“They dragged me and two Iraqis out of the car. I and the Iraqis thought: That’s it. They’re going to kill us. Tens of thousands of Iraqis have died in this way.” Fortunately, at the last moment one gunman suggested that the captives should be taken to the Sheikh at the Mosque and let him decide their fate.

“They took us there and then things gradually became better,” Patrick Cockburn said when interviewed by James Zogby on After Words.

Next time, he might not be so lucky.

The general image of journalists as perceived by the insurgents both in Iraq and Afghanistan is that they work for the invaders and are not impartial. In many cases, insurgents feel threaten by journalists, both foreign and local, and are deliberately targeted, killing many of them. According to statistics offered by the Committee to Protect Journalists, 139 journalists have been killed in Iraq since 1992 and 18 in Afghanistan.

To make matters worst, the CIA has employed two veterans of the U.S. Special Forces with close links to Blackwater to pose as journalists. They were involved in counter-intelligence and counter-terrorism operations in 2003 to 2005. Both individuals worked as fake UPI journalists in CIA-approved operations in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Uzbekistan and Iran. This episode may have two serious consequences, it will hurt the credibility of the United Press International and put journalist at a far greater risk.

First, it is unknown if the UPI has approved the CIA operations or if the company had any knowledge of it at all. Since these were covert operations we might be inclined to believe the second assumption. However, further UPI reports on the Middle East may be viewed by readers and the independent media with a mild suspicion. Overall, this may have slightly tousled the newswire’s reputation.

But the real damage was done to the image of Iraq and Afghanistan correspondents who work in high danger situations. Some could have gotten away with the fact that they work for various publications, or the word PRESS on their vehicles or Kevlar may have offered relatively small protection, but it is better than no protection at all. Furthermore, journalists have to work closely with Iraqis and sometime earn the trust of various leaders with the goal of obtaining information or an interview. However, the word PRESS becomes meaningless in Iraq and Afghanistan when associated with private security firms, especially with Blackwater.

Blackwater (known today as Xe) has a special reputation in both the United States and with the people of Iraq and Afghanistan. On Christmas Eve 2006, a company employee got drunk and killed the guard of the Iraqi vice president. Furthermore, Blackwater employees spread fear in Pakistan.  In the city of Peshawar they are known to “point guns at people without provocations” or to “behave rudely with the passers-by.” In other words, Blackwater contractors treat allies of the United States with absolutely no respect.

The list of abuses can go on forever. It comes as no surprise that military specialists have labeled Blackwater and private military firms in general as “counterproductive.” Indeed, their actions turn the people against the United States, thus seriously hurting the military intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan.

If the reputation of Blackwater is associated with journalists, the consequences will be tragic. At the end of 2007, the Pew Research Center has conducted a survey to investigate the conditions of journalists active in Iraq. No more than 57% of the journalists surveyed said that at least one of their Iraqi staff has been kidnapped or murdered. The situation has apparently improved, as for 2009 the Committee to Protect Journalists reports only 3 deaths of their fellow media workers. The situation is, however, fragile. The locals hate private military firms and they can turn against the media as well.

If this happens journalists will, yet again, receive little or no support from the people, they will be viewed with suspicion by their leaders and insurgents will increase their efforts in killing the press.

- wrote Chuck Hagel, a former Republican senator from Nebraska, in an article for The Washington Post.

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Part II – Part III – Part IV – Part V

I came across this great documentary which shows a few dark pages of Hungarian history. I was born in Zalau, about 8 miles from Treznea, where Hungarian troops slaughtered hundreds of civilians, and I’ve had relatives who witnessed the tragedy.

My grand-grandfather told my mother that people were impaled that day. Pregnant women were cut open, children killed with the bayonette, entire families murdered, all sorts of almost unimaginable acts of brutality. I say unimaginable because in Zalau the inter-ethnic relation between Romanians and Hungarians almost 70 years after the atrocity is excellent.

Anyway, the documentary stresses that most Hungarians felt that the Threaty of Paris was unjust. Well, if I’d loose my empire, I’d be pretty pissed too. But all their frustration was turned against the Romanians, for they were the majority in Ardeal (and in Transylvania in general) and used their self determination right to join Romania. They have forgotten the Romanian military initiative that saved Hungary from communism. In September 1919, the Romanian Royal Army took Budapest, and in consequence Bela Kun’s Hungarian Soviet Republic seized to exist. This was not a war of conquest, but one of liberation.

