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Steyr AUG wrote:

So now DHL, UPS and Fedex are mercenaries too. This "definition" keeps getting better and better.

You seriously think there are fedex trucks are driving around a war zone?  None of those carriers will deliver to a war zone.

Protecting an asset from attack using security guards is hardly taking part in hostilities. Its self defense, not offensive operations like the .mil participates in.

Moving military hardware and supplies within a warzone is not 'security work'.

RatFink wrote:

You seriously think there are fedex trucks are driving around a war zone?

I've seen FedEx trucks in Los Angeles before.

Last edited by resedit (2009-08-10 2:42 am)

Plenty of Xe's employees are non-American citizens. Are they mercenaries?

But the company that employs them doesn't?

sturner wrote:

Yep, they do come closer to being legally classified as mercs.

Since they are still employed doing security work "come closer" is meaningless.

Steyr AUG wrote:

sturner wrote:

Yep, they do come closer to being legally classified as mercs.

Since they are still employed doing security work "come closer" is meaningless.

"Security" seems a exceptionally broad term. But perhaps you're right. It would be better to think of Xe as a KGB of our very own.

Last edited by jerwin (2009-08-10 10:53 am)

Of course, there's more than one way to make money from the '.mil.' You could, say, work on ordnance development and angle for new weapons contracts, and/or sell abroad.

Say you had an automatic shotgun, low recoil, close to 300 rpm cyclic rate. Beyond that mundanity, let's further say you had developed a range of munitions for it that made it (close to) sturner's dream anti-zumbie gun (might still need an incendiary round, but they might have one by now). Perhaps[s]Blackwater mercs[/s] Xe guards already tote them for CQB, good to 200 yards.

And right out of the Steyr Book of Responses:

Response to Misleading Press Reports

The joint audit by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction and the United State Department of State Inspector General released yesterday does not, as some press reports have suggested, allege that Blackwater was ever complicit in overbilling the United States government for work it performed in Iraq in 2006 and 2007. The audit does not even state that the government overpaid Blackwater for staffing issues. All it suggests is that invoices spanning a period of time are reviewed. A $55 million penalty has in no way been determined.

In fact, the government contracting officer determined that Blackwater was compliant with the terms of the contract at the time for which they were reviewing and the therefore did not apply any deductions or penalties. Blackwater only billed for services provided.

For more information, please contact media@xecompany.com.

You must believe us, not the press. We're official.  http://www.ustraining.com/new/index.asp


ed url

Last edited by Bat (2009-08-10 3:30 pm)

And the "pre-emptive defensive fire" that comes before they spring the "ambush". A fine line to walk. And when you extend past that line... To be fair, you'd have to regularly overstep into pre-emptive defensive fires all the time. Run pre-emptive patrols to clear a defensive zone in many areas. In truth, that didn't happen. What did happen caused a lot of commanders problems, and when these "security contractors" are not responsive to your chain of command, and their operations run without counsel, then bad blood builds.

ShnickyShnack wrote:

JakeTheTall wrote:

I like how "security work" can encompass such activities as killing dozens of unarmed civilians without facing criminal charges.

I like that too.

You can't just paint with broad strokes due to a few dozen murders. Geez guys...

Tallgeese wrote:

ShnickyShnack wrote:

JakeTheTall wrote:

I like how "security work" can encompass such activities as killing dozens of unarmed civilians without facing criminal charges.

I like that too.

You can't just paint with broad strokes due to a few dozen murders. Geez guys...

Those were "clean kills"!

Besides, they were just a bunch of ragheads and hajis. No one who mattered.

Steyr AUG wrote:

Bat wrote:

You must believe us, not the press. We're official.

Walter Cronkite would've been proud.

Fixed.

Steyr AUG wrote:

RatFink wrote:

You seriously think there are fedex trucks are driving around a war zone?  None of those carriers will deliver to a war zone.

Having actually seen them driving around in Iraq, you are wrong.

I said war zone not Iraq.  Not all of iraq is a war zone.

Moving military hardware and supplies within a warzone is not 'security work'.

Right, its logistics. Still not mercenaries.

Would you agree that supply chain and logistics are strategically important to an army?  Of course you would.  Tanks don't move without fuel, soldiers don't fight without food and guns do not fire without ammunition.  To say that logistics is not an active part of a war is naive to the point of foolishness.