Dealing with boredom in Iraq

[Troubleshooter]

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2005/11/27.html#a6076

"A "trophy" video appearing to show security guards in Baghdad randomly shooting Iraqi civilians has sparked two investigations after it was posted on the internet, the Sunday Telegraph can reveal.

The video has sparked concern that private security companies, which are not subject to any form of regulation either in Britain or in Iraq, could be responsible for the deaths of hundreds of innocent Iraqis."

[Happy Monkey]

Mercenaries are seldom, if ever, worth the evil. I mean, worth the trouble.

[warch]

But some feel they are cost effective.

[Happy Monkey]

They don't have to bear the cost.

[Troubleshooter]

I like how on the attached article they talk about the circularity of the whole situation.

[Undertoad]

Were these US-hired security guards or were they hired by Iraqis? Iraqis have a large number of independent security protecting certain neighborhoods as you might expect.

[BigV]

An obituary, a memorial, to an American Army officer and military ethicist who died in Iraq. He died while in the headquarters of a security contrator he suspected of wrongdoing. His death was ruled a suicide.

[Griff]

That's the most depressing story I've read in a while.

[BigV]

Yup.

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

Were these US-hired security guards or were they hired by Iraqis? Iraqis have a large number of independent security protecting certain neighborhoods as you might expect.

From the article:

The Foreign Office has also confirmed that it is investigating the contents of the video in conjunction with Aegis, one of the biggest security companies operating in Iraq. The company was recently awarded a £220 million security contract in Iraq by the United States government. Aegis conducts a number of security duties and helped with the collection of ballot papers in the country's recent referendum

[xoxoxoBruce]

No matter how devout the exorcist, sometimes evil wins.
There is very powerful evil in Iraq and none will come home unaffected by it
.....dead or alive.

What a deeply tragic story and a morality tale - in more ways than one. The death of honor - whether self inflicted or not. There is the war in Iraq in the story of one man's life and death. I'd bet a million defense contacter's dollars it was murder and NOT suicide.

"I knew people would show up," that manager said later in attempting to explain why he had handled the weapon. "With 30 years from military and law enforcement training, I did not want the weapon to get bumped and go off."

Hello?

[Troubleshooter]

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2005/11/28.html#a6099

Breaking: Tim Spicer stonewalling Civilian Iraq shootings inquiry?

C&L has learned through sources close to the investigation that the man who is seen shooting vehicles on this video in Iraq was a South African employee of Aegis Victory team named Danny Heydenreycher. He served in the British military for 6 years. After the incident the Regional Director for Victory ROC tried to fire Heydenreycher, but the team threatened to resign if he did. Aegis held an "inquiry" into it.

A letter was sent by one of the members of Aegis up the chain after he quit. It was read by Lt Col Tim Spicer, a former Scots Guards officer, who is investigating this incident and interviewed the author. That was about 8 weeks ago and nothing has been done since. Our sources believes Spicer -who appeared in this News.Telegraph story-is covering up for Aegis at this point. Hopefully, I'll have an update soon.