Irakezen & contracten

Baghdad Airport was een paar dagen dicht omdat de huurlingen die het bewaakten niet tevreden waren met de betalingen. Het Irakeze ministerie van binnenlandse zaken heeft consensus bereikt over de betalingen en inmiddels is het weer open. Wat mij intrigeert in het BBC berichtje is het feit dat de contracten afgesloten werden door de USA maar dat de Irakeze regering ze na moet volgen. En die beveilingsfirma’s vragen een behoorlijk bedrag, veel meer dan het oorspronkelijke Irakeze leger (dat Bremer geheel ontbonden heeft) vroeg. Hoeveel contracten (en wat voor contracten) zijn er allemaal afgesloten die nu op het budget van Irak drukken??

A UK-based firm has been providing security at the complex which lies 18km (12 miles) from central Baghdad.

It halted operations on Friday, saying it had not been paid since March.

Global was given a contract by the US State Department in 2004 to provide security at the airport.

A spokesman for Global in London, Giles Morgan, told AFP news agency its personnel were back in position as the Iraqi government had “agreed to pay 50% of the total money owed for the past seven months.”

The airport was closed for two days for the same reason in June.

Dezelfde huurlingen uit Irak zijn trouwens momenteel ook actief in New Orleans…

But in an hour-long conversation with several Blackwater mercenaries, we heard a different story. The men we spoke with said they are indeed on contract with the Department of Homeland Security and the Louisiana governor’s office and that some of them are sleeping in camps organized by Homeland Security in New Orleans and Baton Rouge. One of them wore a gold Louisiana state law enforcement badge and said he had been “deputized” by the governor. They told us they not only had authority to make arrests but also to use lethal force. We encountered the Blackwater forces as we walked through the streets of the largely deserted French Quarter.
[...]
Later we overheard him on his cell phone complaining that Blackwater was only paying $350 a day plus per diem. That is much less than the men make serving in more dangerous conditions in Iraq. Two men we spoke with said they plan on returning to Iraq in October. But, as one mercenary said, they’ve been told they could be in New Orleans for up to 6 months. “This is a trend,” he told us. “You’re going to see a lot more guys like us in these situations.”