying arms, MPRI has a fortunate next door neighbor on the fourth floor of its Alexandria headquarters--Cypress International. Cypress is a well-known international weapons broker. MPRI shares one other thing with its arms-dealing neighbor: retired Major General Vernon Lewis, a member of MPRI's board of directors, is the founder of Cypress.

[plurality]

6. and another

http://www.whale.to/b/dowbenko2.html

Dynacorp, the massive US military and intelligence PRIVATE government contractor does assassinations, child prostitution and any other illegal perversions that the US Government can think of and pay for, maybe even some for free.

Organized White-Collar Crime is the absolute essence of Mega-Corporate-Government Business.

As Jim Hougan wrote in his landmark book, Spooks: The Haunting of America - The Private Use of Secret Agents, "With their cultural and career investments in upholding the stereotype of the Mafia as the vehicle of organized crime, the public and the press have generally failed to grasp the felonious nature of the outfit's WASP counterparts on the Big Board. Whereas some petty hoodlums put out contracts on individuals, the multinationals have begun to place contracts on entire countries (for example, ITT versus Chile). With that difference, their operational styles are similar: offshore laundries used to wash bribes paid in clandestine support of a sales effort designed to create and satisfy the potentially lethal addictions of their would be customers. Whether the product is heroin or Starfighter jets, the result is often the same: profits that corrupt and impoverish… In short it appears that some multinationals had evolved into genuinely criminal enterprises." (p. 441)

Likewise, outsourcing State Terrorism is the fastest growing segment of the US Government market. In fact, white-collar criminal activities, like Federal IT, or Information Technology, which involves "privatizing" the financial database management of government agencies, accounts for some of the most lucrative contracts available anywhere on earth.

The practice of privatizing (using private companies for government work) has been long exploited by the CIA and the Pentagon, who like to use proxies, like contractors or mercenaries, to fight their covert wars.

The benefits for federal agencies include "plausible deniability" with respect to assassination and drug trafficking, as well as the ability to bypass the Military Code of Honor and the accords of the Geneva Convention, which hold "official" combatants to a different standard.

In other words, by privatizing "dirty tricks," a federal agency cannot be held liable to the standards one would expect of, well, the US Government.

Acting as one of the US Government's primary privatized Dirty Tricks Divisions, DynCorp has become one of the leading prime federal contractors, reaping a global harvest of shame and disgrace.

[KoKo]

7. Google reveals tons of info on Dyncorp and Vinell, here's a few more:

Scandal-hit US firm wins key contracts

Antony Barnett
Sunday April 13, 2003
The Observer

A US military contractor accused of human rights violations has won a multi-million-dollar contract to police post-Saddam Iraq, The Observer can reveal.

DynCorp, which has donated more than £100,000 to the Republican Party, began recruiting for a private police force in Iraq last week on behalf of the US State Department.

The awarding of such a sensitive contract to DynCorp has caused consternation in some circles over the company's policing record. A British employment tribunal recently forced DynCorp to pay £110,000 in compensation to a UN police officer it unfairly sacked in Bosnia for whistleblowing on DynCorp colleagues involved in an illegal sex ring.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12239,935978,00.html

-----------------------------
Iraq: Thousands of Private Contractors Support U.S. Forces in Persian Gulf
by Kenneth Bredemeier, Washington Post
March 3, 2003
Private contractors are sending thousands of technical experts to the Persian Gulf region. They operate communications systems, repair helicopters, fix weapons systems and link the computers with the troops to command centers.

------------------------------------
US: This Gun For Hire
by Dan Baum, Wired
February 1, 2003
DynCorp has operated in the shadows of the capital for five decades. It is neither the most visible nor the most powerful of the companies that rely on government contracts. But it has thoroughly mastered the byways of Washington, and its purchase by CSC shines a spotlight on the modern military techno-industrial complex.

-----------------------------------
US: DynCorp Disgrace
by Kelly Patricia O'Meara, Insight Magazine
January 14, 2002
Middle-aged men having sex with 12- to 15-year-olds was too much for Ben Johnston, a hulking 6-foot-5-inch Texan, and more than a year ago he blew the whistle on his employer, DynCorp, a U.S. contracting company doing business in Bosnia.

http://www.warprofiteers.com/article.php?list=type&type=23

[plurality]

4. that's certainly true

In an LBN thread on the Fallujah incident saigon68 pointed out how there were plenty of 'civilian contractors' in Vietnam and that they were generally a pretty blood thirsty sort. I imagine there's not much as far as scruples go in these individuals as they often handle the wet work that the Military would like to avoid for obvious reasons.

[KoKo]

8. Yep, I think this was "revenge" and not just some bloodthirsty Saddam

Baathist Supporters.

I'm convinced we won't hear another word about who these people are until internet bloggers get after it.

Another "nothing to see here, just angry Saddamists who hate us....move along." It would mean opening a nasty can of snakes to air in front of the public. No one wants to believe we have "mercenaries for hire."

[theHandpuppet]

9. Question...

... because I really don't know about these things.

NBC4 (Washington, DC) reported this morning that at least one of the four "civilians" killed in Fallujah was carrying a Dept of Defense ID. Is it common procedure for civilian contractors to carry a DoD ID card?

