Not sure if this has already been posted.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53059-2004Apr5.html

[url]http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53059-2004Apr5.html[/url]

... An excerpt please, for those of us not registered there.

[b]Private Guards Repel Attack on U.S. Headquarters [/b]

By Dana Priest
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 6, 2004; Page A01

An attack by hundreds of Iraqi militia members on the U.S. government's headquarters in Najaf on Sunday was repulsed not by the U.S. military, but by eight commandos from a private security firm, according to sources familiar with the incident.


 

Before U.S. reinforcements could arrive, the firm, Blackwater Security Consulting, sent in its own helicopters amid an intense firefight to resupply its commandos with ammunition and to ferry out a wounded Marine, the sources said.
The role of Blackwater's commandos in Sunday's fighting in Najaf illuminates the gray zone between their formal role as bodyguards and the realities of operating in an active war zone. Thousands of armed private security contractors are operating in Iraq in a wide variety of missions and exchanging fire with Iraqis every day, according to informal after-action reports from several companies.
In Sunday's fighting, Shiite militia forces barraged the Blackwater commandos, four MPs and a Marine gunner with rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47 fire for hours before U.S. Special Forces troops arrived. A sniper on a nearby roof apparently wounded three men. U.S. troops faced heavy fighting in several Iraqi cities that day.
The Blackwater commandos, most of whom are former Special Forces troops, are on contract to provide security for the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Najaf.
With their ammunition nearly gone, a wounded and badly bleeding Marine on the rooftop, and no reinforcement by the U.S. military in the immediate offing, the company sent in helicopters to drop ammunition and pick up the Marine.
The identity of the Marine and two other wounded men could not be established, but their blood was still fresh hours later, when the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, and spokesman Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt arrived to survey the battle zone.
Without commenting at a news conference yesterday on the role of the Blackwater guards, Kimmitt described what he saw after the fighting ended. "I know on a rooftop yesterday in An Najaf, with a small group of American soldiers and coalition soldiers . . . who had just been through about 3 1/2 hours of combat, I looked in their eyes, there was no crisis.
"They knew what they were here for," he continued. "They'd lost three wounded. We were sitting there among the bullet shells -- the bullet casings -- and, frankly, the blood of their comrades, and they were absolutely confident."
During the defense of the authority headquarters, thousands of rounds were fired and hundreds of 40mm grenades shot. Sources who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of Blackwater's work in Iraq reported an unspecified number of casualties among Iraqis.
A spokesman for Blackwater confirmed that the company has a contract to provide security to the CPA but would not describe the incident that unfolded Sunday.
A Defense Department spokesman said that there were no military reports about the opening hours of the siege on CPA headquarters in Najaf because there were no military personnel on the scene. The Defense Department often does not have a clear handle on the daily actions of security contractors because the contractors work directly for the coalition authority, which coordinates and communicates on a limited basis through the normal military chain of command.
The four men brutally slain Wednesday in Fallujah were also Blackwater employees and were operating in the Sunni triangle area under more hazardous conditions -- unarmored cars with no apparent backup -- than the U.S. military or the CIA permit.
One senior Blackwater manager has described those killings to U.S. government officials as the result of a "high-quality" attack as skilled as one that can be mounted by U.S. Special Forces, according to a copy of a report on the incident obtained by The Washington Post.
The four victims of that attack, according to Blackwater spokesman Chris Bertelli, were escorting trucks carrying either food or kitchen equipment for Regency Hotel and Hospitality. Regency is a subcontractor to Eurest Support Services (ESS), a division of the Compass Group, the world's largest food service company.
ESS provides food services to more than a dozen U.S. military dining facilities in Iraq, according to news accounts.
Blackwater, a security and training company based in Moyock, N.C., prides itself on the high caliber of its personnel, many of whom are former U.S. Navy SEALs. It has 450 employees in Iraq, many of them providing security to CPA employees, including the U.S. administrator, L. Paul Bremer, and to VIPs visiting Iraq.
Blackwater has applied to occupy a former MIG air base near Baghdad as a counterterrorism training facility for Iraqi forces. The training range will mirror the 6,000-acre Moyock site, which is frequented by U.S. law enforcement and military personnel.

