Category: Mercenaries
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Intelligence and the Arms to Africa Affair
The National Archives move towards a 20-year-rule mean that many records from the early New Labour years are now available. That includes episodes like the 1998 Arms to Africa Affair when a British mercenary outfit, Tim Spicer's Sandline International, sent arms to Sierra Leone in defiance of a UN arms embargo.
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Censorship and Freedom of Speech
The following is a mirror of an original post from Craig Murray: This is the key section from my new book which the publisher is unwilling to publish due to legal threats from Schillings libel lawyers, acting on behalf of the mercenary commander Tim Spicer: " Peter Penfold was back in the UK. He was…
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Spicer threatens to sue Craig Murray
It’s about time that I broke radio silence on here, and this certainly merits it. Former diplomat Craig Murray is having another run-in with Schillings, the lawyers who briefly managed to get his website taken down on behalf of Uzbek oligarch Alisher Usmanov. Now they are attempting to block the publication of my new book…
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The Litvinenko Affair revisited
David Habbakuk will be familiar to readers of Col Pat Lang’s blog Sic Semper Tyrannis. He has some very interesting thoughts on the November 2006 death of Alexander Litvinenko over at Yuri Mamchur’s Russia Blog: Uncritical acceptance of claims by [Oleg] Gordievsky about how Litvinenko died is particular bizarre — given that he has made…
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Clinton, Obama, and America’s Mercenary Army in Iraq
Jeremy Scahill has been doing some good work trying to pin down the US Democratic contenders on the issue of mercenaries in Iraq (hat tip:The Spy Who Billed Me): A senior foreign policy adviser to leading Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has told The Nation that if elected Obama will not "rule out" using private…
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Milliband facing legal challenge over mercenaries
Just wanted to belatedly note this story from earlier this week, and given the week that’s in it, perhaps this is one area where the Northern Rock trend for nationalisation might usefully be extended: Foreign secretary David Miliband today faces a legal challenge over his failure to ensure democratic control over private military companies –…
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Mercenaries: Getting Away With Murder
War on Want has released a new briefing on mercenaries today to coincide with the annual conference of the British Association of Private Security Companies. Ruth Tanner, senior campaigns officer at War on Want, said: “Mounting human rights abuses by mercenary firms making a killing in Iraq are fuelling demands for legislation. But while the…
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Blackwater’s loss may be other Merc’s gain
America’s use of corporate mercenaries in Iraq is under renewed scrutiny in the wake of the Nisour Square massacre in Baghdad on Sept. 16. Employees of Blackwater USA stand accused of killing 17 Iraqi civilians. There is reason to believe that commercial and bureaucratic rivalries played a part in bringing the episode to public attention,…
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If Blackwater is the problem, is Tim Spicer the solution?
Following yesterday’s meeting between US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, it looks as if the US military is going to take on a bigger role in the oversight of State Department security contractors as a result of the Nisour Square Massacre. R.J Hillhouse suggests that Blackwater will therefore come under…
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The Red Soil of Africa
It looks like Craig Murray’s next book will include his account of the Arms to Africa Affair. Apparently, it was Murray who tipped off Customs and Excise about Tim Spicer’s attempt to import arms into Sierra Leone in the first place.