Feral Jundi

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Law Enforcement: Why Can’t the FBI Identify the .30-Caliber Bullets From the Nisour Square Incident?

The FBI lab reports, obtained by the Associated Press from someone not involved in the criminal case, allow for both possibilities.

Investigators recovered .30-caliber bullets from a survivor, a Blackwater truck, and around Baghdad’s Nisoor Square. Scientists could not determine whether those bullets came from .30-caliber Blackwater machine guns.

The AK-47 rifles favored by many Iraqi insurgents also fire .30-caliber bullets.

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    This story is a little old, but I wanted to bring it up again because I would like some clarity on the issue from any law enforcement folks or even the FBI.  How the hell does a FBI lab not know what kind of bullet was used?  Ballistics forensics is a science, and there are numerous ways to tell what kind of bullets these are, and what kind of rifle they came from. And it looks like they had plenty of sources for those bullets, so what gives?

   It is also important to note that DoS required that all weapons used by Blackwater,  were strictly regulated by DoS.  That means weapons used by BW fired either the 5.56 mm or the NATO 7.62 x 51 bullets.  Using weapons that fire the Russian 7.62 x 39 or 7.62 x 54 round was prohibited, and those are the rounds used in insurgent weapons like the AK-47, Dragunov sniper rifle or PKM machine gun.

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Maritime Security: Spanish Tuna Boats to Hire Private Security

     Excellent news, and my hats off to the government of Spain in recognizing the fact that security for it’s fishing vessels requires more than just bad language or hoses and deck chairs.

    The right to defend yourself in international waters is something I support. When up against pirates armed with RPG’s, AK 47’s and PKM’s, it is totally reasonable for a vessel to contract the services of armed men to defend against that.  I also support posting military details on these vessels, if that vessel’s government has the resources to do that.  In this case, Spain has turned to the security contracting industry to help, and we will do just that.

    The alternative is to do nothing, and that is just unacceptable in my book. –Matt

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Spanish tuna boats to hire mercenaries

September 17, 2009

by Alan Harten

The Spanish government has announced that it will allow its tuna fleet of fishing vessels operating near Somalia to hire mercenaries, or as they put it “Private Security” services, to defend the fishing fleet as it goes about its business in the notoriously pirate infested waters of the Indian Ocean.

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Industry Talk: The Difference Between Fault and Responsibility, by Jake Allen

   Excellent post by Jake about the AGNA stuff, and the difference between fault and responsibility. Check it out, and this was also posted at Combat Operator and Private Military Herald. –Matt

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The Difference Between Fault and Responsibility

Sep 16, 2009

By Jake Allen

The more I read about our government in the mainstream media the more I realize how neither one seems to understand the difference between ‘fault’ and ‘responsibility’.  The ArmorGroup fiasco at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul is only the latest incident but I will use it here because it is fresh on everyone’s mind and it is particularly illustratrative.

It’s critically important that we separate the terms fault and responsibility. Sometimes a person or an entity is both ‘at fault’ and ‘responsible’ but the two are not synonymous.  In other words there is room for ‘blame’ or ‘fault’ at both ArmorGroup and at the State Department but the ‘responsibility’ for what happened only comes down in one place.

There is little doubt that the antics being conducted primarily by C-shift on the expatriate guard force was nearly 100% the doing of immature and poorly supervised and lead ArmorGroup contractors.  ArmorGroup is ‘at fault’ for hiring these low-end nonprofessionals.

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India: Becoming a Private Guard Becomes Tougher

   Bravo, and I am pretty impressed with the standards they have put together. It is a start at least and hopefully we will get some feedback, good or bad, from any industry folks from India about this.

   It is also important to point out, that incidents like the Mumbai attacks require competent first responders to stop the attack.  Police cannot be everywhere, nor can the military, but all of the hotels in Mumbai use private security (I assume).  This new focus on standards for guards is a good thing, if they want to increase the chances of stopping future attacks.

     Strangely enough, it almost looks like they are implementing a system that looks a lot like what I have been promoting here on FJ.  Something that resembles the Red Card system with the Federal Fire Services here in the states.  Even the mentor program reminds me of the task book system that I am familiar with. Oh, and they are teaching disaster management? That sounds like Incident Command stuff there. Hmmmm, interesting. –Matt

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Becoming a private guard becomes tougher

Anil Kumar M, TNN

2 September 2009

BANGALORE: You’ve probably wondered how some podgy men in uniform ended up as security guards. Simply because it was open house with few standards. But not anymore.

The government has framed fresh guidelines — Karnataka Private Security Rules — and brought all private security agencies in the state under its ambit.

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Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Media News: Death and Politics For Contractors–A Cautionary Tale

Filed under: Iraq,Media News — Tags: , , , — Matt @ 12:51 PM

Adam Hermanson 

Security contractor Adam Hermanson at the Swords of Qadisiyyah in Zawra Park, Iraq.

Death and Politics For Contractors–A Cautionary Tale

09/16/2009

     The other day I was watching a show called Democracy Now headlined by Amy Goodman and Jeremy Scahill, and I was appalled.  They had the family of Adam Hermanson on the show, and the supposed focus was the accidental death of Adam Hermanson in Iraq.  You would think the show would be centered on who did the electrical work that caused the death of this security contractor?  Or maybe even a focus on the lack of management and quality control by the contracting officers and construction company that was tasked with building Camp Olympia and it’s facilities?  But that wasn’t the case, and instead it was a disgusting display of politics.

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