David Pickard is showing 12 tough-looking men how to use a strange-looking tripod-mounted speaker. The equipment, known as a long-range acoustic device, will deafen and disorient anyone subjected to its high-volume sound. The men banter with Mr Pickard but could soon be using such devices in earnest, to scare pirates away from vulnerable ships.
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Dogs of War: That is the question
Jan 31, 2009 David Isenberg, Dogs of War
By DAVID ISENBERG
WASHINGTON, Jan. 30 (UPI) — Is it possible that a private security contractor can actually do a good job — do what it contracted to do without waste, fraud or abuse? Of course, the answer is yes. And the vast majority of security contractors do just that. Yet to read and watch much of the media coverage of their work, it would be easy to get a different impression.
As an example, consider Aegis Defense, a British private security firm. In March 2004, in a move to make the U.S. military presence less visible after the handover of sovereignty back to Iraq, the Coalition Provisional Authority awarded Aegis a $100 million contract to protect the Green Zone.
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Blackwater pouts, threatens to abandon their post
Jan 31, 2009 Commentary, Jake's Posts
By JAKE ALLEN
So Blackwater will not have their license renewed by the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior. And to kick them while they are down the moral cowards at the U.S. State Department (DoS) are now indicating that they will not renew Blackwater’s task order for the global WPPS (Worldwide Personal Protective Services) contract which ends in May of this year. So instead of losing simply one AO, albeit the largest, Blackwater are now faced with loosing their most lucrative client altogether.
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Official: U.S. will not renew Iraq contract with Blackwater
Jan 30, 2009 Industry News
By Elise Labott–CNN State Department Producer
WASHINGTON (CNN) — The State Department will not renew the contract of security contractor Blackwater Worldwide when it expires in May, a senior State Department official said Friday.
The decision was made after the Iraqi government refused last week to renew the firm’s operating license because of a 2007 incident in which the Iraqi government says security guards — then employed by Blackwater — fired on and killed 17 Iraqis.
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Tags: Blackwater, DoS, Iraq
Lessons in repelling pirates
By Robert Wright–Financial Times
More than 100 killed in Congo massacre
Jan 29, 2009 Dem Rep Congo
By Joe Bavier–Reuters News Service
GOMA, Congo (Reuters) - Ugandan Lord’s Resistance Army rebels killed more than 100 people in a village in Congo in an apparent reprisal for army operations against them, the United Nations said on Tuesday.
The massacre in Tora village in northeastern Orientale province on January 16 brought the number of civilians killed by the rebels to 900 since the campaign started last month.
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Memoriam: Justin John Saint
Jan 29, 2009 Memoriam
By Tony Allen
Justin John Saint, Sainty, or JJ as he was aptly named; whichever name you knew him by; he was a truly amazing man in all facets of his personal and professional life.
He was the ultimate warrior, and yet a truly humble gentleman.
JJ served with in the Australian Regular Army from an early age and always led from the front as a true leader does. Justin was deployed to Rwanda in 1994 where he witnessed to the true horrors of the conflict and the true brutality of human beings. This was the grounding of JJ’s professional soldiering career, this hard and brutal proving ground made JJ strive to be the best soldier and leader he could be.
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Iraq to Deny New License To Blackwater Security
Jan 29, 2009 Industry News, Iraq
By Ernesto Londoño and Qais Mizher–Washington Post Foreign Service
MOSUL, Iraq, Jan. 28 — The Iraqi government has informed the U.S. Read the rest of this entry »
Embassy in Baghdad that it will not issue a new operating license to
Blackwater Worldwide, the embassy’s primary security company, which
has come under scrutiny for allegedly using excessive force while
protecting American diplomats, Iraqi and U.S. officials said Wednesday.
Tags: Blackwater
SECDEF Gates confirms ‘Afghanistan Top Priority’
Jan 28, 2009 Afghanistan
Tags: Afghanistan, Robert Gates
Its Leader Captured, Congo Rebel Force Dissolves
Jan 24, 2009 Dem Rep Congo
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN at NY Times
KIBUMBA, Congo — On Saturday afternoon, seemingly the entire village of Kibumba lined up alongside the main road and watched a once fearsome rebel army dissolve in front of their eyes.
It was raining, and many villagers were wearing swamp boots and thin slickers. They stood with their feet planted in the mud, some chewing chunks of sugarcane, others nibbling on roasted corn. In front of them, dozens of rebel soldiers climbed aboard a cargo truck, tossing their machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades and backpacks in first and then playfully fighting one another for a seat.
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Somalia: New Navy Task Force Takes Aim At Pirates
Jan 24, 2009 Africa, Piracy, Somalia
AllAfrica.com
Washington DC — A new multinational naval task force is patrolling the waters off the coast of Africa to scare off pirates who have been regularly attacking commercial shipping vessels laden with oil, fertilizer and iron ore.
For now, Combined Task Force 151 comprises three U.S. ships, but other nations, including the United Kingdom, are expected to join the effort that is focused on the Gulf of Aden, the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea. In the meantime, naval forces from nearly two dozen nations are patrolling in the same waters — in some cases bilaterally — and are often providing escort to merchant vessels bearing their national flags.
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