HOLY SHIT!  Amazing!

Wouldn't it be cool if Blackwater's role in Iraq could play a decisive edge in beating out the assholes?

kickin' ass and takin' names. rock on.

Sounds good to me.

I like it.

CH

[img]http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20040404/capt.bag12304042034.iraq_bag123.jpg[/img]

Wanna guess who the guy in civies with the Glock works for?

I suspect there are things the Blackwater guys can do that the US Military can not.

body count please

Eight highly trained US warriors vs. 200 [red][i]<>[/red][/i].  Now that is not fair at all to the [red][i]<>[/red][/i].  Would like the movie rights, aka "Zulu".  "First Rank Fire, Second Rank Fire, Third Rank Fire".  I will be interested in hearing what kind of ammo they were using.  

get some
then get some more

I really do enjoy that movie.

In all fairness to the current situation though, it sounds as though the Blackwater Boyz were augmenting the Marines.

Considering the marksmanship and rifle handling skills of the typical Arab, I don't think that crowd stood much of a chance.

revenj?

Well....

I reckon these "civilians", are combatants, then eh??

Are they "lawful" combatants??

What's the difference between these guys, as "lawful" combatants, and an "unlawful" combatant, defending his own turf??

Twenty grand a month, and good insurance?

Blackwater brings to mind the "Air America" days... Just like WMD's bring to mind the Maddox.


I wonder, if the "political correctness", will be the same too??

 Deja 'vu anyone?

Yes DejaVu Duncan but doesn't change that these guys are fighting our enemies and deserve our support.  

I felt that way then as I do now.

Rock and Roll guys!

Tj

The only deja vu I get is people spouting claptrap that continuosly gets shot down by saner voices.

They  are hired by the CPA - that's the provisional government of iraq. They are there at the behest of the government to augment their security while the government is training its own forces that it can hopefully trust. So they are there "lawfully". They are there performing lawful duties.

The other side, which you seem to feel are equally justified in their actions, are there to discrupt the new lawful government of iraq. Many are there as recruited terrorists from other countries to strike at the US, kill american civillians, and then get americans (apparently like you) to say that we shouldn't be there and pull out. All so they can turn iraq back into a haven for dictators and terrorists.

Oh, and some of them are native iraqis who benefitted from the good old days of torture and rape under saddam. Now they see that once those days are gone for good, they are likely to be as well.

Maybe you could send these nice insurgents face paint so they can look like your braveheart smiley and then you can really refer to them as 'freedom fighters'.

Beekeeper, what is with the <>? That was not meant as a slur, but is a commonly use descriptive term? I did not mean to offend any of the local Najf insurgents who were attacking US personnel, who have given them freedom for the first time in 100 years.  That would be wrong, and not politically correct.

you dirty kuffar! the appropriate term is "holy wearer of the turban".

Then perhaps it is permissible to say,
Rxx HxxD

next time just call them "loving sand peoples with a healthy respect for he dignity and sanctity of human life and freedom"

"Sand Peoples", now that has a nice ring to it.  Much more inclusive, and certainly more politically correct than the other terms we used to use.

That's cool news for a change

Exactly...

Private security is paid to keep their principals alive, and no more. They don't have to worry about political correctness, as they are not government employees...

As most of them are ex-military, they also have the added bonus of knowing how to work well with US troops (and I doubt the Marines are going to complain about more well trained & armed men on guard duty)...

P.S. If you're looking for an apt historical comparison, see A. Pinkerton's 'National Detective Agency' in the early 1900s...

Did Joe Galloway pick up a weapon and defend himself in the Ia Drang valley while working as an AP reporter covering the 7th Cav in 1965?

Would you?

These guys are over there defending something, not running offensive operations. Do you think the guys they were defending appreciate their firepower and steadfastness?

What CIA bullshit is going on? They're security professionals, hired to do a job. The "Cash In Advance" boys have their own unconventional forces and don't need to contract it out.

The reality isn't as much fun, but some people can't sleep at night unless they have a conspiracy to fear and loathe.

One of our greatest myths: CIA field agents and their "skill."

Id feel safer with Blackwater gun for hire ANY DAY.