After the Romanian army pushed back the Horthyst and German troops in World War II, the Meses Mountain (where Treznea is located) became the front line. It is perhaps interesting to point out that there were no atrocities once the Romanian army retook lost ground and entered Hungary.

We must remember the tragedies of Ip and Treznea. I am glad that sombody has made this documentary to honor the memory of those who were murdered there. For far too long these dark episodes of history have been kept silent or ignored. But the stories of Ip and Treznea will continue, their memory will not fade, grandfathers tell the stories to their children, just like I learned this from my grand-grandfather through my mother.

The newspaper says it has obtained a memo from two ex-Blackwater employees which writes that the CIA employed “Blackwater and its subsidiaries” to transfer detainees from Guantanamo Bay to “secret detention camps in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Uzbekistan for interrogation.”

Reports inform that the 40-year-old Janullah Hashimzada was returning from Afghanistan when militants attacked his vehicle near Jamrud, a town located in the Khybar tribal district known to host many Taliban militants.

Rehan Gul Khatok, assistant administrative agent in Jamrud said that the gunmen stopped the vehicle and shot the journalist dead. He also mentions that Hashimzada was very critical of the Taliban and had valuable information regarding the militans. Even more, “his reporting was unacceptable both to Pakistani and Afghan governments and intelligence agencies,” he told the Vienna based International Press Institute.

When testing concludes, the full Aegis Weapon System will be ready for installation in HMAS Hobart, the first of three Australian Air Warfare Destroyers under contract.

Lockheed Martin’s Production Test Center replicates a ship’s superstructure and allows for the first integration of all the subsystems of the Aegis Weapon System, including the SPY-1D(V) radar, illuminators, all computing hardware, and the cabling that will be used in the final ship installation. In its Production Test Center, Lockheed Martin conducts testing concurrently with each subsystem’s installation, as well as with the entire completed Aegis Weapon System, in order to ensure the system is ready for the rigors of sea before it ever leaves land.

“This land-based testing process is critical to the exacting reliability that Aegis continually delivers, and will deliver for the Australian Navy,” said Orlando Carvalho, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin’s Surface/Sea-Based Missile Defense Systems line of business.

Upon completion of the testing, the Aegis Weapon System will be shipped to ASC Shipyard in Adelaide, Australia, when the shipyard is ready to install the system. The Hobart-class Air Warfare Destroyer will be the most advanced and complex warships ever built in Australia and will introduce the Aegis Weapon System to the Royal Australian Navy.

The Aegis Weapon System is the world’s premier proven naval defense system. Its precision S-band SPY-1 radar and missile system seamlessly integrate with its own command and control. Its ability to detect, track and engage targets ranging from sea-skimming cruise missiles to ballistic missiles in space is unmatched.

The 91 Aegis-equipped ships currently in service around the globe have more than 1,100 years of at-sea operational experience and have launched more than 3,500 missiles in tests and real-world operations. In addition to the U.S. and Australia, Aegis is the maritime weapon system of choice for Japan, Norway, South Korea and Spain.

Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global security company that employs about 146,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The corporation reported 2008 sales of $42.7 billion.

Throughout history, the progress in military technology has changed the way wars were fought. When generals did not understand the new in warfare, lives were lost more than necessary. One such example is the Great War, which was “an odd, tragic mix of outmoded generalship combined with deadly new technologies,” Singer writes. It was in 1917 when the first unmanned weapons made an entrance on the battlefield. The ‘electric dog’ had a design similar to the tricycle and was carrying supplies to the trenches guided by the lights of a lantern. The ‘land torpedo’ was a remote controlled armored tractor which could carry over 1,000 pounds of explosives to the enemy trenches and explode.

World War II brought significant contributions in the advanced military technology sector. It was now that unmanned vehicles, both land and aerial, were used by both sides. The Germans were the first to use what we now call drones. The FX-1400 or ‘Fritz’ was launched by a plane flying at high altitude and then steered by radio into the target. Wired for War explains how these and other weapons were used and their impact on the battlefield.

Following WW2, and especially during the Vietnam War, the public knew very little about the development of unmanned weapons. Most programs were classified and the same time the military presented little interest in the new technology. However, the development of military robots, which were now focusing mostly on aerial surveillance, continued slowly. In this time, the Israelis used the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) at their full potential with great success.

The U.S. would later use them successfully in the Gulf War. However, UAVs became indispensable once they were equipped with GPS in 1995. Since then, the military is investing heavily in land robots and UAVs, signing contracts worth billions of dollars with various private firms of robotics. P. W. Singer writes about the dangers presented by the industrialization of warfare and discusses the consequences of employing robots to fight man’s wars.

