Gaddafi opponents hold off attack on town: witnesses

[maddezmom]

Source: Reuters

Gaddafi opponents hold off attack on town: witnesses
By Michael Georgy

RAS JDIR, Tunisia (Reuters) - Libyan security forces tried to seize back control of the coastal town of Zawiyah, about 50 km (30 miles) west of the capital, but were driven back by government opponents, witnesses said on Friday.

The strategic town, site of an oil terminal on the main highway into Tripoli, has become the focus of a stand-off between forces loyal to leader Muammar Gaddafi, and civilians -- some of them armed -- who want an end to his 41 years in power.

"There are corpses everywhere ... It's a war in the true sense of the word," said Akila Jmaa, who crossed over into Tunisia on Friday after traveling from the town.

"We need urgent humanitarian aid from all the countries. They cannot leave us alone."

Other witnesses who crossed the Tunisian border said government forces had made several attempts to take control of coastal town in successive nights of fighting.



Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/25/us-libya-protests-zawiyah-idUSTRE71O3H420110225

[Uncle Joe]

1. I wonder if and how many American Mercenary corporations are involved with this brutal crackdown on

the Libyan People; yearning to toss off the yoke of oppression and dictatorship?

Mercenaries allied to Libyan forces, including African ones, also took part in the fighting, several witnesses said.

Thanks for the thread, maddezmom.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

2. At least the protesters took one of the guns for hire out of the equation

...by capturing him. Something tells me his day isn't working out like he thought it would.

[Uncle Joe]

3. He's probably going to want overtime blood money if he survives. n/t

[OnlinePoker]

4. Only thing about being a mercenary...

...you have to hope the side you're fighting for wins because you probably won't get paid if they don't (if you survive, that is).

[Poll_Blind]

5. IMO, it is likely there are no U.S. merc corporations involved in this. Just a guess. IMO, it's...

...far more likely that these African mercs are gathered up from about the shadiest, bloodiest places in Africa that you can imagine. I'm thinking more along the lines of Haitian Tonton Macoutes crossed with Somali technicals, add a dash of Hutu/Tutsi machete-wielders and throw in uniforms and you've elevated the slime of humanity just up to the point where you can call it a mercenary.

PB

[Uncle Joe]

6. Well from that sentence I posted of the OP's Link, there must be some from outside of Africa.

"Mercenaries allied to Libyan forces, including African ones, also took part in the fighting, several witnesses said."

Perhaps some of them are from Haiti, but I don't why American Mercenaries would necessarily turn the job down, it's all about the money and from what I hear, Gaddafi had a lot of it.

UJ

[westerebus]

7. Arab nationals.

Gaddafi wouldn't want white Xians killing his Muslim brothers and sisters. It's the infidel curse one needs to avoid at all costs.

American merc's employed by the oil companies are probably all gone to Cyprus by now.

[Uncle Joe]

8. The way I understand it, American Merc corporations pull some of their personal from outside

of the U.S.

From a thread by laststeamtrain and Scahill's book.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x437887

Like Blackwater, Triple Canopy has had its share of bloody incidents, among them allegations that operatives have gone on missions where they shot at civilian vehicles, including one after a briefing where a team leader cocked his M-4 and said to his men, "I want to kill somebody today. ... Because I'm going on vacation tomorrow." (The man in question denied any wrongdoing). While Triple Canopy fired some employees for not reporting shooting incidents in Iraq, none have been criminally prosecuted in Iraq or the U.S. (For a full report on this and other incidents involving Triple Canopy, check out the great work of Washington Post foreign correspondent Steve Fainaru, author of Big Boy Rules.)

Also like Blackwater, Triple Canopy has hired mercenaries from countries with atrocious human rights records and histories of violent counter-insurgencies. Among them: Peru, Chile, Colombia and El Salvador. In fact, in Iraq, Triple Canopy hired far more "Third Country Nationals" than Blackwater and DynCorp and has used more TCNs than US citizens or Iraqis. As I reported in my book, Triple Canopy used the same Chilean recruiter (who served in Augusto Pinochet's military) Blackwater used when it hired Chilean forces, including some "seasoned veterans" of the Pinochet era. In El Salvador, the company reportedly used "a U.S.-trained former paratrooper and officer of the Salvadoran special forces during the country's civil war" where the U.S. backed a brutal right wing dictatorship in a war that took the lives of some 75,000 Salvadorans. A Triple Canopy spokesperson reportedly said of the Salvadorans, "They've got the right background for the type of work we are doing." A Triple Canopy subsidiary in Latin America has also reportedly used a former CIA base in Lepaterique, Honduras as a training center. In the 1980s, the facility was used by the CIA and Argentinian military intelligence in training Contra death squads to attack Nicaragua. The base also served as the headquarters for the notorious Battalion 316, a CIA-trained Honduran military unit responsible for torture and disappearances.

[westerebus]

9. They do pull from outside CONUS.

Why cross an ocean when there's plenty of help for hire locally who know the customs and language?

Gaddafi is running the show. Not US merc's.

Besides, the Algerian secret police-intelligence service are known to be just as dirty as any thing on this side of the Atlantic.

[Uncle Joe]

11. I agree with you, I believe Gaddafi is running the show, but his MO suggests he would try to hire

American based mercenary corporations in an attempt to curry favor with the U.S.

I don't believe they're the only mercenaries he would hire, as the sentence that I highlighted alludes to, he's hiring within Africa and outside of it, but it seems logical to me that he would try to hire a mercenary corporation like Blackwater/Xe or some other U.S. based mercenary group as well.

