Modern Mercenaries on the Iraqi Frontier

[seemslikeadream]

In Iraq, hired guns guarding the American administrator, L. Paul Bremer III, second from right, and an Iraqi official.

By JAMES GLANZ

Published: April 4, 2004

IN his own way, Stevie is a modern soldier-of-fortune, paid by a private security firm to lead a 44-man unit that is protecting American officials in charge of rebuilding the infrastructure of Iraq. He left his native Glasgow, Scotland, to join the British army at 16, served for 24 years in conflicts around the globe, about half that time as a member of the special forces. In the shadowy tradition of his trade, he asked that only his first name be used and declined to say much about the wars he has fought.

"That is one topic I'd rather not talk about," he said in his rich brogue, speaking by phone from the Baghdad villa run by Kroll Inc., the company that employs him.

But as Stevie begins describing himself and the men in his unit, the footloose, swashbuckling stereotype of his profession evaporates. He reckons that 75 percent to 80 percent of his unit is married. He has been married for 19 years, with three children back home. Mostly in their 30's and 40's, his men typically have not just one or two decades of military experience, but clean driving records and stable lives back home - wherever home might be.

Such is the corporate but still consummately dangerous world of "security" or "risk management" firms that have struck gold in the lawless frontiers of Iraq. They are hired by private and government contractors, by the media, and by the Coalition Provisional Authority itself to provide protection from the bullets and bombs that still make up so much of daily life there. It was one of the largest of these firms, Blackwater U.S.A., that lost four employees in a horrific ambush in the central city of Fallujah last week.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/04/weekinreview/04glan.html