[plurality]

10. no, but it's common for CIA employees

that are undercover to act as civilian contractors and they do carry defense department ID's.

[theHandpuppet]

12. Ah, okay -- I thought something was fishy, here

The media keep putting a spin on this story as if the four killed were "civilians" as in "innocent civilian contractors", but NBC4 was the only news source I've noted that even mentions that at least one of the four killed was carrying a DoD ID. Maybe its just me, but I reallty don't consider the CIA your average "civilian contractor".

BTW, the NBC4 reporter (Barbara Harrison) who mentioned the DOD ID stated that at least one of the four was carrying that ID -- ie, that's not to say that others among the four may also have been carrying similar papers.

Interesting that we haven't heard this info from other news sources. My hat's off to NBC4 in Washington.

[plurality]

16. It's all about 'plausible deniability'

You see they were private individuals, not the government, so any war crimes they commit aren't the fault of the government. Doesn't that make it all better?

[theHandpuppet]

23. Speaking of "spin"

Have you ever visited this site: http://www.comw.org/pda/index.html

Some scary stuff there about the layers of spin on the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. I just tripped across this site today but whew! I'm bookmarking it for further exploration.

[SoCalDem]

11. Dyncorp IS ....CIA

They are the murky underbelly of our "new military".. Our "secret police".. Is it any wonder why the locals go nuts every so often.You can only imagine the kinds of covert action they undertake..

They have a "corporate face", and do some mundane things, so loclas HERE see them as harmless, but they are always ready to go anywhere in the world to do our government's dirty work..

Granted..they are well paid for it, but it's dangerous, because the local people in foreign countries see them for what they ARE.. MILITARY.. US military.. and the rank and file soldiers pay the price too...

[KoKo]

13. Maybe NOT Security Contractors! Check this out! "Research Triangle Inst.

The Security Contractors may have been wrong from the media. Trying to find "Private Security Contractors,NC" and then looking for ties to Iraq this was all I found. I may be jumping the gun and need to do a more thorough search using Dyncorp and Vinell, etc. But, this might be an interesting lead. If it wasn't Security it could have been these folks. Since I live in NC, this is interesting. Don't see this group as Security or given what they do, as folks who would be involved with harming local Iraqi's. (will keep digging)
:shrug:

http://www.opensecrets.org/news/rebuilding_iraq/index.asp
Research Triangle Institute
The Contributions: $3,491 (all to Democrats)
Total to President Bush: $0
The Contract: USAID awarded Research Triangle Institute a $7.9 million contract April 11 to promote Iraqi civic participation in the reconstruction process. RTI will provide technical assistance and training programs in an effort to improve local administrators’ management skills and understanding of municipal services. RTI will also have the authority to grant contracts to Iraqi and foreign non-governmental organizations that will help train administrators and civilians in communication, conflict resolution, leadership and political analysis. Increasing political participation of “at-risk” groups-- including those that represent the interests of women, minorities and youth in Iraq—will be a top priority for RTI.
The Company: Research Triangle Institute is a non-profit organization based in Research Triangle Park, N.C. The group has worked in transitional regions for more than 20 years, and is a regular USAID contractor. RTI has completed governance work in South Africa, Indonesia and El Salvador and most recently won a $60 million USAID contract for educational development in Pakistan.

http://www.opensecrets.org/news/rebuilding_iraq/index.asp

[plurality]

14. but you're missing something

The people killed had flak jackets, weapons, and DoD ID in one case. For some reason I don't think a 'civic participation' firm would use DoD personell and carry body armor and weapons. Of course I could be wrong, and they could be the democracy at the point of a gun types.

[KoKo]

19. No, further digging showed it might be creepy "Blackwater, USA" NC firm..

see my post below. With photo of car they blew up....

[plurality]

21. that sounds more likely

I'd be interested to see just how many of these mercenary firms we can turn up.

I wonder if there's a government link somewhere to points to the Pentagon budget and how many 'civilian' firms they contract. I imagine many may be classified, but they surely can't keep all of it secret, they have to maintain some shred of transparency.

[theHandpuppet]

15. It doesn't sound as if...

... these are the folks involved, As I said, it was reported that at least one of the contractors killed was carrying a Dept of Defense ID.

[althecat]

17. CSC DynCorp & the Economics of Lawlessness

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0304/S00158.htm

MAPPING THE REAL DEAL

CSC DynCorp & the Economics of Lawlessness

UnAnswered Questions Re: US Sole Source Contract Award to DynCorp To Police & Manage Judiciary and Prisons in Iraq
by Catherine Austin Fitts, Solari
Graphics courtesy of Sanders Research Associates

Introduction:

A year ago, I took stories about litigation involving sex slave trafficking by DynCorp personnel in Eastern Europe and poor government contract performance to my neighbors here in Tennessee. One said to me, "I can not fathom that such things are going on, that our Congressman know and that they are saying and doing nothing."

Indeed, it was not long after that the State Department awarded DynCorp a contract to manage the information systems for embassies and consulates world wide -- another plum award for a company that seems to have a hand in most of the most sensitive information systems in the world -- at the Department of Justice, the Department of Defense, the CIA, the Air Force, the FBI, the Securities & Exchange Commission and even the New York Stock Exchange. If we are paying private corporations to collect highly sensitive data on all of us -- it seems like DynCorp is always there.