[westerebus]

12. It would surprise me if that happened.

The US Government is very touchy about contracts.

As in, you work for us. There are people and places you will not do business with.

Unless, it's in our interests to have you there.

If for some reason you were found to be where you should not be, good luck with the locals.

In terms of dollars, a renewable contract with the home team is a safer long term proposition.

For example, an American who manages a warehouse that supplies spare parts for military vehicles might make $100,000 for a one year contract at 12 hours per day, six days a week in the middle of the sand box. He's unarmed by the way. The Canadian IT guy and the two ( slavic speakers ) who run the operation are also unarmed.

The sixty man, spanish speaking security force that protects the place, all work for the company that the four Americans who speak fluent spanish are contracted to. You can tell the Americans by the baseball caps and the brand of body armor they wear. All of the security force is armed with current NATO small arms. No one in a baseball cap is making less than $100,000.

[Uncle Joe]

13. Are you aware of any sanctions that prohibit

U.S. mercenary corporations from working for foreign governments?

One other point, while it may be safer just working for the U.S. government, apparently there are occasions when U.S. Mercenary Corporations are more than willing to take additional risks for money as exhibited on this thread by maddezmom.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4507776

WASHINGTON — Erik Prince, whose company, Blackwater Worldwide, is for sale and whose former top managers are facing criminal charges, has left the United States and moved to Abu Dhabi, according to court documents.

Mr. Prince, a former member of the Navy Seals and an heir to a Michigan auto parts fortune, left the country after a series of civil lawsuits, criminal charges and Congressional investigations singled out Blackwater or its former executives and other personnel. His company, now called Xe Services, has collected hundreds of millions of dollars from the United States government since 2001.

Current and former colleagues said Mr. Prince hoped to focus on security work from governments in Africa and the Middle East. They also said he was bitter about the legal scrutiny and negative publicity his company had received.

“He needs a break from America,” said one colleague, speaking only on the condition of anonymity about Mr. Prince’s long-rumored move.

Mr. Prince does not face any criminal charges, but five former top company executives have been indicted on federal weapons, conspiracy and obstruction charges. Two guards who worked for a Blackwater-affiliated company face murder charges from a 2009 shooting in Afghanistan, and the Justice Department is trying to revive its prosecution of five former Blackwater guards accused of killing 17 Iraqi civilians in 2007.

[westerebus]

20. I'm not a lawyer.

Think about pirates.

If they are your pirates and they are good at pirating, your military can do other things.

If they fly someone else's flag, well they're pirates. What would you expect?

Unconventional is what they do best.

Pirating is best done far from home so as not to disturb the neighbors.

[defendandprotect]

16. Blackwater/Xe is supposedly protecting the oil executives still there -- !!

Would they pass up any mercenary opportunities?

[social_critic]

19. Not really

See my post above. Tribesmen from Tchad are the bulk of the mercs fighting for Kaddafi. They are not associated with the government, they are tribes which Kaddafi financed in the past to fight the central government in Tchad. This story goes a long way back, I've been to Njadema, and when Kaddafi was paying for rebels to attack Tchad's central government, the French were paying for European mercs to come in and prop up the Tchadian army to fight off the pro-Kaddafi forces.

It was one of those little African wars nobody knows much about. People in the US were quite aware of the Lockerbie job, but they never heard much about the UTA Airbus job - a plane full of people blown up by Kaddafi's guys, it is thought.

[Alamuti Lotus]

14. Libya's Gadhafi has long history of recruiting African fighters who now pledge support

BAMAKO, Mali - His allies and even his own diplomats are abandoning him, but African fighters are pledging to defend embattled Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi "to the end."

The African fighters that Gadhafi is allegedly using against protesters come from several nations, representing a map of the Libyan leader's often contentious history with his neighbours.

Many young citizens of Mali and Niger who flocked to Libya in the 1970s and 1980s were ethnic Tuaregs and were recruited into an "Islamic Legion" modeled on the French Foreign Legion.

A Tuareg politician in Mali said he believes 16,000 Tuareg remain in the Libyan security forces, based in Tripoli and Sabha but not in Benghazi, a major city that has broken away from Gadhafi's rule.

"We've been getting updates from some of them by phone," Ibrahim Ag Mohamed Assaleh told The Associated Press. "They say their orders are to protect Gadhafi and they will defend him to the end."

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/libyas-gadhafi-long-history-recruiting-african-fighters-now-20110226-160726-236.html

[social_critic]

18. The mercenaries are fighting for Kaddafi

The mercs are from Tchad and Niger, hired by Kaddafi. A high level Lybian official defected and was interviewed by al Jazeera. He explained Kaddafi has a long term relationship with tribes in these countries, and has financed them and armed them for years. When Kaddafi saw what was going on in Tunisia, he started bringing in these mercs into Lybia, to give them a quick training program. He was still stockpiling mercs when things went bad for him. But the mercs are in Lybia, and are the ones killing civilians. And this is the reason why the UN just voted for sanctions against Kaddafi.

[Ter]

10. Thank God they are armed

Hopefully they have access to assault weapons and very high capacity magazines.

[boppers]

17. Only takes one shot from from a simple hunting rifle....

...to get access to the weapons of somebody with high capacity magazines.

[defendandprotect]

15. $60 million a day for mercenaries? 30,000 or 50,000 of them at $2,000 per day -- !!

Plus $20,000 -- and who knows how much more --

:nuke: