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smooth · 04-02-2004, 12:35 PM

What is your definition of mercenary? Isn't it a private citizen who agrees to fight in another country for money?

Quote:

But at the top the pay scale are American and British security workers who are former Navy SEALs, Green Berets, Marines, Special Operations soldiers, CIA workers, British Special Air Services members and British Royal Marines. Many have worked with intelligence units in their former services and continue to have access to information unavailable to civilians.

Blackwater, for example, was founded by former Navy SEAL Gary Jackson and includes many former commandos in its top ranks. A company spokesman said 70% of its trainees come from the military, mainly from commando units.

The firm's business has been booming since the 2001 attacks on New York and the Pentagon. Two years ago, it signed a $35.7-million contract with the Pentagon to train more than 10,000 soldiers in force protection at the firm's 6,000-acre training range in Moyock, N.C.

Government staffers who have trained there include Special Operations units from nearby Ft. Bragg, the U.S. Coast Guard, harbor security services and the Federal Aviation Administration.

Other top firms operating in Iraq include Chicago-based Triple Canopy Inc.; San Francisco-based Steele Foundation; New York-based Kroll Inc.; El Segundo-based DynCorp; and the British firm Control Risk Group.

A primary appeal to security workers is the money. The best paid of the private security staffers — the most experienced and elite former soldiers — earn as much as $20,000 a month, security experts in Iraq say.

--http://www.latimes.com/la-fg-security2apr02,1,1929057.story

edit: I couldn't find the Times article about lower troop moral due to outsourcing the military. The point it was drawing is that our professional troops are getting paid less than these private ones, foreign nations are getting pissed because we are hiring their cops and military, and this is continuing the trend of privitizing our military.

I was able to find this story that mirrors the one I read in the Times a few weeks back:

Quote:

The US is hiring mercenaries in Chile to replace its soldiers on security duty in Iraq.

A Pentagon contractor has begun recruiting former commandos, other soldiers and seamen, paying them up to $US4000 ($A5300) a month to guard oil wells against attack by insurgents.

Last month Blackwater USA flew a first group of about 60 former commandos, many of whom had trained under the military government of Augusto Pinochet, from Santiago to a 970-hectare training camp in North Carolina.

From there they would be taken to Iraq, where they were expected to stay between six months and a year, the president of Blackwater USA, Gary Jackson, said. "We scour the ends of the earth to find professionals - the Chilean commandos are very, very professional and they fit within the Blackwater system."

Chile was the only Latin American country where Mr Jackson's firm had hired commandos for Iraq.

The privatisation of security in Iraq is growing as the US seeks to reduce its commitment of troops. At the end of last year there were 10,000 hired security personnel in Iraq.

[...]

Chilean Defence Minister Michelle Bachelet ordered an investigation into whether paramilitary training by Blackwater violated Chilean laws on the use of weapons by private citizens. She asked for its recruiting effort to be investigated after it was alleged that people on active duty were involved.

Many soldiers are said to be leaving the army to join the private companies.

Mr Jackson said that similar issues were bedevilling the US forces. The private sector paid experienced special forces personnel far more than the armed services.

"The US military has the same problems," he said.

"If they are going to outsource tasks that were once held by active-duty military and are now using private contractors, those guys (on active duty) are looking and asking, 'Where is the money?"'

The number of hired soldiers in Iraq is estimated to be in the thousands.

Squads of Bosnians, Filipinos and Americans with special forces experience have been hired for tasks ranging from airport security to protecting Paul Bremer, the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority.

Their salaries can be as high as $US1000 a day, the news agency AFP recently reported. Erwin, a 28-year-old former US army sergeant working in Iraq, told AFP: "This place is a goldmine. All you need is five years in the military and you come here and make a good bundle."

[...]

John Rivas, 27, a former Chilean marine, said the work in Iraq would provide a "very good income" that would allow him to support his family.

"I don't feel like a mercenary," he said

--http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/03/05/1078464637030.html