From retired US Marines to Americans ...............
"Americans should be SHOUTING to put a STOP TO THIS MURDER FOR HIRE!"
400 US mercenaries 'deployed on ground' in Ukraine military op
Published time: May 11, 2014 15:04
Ukrainian troops outside the
town of Andreyevskoe near Slaviyansk, Donetsk Region, where local residents
blocked a column of Ukrainian Army armored personnel carriers. (RIA Novosti /
Mikhail Voskresenskiy)
About 400 elite mercenaries from the
notorious US private security firm Academi (formerly Blackwater) are taking
part in the Ukrainian military operation against anti-government protesters in
southeastern regions of the country, German media reports.
The Bild am Sonntag newspaper, citing a source in intelligence
circles, wrote Sunday that Academi employees are involved in the Kiev military crackdown on
pro-autonomy activists in near the town of Slavyansk, in the Donetsk region.
On April 29, German Intelligence Service (BND) informed Chancellor Angela
Merkel’s government about the mercenaries’ participation in the operation, the paper said, RIA
Novosti reported. It is not clear who commands the private military contractors
and pays for their services, however.
In March, media reports appeared suggesting that the coup-imposed
government in Kiev could have employed up to 300 mercenaries.That was before the
new government launched a military operation against anti-Maidan activists, or
“terrorists” as Kiev put it, in southeast Ukraine.
At the time, the Russian Foreign Ministry said then that reports
claiming Kiev was planning to e “involve staff from
foreign military companies to ‘ensure the rule of law,’” could suggest that it
wanted “to suppress civil protests and dissatisfaction.”
In particular, Greystone Limited, which is currently registered in
Barbados and is a part of Academi Corporation, is a candidate for such a
gendarme role. It is a similar and probably an affiliated structure of the
Blackwater private army, whose staff have been accused of cruel and systematic
violations of human rights in various trouble spots on many occasions.
“Among the candidates for the role of gendarme is the
Barbados-registered company Greystone Limited, which is integrated with the
Academi corporation,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “It is
an analogue, and, probably and affiliated body of the Blackwater private army, whose
employees have repeatedly been accused of committing grievous and systematic
human rights abuses in different troubled regions.”
Allegations increased further after unverified videos appeared on
YouTube of unidentified armed men in the streets of Donetsk, the capital of the
country’s industrial and coalmining region. In those videos, onlookers can be
heard shouting “Mercenaries!”“Blackwater!,” and “Who are you
going to shoot at?”
(FILES) A picture taken on
July 5, 2005 shows contractors of the US private security firm Blackwater
securing the site of a roadside bomb attack near the Iranian embassy in central
Baghdad. (AFP Photo / Ahmad Al-Rubaye)
Academi denied its involvement in Ukraine, claiming on its website
that “rumors” were posted by “some irresponsible bloggers and online
reporters.”
“Such unfounded statements combined with the lack of factual
reporting to support them and the lack of context about the compan, are nothing
more than sensationalistic efforts to create hysteria and headlines in times of
genuine crisis,” the US firm stated.
The American security company Blackwater gained worldwide
notoriety for the substantial role it played in the Iraq war as a contractor
for the US government. In recent years it has changed its name twice – in 2009
it was renamed Xe Services and in 2011 it got its current name, Academi.
The firm became infamous for the alleged September 16, 2007
killing of 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad. The attack, which saw 20 others
wounded, was allegedly without justification and in violation of deadly-force
rules that pertained to American security contractors in Iraq at the time.
Between 2005 and September 2007, Blackwater 'security guards' were
involved in at least 195 shooting incidents in Iraq and fired first in 163 of
those cases, a Congressional report said at the time.
Semper Fi VINCIT OMNIA VERITAS
Retired U.S.M.C.
{M. S. G., Vietnam & Cambodia Vet}
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