On April 11, 2003, Insight Magazine broke the story that "the U.S. State Department's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs has issued a $22 million contract to DynCorp Aerospace Operations (UK) Ltd., a subsidiary of Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), to "re-establish police, justice and prison functions in postconflict Iraq."

EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIGHT

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0304/S00158.htm

[KoKo]

18. I think NC Securiy could be "Blackwater, USA." You think DynCorp is Creepy

Check out this group that I've never heard of. This might be the Private Security Firm from NC. So far, doing a deep search I came up with this group. (and btw, in search, found out DynCorp is now doing our EPA testing and Waste Water Treament testing in NC. DynCorp the company that was fined for spraying deadly chemicals on Columbians...just the folks I want handling EPA and our NC wastewater treatment) This is making me sick. Anyway here's the info on "Blackwater." (what a name!)

Soldiers of good fortune

They fly helicopters, guard military bases and provide reconnaissance. They're private military companies--and they're replacing U.S. soldiers in the war on terrorism

B Y B A R R Y Y E O M A N

At a remote tactical training camp in a North Carolina swamp, six U.S. sailors are gearing up for their part in President Bush's war on terrorism. Dressed in camouflage on a January afternoon, they wear protective masks and carry nine-millimeter Berettas that fire nonlethal bullets filled with colored soap. Their mission: recapture a ship--actually a three-story-high model constructed of gray steel cargo containers--from armed hijackers.

July 23, 2003
C O V E R F E A T U R E
The men approach the front of the vessel in formation, weapons drawn, then silently walk the length of the ship. Suddenly, as they turn the corner, two "terrorists" spring out from behind a plywood barricade and storm the sailors, guns blazing. The trainees, who have instinctively crowded together, prove easy pickings: Though they outnumber their enemy 3-to-1, every one of them gets hit. They return from the ambush with heads hung, covered in pink dye.


Photo By Emily Sorry can't get photo to link

Schur

A car blasted in a training exercise run by Blackwater USA, which trains soldiers and civilians who guard government buildings around the world.
"You had people hiding behind their teammates!" barks their instructor, Tony Torres, a compact man with freckles and salt-and-pepper hair. "That's as shameful a thing as I can think of. That's fucked up. That's just fucked up." When approaching a "bad guy," Torres reminds them, a unit must move aggressively, fanning out to divert the terrorists' attention. "You guys need to get your shit together," he scolds. "There's not a lot of cover in this structure. The only thing to do is move toward your threat."

The men listen attentively. They know that Torres, a Navy vet, honed his skills during nine years in the service, performing search-and-rescue operations and providing nuclear-weapons security. But Torres no longer works for the military. These days he is an employee of Blackwater USA, a private company that contracts with the U.S. armed forces to train soldiers and guard government buildings around the world. Every day, the Navy sends chartered buses full of trainees 25 miles from Naval Station Norfolk, the world's largest naval base, to the company's 5,200-acre facility in Moyock, N.C. Last fall, Blackwater signed a $35.7 million contract with the Pentagon to train more than 10,000 sailors from Virginia, Texas, and California each year in "force protection." Other contracts are so secret, says Blackwater president Gary Jackson, that he can't tell one federal agency about the business he's doing with another.

http://www.indyweek.com/durham/2003-07-23/cover.html

[SoCalDem]

20. and a different article suggested that they "collect child support"

from deadbeat parents.. They Do sound like a "kneecap" operation :eyes:

Maybe they are connected to the mob too :shrug:.....stranger things have happened

[KoKo]

22. Here's some kind of military site, which shows the 6,000 acre training

facility with e-mails about stuff they've done. Do you know what this could be?

http://www.libertyforum.org/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=news_government&Number=1367051&page=&view=&sb=&o=

[KoKo]

24. 6,000 Acre Base to Train Private Army here in NC! Ck out their Website!

JHC! Too much. And, I can't find on Google or any other searches where the hell this place is in NC so I can know if I live near it, and to avoid it if I can! This is really frightening.....


http://blackwaterusa.com/

Blackwater Training Center:
Where Professionals Train.
On over 6000 acres of private land, we have trained and hosted over 50,000 Law Enforcement, Military and civilian personnel.
This is the most comprehensive private tactical training facility in the United States. Our instructors are ranked the best in the world and our facilities are second to none. At Blackwater, you train, eat and sleep at one facility.

Make plans to bring your team, unit or just yourself in 2004.

Contact: [e-mail]

[KoKo]

25. More photo's and description of training facilities "The Shoot House!"

Reactive Steel Range
# Six individual stations with seven computerized Reactive Steel targets at ranges of 7 to 18 yards on each.
# Lighted for low light application.
# Unlimited number of computerized target combinations.
# Computer applications consist of Manual, Custom Programming and Totally Random capability.

Available for Backwater Tactical Shooting Courses and units renting the Tactical Area for 5 days or more ONLY! Limited to one day per week for Tactical Area rental. Each additional day of use will be $200.00 and is limited to instructor availability, and must be scheduled in advance.




Tactical Training Area

Available for Backwater Tactical Shooting Courses and Tactical Units renting the facility for sustainment or specialized training except for certain exceptions authorized by the Blackwater Training staff. Tactical area rental includes both shoot houses, the tactical warm-up range.

4100 sq. ft. Multi-Level, Fully Ballistic Live Fire Shoot House

# Rated for all pistol, sub-machine gun, and buckshot rounds.
# Rated for 5.56 frangible ammunition. (all frangible ammunition must be approved by the Blackwater Training Center)
# All interior and exterior walls are AR500 fully ballistic (with the exception of the interior doorways.)
# 35 portable reactive AR500 bullet traps the same rating as the shoot house.
# High-powered rifle bullet traps are available under special circumstances.
# Changeable floor plan.
# 10 exterior entrances.
# Six different interior and exterior stairwell problems.
# Fully ventilated for shooter health and safety.
# Lighting controls for lighted and low light scenarios.
# Training capable for shooting exterior targets in conjunction with tactical scenarios within the shoot house.
# Vehicle and waterside approachable.
# Able to support helicopter operations with multiple fast rope areas.
# Live fire shotgun breaching capable. (All shotgun breaching ammunition must be approved by the Blackwater Training center.
# Explosive breaching capable. (Explosives must be a 1.5 oz. TNT equivalent and authorized by the Blackwater Training Center)
#

#


600 sq. ft., fully ballistic live fire shoot house.
# Rated for all pistol, sub-machine gun, and buckshot rounds.
# Rated for 5.56 frangible ammunition. (all frangible ammunition must be approved by the Blackwater Training Center)
# All interior and exterior walls are AR500 fully ballistic (with the exception of the interior doorways.)
# 8 portable reactive AR500 bullet traps the same rating as the shoot house.
# High-powered rifle bullet traps are available under special circumstances.
# Fully ventilated for shooter health and safety.
# Lighting controls for lighted and low light scenarios.
# Training capable for shooting exterior targets in conjunction with tactical scenarios within the shoot house.
# Vehicle approachable.
# Able to support helicopter operations with multiple fast rope areas.
# Live fire shotgun breaching capable. (All shotgun breaching ammunition must be approved by the Blackwater Training center.)
# Explosive breaching capable. (Explosives must be a 1.5 oz. TNT equivalent and authorized by the Blackwater Training Center)


Tactical Training Area Warm-up Range

# 25 yard x 20 yard utility range The following target package is provided:
# Six Portable 5' Static Steel targets 12" x 12"
# Six Portable 5' Static Steel targets 12" x 18"
# Six Portable Steel Pepper popper targets
# 10 portable paper target stands with uprights
# Two plate rack with six multi-shaped interchangeable plates.

A paper target package is available for an additional cost. (See price sheet for more details.

[m-jean03]

33. Check out their "Pro Shop"

Now you can wear the Blackwater logo whenever you like!
http://www.blackwaterusa.com/shop/enter.html

[KoKo]

26. kick

kick

[seemslikeadream]

27. warbusiness

warbusiness"


Child soldiers wait in Bule for orders to move. When this photo was taken, they were the only defense forces in a 25-mile radius. Two days later they too pulled out, and Bule was attacked.



very long but very good.

http://www.zwnews.com/warbusiness.doc

one tiny snip:

In April 2001, an MPRI representative met with the Pentagon’s regional director for Central Africa to discuss the company’s hopes of winning the contract to train Equatorial Guinea’s forces. “They may need our help or moral support,” Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski wrote in a memo on the meeting, obtained by ICIJ under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act. She quoted the MPRI representative as saying that Equatorial Guinea was “the Kuwait of the Gulf of Guinea” and, in a briefing paper three months later, advanced that characterization to “a possible ‘Kuwait of Africa’ with huge oil reserves” that was “US-friendly for both investment and security reasons.” Kwiatkowski also noted in her April memo that the highest-ranking U.S. official to meet with Obiang when he visited Washington early in 2001 was an assistant secretary of agriculture – that after French President Jacques Chirac had spared time to meet with him.

Despite concerns about Equatorial Guinea’s human rights record, Obiang’s currency rose dramatically after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. When he visited the United States as it marked the first anniversary of the attacks, Obiang was among 10 African leaders to meet with President George Bush for talks on the prospect of war with Iraq and peace and development on the African continent.


ended up here because of this:

If you've been reading the news the last few days you may have noticed this odd and somewhat mysterious story of a US-registered cargo plane loaded with 64 "mercernaries" and various military equipment which was impounded

Sunday night at Harare International Airport in Zimbabwe "after its owners had made a false declaration of its cargo and crew."

When asked about it on Monday, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said "We have no indication this aircraft is connected to the U.S. government."

That seemed like a rather less than unequivocal response. And behind the scenes US government officials said they didn't believe the US government had any connection with this operation. But they wanted to make sure before saying anything definitive.

Now, if you look at the press accounts, what's caught people's attention is the US registry of the plane. Specifically, it's registered to a company called Dodson Aviation, which is based in Kansas.

Now, Dodson says they sold the plane to a "reputable" firm in South Africa about a week ago. "I think they were going to use it for charter flights," company director Robert Dodson told the Associated Press.

