Feral Jundi

   Finally some push back.  This was an Opinion piece that Blackwater CEO Erik Prince wrote for the Wall Street Journal.  Unfortunately, this message will be completely drowned out by the sea of negative press that has been brought against his company.  Wired’s Danger Room blog decided to be assholes about this opinion piece and completely ignore the main message by nitpicking the thing.  Boy, that was bold.(sarcasm)  I think I would have more respect for their post, if the author was actually a little more fair on their evaluation of why Prince would even say such things or the points that he made.

   So to counter what the Danger Room decided to focus on, here are my thoughts. Mind you, I am a security contractor and I do know how dangerous Iraq is.  In other words, I am not some computer geek writing about the secret evil world of ‘Mercenaries’.  And really, if Wired wants to give some credibility to their work in the Danger Room, then need to reach out to those of us that know what we are talking about.

   The thing I had an issue with, is Wired spending all their time in their article, trying to refute the idea that Blackwater only hires military and police.  Who cares? Maybe in the early days they did this, but not now.   And in this industry, Erik Prince is spot on.  Most of us are prior military or police, and it is very rare to get individuals that get in without that background.  But really, someone that is able to hustle and get in that way, I have a lot of respect for.  It’s just very rare.  So yes, there are those that do get in without that background, but it is more albino rare than a common practice to worry about or some significant argument against what Prince said.  It was just nitpicky crap.   

   And with today’s massive amount of veterans available, Blackwater has nothing but vets to choose from.  There is extreme competition for security positions with Blackwater, and those without combat experience/military service have a lot to contend with for those jobs.  

   I also have read the book Licensed to Kill by Robert Young Pelton, and the individual that the Wired author used as an example was hired at a time when Blackwater did not have a massive applicant pool of combat veterans or qualified close protection specialists.  So Mr. Prince did think outside the box, and use some guys that were ‘locked on’ and could handle the job of high risk close protection.  

    Even close protection is a skill that is not commonly taught in the police or military schools, and some civilians are more locked on in that field.  Especially in the beginning, when those skills were rare to have.  When I was a grunt in the Marines, if someone would have mentioned ‘executive protection’ in conversation, I would have thought it was some athletic equipment or something.  Of course now, that is a different story and close protection is very common out there because of the news and the war.  And it is big money for these companies, because the US government did not have enough resources for the task.  

    Then the author made a comment about discharging weapons.  I think what Prince was referring to is possibly accidental discharge of weapons.  In the contracting community, that is bad because it shows a lack of safety protocols or poor weapons handling.  Perhaps Mr. Prince was referring to that, or he meant all weapons discharge in Iraq.  But yet again, who cares?  It is a war zone and these men are tasked with protecting high level targets.  They are armed with machine guns and sniper rifles and everything in between to protect their client.  And I say high level targets, because the insurgency knows that Blackwater was protecting these DoS employees and to kill just one would be a fantastic accomplishment.  So yeah, if Blackwater guards were firing their weapons, then that might indicate how dangerous their job really was.  Like I said, it is a war zone and weapon usage is a factor in a war zone.  To nitpick how many times a weapon is fired over there, is just stupid. 

   And then there is the boast factor.  Guys stretch the truth all the time to impress people.  Military veterans do the same thing, and unless these pseudo facts and figures are verified by the authors at Wired, then it is just hearsay that they pick up from other authors that are trying to sell books.  I always cringe when bloggers or reporters reference books like Jeremy Scahill’s ‘Blackwater’, or that latest dorky book called ‘Big Boy Rules’ by Steve Fainaru.  Why they give these books so much credit I do not know.  Jeremy never interviewed Prince and he was factually wrong in several areas of the book, and Fainaru took isolated incidents, and defined an entire industry with those incidents. Every other word out of his mouth is mercenary this and mercenary that–pffft.      

     The final point that I wanted to bring up, is the mention of driving on the wrong side of the road.  Guess what, that is actually a tactic that saves lives, and not some accidental thing that companies do.  It sucks if the tactic caused an accident, but yet again, I default to Blackwater’s job–hauling around ‘high value targets’ that everyone wants to kill.  If the tactic saves lives and gets the client from point A to point B, then it works.  And all the companies used that tactic, and not just Blackwater.  So I did not like the tone or context of the last comment that Wired’s author made.  

   Overall, Wired’s Danger Room does a great job about reporting on gadgets in the war or interesting little tidbits about the contracting world, but as soon as they get into the business of providing some kind of opinion about what professionals with guns actually do for a living out there, they often miss the mark.  And notice, not one mention of Blackwater’s sacrifice– of all the guards that have been killed in defense of the client, and not one mention that ‘not one’ DoS employee that was protected by Blackwater was killed in Iraq.  That means a lot to me and this country, is certainly significant in the context of the war in Iraq over the bloody years, yet this fact continues to be ignored by the media and the so-called experts out there who scream for our attention. –Matt

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How Blackwater Serves America

Think of our staff as soldiers who re-enlist.