From an economic point of view, the technology is available at exorbitant prices. In 1979 the U.S. military invested over 1 billion dollars in a program that failed to develop 789 Aquila drones; instead the result was a few prototypes that were never used. In our days, more than 6 billion dollars are invested in contracts with robotics firms. To this, we can add other expenses that cost the American tax-payers hundreds of billions of dollars. The United States could afford such expenses if wars were conventional and decisive such as World War 2, for example. However, today the U.S. debt is over 11 trillions of dollars and is expected to rise with about 1 trillion per year. We are in a serious global economic crisis and the US military does not seem to have an end in sight for the war in Afghanistan or Iraq (US troops are still active in Iraq and funding continues indefinitely). In my view, the US will not be able to continue a military presence in the countries much longer. Col. Thomas Hammes, has warned that this type of wars do not last years, but decades.

However, the robots have saved hundreds of American lives and in the same time, their use can significantly reduce the number of civilian casualties. P.W. Singer writes that he has interviewed numerous soldiers who had nothing but praise for the robots, saying that they saved their lives many times. Using unmanned weapons soldiers are exposed to relatively far lower levels of danger. Singer offers many examples of robots controlled from the distance by specialist soldiers and quotes drone squadron leaders talking about their missions.

In an article for The New Atlantis, P.W. Singer writes: “Many also feel that unmanned systems can remove the anger and emotion from the humans behind them. A remote operator isn’t in the midst of combat and isn’t watching his buddies die around him as his adrenaline spikes; he can take his time and act deliberately in ways that can lessen the likelihood of civilians being killed.” However, there are studies suggesting that soldiers will find killing easier if they are disconnected from the realities of war.

But perhaps, it is better to let P.W. Singer explain this himself (please watch the video below).

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Peter Warren Singer is a leading expert on 21st century warfare. He previously wrote two books dealing with different aspects of modern warfare: Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military (soon to be reviewed as well) and Children at War (Pantheon, 2005). Currently, P. W. Singer is Senior Fellow and Director of the 21st Century Defense Initiative at the Brookings Institution.

The government failed to provide quick and concise solutions to these problems leading to serious human rights abuses.

In a two-week visit to the United States, the UN Working Group focused on the impact that private security contractors in Afghanistan and Iraq have on human rights. The Group expressed concern about the lack of public information on the contracts as well as poor investigations into human rights abuses committed by the firms.

Little or no information is available to the public on the contracts between the US Government and the private military firms operating in the Iraq and Afghanistan. “There is still very little information accessible to the public on the scope and type of contracts,” the Group writes in a press statement.

The Group is also concerned about the gaps in legislation that fail to regulate the activities of Private Military Security Companies (PMSCs). “It is indeed the responsibility of the state to ensure that any contractor to which it outsourcers its functions, fully respects human right, and, in cases of violations is prosecuted and held accountable.”

A private military company known as DynCorp, founded by President Harry Truman after World War 2 to provide jobs for former soldiers, was sued in 2002 by Ecuadorian farmers for spraying highly toxic pesticides in the Amazonian jungles, near the border of Ecuador and Columbia. The company was held responsible for over 1,100 cases of illnesses and the death of two children.

“Violations of human rights committed by private security contractors may include excessive use of force which could lead to injuries or death and which, prior to January 2009, were often not adequately investigated and prosecuted by the relevant authorities,” reads the UN Working Group’s press statement.

DynCorp has a history of abuses. Hired in Bosnia to provide maintenance support for the US military, its employees engaged in illegal and immoral activities. A former DynCorp aircraft mechanic working on Apache and Blackhawk maintenance testified in court that one of his colleagues “owned a girl who couldn’t have been more that 14 years old.”

Some employees and supervisors of DynCorp have engaged in illegal weapons acquisition and passport forging activities and have been involved in immoral activities such as buying and selling of women for personal enjoyment. Other DynCorp officers who have been practicing sex-trafficking were never put to justice as they had immunity from prosecution in Bosnia. They were, however, forced to resign.

More recently, as operations in Afghanistan escalated, the US army is looking for private security contractors to protect military camps. The US policy is to increase the number of PMSCs active in Afghanistan.

Shaista Shameen from the UN Working Group says that “we are particularly preoccupied that the use of PMSCs to protect US forward operating bases in most places of Afghanistan may further dilute the distinction between military and civilian personnel.” The increase of private security firms may “tend towards an extensive privatization of war,” Shameen adds.

