November 28, 2005

UK Mercinaries Hired by US Randomly Shoot Iraqi Civilians on Video. [Please note there are some "adult" links - no images - on the page containing this video]. All to the tune of "Mystery Train" by Elvis Presley. UK Sunday Telegraph British Mercinaries hired by the US videotaped themselves randomly shooting at vehicles in Iraq. Very intelligently, they posted the video to a website (now pulled from the internet) run by a former employee of the "security firm" they worked for.

From the article linked above: A "trophy" video appearing to show security guards in Baghdad randomly shooting Iraqi civilians has sparked two investigations after it was posted on the internet, the Sunday Telegraph can reveal. The video has sparked concern that private security companies, which are not subject to any form of regulation either in Britain or in Iraq, could be responsible for the deaths of hundreds of innocent Iraqis. The video, which first appeared on a website that has been linked unofficially to Aegis Defence Services, contained four separate clips, in which security guards open fire with automatic rifles at civilian cars. All of the shooting incidents apparently took place on "route Irish", a road that links the airport to Baghdad. In one of the videoed attacks, a Mercedes is fired on at a distance of several hundred yards before it crashes in to a civilian taxi. In the last clip, a white civilian car is raked with machine gun fire as it approaches an unidentified security company vehicle. Bullets can be seen hitting the vehicle before it comes to a slow stop. Last night a spokesman for the Foreign Office said: "Aegis have assured us that there is nothing on the video to suggest that it has anything to do with their company. This is now a matter for the American authorities because Aegis is under contract to the United States."

