Blackwater Sniper Footage

With all the talk of Blackwater snipers these days, I figured I'd post some footage. No, this is not the latest stuff, but it gives a good feel for who these men are and how they act. This clip comes from 2005, with commentary below.

(Wait for the helicopter intro to pass; the sniper section is right behind it.)

The 5-man Blackwater crew that was assinged to CPA [Coalition Provisional Authority] Najaf were coming under heavy small arms and mortar fire, the city was being taken over by insurgents. The police stations and hospitals were taken over as well, after a day of fighting off hundreds of insurgents the city had been completely overrun, with the CPA in the heart of the city and no way out.

The Team called up to Baghdad and reported the situation, they said they needed immediate extract which Gen Sanchez also denied due to the fact the city had been overrun and there were no US troops there, only contractors.

Well, Ambassador Bremer was pissed at Sanchez and I remember being on office watch during the massive arguments! Ambassador Bremer and our Baghdad Team Leader got together and Bremer said ''I don't want another Bridge hanging! Get those boys out of there by any means nessassary!'' so 12 of us -- 6 pilots and 6 gunners loaded as much as we could in 3 MD530 little birds and headed 70 miles south. we flew in the first day and blind (no comms, and no intel on the heat) to try a resupply, land find out was was going on and then head back, rearm and get ready to go again. Well that night all hell broke lose and we flew back in. Over 1000 insurgents (reported by the F18 pilots) had taken the city and now wanted the CPA after a day of intense fighting by 11 BW [Blackwater] guys, airstrikes, a handfull of Marines and 1 sniper we were able to hold them off. After it died down and gunships and SF [Special Forces] guys finally started to roll in the battle was soon over and the CPA was saved.

That's pretty much it in a nut shell...

Blackwater Aids California - At No Cost

I believe Standish was the first to carry the story of Blackwater's emergency housing effort in southern California. But now the AP has got in on the act and posted a video here.

The basic story is simple: when the State of California would not hire Blackwater to fight the fires, the contractor decided to provide aid free of charge. As the AP explains, the new emergency food and housing comes at no cost, but will be inspected by state and local officials, to ensure safety. (So much for Blackwater being "unaccountable.") Just further proof that Blackwater really does believe in their humanitarian mission.

Christian Science Monitor Breaks Blackwater Contract Story

Unbeknownst to this blog, the Christian Science Monitor carried the story of Blackwater's State Department contract the same day Statecraft & Security raised the same issue. This is good news for those interested in the truth about how private security contractors behave in Iraq, and why.

The CSM spells out the issue very clearly:

The issue isn't an overly aggressive contractor. It's the State Department's zero tolerance for casualties of its employees in Iraq. Such an approach makes tragedies such as the September episode more common – and it marginalizes the lives of innocent Iraqis who just might be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Placing so many diplomats and civil servants on nation-building assignments in the middle of a civil war has a high price – perhaps too high.... The US government appears to tolerate a certain number of casualties from the all-volunteer military. But civilian employees are a different story.

It's nice to finally see a large, mainstream media outlet placing blame where it's due: with the State Department, it's lawyers and its flawed contract.

The Putin Generation

Karol Józef Wojtyła was elected pope five years before I was born, and took the name John Paul II. I was twenty-one years old when he died. His papacy was the first I ever knew and had a formative impact on my life. Thousands of Catholics who grew up under the Polish pontiff fondly call themselves the John Paul II Generation.

A frightening parallel exists in Russia today. The first generation of post-Soviet youth are coming of age, and they are calling themselves the Putin Generation. The Nashi movement is one of several pro-Kremlin youth groups that foster Putin's cult of personality. The New York Times ran a story this summer about the group, but I think the video images are most stunning, and so I include several for your viewing pleasure, or horror, as the case may be.

The Putin Generation (Part I of II, by the NYT)


The Putin Generation (Part II of II)


Наша армия, a Nashi military recruitment video

(This video is in Russian, but the images and message are clear enough for anyone to see.)