DECEMBER 16, 2008

By ERIK D. PRINCE

Since United States military operations in Iraq began in 2003, I have visited Iraq at least 15 times. But unlike politicians who visit, the question for me has never been why the U.S. got into Iraq. Instead, as the CEO of Blackwater, the urgent question was how the company I head could perform the duties asked of us by the U.S. State Department.

Last week the Department of Justice announced charges against six Blackwater security guards for a shooting incident in Baghdad in September 2007. But before the histories are written, it is crucial to understand the often mischaracterized role of security contractors in this unique war.

In Iraq, State Department civilians and U.S. soldiers have been operating in the same location in an active war zone. While the troops have been facing insurgents, the State Department civilians have been working to rebuild institutions and infrastructure. Blackwater’s role in this war evolved from this unprecedented dynamic. The government saw a need for highly experienced, highly trained Americans to protect our civilians abroad, and so it selected Blackwater.

Every individual who has worked for Blackwater in Iraq has previously served in the U.S. military or as a police officer. Many were highly decorated. And from the beginning, these individuals have been bound by detailed contracts that ensure intensive government direction and control.

The U.S. government sets comprehensive standards for the selection and training of security guards. Blackwater’s competitively awarded contract contains dozens of pages detailing requirements for each position and specifying hour-by-hour training for each individual. This is all before they set foot in Iraq.

I have seen firsthand how the security environment has vacillated considerably since 2003, when I would ride around Baghdad in thin-skinned vehicles rather than the military armored personnel carriers that soon became necessary amid the growing threat of roadside attacks. While still extraordinarily dangerous, the situation in Iraq has improved significantly since the time of the September 2007 shooting incident in Nisour Square.

According to a Department of Defense report to Congress, from mid-June to mid-July 2007 — the time frame that preceded the September 2007 shooting incident — Baghdad experienced an average of 43 attacks per day, more than double the attacks in any other province. During the week before the Nisour Square incident, one of Blackwater’s helicopters was shot down, a separate team came under fire from armed insurgents, and a third team survived a roadside bomb. Even amidst such an aggressive and ubiquitous enemy, Blackwater’s incident reports during that time period show that personnel discharged their weapons less than one half of one percent of the time.

Then and now, Blackwater personnel encounter myriad potential or actual hostile acts on a daily basis. Enemies attack with rocket- propelled grenades, sniper fire and car bombs. Responding to these attacks often requires split-second decisions, and so Blackwater’s contracts include detailed rules for the use of force. Our teams operate under a government-prescribed process that involves a series of visual and audible signals to distinguish between approaching civilian motorists and insurgents attempting to get close enough to a convoy to ignite a car bomb.

The U.S. government currently has criminal jurisdiction over Blackwater and any other contractor accused of wrongdoing. In announcing indictments this week, Jeffrey A. Taylor, United States Attorney for the District of Columbia said, “It bears emphasis that today’s indictment is very narrow in its allegations. Six individual Blackwater guards have been charged with unjustified shootings on September 16, 2007, not the entire Blackwater organization in Baghdad. There were 19 Blackwater guards on the Raven 23 team that day at Nisour Square. Most acted professionally, responsibly, and honorably. Indeed this indictment should not be read as an accusation against any of those brave men and women who risk their lives as Blackwater security contractors.”

One of these brave people is Derrick Wright. In April 2007, a rocket tore through the Baghdad living quarters where Blackwater personnel were sleeping. Fortunately, no one was killed. But many were seriously injured, including Mr. Wright, a West Point graduate, Army Ranger and father of three. He suffered grave injuries when a portion of his skull was shattered in the attack.

Stabilized in the Green Zone, Mr. Wright was airlifted to a hospital in Europe where his prognosis was bleak. When Mr. Wright’s wife arrived, she found her husband coming out of brain surgery and described him as a man who “had one foot in this world and one out.” He has since shown remarkable progress after extensive physical therapy, a cranioplasty to repair damage to his skull, and many other procedures.

Derrick Wright and the other team members injured that day were not in Iraq to fight the war. Just like every Blackwater professional who makes the trip to Iraq, they were putting their lives at risk each day to protect U.S. Department of State officials and other civilians working in the country. Yet somehow that role and the part they play in this war have been grossly misunderstood.

While some of our critics seize upon inaccurate labels, I doubt they have ever known one of our contractors personally or been protected by them. Our teams are not cooking meals or moving supplies. They are taking bullets. They are military veterans who have chosen to serve their country once again. Very few people know someone who would voluntarily go into a war zone to protect a person he has never met. I know 1,000 of them, and I am proud that they are part of our team.

Mr. Prince, a former Navy SEAL, is founder and CEO of Blackwater Worldwide.