Among the firms hired by the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan is the notorious Blackwater, now known as Xe. The company has been involved in numerous scandals and now faces charges of human rights violations. The company is known to have sent different amounts of money to the families of Iraqis killed. Blackwater founder Erik Prince officially stated that he paid $20,000 to a family and $5,000 to another.

Recent sworn statements filed on August 3 in federal court Virginia by an employee and a former US Marine who has worked for Blackwater accuse Mr. Prince of the murder of people who were investigating the company. The two individuals, identified for safety reasons as John Doe 1 and John Doe 2, also said that Blackwater was smuggling weapons in Iraq using Prince’s private planes and that the company destroyed incriminating videos, email and documents to deliberately deceive the US State Department.

A few days earlier, the government extended Blackwater’s contract for more that $20 million for security services. However, the Iraqi government refused to provide the company with an operating license.

Blackwater-Xe has denied the accusations saying that it would file a brief on August 17 in response “to the anonymous unsubstantiated and offensive assertion put forward by the plaintiffs.”

Meanwhile, Blackwater-Xe employees spread fear in the Pakistani town of Peshawar. Residents fear the company for its reputation. A local said that the company’s personnel behave rudely and “sometimes point guns at people without provocation.”

The UN Working Group recommends that “Congress should adopt legislation that comprehensively provides criminal jurisdiction over contractors and civilian employees, including those working for the intelligence agencies and ensure its effective implementation.”

In addition, the US Government “should ensure victims’ right to an effective remedy and ensure that victims have access to justice.” The Group also says that the public should have more information available on the number of PMSCs operating under US contracts.

Russian ambassador to Romania, Aleksandr Ciurilin was quoted by the newspaper saying that “some countries are willing to contribute to the rise of the military potential of Georgia even after the Tzhinvali pogrom.”

Asked by the same publication if the ambassador has any information on the arms export, he is quoted saying that “I have no information regarding any help from Romania in arming Georgia.”

In 2003, just weeks before the US invasion of Iraq, Cockburn made his way to the country. Thanks to a book published in 1999 which was co-authored with his brother Andrew, he did not receive a visa to enter Iraq. The book, Out of the Ashes: The Resurrection of Saddam Hussein, was not seen well by the Saddam regime. Cockburn writes in The Occupation, that the book did well in the black market, as some Iraqis photocopied the book, multiplied it and then they went on and sold the book. In consequence, Patrick Cockburn had to pass through Syria and into Northern Iraq controlled by the Kurds. Then he crossed the Tigris River by boat and made his way to Baghdad.

For the next three years, Cockburn would report on Iraq for The Independent and after the invasion he started to write for the London Review of Books. He was present when the Saddam regime fell and reported on the anarchy and looting that occurred throughout the country after the invasion. Cockburn writes that American soldiers did not intervene in order to stop the looting and try to install order in the streets of Baghdad. Throughout The Occupation, Cockburn criticizes the steps taken by the Americans to pacify regions of Iraq and eventually the entire country.

Patrick Cockburn’s The Occupation: War and Resistance in Iraq, starts with a brief history of the country in order to emphasize the struggle of the Iraqis until the fall of Saddam Hussein. Cockburn writes on the differences between the Shia and the Sunni as well as their similarities. The author writes on the local tribal politics, a tribe might have both Shia and Sunni members; he informs the reader on the political motivations of the Kurds in Northern Iraq and criticizes the United States for not trying to understand these aspects of Iraq which led to dramatic consequences.

The author shows the rise of subnationalism in Iraq which peaked with the 2005 elections that almost brought the country into civil war. The Sunnis tried to boycott the elections with catastrophic results, the Kurds voted for their representatives, the Shia for the Shia. The results were dramatic. Patrick Cockburn was to stay during this uprising that almost turned into a full civil war and reported on the events. He frequently quotes the opinion of his Iraqi friends or of whom were directly involved, often using anecdotes to portray the events in question.  The book is a fine example of brilliant journalism.

In The Occupation: War and Resistance in Iraq, Patrick Cockburn is very critical of the ways the US occupation of Iraq evolved during 2003 and 2006. The author also displays a very pessimistic outlook at the future of the country. In his view, the invasion will have dire consequences for the United States.

The Occupation is a must read for anybody who wants to go behind the headlines and the optimism displayed by the US and British media and explore the reality of Iraq as described by Patrick Cockburn.

Click here to purchase the book.