Former East Paly police sergeant returning to Iraq - He doesn't like the word mercenary but...

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.paloaltodailynews.com/article/2007-7-9-pa-cole

20-year vet of local force to provide security, train Iraqi police

By Banks Albach / Daily News Staff Writer

A month from now, 52-year-old Robert Cole returns to Iraq, where he will train local police, guard high-profile people and even provide backup for U.S. troops.

Though the former East Palo Alto police sergeant's uniform looks like a conventional soldier's outfit - helmet, goggles, flak jacket, khakis and semi-automatic rifle - it comes from a different source: DynCorp International, a defense contractor on the State Department's payroll.

He said he's one of about 20,000 private security specialists operating in Iraq. Cole spent a year there in 2004 and 2005, running projects in Baghdad and Tikrit, and Kirkuk and Sulaimaniyah, cities in the Kurdish north. Cole also spent a year with the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Haiti.

Cole retired from East Palo Alto in 2003 after 20 years with the department. He said his law enforcement experience was crucial in obtaining the private security work.

Cole doesn't like the word "mercenary," but with a $160,000 annual salary, patriotism isn't the only thing drawing him back into the crosshairs of suicide bombers and improvised explosive devices.

[Robson]

1. The use of MERCS hurts the military & LE

Bush certainly opened a pandora's box when he provided tens or hundreds of thousands of lucrative opportunities for the private armies. Now both the military and local law enforcement are having problems with retention of the most capable personnel.

Taxpayers still pay the freight for these mercenary personnel, but now they pay a huge markup for the higher direct wages and the profit margin and the highly paid senior management of such companies as Blackwater or DynCorp.

Once again in the name of "Privatization" taxes are redistributed to the well connected and the rich and it costs us far more for less.

[NNN0LHI]

2. I bet this good old boy wouldn't mind killing Iraqis from now until doomsday for $160,000 a year

Tax free too.

And he is still collecting his full retirement from the taxpayers on top of that.

I hope he enjoys spending that blood money.

Don