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| Iraq-Jordan |
| The Elite Private Army in Iraq |
| 2005-04-28 |
| April 28, 2005: There's an army in Iraq that you don't hear much about. It's the 20,000 or so armed men who provide security for diplomats, government (both Iraqi and foreign) officials and NGOs (non-government organizations). This is probably the most highly trained fighting force in Iraq, as most of the private security people are former military. Many are from elite units (commandoes, Special Forces), but what makes them so effective is years of military experience (many are recently retired) and a screening process that keeps out most of the cowboys and adventurers. This security force has seen a lot of action, some 240 of them have been killed so far. That's about the same casualty rate as the military forces, despite the fact that the security people don't engage in offensive type operations. But the security personnel do guard people who are prime targets for the anti-government forces. Few of the people they guard have been killed, although there have been many attempts. That's why the security firms screen applicants so carefully. Lose a few high profile clients, and the rest of your business evaporates. Many of these security people are making over $100,000 a year. Getting killed isn't the biggest danger. Getting dismissed for being lax on the job, too aggressive, or misbehaving off duty, is. The job has also changed over the last three years. As the Iraqi police have become more abundant, and effective, the private security guards have had to change their behavior. No longer are they a law unto themselves. They have to be more careful when they use their weapons, and depend more on technology to detect potential attackers. Video cameras are a favorite tool. When moving a VIP in a convoy of armored vehicles, vidcams record much of the activity, so that the video can later be reviewed to see if there were any unsuccessful attackers they did not notice. The security firms more frequently share such information with the Iraqi police and American troops. The security forces also have to coordinate more often with the police and troops. As things continue to quiet down in Iraq, some of these security experts expect to move on to similar work in other parts of the world. But many will rejoin the military, where their experience will be welcomed, if somewhat resentfully because of the higher pay received while getting it. But the resentment is somewhat diminished by the fact that many of the security operators did at least one combat tour in Iraq before they took the higher paying job. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #8 i would expect there would be cooperation, especially at the "need to" levels... anything less would be counterproductive regardless of bureaucratic orders...."wink and nod" agreements? |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-04-28 11:29:11 PM |
| #7 One other thing - I put a "smiley" after that statement about the Marines - dunno what happened to it, it was there to show I was just yanking the chain of any Marine here. They are a solid fighting force, and up until recently were trained far and above the US Army standards. But war has a way of forcing the Army to actually train people to fight and win, like the Marines, instead of doing paperwork and filling out charts and quotas. This is especially true when the Drill Sgts have combat experience. So thats why the Army and Marines fought so well at Fallujah, almost arm-in-arm: they were both trained and experienced to the same high level, and troops like that know what needs to be done and do it reliably. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2005-04-28 11:17:13 PM |
| #6 thx |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-04-28 11:16:17 PM |
| #5 I think that the CEOI is unofficially shared - stuff that would usually get guys written up in peacetime, but which is apparently not bothered with too much in war (unless they need a scapegoat), especially if they know the other guys are operating in the area and will give good tipoffs. And a lot of these guys are Arabic speakers, alebit of different dialects. Little known: Arabic in Morrocco is different from Arabic in Eqypt which is different from Arabic in Iraq. And by different, I mean that its difficult to communicate beyond routine talk - the idioms, etc can cause complete misunderstandings in addition to bafflement. The reason they are getting that money is that they are able to operate, interoperate, and communicate. Thats the basis for all good operators - and you'll see that sort there. The Russians and others have linguists the same as we do, although they dont train them assembly-line like we do at DLI (where I learned my Arabic a long time ago). |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2005-04-28 11:09:45 PM |
| #4 sounds right OS, but how do they link up when an Apache strike is needed? Or Evac is needed? Just curious to know the protocol... |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-04-28 8:03:25 PM |
| #3 OS, Do their Iraqi clients all speak English? Or do the commandos speak enough arabic to communicate with them in their own tongue? What do the Russians and Germans speak with their clients? |
| Posted by: thibaud (aka lex) 2005-04-28 7:27:02 PM |
| #2 The Marine Corps can beg all they want I know some of these guys (and know of some of the others through them): Many are former Marines (recon) - As well as Seals, PJ's, Rangers, Green-Beanies, Brits out of SAS & SBS, Aussies from SASR, Germans from GSG, Russian Spetz, even the odd Canadian or two from JTF-2 and the old CAR. These aare the hard core of the hard core. THe only thing they lack is the organization above about a company/battalion level. They function like independant cells, but I think they do miss the higher echelon support in terms of intel and later-links that the normal forces have. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2005-04-28 7:18:54 PM |
| #1 This is probably the most highly trained fighting force in Iraq, The USMC might beg to differ. |
| Posted by: RWV 2005-04-28 10:18:03 AM |