They recruit from the same communities.
But remember that the CIA pays crap (officially).

From "Should Journalists Carry Weapons?" by Bob Poos page 30 March 2004 Soldier of Fortune Magazine,
Joe Galloway.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm[thinking]

Wonder if they need Gunners for those Helicopters?[50]  Yeah, I could see myself trying to sell that one to the wife.

I'm wondering, that white hat is'nt such a good idea?

I understand Galloway packed a Swedish K 9mm submachinegun in Vietnam.

Good news is good news.  Light'em up.

Maybe this will teach the Iraqis that you don't fuck with Americans, whether they're in uniform or not.

So you're saying you'd be happier if the American employees of Blackwater had been killed by the Iraqis, rather than the other way around?  How unsurprising.

Lib86, I usually appreciate your posts, as they either contain truth or they spur healthy debate. your post in this thread did neither, IMHO. Those Blackwater guys are clearly not combatants, they only provide security. Even if surrounded by "the enemy," they do not fire their weapons unless their specific post or VIP is attacked. No different than an armed security guard over here.

Those are our boys over there, even if they don't wear "the uniform" anymore. Let's show a little respect for them and the job they do.

Whoa, not a good example and very much disliked.

I personally like this example:

[img]http://www.aviation-art.net/p40%20kill.jpg[/img]

Tj

Here are the facts as I see them:

1.  They are bad a$$ mofos.

2.  The did their job in a stellar fashion.

3.  Our forces are aware and are in fact dependant on their presence.

4.   [b]"the contractors work directly for the coalition authority"[/b]

Naysayers and critics have no leg to stand on concerning this issue.

"Sources who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of Blackwater's work in Iraq reported an unspecified number of casualties among Iraqis. "

Happy hunting gents!

Semper Fi!

Good to see some [red][size=3][b]AMERICANS[/b][/size=3][/red] dishin out some business. Way to go men!

Sounds like a good movie ala "Blackhawk Down"

I agree with TomJefferson on this. They are more like the flying tigers before WWII than the CIA in Vietnam. They are ex-military that are now civilians, contracted out by a foriegn power.
I appreciate their sacrifice.


What kind of ammo were they using? And do they need anybody to fill mags?

Don't kid yourself , I have a friend since kindergarden that was recruited by the CIA out of college, I don't know what he does exactly but I know he was a field agent.
I saw him dismantle three guys in a bar one night, it was over before I could cross the ten feet between us to help him.

As I see it, there are some interesting sidebars at play here.

The Blackwater guys aren't constrained by the Geneva Convention...or are they?  I don't think so...but then my Dewey Cheatham & Howe guy hasn't told me...like I'm sure theirs' has.

They probably have their choice of weapons.  Without getting into the specifics, which would 'jack this thread faster than a rattler strike, I think they might opt for some personal weapons other than those carried by your average Marine or Army trigger puller.

Since they are not constrained by the hierarchical nature of the military...and operate more like their former organizations...but without the UCMJ hanging over their heads like the Sword of Damacles, certain actions might be...say OK, or at least not noticed.  Actions possibly involving "prisoner relations" for example.

All in all, it sure sounds like these are the kind of folks I want on my team...and operating close by.

Imagine what the whiney left is saying...[;D]

Since nobody has said it, I'll be the first:

God bless and watch over these men as they do their duty not as soldiers but as AMERICANS in support of our soldiers and our mission in this muslim wasteland. And Lord, have mercy on the souls of those that get in the way.

Very well said sir!

This sort of thing has been going on for a long time and finally has come "out of the closet". Like the Prussian mercenaries brought to the colonies by the British during the Revolution.

There are a lot more "private contractors" in military [b]and[/b] law enforcement than a lot of people would like to believe. Usually the reason is that what is done by a [u]public[/u] agency is [u]public[/u] information and thus is subject to closer scrutiny. What is done by a [u]private[/u] agency or operator is [u]private[/u] and is usually arranged so that the operations are reported directly to an attorney and thus subject to "Attorney-Client Privilege" and is considered to be attorney work-product and immune from subpoena.

Yes they are mercs, but I have no beef with mercs. It is just another job.