The UK private security guards lured to Iraq
Former soldier-turned-private security guard Danny Fitzsimons has been sentenced to 20 years in an Iraqi jail after being found guilty of murdering two colleagues in Iraq. But for the thousands of private guards still operating there, life remains defined by pressure.
BBC News - The UK private security guards lured to Iraq
Contractor gets life sentence in Iraq - Middle East, World - The Independent
Danny Fitzsimons, from Greater Manchester, was a former paratrooper. The military was in his blood, said colleagues, though others described him as a "loose cannon". He had been working in security for a couple of years.His family say he had been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after tours of Kosovo and Iraq.
They also say ArmorGroup took him on without carrying out a full medical assessmentThe company admitted his screening was not completed in line with its procedures but claimed Fitzsimons falsified information during the recruitment processFormer SAS soldiers in charge of others would earn about £600 a day, he explained, and ex-soldiers about £150 to £250 a day tax-free - up to seven times a British soldier's wageBig business now, and accepting there are good and bad everywhere, but should legitimate Governments be using or supporting the use of these companies, given the nature of our operations now and (our hopes for) future intent?There are no official figures for the death toll among private security contractors
International Code of Conduct for private security providers - IHRB Guest Blogs
Int Code of Conduct for Private Security Service Providers..pdf
FEAR NAUGHT
Should raw analytical data ever be passed to policy makers?
Nothing changes, RSM. How many of ours had we thrown out during the course of Yugoslavia only to find them in Serb/Croat/Bosnian uniforms months afterwards?
I cannot verify this but I've got a story of two corpses shipped by to the QOR of C in Toronto by South Africa because it was the last known address that they had.
Chimo
You are right Sir, what surprised me was the pay scale ....if that is accurately quoted above ............. I was offered more than that to go to the Balkans in the 90s.... mind you the offer was not from a "legitimate government approved contractor".....Originally Posted by Officer of Engineers
Should raw analytical data ever be passed to policy makers?
I rather take my pay in the Queen`s penny than by firing squad copper.You are right Sir, what surprised me was the pay scale ....if that is accurately quoted above ............. I was offered more than that to go to the Balkans in the 90s.... mind you the offer was not from a "legitimate government approved contractor".....
Yeah, that caught my eye too. Guys were shot once the `government` can`t afford them anymore.
Chimo
I've heard of wallets being put in the mail, no return. The hope was at least somebody would know they're not coming back.
by T_igger_cs_30
I was offered more than that to go to the Balkans in the 90s.... mind you the offer was not from a "legitimate government approved contractor".....
Once I was offered a job that payed only marginally more than the one I had in the States. There was a pretty good "bonus" but those seem have a habit of evaporating.
Reddite igitur quae sunt Caesaris Caesari et quae sunt Dei Deo
(Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God the things which are God's)
Ah the old bonus ploy, into a bank account of your choosing when job doneOnce I was offered a job that payed only marginally more than the one I had in the States. There was a pretty good "bonus" but those seem have a habit of evaporating............. odds way in there favour
.....not bloody likely.............
Should raw analytical data ever be passed to policy makers?
What's the best payment method,if I may ask?
Those who know don't speak
well depends on what you are talking...............I guess most guys now can get direct deposit, seeing as how its mostly "legit" ...
Should raw analytical data ever be passed to policy makers?
The Times - March 1 2011 12:01AM
Fitzsimons arriving for sentencing.
After spending more than 18 months detained with the “loathsome race” of Iraqis, Daniel Fitzsimons, a former British security guard sentenced to 20 years in a Baghdad jail for double murder, said that he would probably die fighting militias in prison.
OH yes, definately well vetted!
Fitzsimons was arrested in 2009 after shooting dead Paul McGuigan, a fellow Briton, and Darren Hoare, an Australian, after a drunken row while working for ArmorGroup, a security company in Baghdad’s Green Zone. Mr McGuigan had been due to marry his pregnant fiancée.
Fitzsimons, speaking to The Times by telephone after he was sentenced, described his life in prison as “hell on earth”, living in a police station cell of 6sq m with up to 20 criminals and insurgents.