Now here's a little more detail.

Dodson Aviation of Kansas has a South African subsidiary, Dodson International Parts SA Ltd (According to their website, "Dodson International Parts SA (Pty) Ltd is the African division of United States based companies Dodson International Parts Inc. and Dodson Aviation. The company was established in 1998 and is based at Wonderboom Airport, Pretoria.") And it was from this subsidiary's hangar at an airport just north of Pretoria that the aforementioned mercenaries boarded the plane.

Now, here's where this gets a little murky.

I wanted to find out more about Dodson International Parts SA Ltd. What I found something out about was a company that sounded very similar: a South African company called Dodson Aviation Maintenance and Spare Parts.

They're also in the airplane business.

Not exactly the same name. But remember, the South African company is the subsidiary of two American companies, Dodson Aviation and Dodson International. If these aren't the same company, or closely related companies, I'd figure they often get confused for one another.

In any case, here's what I found about Dodson Aviation Maintenance and Spare Parts.

They come up in the December 2000 Report of the Panel of Experts to the United Nations on Sierra Leone, in the section of the report dealing with the arms trade.

Here's the section that caught my eye (italics added) ...

187. Fred Rindel a retired officer of the South African Defence Force and former Defence Attaché to the United States, has played a key role in the training of a Liberian anti-terrorist unit, consisting of Liberian soldiers and groups of foreigners, including citizens of Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Niger and The Gambia.
188. The panel interviewed Mr Rindel extensively. Rindel was contracted as a security consultant by President Charles Taylor in September 1998, and training started in November 1998. The contract included consultancy services and strategic advice to convert Charles Taylor's former rebel militia into a professional unit. The Anti-Terrorist Unit is used in Liberia to protect government buildings, the Executive Mansion and the international airport, and to provide VIP Security and the protection of foreign embassies. The numbers trained were approximately 1200. Because of negative media attention, Rindel cancelled his contract in Liberia in August 2000.

189. In 1998, ECOMOG identified a plane, registration number N71RD, owned by a South African company, Dodson Aviation Maintenance and Spare Parts, as having carried weapons to Robertsfield in September of that year. The plane is a Gulfstream 14-seater business jet that cannot be used for arms transport, but there are other relevant connections. Fred Rindel was the owner of Dodson. The company was closed on 31 December 1998, but during the period under investigation, the plane was leased to, and operated by, Greater Holdings (Liberia) Ltd., a company with gold and diamond concessions in Liberia. The plane was used for the transport of the Greater Holdings' staff to and from Liberia.



Mr. Rindel's name came up earlier in 2000 in testimony at the UN Security Council by then-UN Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke in a discussion of Sierra Leone (italics added) ...

In regard to arms trafficking to Sierra Leone, Mr. Chairman, we remain concerned and I would like to add a few more items to the record. The principal Africa countries involved in arms trafficking to the RUF - though they deny it - include Burkina Faso, Liberia and Libya.
In 1999, planes landed in Ouagadougou, allegedly coming from the Ukraine, with several tons of small arms and ammunition. This incident, which the Ukrainians say has stopped, is one that we believe should be brought to the attention of your committee.

In regard to trafficking, arms brokers have played a vital role in keeping the RUF supplied with weapons and other military materiel. A well-known arms and diamond dealer in Sierra Leone, Zief Morganstein, in July 1999 arranged for a Continental Aviation-based charter out of Dakar to fly a shipment of small arms from Bulgaria to Sierra Leone. Last year the RUF received 68 tons of weapons from Bulgaria, which Morganstein may have helped arrange. There have been other connections between former government officials from South Africa during its Apartheid regime who now operate as private individuals, including Fred Rindel, the South African Defense Attache in Washington, who now works as a security consultant in Liberia and trains Liberian troops and RUF insurgents. There are other charges about other businessmen who are reportedly helping the Sierra Leone government coming from various countries around the world.



Now, I've scanned the news coverage of this and I haven't seen any mention of this seeming connection. So perhaps these are two utterly unrelated companies?

As of Tuesday the situation in Zimbabwe seems to be calming down, though now there are apparently fears in Equatorial Guinea that these mercenaries were somehow intended to assist a coup in that country. (No, I can't keep up either.) "Some 15 mercenaries have been arrested here," the country's Information Minister Agustin Nse Nfumu told Reuters. "It was connected with that plane in Zimbabwe. They were the advance party of that group."

Equatorial Guinea is next door to Gabon. And Joe Wilson used to be the US Ambassador there back in the day. So maybe he can make some sense of this. I can't. But I'd be very interested to talk to the investigators who put together that UN report and see if there's any connection between Dodson International Parts SA Ltd and Dodson Aviation Maintenance and Spare Parts.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com /

