PMC - Private Military Firms

Jazzswing SG

Booming industry around the globe. I'm not talking about the small security companies that provide protection for small businessmen, more of the professional ones, involved in black markets..,(Eg. Mission Impossible), hitmen.. Any information?

Only heard of Blackwater, involved in security in Iraq.

subudei SG

Don't forget Sandline International, a British company and a very big player in 'privatised warfare'. Widely suspected of involvement in major illegal arms trading, often in violation of United Nations sanctions.

These companies can serve a useful role if properly regulated; for example, politically sensitive UN peacekeeping missions can be 'outsourced' to them quite economically.

The problem is, though, there is very little regulation right now to prevent these companies from running amok. Their bosses behave like feudal warlords, brazenly interfering in civil wars and genocidal conflicts in order to make a quick buck. They have plundered and pillaged many of the mineral rich parts of Africa, setting up a flourishing international trade in everything from conflict diamonds to illegally poached ivory tusks.

Many of these companies that routinely violate humanitarian law and essentially profit from the blood of innocents are British in origin. One wonders why the British government doesn't police them more rigorously, but I suppose the Brits (even though they loudly proclaim themselves as champions of human rights) have frequently shown that they have no qualms about shedding innocent blood in order to generate profits for their arms industry.

For example, they sold Hawk fighter-bombers to the Suharto regime, which was still merrily slaughtering East Timorese at the time. The Sandhurst military academy and Oxford University have trained more third world dictators than any other institution in the world, and most of these dictators have then gone on to place large orders for British military equipment. I think Margaret Thatcher's own son is a director of Sandline. The list goes on.

CX SG

doesn't that actually suggest that 3rd world tin-pot dictators tends to be from an educated elite with access to western education rather than the fact that the oxford, sandhurst, and other british institutions "trained dictators"?

and to suggest that the brits trained a disproportionate number of dictators is just plain wrong. the notorious School of the Americas trained a lot of latin-american strongmen as well.

Jazzswing SG

Are there any such agencies in the Asia pacific region?

Jazzswing SG

Suharto was also rumoured ( I have no facts to verify this, so i use the word 'rumour') to be brought into power by the CIA and subsequently brought down by them back then in the Indonesian crisis.

subudei SG

By 'trained dictators', I don't mean that they trained them to be dictators Wink , but that they accepted them as students / trainees and equipped them with valuable skills which they later put to not-so-good use.

British governments are well known for having a policy of cultivating foreign ties through its institutions of higher learning, i.e. encouraging foreign leaders (and often, their sons and daughters) to attend their universities and training institutes. This policy has also had the additional objective of Anglicising foreign leaders (and often, sons / daughters of leaders) and making them sympathetic to British interests.

You'll notice that a disproportionate number of third world dictators (and their assorted offspring and cronies) with a Western education have been educated in the UK rather than the US. Bashar al-Assad, who's widely suspected of supporting international terrorism, was a student at Oxford just a few years ago. Benazir Bhutto was President of the Oxford Union. Etc etc etc ad nauseam.

As for Sandhurst, that's even worse - that's a military school that provides its students with training in extremely potent techniques that can be employed as tools of oppression. Its intake is directly supervised by the Ministry of Defence. Yet, so many third world tinpot republic strong men have managed to find their way into the academy, and have used (and continue to use) their acquired military skills to maintain a stranglehold over their people.

I'm not sure about your School of the Americas claim - the US did support quite a number of Latin American regimes, but often felt constrained to do so covertly (recall the Iran-Contra scandal, for example). That precluded the US from actually accepting foreign dictators into its universities (where they would probably be lynched on arrival) or supplying them with American arms. Quite often, while the US supplied these regimes with funding, they were required to buy Soviet-made weapons on the black market to hide the fact that their support came from the US.

It's different, you see - while the US supported dictators for strictly political ends, the UK did so for politics as well as to simply drive its arms industry.

Also, even if the US did provide actual training to the Latin American strongmen, I think that, going by the numbers, the Brits still beat their record for the sheer numbers of dictators they educated / trained.

Jazzswing SG

Thanks for all the replies. Any more things to dicuss concerning PMC..please feel welcomed to post. Very Happy

subudei SG

Sandline actually has a rather well designed website, believe it or not Rolling Eyes You should take a look at it and read their official sales pitch - it's abundant with many quaint euphemisms employed to disguise their bloody, abominable business practices behind a veneer of respectability and propriety.

Jazzswing SG

May i know their website?

NathanG5 SG

http://www.sandline.com/

Gedanken SG

Sandline’s one lot. After ROD, I took a look at Executive Outcomes. They offered rather attractive terms, but at that point I decided that perhaps a civilised life was more my style.

Jazzswing SG

You considered joining one? What it required you to do?

NathanG5 SG

Executive Outcome still around?

Gedanken SG

Just before ROD, some of the senior guys mentioned something about mercenaries who were occasionally employed by the UN for somewhat less-than-tasteful jobs. I took a look into it and checked out the Foreign Legion first, but their pay was crap, and then I looked into Executive Outcomes, but they were based in South Africa, so I thought bugger that and went off to uni instead. Got my doctorate, so I've got no regrets. Very Happy

Gedanken SG

Nah, my ROD was in 1993.

Jazzswing SG

Interesting…They called on you?

subudei SG

In case I sounded a bit harsh on Oxford University with my previous posts, I should clarify: the University itself may have objectionable policies, but most of the people I've met from Oxford are really swell, as in, they're not all bloodthirsty tyrannical third world dictator types. Smile

Of course, I haven't had the privilege of meeting President al-Assad, but the Oxonians I have met are really nice, laid back people who know how to have fun. Unlike the uptight, stick-up-their-elitist arse types at 'the other place' (i.e. Cambridge).
Laughing

Then there was also that downright gorgeous and glamourous British born Chinese girl who was doing PPE at Oxford and who was seriously coming on to me at the bar...sigh...and whose number I stupidly failed to get! D'oH! D'oH! D'oH!

Anyway, I digress
Smile

Gedanken SG

Nah, I got the word from a couple of guys in the battalion and I decided to do some research. There's a market for a guy of my training, and with the right lot the money's good and tax-free. However, it does mean that you'll get shot at and I didn't fancy that too much after some consideration. Mr. Green

Gedanken SG

That's a bit of a generalisation - my Cambridge mates don't have any elitist issues.

Jazzswing SG

The Foreign Legion is French in origin right? So if you had joined them you will have to be based in France and after 5 years of service you'll get French citizenship am i right? Does the Singapore govt allow their Cdos to do that? Question