posted by waitingtoderail 18 years ago
  • Video also here.
  • Thanks, homunculus, hadn't seen that yet. Actually a more reputable site.
  • Sounds like terrorists. Go get'em George. Bring it on!
  • This is what mercenaries do. They're not subject to the constraints or discipline, legally or otherwise, of police or military, so they do what they fucking want. It was precisely this conduct that led to the killing of four mercs in Fallujah, and as retaliation, the Dresden-like raising of that city by the Coalition, or more rightly the US. Which led to an increase in the hatred of the invasion forces and a heightening of the insurgency. Which led to the hiring of more mercs. 'Catch-22. That's all they say. Catch-22. What does it mean, this Catch-22?'
  • Wow.
  • They had these guys in New Orleans after Katrina, too. I find the way this is all going to be really frightening. I wish we would hit bottom so I'd know there's a bottom.
  • Oh, you got a ways to go yet. Look at history. There's a good few examples of how far it can go. You know you'll be near bottom when they start hiring mercs to kill US citizens on US soil. And it can go further down than that, too. Five years ago I woulda thought that tinfoil nutter territory, but not so much now.
  • Just a few rotten apples Just some cheerleading pranks We don't torture And in a few years, when the relatives and friends of those victims get suckered into suicidal attacks by fanatical leaders, they will ask, 'Just why do they hate us so much?".
  • They hate our FREEDOM!
  • That's right! Our FREEDOM to send British nutters with guns halfway around the world to shoot passers-by! God that makes me angry! So many haters in the world!
  • Well, Chryen, the further down would be, if we lok at Roman history, when the mercs want more money and start installing their own governments to get it.
  • profile of spicer, the founder of aegis defence services.
  • Well I wish I could say this is going to cause some sort of change in consciousness on the part of the world's "meat puppet" population. However, it is the "war" in Irack, and shit happens, you know.. Like a friend of mine said "We're the New Nazis, and I'm comfortable with that". Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, I'm not comfortable with that, but apparently Facism works great for the evangelical christians and the jews to boot!
  • Your friend who said that, I'd be comfortable with beating the shit out of him. I'm a pacifist, in theory. But comes a time to fight monsters. Then you are either a slave or ..
  • Minor point but these aren't exactly "random". According to comments on Aegis' online forum, comments from employees (many of whom are duly outraged) shooting at vehicles in the rear is standard procedure, if you can believe that. The position is called "rear tail gunner". What distinguished this video apparently is the particularly irresponsible manner in which this trigger happy/ fear stricken maniac just lets loose at vehicles who pose no obvious threat. Even without the excess exhibited in this video, this seems like a very dubious/reckless policy. Why not a sign on the back of the vehicles warning cars not to approach or a loudspeaker warning in arabic? Instead, I guess it's just simpler to blow away innocent civilians. WTF?!! See here and enter "video" in the search function and see the firestorm on the Aegis board for yourselves. It's clear from the comments there that this was a "trophy" video and the perpetrators themselves added the Elvis soundtrack, underscoring the bullshit macho attitude of these idiots. Also this may put into perspective the lynching of the four Blackwell contractors that caused the US to raze Fallujah, a city of 300,000. The time for winning "hearts and minds" is lost forever.
  • Last night a spokesman for the Foreign Office said: "Aegis have assured us that there is nothing on the video to suggest that it has anything to do with their company. This is now a matter for the American authorities because Aegis is under contract to the United States." Well that is a complete load of tripe as you can plainly see on the Aegis board as their employees clearly acknowledge posting the video. Furthermore, many employees worry openly about the effect on the rest of the world that this release wil have.
  • See here and enter "video" in the search function and see the firestorm on the Aegis board for yourselves Following the link: "If you are a member of the general public: The fact that you are seeing this page indicates that the website you just visited is either experiencing problems, or is undergoing routine maintenance." Yes, seems like it must be routine maintenance time.
  • That's so cool, man I always wanted to be Mercenary, or a Smuggler like Han Solo. Han Solo rocks.
  • Good point. This is a really cool video game.
  • The proper site seems to be www.aegisiraq.co.uk, no -. On the other hand, these domains seem to be associated, both having been registered in early october, one by "Rock Stone" and one by "Rod Stoner". The site without the dash says on its front page "This site does not belong to AEGIS DEFENSE LTD it belongs to the men on the ground who are the heart and soul of the company." It has a message board, which is, shockingly, down for maintenance. Has anyone seen anything on major news sites about this? I've dug up a few links by searching but I haven't seen it in any headlines.
  • http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1128/dailyUpdate.html http://washingtontimes.com/world/20051126-115232-9399r.htm Who'd think the Washington Times would be taking the lead in reporting this story in the US?
  • Here is a video link to Olbermann's piece on it. I'm not surprised they shut the website down as the comments there were very damning, especially the early ones before they caught on that the site was being visited by outsiders. Here is one of the later comments: From: low profile Date: 27 Nov 2005 Time: 15:44:10 Remote Name: 212.56.128.185 Comments guys, ref the video, are you surprised at this?? I mean you post this and other stuff on an unsecure site for everybody (media/terrorists etc) to see. Are you all fucking mad?? It's like the fusiliers getting their 'torture' photos developed at snappy snaps.....how daft can you get? All this plays into the hands of those that see us as mercenaries/ baby killers/ whatever. You wait for the fallout now. What the FUCK were you thinking putting it on here? I got sent it via other means, and believe me it's fast becoming the new 'Edinburgh Risk' video, ie everyone's seen it and it makes you all (and reflectively all of us in the AOR) look like cowboys. And it's a pretty bad clip lets face it (er, how many 'warning shots'??) I'm surprised the Guardian/Mirror and all the other media wankers haven't leapt on it (yet). Engage the brains guys cos EVERYONE can read these posts.... Incidentally, been doing PSD since summer '03 both high & low profile. No prizes for guessing which one I prefer...
  • Good find, kamus.
  • I really enjoy the way the tone of that quote is focused on "why didn't you cover your asses" instead of "why did you fucking murder those people." What a goddamn fucking world we live in.
  • Here's an update from Crooks and Liars: C&L has learned through sources close to the investigation that the man who is seen shooting vehicles on this video in Iraq was a South African employee of Aegis Victory team named Danny Heydenreycher. He served in the British military for 6 years. After the incident the Regional Director for Victory ROC tried to fire Heydenreycher, but the team threatened to resign if he did. Aegis held an "inquiry" into it. A letter was sent by one of the members of Aegis up the chain after he quit. It was read by Lt Col Tim Spicer, a former Scots Guards officer, who is investigating this incident and interviewed the author. That was about 8 weeks ago and nothing has been done since. Our sources believes Spicer -who appeared in this News.Telegraph story-is covering up for Aegis at this point. Hopefully, I'll have an update soon.
  • Ah, roryk said it upthread.