For a scholarly consideration of the origins of Nashi, see Douglas Robert Buchacek's thesis, NASHA Pravda, NASHE Delo: The Mobilization of the Nashi Generation in Contemporary Russia.

Some Monitors Barred from Russian Elections

In a trend remarkably similar to its reduction of NGOs in October of last year, Russia has decided to further reduce the number of foreign monitors for its upcoming parliamentary elections in December. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which monitors elections in many post-Soviet countries, was lately informed by Russian authorities of the change. While OSCE previously was invited to send 400 monitors to elections in 2003, they may now only send 70. This is quite the decrease in a country and a region where elections have been marred by corruption.

Despite electoral predictions that United Russia, Putin’s cult-of-personality-political-party, will win more seats to complement their majority already, the monitoring is essential to show emerging political trends in the country. The attempt of the opposition to gain seats is important to demonstrate that Russia’s citizens still wish to have a voice in their ever-growing-authoritative-quasi-democracy. Russians must be vigilant for future trends the Kremlin will show. This is already evident in reports that Putin might seek to hold some official position after his required departure from the Presidency, similar to Lukashenko of neighboring Belarus, who altered its Constitution to win a third term.

Gen. Chennault and the Flying Tigers: Private Military Contractors

One of the finest chapters of American history did not even occur in the United States and involved a gang of private military contractors: the American Volunteer Group, better known as the Flying Tigers.

In early 1941 the US was not yet officially at war, but a number of Americans - including President Roosevelt - saw the need to aid the Nationalist Chinese against Japanese aggression. And so airplanes were purchased, with 82 pilots and 359 ground crewmembers recruited for the effort from among former US servicemen. The group was lead by Claire Chennault, a retired US Army Air Corps captain who had become a private military advisor to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek.

These Americans were technically "mercinaries" in that they were privately hired by the Chinese government. But they were some of the most professional and skilled men in the world: at the defense of Rangoon the Flying Tigers flew alongside the men of the RAF, and by even the lowest figures, these American contractors outflew and outfought their British allies.

The AVG was officially credited with 297 enemy aircraft destroyed, including 229 in the air. Thirty-three AVG pilots and three ground crew received the Chinese Order of the Cloud Banner, many AVG pilots received the Chinese Air Force Medal and each AVG ace and double ace was awarded the Chinese Five Star or Ten Star Wing Medal. However, success did not come without a price: fourteen pilots were killed in action, captured, or disappeared on combat missions; two died of wounds sustained in bombing raids; and six were killed in accidents.

After World War II, ten ex-Flying Tigers pilots formed a cargo airline named Flying Tiger Line, after the AVG. Flying Tiger Line operated for forty years, and was the largest cargo airline in the world for some time. It was eventually purchased by Federal Express.

Who drives against traffic in a traffic circle?

While trawling the blogosphere I recently came across someone rhetorically asking Who drives against traffic in a traffic circle?, with regards to the recent Blackwater firefight at Nisoor Square, Baghdad.

A fair question. The State Department contract with Blackwater, which is about 1,000 pages long and extensively detailed, stipulate that State Department convoys travel quickly and drive aggressively. Furthermore, no State Department official ever travels with less than three vehicles and they're always the biggest stuff they can find, with those obnoxious "Warning: Stay Back" signs and all of that.

This is in contrast to the CIA, which drives around Baghdad and other parts of Iraq, with contract security, all the time, but doesn't run into trouble. Why? Because they're riding in unmarked beat-up pickups and following traffic patterns. The difference, surprisingly, is not the contractors - both employ them - but the agency that hires them and the terms of the contracts.

It's sad to think that the State Department officially has the lead for public diplomacy. Who most heavily opposed the State Department terms under which Blackwater is employed? The Department of Defense (which also employs contractors, but again, under different terms), folks who actually know a thing or two about public diplomacy, even though it's not their primary duty.

The State Department contract also stipulated that diplomatic security guards must wear wrap-around sunglasses (a cultural faux pas in the Arabic world) and prohibited facial hair (another cultural faux pas). Just what were these State Department boys learning at Georgetown?