I just can not forget that Poppy's gold mining buddies Barrick

Edited on Fri Mar-12-04 12:41 AM by seemslikeadream
are in Congo
War is Golden for the Bush Administration
And the commodities connection? President Pretzel's relentless hissy-fit for war on Iraq has of course goosed the price of gold enormously--and that's set Bush Family coffers a-clinking. How so? In the waning days of his failed presidency, Bush I invoked an obscure 1872 statute to give a Canadian firm, Barrick Corporation, the right to mine $10 billion in gold from U.S. public lands. (U.S. taxpayers got a whopping $10,000 fee in return.) Bush then joined Barrick as a highly-paid "international consultant," brokering deals with various dictators of his close acquaintance. Barrick reciprocated with big bucks for Junior's presidential run. And in another quid for the old pro quo, last year Junior dutifully approved Barrick's controversial acquisition of a major rival. (Barrick is also one of the biggest polluters in America, by the way.)

http://www.counterpunch.org/floyd02152003.html

The money behind Barrick is from Saudi arms dealer and Bush family friend Adnan Khashoggi, who was identified as conduit in the Iran-Contra conspiracy. In 1986 he was arrested and charged with fraud but failed to be convicted. In one of his last acts as president Bush pardoned Khashoggi's alleged co-conspirators, who were key members of Bush's own cabinet. As a result, no case could be made against Khashoggi – or against Bush himself.

http://www.penfield-gill.com/presentations/bush_the_elder.htm

Where was flight N4610 heading?

March 10 2004 at 08:11AM



They were 64 "heavily built men", mostly white. No, they were all black. No, only 40 of them were black.

The plane left South Africa illegally from Wonderboom airport, strayed into Zimbabwe airspace and was ordered down. No, the plane left the country legally, having filed a flight plan to Harare and then on to Burundi. No, the plane was headed for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The men on board were suspected of being mercenaries hired to overthrow Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe. No, they were on their way to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea. No, they were going to the eastern DRC to carry out security duties.

These are just some of the stories surrounding the flight of N4610, a Boeing 727-100 cargo plane that has been impounded in Harare.

And 64 - though some reports say there are 67 - of those who were aboard, whether they were white, black or a mixture, and whether they were mercenaries or honest men, are in Harare cells facing intense interrogation.

On Tuesday, a company named in connection with the flight disputed all the speculation, saying the "mercenaries" were in fact security people "going to eastern DRC".

They were stopping in Zimbabwe to pick up mining equipment, "Zimbabwe being a vastly cheaper place for such".

Charles Burrow, a senior executive of Logo Logistics which had chartered the Boeing 727 freighter, said via telephone from London that most of the people on board were South African and had military experience, but were on contract to four mining companies in the DRC. He declined to name the companies.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=84&art_id=vn20040310081125342C ...

Plane Did Stop At Grantley Adams - Thursday 11, March-2004

A UNITED STATES registered plane at the centre of controversy after being detained on Monday with 64 suspected mercenaries aboard by the Zimbabwean government did stop at Grantley Adams International Airport last Saturday morning.
Informed sources told the DAILY NATION yesterday that the aircraft, a Boeing 727 (100 series), with registration number N4610, landed in Barbados shortly after midnight for refuelling before leaving around 6:30 a.m.

Sources also indicated that the aircraft, which Zimbabwean officials alleged also carried military equipment, had arrived from the Hope Air Force Base in North Carolina, United States, before its stop-over in Barbados.

Further reports stated that the plane, originally a commercial PanAm Airways aircraft up until a week ago, was being operated by the American Air Force, but international Press reports stated it had been sold to a South African company.

http://www.nationnews.com/StoryView.cfm?Record=48033&Section=Local&Cur ...

Corporate Mercenaries - Executive Outcomes Leads to Bush


Executive Outcomes is the most infamous mercenary company in operation today. Unlike traditional mercenary companies, it operates as the heavy partner in a web of related companies. Sandline international is such a sister company: 170 elite South African dogs of war were hired to crush the Bougainville freedom Fighters for $22m. Just another job for the likes of Sandline international? Paul Vernon investigates...

Set up in 1993 by Tony Buckingham and Simon Mannl <1>, Executive outcomes (EO) has worked in Asia, Africa and South America. Most of it's personnel are hired from South Africa.

Buckingham is the chief executive of Heritage Oil and Gas, which is now registered in the (tax-free) Bahamas. When EO was hired by the Sierra Leone government to crush people's revolt, Heritage received much of the payment in the form of mining rights. Sir David Steel MP happens to be a director of Heritage as well as a close friend of Buckingham. Recently Sierra Leone was thrown back into chaos with another military coup.

Eeben Barlow, the present CEO of Executive Outcomes, is a veteran of the Civil Co-operation Bureau, which allegedly assassinated antiapartheid activists. Barlow is the frontman for the group he told Newsweek (2) in February: "I'm a professional soldier. It's not about politics. I have a job to do. I do it." EO is thought to have a annual turnover of more that £20 million.

