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U.S. Hiring Mercenary Air Force for Iraq Rescues
It’s January 2012. A convoy of SUVs ferrying American diplomats to a meeting with Iraqi politicians runs over a roadside bomb. Several of the passengers inside are seriously injured. They need to be rescued, now.
But the U.S. military left Iraq on Dec. 31. Which means the only call for help has to go to a team of mercenaries employed by the U.S. embassy in Baghdad. They’re the only guys left in Iraq who are running medical evacuation operations — or any other complex air op.
The State Department has already requisitioned an army, part of the roughly 5,000 private security contractors State is hiring to protect diplomats stationed in Iraq. Now, State is hiring someone to provide a little help from the air: an “Aviation Advisor” responsible for “Search and Rescue (SAR), medical evacuations (ME), transporting Quick Reaction Forces (QRF) to respond to incidents, and provid[ing] air transportation for Chief of Mission personnel.” It’s not a familiar job for the diplomatic corps, which is why State is seeking to bring in someone from the outside.
The State Department put out this notice on Nov. 4. That’s 58 days before the withdrawal of U.S. troops. 58 days before State has the skies over Iraq to itself.
There are lots of contractors with long experience in search and rescue and other air operations. The secretive Virginia company Blackbird Technologies, staffed with U.S. special operations veterans, won an $11 million contract in 2010 to rescue missing or kidnapped U.S. troops in Iraq, one of the military’s most important missions.
State has also contracted out for air support in the recent past. ...Read the rest here.
15 Comments so far
Show AllGreat, now Madam Hillary has her own private army! How long until she tries to overthrow President "Slick Oily"? Or, perhaps she will just be OK with owning Iraq and Afghanistan!
We all know the lobbyists have revolving doors, surprises, surprise the military too, have revolving doors. So, Obama kept his promised and finally we are out of Iraq?
And he created jobs for unemployed veterans.
Caleb Abell,
I forgot all about it! Damn it another promised kept.:-)
Rewarding occupation. Lots of benefits and costly college education not required.
Foreign occupation is the new bubble. Learn the thrills of mercenary work at home with exciting video games that show you how to kill and be a hero. Teach your kids how to shoot and maintain assault rifles, which tattoos look the best on your neck and biceps. Make sure they understand the need to protect our homeland from pesky peace and justice pinkos.
This is the type of double dealing that must be stopped. And the coming cut in military spending will be a good start to stopping it. And yes, there is a hefty cut coming to military spending one way or another.
Now lets add the State Dept. to that list of cuts. Do we really need a "liaison" officer in Marrakech for example?
You know 5,000 mercenaries is not a lot, but it's enough, theoretically, to make it clear that our "withdrawal" is a lie.
This is my prediction. If the mainstream "progressive" media, the MSNBC crowd and the radio talk show crowd, basically ignore Iraq from now on since "Obama got us out of Iraq," then we will see an escalation of the number of mercenaries there. This will happen as long as this continued occupation remains under the radar and doesn't hurt Obama's cred with most Democrats.
Us? We're the safety value. We're Zion in the Matrix.
Mercenaries are the US military. US tax dollars pay for them. The US government hired them. They are more expensive and unlike conventional forces, loose cannons. No one has the authority to control them.
Obama left at least 25000 of them in place as well as conventional military. 'training units' (occupation forces).
The exit from Iraq was theater.
The only way to extricate ourselves from the Middle East is to dissolve Israel and force Zionists to pay reparations to those they have harmed worldwide. Until then, AIPAC will keep us there until we bleed dry.
Hiring the mercenaries is no different than hiring the Mafia to murder and gain control of territories, in this case land for the zionist and the oil beneath for the oil companies, with no regard as to how many die. When will other countries have the nerve to stand up and say enough is enough, like was done in 1933-1945? This started in 2001 by the Bush regime.
Anybody have any idea what is happening to "our" one billion dollar
"embassy" in BugDud?
Boy, Blackwater (or whatever its code name is now) Haliburtion, Brown and Root have found yet more ways to benefit from Uncle Dick's largesse...free markets...yeah, that's the ticket...unleash a bunch of thugs, don't hold them accountable and call it supporting national security.
So how would you pundits handle this kind of problem? I don't care for mercenary forces either but under the circumstances, what else will work? Enlighten me please with some pragmatic and practical solutions for protecting Americans in the "New Iraq?"
Aren't citizens and personnel protected at our new Embassy? However, if we're to pay for security for the robber barons who got us into this dreadful war for their obscene profits, then lets get that on the table now; we all need to understand this a bit better. Innocent lives have been and continue to be sacrificed for their race to profits on their next quarterly earnings reports; when will it ever be enough? We create the never ending rise of the insurgents every time we kill their innocent children, parents and loved ones...we do this just so we can keep killing more insurgents to improve the bottom line? Seriously? Are we to understand that we've been doing all this just to keep their families safe and prepare the country for a democratic society!!!!??? That's insanity, what families? What society? Out of Iraq means out of Iraq and it's long overdue. Send them a check to hire their people to rebuild their own country and get american businesses out of there.
Maiden,
Well said!
Like to ask Pacrimco a few questions. Why are we there in the first place and elsewhere? Protect who, the big oil companies, crooks and carpet bagger? Do they want us to remain there? How much more money, lives especially innocent victims do we need to shred for the pigs?