There is a much better list of current and noncurrent firms here:
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Private_Security_Company_Association_of_Iraq
SOC and Triple Canopy are two of the more visible players in Iraq right now. They probably employ about a couple thousand Africans between the two of them.
But they’re not mercenaries, they’re security consultants. Completely different animals, no similarity what so ever. You don’t really think we’d let mercenaries into Iraq, let alone pay them millions of dollars?
Well, if you don’t want to count ARMED Ugandans paid by America to go to Iraq for the purpose of defending bases from combatants and killing America’s enemies (from a defensive posture, of course), then that’s fine. They’re not mercs.
But… then why was DynCorp mentioned? If DynCorp and Blackwater were mentioned, then certainly it’s relevant to bring up SOC and TC. I mean, afterall, these are the companies acutally bringing private, FOREIGN fighters to the warzone. These Ugandans would just as soon work for Al Quada if AQ could afford to pay them!
They are foreign. They are private civilians. They are paid by a foreign country to go to the war to perform a job that requires the use of loaded weapons. Sure, they’re not out patrolling and doing offensive operations. But by almost every meaning of the word, they are mercs. The fact that they would work for whomever pays them, makes them mercs in my eyes.
Wait, did I just get whooshed?
You have whoosh confirmation.
And done with great style & grace I might add.
I don’t think that list is accurate insofar as mercenary companies go, regardless of what the article claims. Many of the corporations there are defense contractor manufacturers; while they may do training of military personnel on their own products, they don’t have employees who are soldiers in any meaningful sense of the word.
It is now illegal for a South African citizen to take part in mercenary activities. I believe this has been threatened to be applied to Blackwater employees, but nothing’s come of it. However, this law would certainly preclude any South African-*based *mercenaries.
An acquaintance of mine, a former Navy SEAL, was just recruited by Xe (formerly known as Blackwater) to help provide anti-piracy security for shipping in the Gulf of Aden. A non-national armed participant in a conflict who is motivated by cash? No doubt. He’ll be a mercenary to all intents and purposes.
The Gurkhas are Nepalese, and offer their services to the Nepalese army, too. I suppose they don’t do that in a mercenary sense, though.