George Monbiot has a good article in the Guardian today on the rise of mercenaries as an ostensibly legitimate business:
What is the legal difference between hiring a helicopter for use in a coup against a west African government and sending supplies to the Chechen rebels? If there isn’t one, why isn’t Mark Thatcher in Belmarsh? Conversely, why aren’t the "foreign terrorist suspects" in Belmarsh prison free and, like Thatcher, at large in London? Why is an alleged engagement in foreign military operations called terrorism one moment and business the next?
Monbiot notes that notorious mercenary Tim Spicer is due to be speaking at School of Oriental and African Studies in London this Thursday. According to the SOAS website this meeting has now been cancelled, no doubt as a result of the publicity.
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