March 22, 2014
By Ulson Gunnar (Global Research)
- Recent rumors of notorious Blackwater US mercenaries operating inside
of Ukraine invoked a plausible narrative so convincing even news
outlets across the West began echoing it.
UK’s
Daily Mail article “Has Blackwater been deployed to Ukraine? Notorious
U.S. mercenaries ‘seen on the streets of flashpoint city’ as Russia
claims 300 hired guns have arrived in country” stated “a Russian
diplomat in Kiev told the Interfax news agency on Wednesday that 300
employees of private security companies had arrived there.”
The
article continued by stating, “‘These are soldiers of fortune
proficient in combat operations. Most of them had operated under private
contracts in Iraq, Afghanistan and other states,” the source said.
Interfax reported that the diplomat did not disclose the nationalities
of the mercenaries but said, ‘Most of them come from the United
States’.”
An
accompanying video showed unidentified armed men running through the
streets of the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, however it appeared
unrelated to the claims made by the Russian diplomat.
The Murky Tracks Left by US Mercenaries
The
notoriety of US private contractor Blackwater, also known as Xe, and
more recently Academi, has exposed the usually shadowy nature of modern
mercenaries. Mercenaries have been used all throughout history,
particularly by empires who lacked the manpower necessary within their
own military ranks to carry out their adventures abroad, but had the
cash to pay those who did.
More
recently in Iraq, this was also the case, where the United States
lacked the necessary manpower to provide security for the exceedingly
large number of administers they had deployed in the region. Primarily,
Blackwater provided security for the US State Department and other
officials building up the “new” Iraq as the US saw fit.
The
scale on which Blackwater operated made it impossible to keep their
role in the war hidden from the public. In September of 2007, Blackwater
mercenaries opened fire killing 11 Iraqi civilians. Also during that
year, a number of other incidents occurred also involving Blackwater.
While the company became the scapegoat for Western contractors operating
in Iraq, other news reports, such as the New York Times article “Use of
Contractors Added to War’s Chaos in Iraq” and NBC’s “Contractors
accused of firing on civilians, GIs” told a troubling tale in which
massive numbers of hired mercenaries from many companies were working
and killing inside of Iraq with little or no oversight, and zero
accountability.
The
NBC piece in particular states, “there are now nearly as many private
contractors in Iraq as there are U.S. soldiers — and a large percentage
of them are private security guards equipped with automatic weapons,
body armor, helicopters and bullet-proof trucks.”
The
article also reports, “they operate with little or no supervision,
accountable only to the firms employing them. And as the country has
plummeted toward anarchy and civil war, this private army has been
accused of indiscriminately firing at American and Iraqi troops, and of
shooting to death an unknown number of Iraqi citizens who got too close
to their heavily armed convoys.”
NBC also adds, “not one has faced charges or prosecution.”
Tellingly,
the report states, “there is great confusion among legal experts and
military officials about what laws — if any — apply to Americans in this
force of at least 48,000.”
What
the US has created in Iraq is essentially a shadowy mercenary force,
tens of thousands strong, that is heavily armed, well funded, has
unlimited access and limitless impunity to carry out whatever its
mission may require, and whatever else it may feel like doing along the
way.
It
is difficult to imagine something more disturbingly dangerous than such
a force. Beyond Iraq, US military contractors have found themselves on
the shores of Somalia. Blackwater founder Erik Prince, in an AP article
titled, “Blackwater founder secretly backing Somali militia,” was said
to be involved in “a multimillion-dollar program financed by several
Arab countries, including the United Arab Emirates, to mobilize some
2,000 Somali recruits to fight pirates who are terrorizing the African
coast.”
Beyond
Iraq and Somalia, it was suggested that private mercenaries were also
involved in the destabilization of Syria backing foreign militants who
have been invading the country and waging war for now 3 years. CIA
agents have been admittedly working along Syria’s borders directing arms
and other gear into the hands of these militants, as confirmed by the
New York Times. And these weapons were being provided by the very same
interests that had hired Prince to raise armies in Somalia. Would they
also be interested in hiring Prince, or someone else like him, to raise
armies to carry the arms they had so generously flooded Syrian territory
with?
The Question of Western Mercenaries in Ukraine
And
if mercenaries are turning up across every battlefield the US
demarcates around the world, why would Ukraine be any different? Already
it is admitted that at least some of the leading factions of the
Euromaidan protests were armed, thus driving out the government in Kiev.
The West, including the United States has made it abundantly clear that
they wholly back the new regime that has now taken over. Why wouldn’t
US mercenaries be in Ukraine arming, training, and enhancing the
capabilities of armed militants they will need to continue their favored
regime’s consolidation of power?
It
is a question that needs to be both asked, and carefully answered. For
the Russians, it would be essential to find evidence of US mercenary
activity inside of Ukraine, as well as the newly independent region of
Crimea. Exposing such forces working along side the already increasingly
unsavory elements leading the new regime in Kiev would attach to them
the well-deserved taint US mercenaries have earned through their
misdeeds in Iraq, Afghanistan, and beyond.
Experience
garnered throughout the fighting in Syria can be utilized within
Ukraine regarding how these foreign forces mesh with Ukrainian militants
now being prepared for potential confrontations both within Crimea, and
with Russia directly.
Finally,
it should be remembered that within the US itself, politicians have
called openly for both the sending of arms and “advisers” to aid the new
Ukrainian regime, including US Senator John McCain (Republican-Arizona)
who stated in frank terms, “they only have a few thousand combat troops
and would be overwhelmed by the Russians if it came to that. One of
their urgent requests is to have us supply them with weapons.”
The
supplying of the regime with weapons and advisers would be the job of
the CIA and perhaps military contractors. They may be on their way to
Ukraine, along with aid the Pentagon has already officially approved, or
they may be sent eventually.
The
specter of Western mercenaries hangs over Ukraine, threatening to sow
the same sort of chaos, death, and injustice seen everywhere else they
carry out their dark deeds. For Ukrainians on either side of the
conflict, especially those supporting the current regime, they must ask
themselves carefully exactly what it is they really want, and what price
they are willing to pay to obtain it… with the burning carnage of Iraq,
Syria, Afghanistan in clear hindsight.
Ulson Gunnar is a New York-based geopolitical analyst and writer for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”
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