The South African government, with help from officials from the United Nations, has begun to draft proposals of legislation aimed to counter what officials called "the increasing frequency with which our soldiers-of-fortune are operating overseas".(7)

http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/magazine/issue4/cw4f8.html

Executive Outcomes ties lead to London and Bush
Executive Intelligence Review January 31, 1997, pp. 42-43
by Roger Moore and Linda de Hoyos

Exposes appearing on both sides of the Atlantic on the mercenary group Executive Outcomes, threaten to blow the lid off the British intelligence nexus already identified as responsible for the February 1986 murder of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, and for the current cataclysmic destabilization of Africa on behalf of circles associated with the Queen of England's Privy Council and Sir George Bush.
The exposes appeared in the French daily {Le Figaro} on Jan. 16, the {London Observer} on Jan. 17, and the February issue of the American magazine {Harper's.}
Executive Outcomes is the mercenary arm of a vast
network of British-South African corporations dealing in gold, diamonds, and oil, primarily, but not exclusively, in Africa, that come under the umbrella of Strategic Resources Corporation, headquartered in Pretoria, South Africa. Described universally as an ``advance guard of a corporate network that includes mining, oil, and construction companies,'' Executive Outcomes is active in 13 African countries, including Uganda. For its services, it demands a lien or franchise on the exportable raw resources, particularly mineral wealth, of the client country--in the same fashion as the British East India Company of the 18th and 19th centuries, which in turn functioned as the ``advance guard'' of the British monarchy.
Executive Outcomes was incorporated offshore, on the Isle of Man, in 1993, by Anthony Buckingham, a British businessman, and Simon Mann, a former British officer, the {Observer} reported, based on a leak to it from British intelligence. Buckingham is also chief executive of Heritage Oil and Gas, which in turn is linked to the Canadian firm Ranger Oil. Other firms operating out of the same headquarters in Chelsea Plaza 107, London, include Branch International Ltd. and Branch Mining Ltd.
Preliminary investigation by {EIR} has further determined that Executive Outcomes lies at the heart of the British monarch's raw materials cartels and secret intelligence operations, in conjunction with Bush's rogue apparat:
Through Sir David Steel, a former leader of the Liberal Party, Executive Outcomes and, presumably, its deployment, is a subsumed operation of the Queen's Privy Council. Steel is a close friend of EO's Buckingham, and is on the board of directors of EO's sister firm, Heritage Oil and Gas, according to {Le Figaro.} In 1977, Steel was inducted into the Privy Council, making him the youngest member of Britain's highest-level policy-making body.
The links between Executive Outcomes and Ranger Oil point to operational ties with the Bronfman family of Canada, whose scion, Edgar Bronfman of Toronto Broncorp, sits on the board of directors of Ranger. Recently, the Bronfman family merged its mammoth real estate firm, Trizec, with Barrick Gold, whose senior advisory board includes Sir George Bush. Barrick Gold is deeply involved in northeastern Zaire, where it has purchased 83,000 square kilometers of land. Zairean sources report that the so-called Zairean rebel Laurent Kabila is no more than a mercenary for Barrick and Anglo American Corp., sponsored by the British Crown-backed Ugandan and Rwandan militaries. Executive Outcomes, {Le Figaro} and other sources further verify, is deeply entrenched in Uganda, the key British marcher-lord state in the region.

http://www.aboutsudan.com/action/geopolitical/executive_outcomes.htm

Mercenaries aimed to topple oil-rich despot

The inside story of the ties that bind President Obiang and powerful American interests

By Paul Lashmar
14 March 2004

The tale of the 67 men of assorted nationalities now in a Zimbabwe jail accused of being mercenaries continued to unfurl yesterday like the plot of a lurid airport novel.

A bit too much like fiction, in fact, involving as it does a cast that includes the despotic leader of a little-known West African state, the Eton-educated son of an English cricket captain, fake passports, and a shadowy company registered in the Channel Islands that is linked to SAS old boys. All this, plus talk of CIA, MI6 and Spanish secret service activity, and a plane now impounded at Harare airport that contained equipment more suited to burglary than seizures of power.

SNIP...

But if who paid whom for what services has not yet been revealed, the intended target is not in doubt: President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, leader of a country whose lack of renown belies its strategic significance. And for "strategic" read oil. Not for nothing is this land known in US government circles as the "Kuwait of the Gulf of Guinea". Not without reason has President Bush welcomed President Obiang, a confirmed if not convicted corrupt despot, to the White House. He may be a despot, but as presider over an oil-rich state, he is their despot.

The sight and smell of oil is everywhere palpable in the port of Malabo. From here you can see the flames shooting into the night sky from the offshore oilrigs. Every day tens of thousands of barrels are extracted from huge crude oil reserves underneath the seabed off Equatorial Guinea.It is one of the oil-rich sub-Saharan countries that now supplies 15 per cent of American oil. Experts predict that the amount of oil the US receives from the prolific fields of Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea and Angola will double in the next five years. Hence the succour that American companies - and, since 9/11, the American government - have given to Obiang. Vice President Dick Cheney has said: "Along with Latin America, West Africa is expected to be one of the fastest-growing sources of oil and gas for the American market."

http://news.independent.co.uk/low_res/story.jsp?story=501017&host=3&di ...





Gravediggers at work in Kinshasa's largest cemetery, where there are more than 50 burials per day. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, more than 2 million people have died since 1996 as a result of violence, starvation, and lack of access to basic health care.




Plaza 107 and its links to Executive Outcomes


The Diamond Dogs

This commercial enterprise has given EO its nickname; 'the diamond dogs of war'. A recent United Nations report noted that once a firm like EO is able to establish security in an area 'it apparently begins to exploit the concessions it has received by setting up a number of associates and affiliates' which engage in 'legitimate' businesses. Such firms thus acquire 'a significant, if not hegemonic, presence in the economic life of the country in which it is operating'.