“I did a lot of fighting in my cell with these people,” he said, adding that even after 18 months he could not get used to Iraqis. He spent time in jail in the UK when charged with assault, for which he was acquitted, in 2005 or 2006, and later in 2009 when charged with assaulting three Pakistani youths, after which he skipped bail and returned to Iraq.
The fact he lied on his application seems strange does it not
“The more I’ve been in here the more I can’t stand it,” he said. “Their habits, their hygiene, the two-facedness of them. They’re not men. In a British jail if you speak to the police you’re a rat, these people speak to the police with no shame. They’re cowardly, they’re a very loathsome race of people.” He said that liberals in Britain may disagree, adding: “That’s easy to say from an armchair.”
An Iraqi guard, Arkan Mahdi Saleh, was shot in the legs during the attack. Under Iraqi law he is entitled to compensation from the Fitzsimons family. He said that he rejected an offer of £6,000 as too little.
The lawyer for Fitzsimons said that he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. He had uncovered mass graves in former Yugoslavia and watched a friend burn to death in Iraq.
He is likely to be transferred to Rusafa jail in Baghdad, which houses many militants who fought against coalition forces during the Iraq war.
mmm sure he will be made welcome
Tareq Harb, for the defence, said that he hoped to be able to transfer Fitzsimons to a British prison
Inside story
•An estimated 30,000 detainees remain in custody in Iraq but the Government does not provide official records
•The UN Assistance Mission for Iraq visited a prison in 2008 and found it so crowded that detainees had to sleep in shifts
•Seven prisoners died in May last year from asphyxiation when nearly 100 detainees were forced into two vans, which were designed to carry only 20 people each, and driven to a prison more than an hour away
•Earlier this month Human Rights Watch disclosed the existence of a secret jail in Baghdad where detainees were said to be tortured by elite forces controlled by Nouri al-Maliki, the Prime Minister
Source: Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International
Should raw analytical data ever be passed to policy makers?
Same here. And after meeting some of the people I would be working with, the term "criminally insane" came to mind. That was 20 odd years ago, I think things have changed, at least somewhat.Once I was offered a job that payed only marginally more than the one I had in the States. There was a pretty good "bonus" but those seem have a habit of evaporating.
There are some pros out there today but in the current climate, I would say not worth the risk, no matter the money. Hell, Hillary can't even get that CIA guy out of Pak!
Last edited by Blue; 02 Mar 11, at 14:24.
tigger,
that guy seems big on brawn but short on brains. after all, he's just insulted pretty much every iraqi...and he's gotta sleep sometime in jail.
The human mind cannot grasp the causes of phenomena in the aggregate. But the need to find these causes is inherent in man’s soul. And the human intellect, without investigating the multiplicity and complexity of the conditions of phenomena, any one of which taken separately may seem to be the cause, snatches at the first, the most intelligible approximation to a cause, and says: “This is the cause!"
-Leo Tolstoy
War and Peace
I definitely agree that this guy has dug himself a hole in the Iraqi mindset. It will most likely lead to him dying much quicker then he would have before, especially since the guards will be more willing to turn their backs to a situation involving him.
A quick note on the original topic head. I would say that private security firms are simply today's mercenaries with a fancier name. many of the problems that arise from these firms are the same that have effected every military in history with a mercenary element.
Machiavelli has proven to be right in a lot of regards and I think this is one of them. Mercernaries will often not be ideologically motivated (duh) meaning they don't have a personal connection to their job. Evolutionary psychology will tell you they will not perform with as much commitment or reliability. Of course there are exceptions.
Yes pretty much hey,
What if there ideoligy is money?Mercernaries will often not be ideologically motivated (duh)
Trust me their very lifes depend on it, and they do not (in the case of mercs, which I think you are refering to) have a friendly government who will acknowledge them or bail them out should things go very badly "t*ts up".Evolutionary psychology will tell you they will not perform with as much commitment or reliability
Of course there are exceptions
Should raw analytical data ever be passed to policy makers?
Yet the mercenaries keep beating the pants off the bad guys, repeatedly and with great vigor. Does that mean the opposition wasn't "ideologically motivated" enough? Whatever reason they initially enlist not withstanding, soldiers tend to fight for their mates, not for some vague and distant ideology
Reddite igitur quae sunt Caesaris Caesari et quae sunt Dei Deo
(Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God the things which are God's)
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