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Topic: Blackwater teaching Canadian soldiers... (Read 424 times)
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Mike Blais
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Well, a company noted for indiscriminate killing of civilians is now teaching our best, are they?
Canadian troops being trained by controversial firm
David Pugliese
CanWest News Service; Ottawa Citizen
Saturday, September 29, 2007
OTTAWA -- The Canadian Forces are using a controversial private security firm to train some of its troops sent to Afghanistan.
Select Canadian soldiers have been sent to Blackwater U.S.A. in North Carolina for specialized training in bodyguard and shooting skills. Other soldiers have taken counterterrorism evasive-driving courses with the private military company now at the centre of an investigation into the killings of Iraqi civilians and mounting concerns about the aggressive tactics of its workers in the field.
Critics of Blackwater label the firm as a mercenary organization and question why a professional military such as the Canadian Forces can't do its own training in specialized areas.
But Canadian military officials say the company was selected because it is a leader in its specialty areas, which range from weapons training to executive protection. The company boasts on its website that its instructors are "ranked the best in the world."
But Blackwater has found itself under intense scrutiny since a Sept. 16 incident in Baghdad in which 11 people, including a couple and their infant, were killed during a firefight. Iraqi officials put the blame for the killings on the private soldiers, but the company has denied its men fired on innocent civilians, saying instead that its convoy had been attacked by insurgents.
U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday he has sent a team to Iraq to investigate whether there is enough oversight of the private soldiers employed by firms such as Blackwater.
On Thursday, a congressional report into the deaths of four Blackwater security contractors in Iraq in 2004 found that the company appeared more interested in cutting costs than in the safety of its personnel.
Canadian military police trained by Blackwater operated in Kandahar last year in support of coalition special forces. Members of the Strategic Advisory Team, which operates in Kabul, also underwent counterterrorism driving training, according to a military official.
The Ottawa-based counterterrorism unit, Joint Task Force 2, has also maintained ongoing training links to the company.
Military officials did not have further details on why Blackwater would be hired, but promised to provide those. Later, however, they did not comment on the matter.
Canadian Forces spokesman Lt.-Col. Jamie Robertson said the military does not discuss its special forces training. But he noted that Blackwater and other firms have been contracted to provide services for other units.
"The Canadian Forces has occasionally contracted companies to provide specialized training to our personnel in those cases when specialized training is not available within the Canadian Forces due to a range of factors, including the unavailability of training resources, expertise or specialized facilities and equipment," said Robertson.
He said the training is adapted to Canadian Forces requirements and procedures.
Still, Dawn Black, the NDP's defence critic, questioned the need for Blackwater to be involved in training Canadian troops.
"My understanding is we have some of the best-trained forces in the world, and great trainers, so why do we need our armed forces personnel to be trained by a mercenary organization?"
A total dollar figure on what has been spent on Blackwater training was not available by press time, since training is contracted out individually on a unit-by-unit basis, said Robertson.
But he provided an example of one such contract: 18 members of the Strategic Advisory Team sent to Kabul went to Blackwater in June for a two-day course called hostile-environment defensive driver training. The cost was $29,000 which included accommodation and meals, as well as extra course time for two of the team members.
Minister of Public Safety Stockwell Day, when asked whether the training in Blackwater is appropriate, defended the Forces.
"Our forces are dedicated individuals. Their training covers a lot of different areas and the Minister of Defence certainly is advised and apprised of the situations that they have to deal with and the situations they face," said Day.
"We're very proud of the work they do."
Since 2002, Blackwater has received U.S. government contracts totalling more than $1 billion. Personnel working for Blackwater, which has close ties to the Bush administration, guard U.S. diplomats and provide helicopter services to the U.S. State Department.
