via Russia Times.
Contracting is a small world. If Academi had a contract and were running 400 contractors to Ukraine I would have heard about it. Its too damn big for half the recently retired Army and Marine Corps to have not heard about it...and for the guys that stayed in shape, still shoot etc...to start sorting gear and looking to make a quick buck.
Trust me.
This is pure dee bullshit.
About 400 elite mercenaries from the notorious US private security firm Academi (formerly Blackwater) are taking part in the Ukrainian military operation against anti-government protesters in southeastern regions of the country, German media reports.This is the first confirmed whiff of bullshit that I've gotten from the RT and to be honest I'm disappointed.
The Bild am Sonntag newspaper, citing a source in intelligence circles, wrote Sunday that Academi employees are involved in the Kiev military crackdown on pro-autonomy activists in near the town of Slavyansk, in the Donetsk region.
On April 29, German Intelligence Service (BND) informed Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government about the mercenaries’ participation in the operation, the paper said, RIA Novosti reported. It is not clear who commands the private military contractors and pays for their services, however.
In March, media reports appeared suggesting that the coup-imposed government in Kiev could have employed up to 300 mercenaries.That was before the new government launched a military operation against anti-Maidan activists, or “terrorists” as Kiev put it, in southeast Ukraine.
At the time, the Russian Foreign Ministry said then that reports claiming Kiev was planning to involve “involve staff from foreign military companies to ‘ensure the rule of law,’” could suggest that it wanted “to suppress civil protests and dissatisfaction.”
In particular, Greystone Limited, which is currently registered in Barbados and is a part of Academi Corporation, is a candidate for such a gendarme role. It is a similar and probably an affiliated structure of the Blackwater private army, whose staff have been accused of cruel and systematic violations of human rights in various trouble spots on many occasions.
Contracting is a small world. If Academi had a contract and were running 400 contractors to Ukraine I would have heard about it. Its too damn big for half the recently retired Army and Marine Corps to have not heard about it...and for the guys that stayed in shape, still shoot etc...to start sorting gear and looking to make a quick buck.
Trust me.
This is pure dee bullshit.
From 8th of march
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2576490/Are-Blackwater-active-Ukraine-Videos-spark-talk-U-S-mercenary-outfit-deployed-Donetsk.html
Maybe they join those "Polish Mercenaries" that fight against separatist. :D
ReplyDeletewell, i don't know what to tell you except that i know a big contract would have been news in at least two of the communities that i'm active in and i heard nothing.
ReplyDeleteNo way, this is just a propaganda piece..
ReplyDeleteJust imagine what would happen if US private contractors who are ACTIVE FIGHTING pro-russian forces are captured and shown on TV.
That does no exlude of course military instructors from the west who are trainning ukrainian soldiers, ukraine is under none embargo and can hire as many forein instructors to train security forces , as they want.
But i think personally, no US expat ( unless its some crazy rambo guy ) would go to fight pro-russian seperatist for some extra buck.
400 is huge number. Even with today's growth PMC market. I hope you are right Sol because if the US state department is behind this, and where else would the Kiev government get the money, then it is a serious escalation. The interesting thing in the article is the mention of the BND. I think some of this Merkel concern over NSA spying is a bit of a smoke screen for closer co-operation between Washington and Berlin on the this debacle.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure you would of heard, mercenaries are usually from special forces units, there aren't huge numbers of mercenary companies around and they've usually got quite a lot of money behind them so they can afford to pick and choose the best. There are enough people who have recently left elite units for them to chase after so there's no need for them to try to recruit recently retired Marines and army personnel en mass.
ReplyDeleteyou don't understand the community. the badge of honor isn't SOCOM time. its combat time. don't care if you have combat time as a grunt, medic, eod, pilot, dog handler or SOCOM (in the units, not in the bloated support they have now), if its real deal combat time and you pulled the trigger then you're a sought after commodity.
Deleteadditionally we're talking about a certain group of people. with all the multiple tours that have been pulled many walk away and don't want to see war anymore. a certain breed finds out that they enjoyed the chaos and to be honest, liked dealing the pain.
thats who would be filling these contracts.
the community of people that they have to choose from isn't that large. additionally once you've been screened, you're in. screening is remarkably simple. you run a PT test, you qualify on the range, you run a couple of batteries of psych tests and then they call when they need you if your background checks out.
like i said. i would know if this contract had been put out.
But this isn't your average contract protecting an NGO in Africa or protecting cargo ships off Somalia. This is covert, if it is happening then they can't afford to allow the news to get out. That means that it can't be mentioned online, journalists are always watching online communities and blogs like yours for talk of this sort of thing, If you had found out and posted it on here the operation could of been all over the media by tomorrow morning.
DeleteThus I doubt any of the information about an operation would be anywhere you might be able to find it, that would be too risky.
i don't think the news media, even the defense related news media even looks this way. additionally if a contract is going out to Academi or Triple Canopy or a couple of others that i know about then it by definition isn't covert. like someone said. if you put US mercenaries into Ukraine you can bet that the Russians would go all out to capture you to parade on tv.
Deleteadditionally, i keep hearing about US involvement in Ukraine but i have yet to see any evidence of the Americans (us) actively trying to get Ukraine into the EU. maybe i missed it but i keep hearing it and can't run down the source of the rumor.
last but not least, i say with supreme confidence that this is bs. i have more than a passing interest in this community.
Propaganda. It's typically for russian officials now.
ReplyDeleteagreed. i wonder why they chose to do this. they're winning so it wasn't necessary.
DeleteI think russian politicians just are searching for a reason for justification of a real big war. TV in Russia demonizes the West every day, even when there were Maidan protests in Ukraine TV talked about terrorists that have been trained in Baltic states by american instructors.
DeleteFirst wiff of BS from RT? What do you call the RT story about 24 sailors from USS DONALD COOK resigning because they "refused to break international law"?
ReplyDeletei get selected news stories in my alerts that i have setup and with regards to what i've read this is the first bullshit story that has hit my computer. there might be others out there but i didn't read them.
DeletePropaganda? "Bild am Sonntag" is the sunday version of "Bild". Once famous for the naked girls on page 2. http://www.bild.de/
ReplyDeleteBTW, what is the problem Ukraine government hiring some reliable men?
Because if the Kiev government becomes proficient at putting down these rebellions it will give the Russians a justification to cross the border. You know the guys with working nuclear weapons? That's why news or propaganda (most likely) is a problem. Merkel and Obama aren't up to the job and events may get away from them.
DeleteI agree with you, some people in the community would at least have heard of this, provided this alleged "contract" had US contractors in mind. However, given the nature of the mission requirements and the environment you'd have to operate in (all hypothetical), there is a possibility that the guys hired for this might not be from the US at all.
ReplyDeleteThis is why there is a possibility (just a possibility) that any PMC involved in such an operation might do its recruiting in Poland, Czech or Slovak republic, or maybe even Baltic states. In which case, there wouldnt have been much to discuss here ...
All very hypothetical of course, but the fact this information has now been published by a German newspaper with a very strong anti-communist and anti-Russian track record must stand for something. Now i'm not saying it's no Russian Agit/Prop operation, but one might also think the German journalists didnt get their info from Russian sources, but rather German intelligence leaks, which would shed a different light on the whole story.
Anyway, very conjectural and hypothetical. But regarding the involvement of "US citizens" on the ground, i agree with you, definitely BS. Would be pretty damn stupid anyway, as someone else said, so can't think anybody would make such a mistake.