One of the Plaza 107 group firms is Branch Energy (BE), an English corporation which registered in the Isle of Man, a tax haven, in April 1994. EO is a major shareholder in BE, with 6o per cent of BE Angola, 40 per cent Of BE Uganda, and 40 per cent Of BE Sierra Leone. In June 1996 BE merged with Carson Gold, controlled by Canadian mining magnate Robert Friedland, to form Diamond Works Inc. This company, which has prospecting rights in Congo, Namibia, Botswana and Senegal, and is now the second largest concession holder in Angolait, was recently awarded the Alto Kwanza diamond exploration concession in Bie Province, covering an area of more than 18,ooo sq. km. In July 1996 the Sierra Leone government awarded the company a twenty-five-year lease to the Koidu diamond fields in the Kono region 'liberated' by EO. Diamond Works has contracted Lifeguard, another SRC subsidiary, at us$6o,ooo a month to protect its diamond fields in Sierra Leone.

Another line of analysis suggests that the prime mover in the employment of EO in Sierra Leone came from the South African mining house Gencor. In 1996 Gencor sold its controlling interest in the Australian company Cudgen RZ to another Australian firm, Renison Goldfields Consolidated (RGC). A subsidiary of RGC, Consolidated Rutile Ltd., in partnership with the us firm Nord Resources Group, controls half of Sierra Rutile Ltd, which with an annual production worth US$200 Million a year is the largest rutile mine in the world. The mine was the regional headquarters for Eo during their operations in West Africa and when they withdrew Sierra Rutile Ltd. took out a contract with Lifeguard.

http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/sheppard.htm

America's secret armies
A swarm of private contractors bedevils the U.S. military

BY LINDA ROBINSON
Those who recall the awful sight of the corpse of Sgt. 1st Class Randy Shughart being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu in 1993 also recall the American reaction–the prompt withdrawal of troops. Yet when four retired Special Forces operators were taken hostage and one of them tortured three years later in Liberia, no one knew. Brian Boquist, a former Special Forces officer and founder of International Charter Inc. of Oregon, told U.S. News how he and his small aviation company wound up on the firing line. ICI was hired by the State Department in December 1995 to provide air and logistics support to the regional peacekeeping group of West African states known as ECOMOG. As Liberia spiraled into bloody chaos, about two dozen ICI staffers snatched weapons off dead locals and defended the U.S. Embassy until U.S. Navy SEALs and Army Special Forces arrived on April 9, 1996. ICI stayed on to airlift about 40 tons of food for some 40,000 refugees and won the State Department's Contractor of the Year award for their actions.

There's much to investigate. For starters, the Pentagon does not even know how many contractors it uses. Last spring, Army Secretary Thomas E. White revived an effort to count all contractors under his purview. A preliminary report to Congress in April guessed that the Army contracted out the equivalent of between 124,000 and 605,000 person-work-years in 2001. Nor is there a reliable count of the contractors who provide "emergency essential" services on the battlefront and elsewhere, despite the urging of the Department of Defense (DOD) inspector general a decade ago. In an internal E-mail last fall, one colonel urged that the Army logistics chief review all field systems to see what contractor support they entail. It reads: "At the very least, he could count these little beggars in some fashion before they show up on the battlefield and surprise some poor commander with horrific support, real estate and security requirements."

http://www.sandline.com/hotlinks/4contractors.htm

[KoKo]

28. "Seems Like" I know what you are talking about...you need to do Separate

post on this.. Please do a separate post. It will get lost here, and it needs it's own special post. :hi: We who are so serious, get lost here on DU lately. :-(

[seemslikeadream]

30. Thank you so much

I'll do that! :hi:

[SoCalDem]

29. Great info.. Now ..send the thread url to every journalist you can ..

The Fallujah story is "hot" and instead of the white house sending them "background" information, which they re-edit and print, let's tweak their imaginations with some REAL story opportunity..

Sometimes it really works.. I have sent to Cottrell in Florida (he HATES Bush), and to some others too..

Maybe in a week or two, this might bubble to the surface again..

People need to know that a lot of their MILITARY tax dollars go to fund outfits like THESE..and the money they make from US..goes right back into Bush's pocket in the form of "campaign contributions"..

It's a gigantic toxic circle..with dead people all 'round..:(

[seemslikeadream]

31. Thanks to you too!

:hi:

[TahitiNut]

32. My Family Secret: My 2nd Cousin Is "Security Expert" for Dynacorp

He's an "expert" and "advisor" ... and top sniper. He's been in the ME and Afghanistan off and on for two years. Yep. :eyes:

[bobthedrummer]

34. Sex slaves, dope, assassinations-lots of other money to be made

in other trades besides "private security".
Dyn Corp links
http://truthout.com/02.24C.DynCorp.Disgrace.htm

http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/VAR207A.html

http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/GUA108A.html

http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/ROB108A.html

Halliburton link
http://www.motherjones.com/web_exclusives/features/news/halliburton.html

PMC's-Privatizing Combat: The New World Order link
http://www.icij.org/dtaweb/

[bobthedrummer]

35. Media kick

[Karenina]

36. and another

:kick: