Archivo etiqueta «Seguridad privada»
By James Gattuso, a senior research fellow in regulatory policy at the Heritage Foundation (heritage.org) (THE WASHINGTON TIMES, 18/01/12):
It’s one of the most contentious but least understood issues now before Congress. It’s one that does not align neatly along party lines and has split the business community.
The issue is online piracy – the illegal sale of copyrighted and trademarked products on rogue pirate websites. Proposals aimed at putting these rogue websites out of business, now pending in the House and Senate, would strengthen restrictions on foreign-based rogue websites, while imposing new obligations on U.S.-based firms that facilitate … Seguir leyendo
Por Paul Laverty, guionista de la película Route Irish, dirigida por Ken Loach. Traducción de María Luisa Rodríguez Tapia (EL PAÍS, 27/12/11):
Todos conocemos en qué consiste el ritual del regreso del cuerpo de un soldado muerto en tierra extranjera: música solemne, bandera nacional, escoltas y saludos, recogidos con gran detalle en los medios de comunicación. Políticos y generales tienen palabras de consuelo para los apesadumbrados familiares, muchos de ellos tan jóvenes que con frecuencia tienen bebés en brazos.
Pero no fue eso lo que vivió Deely, la hermana de Robert, un exparacaidista que murió en una emboscada en … Seguir leyendo
By Terry Jones, a film director, actor and Python Terry-jones.net (THE GUARDIAN, 06/12/11):
In the 14th century there were two pandemics. One was the Black Death, the other was the commercialisation of warfare. Mercenaries had always existed, but under Edward III they became the mainstay of the English army for the first 20 years of what became the Hundred Years war. Then, when Edward signed the treaty of Brétigny in 1360 and told his soldiers to stop fighting and go home, many of them didn’t have any homes to go to. They were used to fighting, and … Seguir leyendo
By Laura K. Donohue, an associate professor of law at Georgetown Law Center and author of The Cost of Counterterrorism: Power, Politics and Liberty (THE WASHINGTON POST, 08/10/10):
In a 6-to-5 vote last month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit dismissed a lawsuit against a company accused of helping the CIA carry out the “extraordinary rendition” of terrorist suspects, transporting them to other countries for interrogation and, the lawsuit alleged, torture.
The five men who sued Jeppesen DataPlan, a Boeing subsidiary that reportedly provided flight planning and logistical support, could not use even public records to … Seguir leyendo
By Jason Thomas, an aid official in Afghanistan (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 21/08/10):
Under orders from President Hamid Karzai, over the next four months Afghanistan will be phasing out almost all foreign private security companies, a move meant to bring the country’s vast security apparatus under tighter government control.
It’s a laudable goal. But it also means that foreign aid workers, government officials and companies will have to rely instead for security on the Afghan National Police and the Afghan National Army — arguably two of the most corrupt and incompetent organizations in the country. Without a more … Seguir leyendo
Par Georges-Henri des Vallons, expert en questions de défense, Institut Choiseul. Dernier ouvrage paru : «Irak, terre mercenaire», Favre, 2010 (LIBERATION, 29/03/10):
En juin 2009, l’Afghanistan comptait 74 000 contractors («mercenaires») pour 55 000 soldats américains (dont 7% sont armés, soit environ 5 200 Occidentaux, auquel il faut rajouter 2 000 ressortissants du tiers-monde et près de 20 000 employés afghans). La nouvelle politique impulsée par Obama ne va faire qu’accroître leur nombre. A mesure que le marché irakien se ralentit, les sociétés militaires privées basculent leurs activités en Afghanistan. Un phénomène de migration qui apparaît clairement à la lecture des statistiques. Si l’on s’en tient … Seguir leyendo
By Claude Berube, who teaches at the United States Naval Academy, and Patrick Cullen, who teaches at the Barcelona Institute of International Studies. Their forthcoming book is Maritime Private Security: Market Responses to Piracy, Terrorism and Waterborne Security Risks in the 21st Century (THE WASHINGTON TIMES, 27/03/10):
Somali piracy attacks targeting shipping through the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean have significantly risen in quantity, sophistication and audacity. The U.S. Navy SEAL team rescue of the kidnapped crew of the U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama last April provided a dramatic example not only of this threat, but also of the … Seguir leyendo
Par Christine von Garnier, du Réseau Foi et Justice Afrique-Europe (LE TEMPS, 18/01/10):