Ottawa Citizen
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1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
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Mike Blais
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A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
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Well, BJ, I disagree somewhat with your assessment about Blackwater in the sense they have always instilled a survive at all costs shoot first, shoot to kill mentality/policy that may very well work in unregulated nations like Iraq but... Historically, this is not the first incident their operators were responsible for, for example, let us not forget the repercussions that befell them at Falluja and, put in national terms, the risk to our troops that would ensue were we to conduct operations as do they. I feel that Canadians solders have a different mission, our priorities wear a flag, not a corporate badge and licence to kill. That being said, the skills are required , particularly in reference to the CSOR. Hopefully, those who have been trained will form the foundation of Canadians Forces controlled institution wherein such necessary skills could be taught, practiced and perfected by the lads in the CSOR on a continual basis. A special battle school, if you will, where the inclusion of helicopters and special weapons and tactics could be incorporated in a private manner that, as in the case with blackwater, is NOT available to anyone who pays! Including our potential enemies. You should start your own business up, BJ. Call it Bluewater Inc...  . |
1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
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ranrad
Ron [Andy] Andrews
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Well , some great insite here from you nboth , Mike ,and BJ,, this is great to see and read...and has already had some influence on our own Gov's doing some things , if one has taken note...so, i hope to see and read a lot more.. i ,myself am not sure what to think about this topic, other than if we are going to have this training its good to see its from the best at best price...and it shows i think that many Cdns still do not really know what is happening with our military... but it is great to see their backing for our people is not really wavering ...maybe the mission, but not our people...ranrad
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RCAF,CAF, converted RCR?,1RCR 74-77 CD: SSM (Nato);CPSM,;UN-Cyp.; UN- Golan
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Mike Blais
SSM (NATO Bar), CPSM, UN-Cyp, CD
Ultimate 2000+ Member
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A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
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Roger that, BJ. |
1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
Pro Patria
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Mike Blais
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A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
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Seems a shame that we cannot protect our own, eh?
Or is it that the politicians do not think we are capable? I would think, considering we have an entire Special Operations regiment now, that this would be handled by our own, ie, Canadians protecting Canadians.
Hired gunmen protect VIPs in Afghanistan
PAUL KORING
From Monday's Globe and Mail
October 22, 2007 at 4:45 AM EDT
Canada's diplomats in Kabul and visiting high-value targets like Prime Minister Stephen Harper are protected by a group of heavily armed gunmen hired by Saladin Security, a British firm with a long history of secretive and clandestine operations.
Department of Foreign Affairs officials in Ottawa are tight-lipped about the deal struck with Saladin, whose gun-toting employees provide perimeter security, operate checkpoints, serve as bodyguards and form a heavily armed rapid-reaction force designed to move quickly to thwart an attempted kidnapping and rescue survivors of suicide attacks or car-bombings in Kabul.
The department won't even confirm that Saladin's most recent contract - which ended in June of 2007 - has been renewed, but observers of the Canadian embassy in Kabul say Saladin employees remain on guard. Some Saladin guards, in baseball caps and paramilitary uniforms, openly patrol the road outside the Canadian diplomatic compound in Kabul.
But details of the extent of Canada's reliance on a private firm for diplomatic protection are even more scant than the now-controversial U.S. deal with Blackwater Security, the American firm whose hired gunmen killed 17 Iraqi civilians last month while protecting a diplomatic convoy.
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In Kabul, as in Baghdad, senior government officials have voiced outrage over the cavalier, trigger-happy swagger of some outside security firms.
Iraq's government wants Blackwater kicked out of the country. In Kabul, the government of Prime Minister Hamid Karzai has accused gunmen hired by several private security firms of robbery and murder.
Two firms - Watan and Caps - were shut down after raids by Kabul police uncovered illegal weapons. Some Western firms are apparently on a list of 10 other security companies that may be closed or forced to cease operations in Afghanistan. Saladin, which operates worldwide, has not been publicly implicated in any of the alleged excesses or crimes attributed to private security firms in Afghanistan.
The company declined to respond to a request for details of its activities on behalf of the Canadian government. But it apparently provides armour-plated black vans and SUVs, as well as some drivers and bodyguards.
"Saladin Afghanistan was fully registered with the Afghan Government in 2002 and has been open and transparent with the Afghan Ministries and MOI [Ministry of the Interior] at all times; we run our Afghan operations in a professional discreet manner," said Paul Brooks, in an e-mailed reply to The Globe and Mail.
"Unfortunately, with success comes jealousy and resentment from outside and in; having no skeletons in the cupboard we are in a very comfortable position," he said.
In Ottawa, Foreign Affairs officials took more than a week to respond and after repeatedly asking for more time to prepare answers to written questions about the matter, eventually replied to the Globe with a terse: "Matters relating to the operational security of the embassy are not public."
So it remains unclear whether Saladin guards are, for instance, subject to Canadian or Afghan law or - in the event of a shooting - could be spirited out of the country, as occurred when a Blackwater operative killed one of the Iraqi Prime Minister's personal bodyguards at a New Year's Eve party.
A private security guard working for another firm in Kabul left the country after shooting his translator.
"They operate in a grey area and that's part of the problem," said Stuart Hendin, an expert in the law of war at the University of Ottawa. He suggested that the Harper government may have opted to hire private security because the Canadian military is stretched too thin to deploy soldiers to protect the embassy and its diplomats. But by contracting out, the government might still be held liable, Prof. Hendin said. If one of the guards were to injure or kill someone, they might be considered agents of the state - in this case, Canada.
Also unexplained is why, in Kabul, despite the presence of thousands of NATO troops, Canada has opted to contract Saladin to provide the rapid-reaction force to deal with any attacks on diplomatic compounds or convoys. Similarly, the rules of engagement governing Canada's hired security forces are unknown. Some private firms, such as Blackwater, contracted by the U.S. State Department, have told Congress that they can and do shoot first if they believe they face imminent attack.
Canada contracted Saladin's Afghanistan subsidiary for the standby services of its rapid-reaction force in Kabul for the year ending June, 2007. But it is not clear whether there were other contracts for the armed Saladin guards outside the embassy or the buildings housing Canadian military and diplomatic personnel in the Afghan capital. Canada has more than a dozen senior military officers, known as the Strategic Advisory Team, who provide advice to Afghan ministers. The SAT team is also apparently protected by Saladin guards.
Saladin has a huge, armed presence in Afghanistan, employing more than 2,000 guards. That makes its private army larger than all but a handful of NATO contingents. Canada has about 2,500 soldiers in Afghanistan.
Keenie Meenie reconstituted
Saladin, the secretive security agency hired by the Canadian government in Kabul, has a long and sometimes murky lineage dating back decades and including black and covert operations for the CIA and others in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Saladin is the successor to KMS, which in turn was originally known as Keenie Meenie Services. It proudly boasts that "Saladin with its predecessor KMS Ltd., has provided security services since 1975. It was the original company to offer specialist security services in difficult and high risk areas of the world."
But Saladin's capsule history on its website doesn't include any mention of providing mercenaries or working with Oliver North, the U.S. operative who ran the illegal Iran-Contra operations during the administration of former U.S. president Ronald Reagan. Col. North admitted that KMS was hired to send mercenaries into Nicaragua.
Numerous published reports place Saladin and its predecessor firms at the heart of clandestine operations run by both the U.S. and British governments.
"It was indeed KMS ... to which the main British role in training holy warrior cadre for the Afghan jihad seems to have fallen. KMS has a subsidiary called Saladin Security," runs one typical passage in Unholy Wars, John Cooley's 2002 book that traces the co-operation between U.S. administrations and radical Islamic groups.
The Center for Public Integrity, a non-profit journalism website, says "KMS's Iran-Contra sabotage operations were only a small part of its business. In the same years as fighting in Nicaragua, KMS teams were operating side by side with the official SAS in providing bodyguards for British embassies and Saudi princes - and ... being paid by the CIA and [the British] SIS to train Afghan mujahedeen and other fundamentalist Islamic guerrillas."
Keenie Meenie and its successors, founded by former British special operations officer Major David Walker in the 1970s, seems to have engaged in everything from routine security for oil companies to running Oman's air force and providing operatives to blow up government aircraft in Nicaragua.
