[Peace-discuss] Support our troops

[C. G. Estabrook]

[Another example of what we're responsible for. --CGE]

  Tim Spicer’s License to Kill Iraqi Motorists
  Monday November 28th 2005

It should come as no surprise murderous yahoos working for
Aegis Defense Services randomly shoot up innocent Iraqis, as a
video currently posted on the Prison Planet site reveals. “The
video has sparked concern that private security companies,
which are not subject to any form of regulation either in
Britain or in Iraq, could be responsible for the deaths of
hundreds of innocent Iraqis,” reports the London Telegraph.

Aegis is run by a former British soldier and a one-time member
of the Scots Guards, Tim Spicer, who made a sum of money
violating a UN arms embargo in Sierra Leone and touching off a
coup in Papua New Guinea. Spicer is apparently so good at what
he does—apparently including randomly murdering Iraqis—the
Pentagon awarded him a $293 million contract to have his hired
thugs act as bodyguards (or maybe we should call them what
they are—spree killers).

Spicer has a bad habit of rubbing elbows with cutthroat
psychopaths. For instance, in Belfast in 1992, two men under
Spicer’s command killed an unarmed teenager and father of two
children, Peter Mc Bride. Mark Wright and James Fisher were
charged with the murder and sentenced to life, but thanks to
campaign led by the Daily Mail and with help from the British
Ministry of Defense, the men were released after serving three
years (see Brief introduction to the case of Peter McBride
September 1992 - April 2005 and Barry McCaffrey reporting for
the Irish News). A British Army review board eventually
reinstated Wright and Fisher, probably because they really
have no problem with their soldiers killing unarmed Irish
civilians.

According to one Dr. Alexander von Paleske, head of the
department of oncology at the Princess Marina Hospital in
Gaborone, Botswana, Spicer “worked with Anthony Buckingham,
one of Britain’s wealthiest men, in a company called
Sandline,” according to Ray O’Hanlon of the Irish Echo.
“Buckingham’s worldwide business dealings included an oil deal
with the now unemployed Saddam Hussein,” von Paleske wrote for
the Zimbabwe newspaper the Standard last year. As it turns
out, Spicer worked with Buckingham in a company called
Sandline, a PMC, or “Private Military Company,” and Sandline
was neck-deep in the coup in Papua New Guinea in 1997.

Enter the “honorable sir” Mark Thatcher, the rich playboy who
“is suspected by South African police as being a moneyman
behind the alleged plot to overthrow the Equatorial Guinea
regime.” So outraged are the bluebloods in Britain, Gordon
Prentice, a Member of Parliament, has demanded “sir” Mark be
stripped of his baronetcy. Had a commoner been convicted of
such a crime, no doubt he would be wasting away in a jail cell
somewhere in Africa. Due to his station and a plea bargaining
agreement, Thatcher pleaded guilty to negligence, was fined
$500,000, and received a three year suspended sentence
(meanwhile, British SAS officer Simon Mann, suspected of
leading the mercenaries, was jailed for seven years in
Zimbabwe for illegally trying to buy weapons). “Both Thatcher
and Spicer belonged to a gang of English white guys out to
plunder Africa,” Sean Mc Manus, President of the Capitol
Hill-based Irish National Caucus, commented earlier this year.

Now Tim Spicer is plundering the American taxpayer while his
goons shoot up Iraqi cars with Elvis Presley’s Mystery Train
playing in the background. As noted at the outset, it should
come as no surprise high-paid mercenaries are killing innocent
Iraqis. “Foreign mercenaries make up the third biggest
‘coalition partner’ in Iraq after the United States and
Britain,” writes Aaron Glantz. “Many of them are from former
secret police agencies of since-overthrown police states like
Pinochet’s Chile and apartheid South Africa. These mercenaries
guard contractors working for international firms like
Halliburton and Bechtel.” In fact, these mercenaries are so
out of control they not only shoot Iraqis, but take pot shots
at U.S. troops, according to Iraq’s interior ministry. “The
marines say one of their combat teams came under fire from
guards in a convoy of four-wheel-drives belonging to Zapata
Engineering, a firm based in North Carolina that is involved
in reconstruction projects,” the UK Telegraph reported. “The
Zapata employees have admitted firing at civilian vehicles but
deny targeting marines.”

In other words, according to Zapata Engineering, it’s okay to
kill innocent Iraqi civilians. “The Army Corps of Engineers
says that Zapata is doing an outstanding job on a dangerous
and urgently needed mission,” Kevin Begos and Phoebe Zerwick
wrote for the Winston-Salem Journal on February 13th, 2005.
“But the shift to private contractors has raised complicated
questions about accountability.”

Obviously, if there was accountability, the sadistic goons of
Aegis wouldn’t be killing Iraqi motorists and Tim Spicer
wouldn’t be pocketing $293 million of American taxpayer money.

It can be argued, however, Spicer and crew are doing precisely
what the Pentagon hired them to do—kill and terrorize Iraqis
and send them a message: resistance to the Bush Borg Hive of
Faux Democracy will not be tolerated.

http://kurtnimmo.com/?p=142