L’aide américaine à l’Afrique a des aspects préoccupants. En effet, les Etats-Unis ont besoin d’étrangers sans lesquels leurs guerres ne seraient pas possibles à ce niveau de déploiement de forces militaires. Le journal East African rapporte que des milliers d’Ougandais et de Kényans travaillent pour le compte d’entreprises de sécurité américaines payés par l’armée américaine, dont les soldats, rappelons-le, sont des volontaires. Ces entreprises auraient recruté, depuis la «guerre contre le terrorisme» initiée par George W. Bush, 1 million d’étrangers pour l’Irak et 1,5 million pour … Seguir leyendo
By Jeremy Scahill, the author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army (THE GUARDIAN, 11/11/09):
The mercenary firm Blackwater has become a symbol of the utter lawlessness and criminality that permeates the privatised wing of the US war machine. The company’s operatives have shot dead scores of Iraqi and Afghan civilians, while former employees allege in sworn statements that Blackwater’s owner Erik Prince “views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe”, and that Prince’s companies “encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life”. Five Blackwater employees … Seguir leyendo
Par Georges-Henri Bricet des Vallons, chercheur-associé à l’Institut Choiseul et à l’Institut prospective et sécurité en Europe. L’auteur a dirigé le numéro 8 de la revue Sécurité Globale, «La privatisation de la guerre», été 2009, éd. Choiseul. (LIBERATION, 11/08/09):
La résurrection de la piraterie dans le golfe d’Aden pourrait-elle, par un effet de ricochet, convoquer celle des corsaires ? L’hypothèse, improbable au premier abord pour le néophyte, est plus que jamais d’actualité alors que le marché de la lutte antipiraterie est en train de connaître un véritable boom économique.
Etant donné l’incapacité pour les marines occidentales et les bâtiments de … Seguir leyendo
By Eugene Robinson (THE WASHINGTON POST, 09/12/08):
The federal manslaughter indictment of five Blackwater Worldwide security guards in the horrific massacre of more than a dozen Iraqi civilians in Baghdad may look like an exercise in accountability, but it’s probably the exact opposite — a whitewash that absolves the government and corporate officials who should bear ultimate responsibility.
If what Justice Department prosecutors allege is true, the five guards — Donald Ball, Dustin Heard, Evan Liberty, Nicholas Slatten and Paul Slough — should have to answer for what happened on Sept. 16, 2007. The men, working under Blackwater’s contract to … Seguir leyendo
Por Mariano Aguirre, coordinador del área de paz, seguridad y derechos humanos en Fride, Madrid (LA VANGUARDIA, 09/10/07):
Una serie de incidentes protagonizados por la empresa privada de seguridad Blackwater han costado la vida a cerca de 20 personas en los últimos meses en Iraq. El Gobierno iraquí desea suspender las actividades de esta empresa, contratada por el Pentágono, y abrir una causa criminal. Pero el Gobierno de Estados Unidos quiere que Blackwater y otras empresas similares que operan en Iraq, y que ocupan aproximadamente a 50.000 profesionales de la seguridad, continúen sus operaciones sin constricciones legales, especialmente ahora … Seguir leyendo
By Robert D. Novak (THE WASHINGTON POST, 08/10/07):
A month after voters last year gave Democrats the control that would elevate Nancy Pelosi to speaker of the House, Pelosi received a letter from a trial lawyer in Santa Ana, Calif., named Daniel J. Callahan. “We look forward,” he wrote, “to the New Direction of America, and to your dedication to putting an end to the fleecing of the American taxpayers and death to its citizens in the name of war profiteers such as Blackwater.” That plea was answered last week with House hearings.
Callahan did not disguise his … Seguir leyendo
By Jeremy Scahill, a contributing writer for the Nation and the author of Blackwater: the Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army (THE GUARDIAN, 06/10/07):
Erik Prince, the secretive 38-year-old owner of the leading US mercenary firm Blackwater, has seldom appeared in public. But on Tuesday he found himself in front of a Congressional committee, TV cameras trained on his boyish face. The official focus of the hearing, convened by Henry Waxman’s committee on oversight and government reform, was two questions that should have been asked long ago: whether the government’s heavy reliance on private security is serving … Seguir leyendo
By Terry Jones, a film director, actor and Python (THE GUARDIAN, 12/06/07):
Gordon Brown was in Iraq yesterday on a “fact-finding mission”. It needn’t all have looked gloomy for the next prime minister, however – not if he did some fact-finding about Blackwater, a North Carolina company that is now one of the most profitable military contractors operating in Iraq, and proves just what a land of opportunity Iraq really is. Blackwater’s president, Gary Jackson, acclaimed a “staggering” 600% growth in 2004: “This is a billion-dollar industry,” he said, “and Blackwater has only scratched the surface of it.” So … Seguir leyendo