It was also hired to train and, according to some accounts, equip Islamic insurgents battling Russian forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Some of those jihadists now have near-legendary status among the Taliban insurgents seeking to oust Canadian and other "infidel" troops.
The company has mostly kept a low profile. The name, Keenie Meenie, is reportedly derived from the Swahili phase for a snake slithering through the grass.
In the past 10 years, KMS has largely been supplanted by Saladin, at least for the group's publicly acknowledged operations.
"Towards the end of the 1980s the company reorganized, developed and extended its range of conventional security services and started working consistently with commercial companies," says Saladin's website.
But the company also provides security, personal protections, kidnap, extortion and crisis negotiation services for both governments and commercial companies. Paul Koring
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1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
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Mike Blais
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A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
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I wonder how much they pay.
Accountability of private security forces questioned
By GLORIA GALLOWAY
Tuesday, October 23, 2007 – Page A18
OTTAWA -- Federal opposition critics say there is a questionable chain of accountability governing the team of foreign mercenaries hired to provide security in Kabul for Canadian diplomats and dignitaries such as Prime Minister Harper.
Dawn Black, the defence critic for the federal New Democrats, says the government's decision to pay Saladin Security, a British firm with a long history of clandestine operations, to serve as bodyguards for Canadians in Afghanistan is something she will raise in Parliament's defence committee.
"It brings a lot of questions forward," Ms. Black said yesterday after The Globe and Mail revealed the contract between the government and Saladin. "There is the question of rules of engagement; there is the question of accountability."
The United States has a similar deal in Iraq with a firm called Blackwater USA, whose hired gunmen killed 17 Iraqi civilians last month while protecting a diplomatic convoy.
"We can see what's happened with Blackwater in the States - different firm but same premise - that the accountability factor and the rules of engagement were rather loose and worrisome," Ms. Black said. "So my questions would be around what are the rules of engagement, what is the accountability process with the people who have been hired?"
Saladin has not been publicly implicated in any alleged excesses or crimes attributed to private security firms in Afghanistan.
A spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier said the firm, which is employed by the Canadian embassy in Kabul, is certified and registered with local government authorities. "It operates in accordance with, and is subject to, Afghan law," he said. But it remained unclear whether operatives could be spirited out of the country in the event of a shooting.
Ms. Black says the fact that the firm was hired in a country where there are 2,500 Canadian troops is telling. "We've know for some time that the Canadian military is pretty stretched with this combat mission in Afghanistan," she said.
Bob Rae, the new foreign affairs critic for the Liberals, agrees that the critical questions in the hiring of Saladin are those around resources and accountability. "When I was in Iraq a couple of years ago on a contract with the National Democratic Institute I was protected by a private security company, so I am not about to say that there should not be private contractors," he said.
"But we need to ensure that all contracts in this area are public, and that the history and bona fides of anyone providing service are clear and transparent, and that there is full accountability for contracts."
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1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
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larry
Larry Williams
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These groups are a. bottomline oriented and b. are already a threat to other military forces sharing any AO. Some interesting history presented in "BLACKWATER: The Rise of the World's most Powerful Private Army" by Jeremy Scahill published recently. The author delves into the corporate background of this crew and reveals that being a "merc" might not be as lucrative as is presented in other merc leaning journals. This book tends to balence all the hooie and rah- rah being pushed at us and does lay blame directly at the "owners" for the wild west mentality presented by some operators. Most national forces steer well away from these folks as they add little of value to any task. The argument used by the US ( not military so they don't count in any manning totals) has contributed to their going well beyond the acceptable and the environment in which they function is usually incapable of reining them in anyway.
Saw something last week about the American govt wanting to make them subject to the UCMJ, similar to our NDA, but without actually enrolling them I can't see how this would ever be enforcable in the real world. Just my take on things. As an aside, we've always sent cadre folks to be trained in "special" areas. They get whatever training is on tap, bring it home and disseminate it to others to whom it might be of benefit.
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Larry
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I wonder how LARGE these private security firms are getting?? Are they going to become an entity to be controlled down the road?? a risk to military groups?/ /..ranrad 
