FSTDT Forums
Community => Society and History => Topic started by: Askold on April 12, 2016, 06:38:11 am
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Can you guess what would be even worse than the private militaries that are gaining power all over the world? If they also had an airforce.
Can you guess what would be even worse than private airforce? If Erik "Blackwater" Prince built himself a private airforce. Which he is doing.
https://theintercept.com/2016/04/11/blackwater-founder-erik-prince-drive-to-build-private-air-force/
The article is very extensive and explains how he built a new company to replace Blackwater, after he lost it partially due to all the horrible things he and the company did, and how the company also created different front companies so that it could turn civilian planes into ground attack planes.
The company also installed pods for mounting two high-powered 23 mm machine guns. By this point, the engineers and mechanics were concerned that they had broken several Austrian laws but were advised that everything would be fine as long as they all kept the secret.
When your boss tells you that it's ok to break the law "as long as no one finds out" it is time to call the police immediately.
Prince bought 25% of the Austrian company which he had hired to modify the planes owned by his other company. This way it was easier to keep his doings a secret from outsiders AS WELL AS from people the PMC who might not have approved of this kind of deals. (Also, since much of the stuff he was doing was either illegal or at least against the agreements he had done with USA using front companies would allow him to claim that his PMC didn't break the deals since it was the other companies that were doing the shadier stuff.)
I'm just amazed that the real world seems to insist on becoming a cyberpunk dystopia...
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Ya know, we keep going after ISIS and the like, why the hell is this guy still alive? Shouldn't building a fucking air force, in secret, with no knowledge of his host government be some serious kind of international crime?
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Metal Gear Solid 5 predicted this.
BRAVO KOJIMA
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Metal Gear Solid 5 predicted this.
BRAVO KOJIMA
Standing
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Metal Gear Solid 5 predicted this.
BRAVO KOJIMA
Standing
here I
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Fucking hell, when you've become more of a Bond villain than Putin it's time to really fucking look at yourself.
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Nothing new, PMCs have had their own air support before.
These chaps, for a start (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Outcomes)
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Oh well then that makes it ok then I guess.
And did you miss or just ignore the part where they were breaking the law and gave their employees the old "its only illegal if you get caught" line?
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No, but there is more to life than flipping out and making spasticated value judgements about every minute detail.
I'll leave that sort of thing to you...
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Nothing new, PMCs have had their own air support before.
These chaps, for a start (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Outcomes)
Yeah, but never any direct attack aircraft.
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Conty on the law and breaking it.
...minute detail...
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Ahem:
It was already apparent to most of the staff working on the plane that the modifications, requested by a company they knew only as Frontier, were deeply problematic. “It was clear they didn’t care about certification,” the former Airborne employee said, describing the attitude of Prince’s team. “If you make a modification to an aircraft and you do not certify it, then the operation of the aircraft is completely illegal. In Europe, it is very illegal. You are breaking a lot of laws.” He recalled one of Prince’s deputies saying that the aircraft would be used for surveillance operations in Africa and “no one there cares about certifications.” The former employee said he and other personnel working on the Thrush project were told that certification and licensing were the aircraft owner’s problem. The message was: “We do not have a risk as long as everyone keeps quiet.”
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Nothing new, PMCs have had their own air support before.
These chaps, for a start (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Outcomes)
Well, I guess re-performing the holocaust would be ok. After all, its been done before.
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Ya know, we keep going after ISIS and the like, why the hell is this guy still alive? Shouldn't building a fucking air force, in secret, with no knowledge of his host government be some serious kind of international crime?
At the risk of saying the obvious, I imagine being white, male, and rich helps.
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I wish that didn't matter. At least with enemies, you know where their allegiances lie. With sellswords...
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I wish that didn't matter. At least with enemies, you know where their allegiances lie. With sellswords...
...you also know exactly where their allegiances lie.
So long as you have a greater cashflow than the opposition...
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I wish that didn't matter. At least with enemies, you know where their allegiances lie. With sellswords...
...you also know exactly where their allegiances lie.
So long as you have a greater cashflow than the opposition...
Which constantly fluctuates according to numerous variables both within and without your control.
But, please, do go on about how we can trust mercenaries.
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I wish that didn't matter. At least with enemies, you know where their allegiances lie. With sellswords...
...you also know exactly where their allegiances lie.
So long as you have a greater cashflow than the opposition...
Which constantly fluctuates according to numerous variables both within and without your control.
But, please, do go on about how we can trust mercenaries.
*for a given value of trust, your mileage may vary.
I'd say unless you've paid for a bunch of Genoese crossbowmen (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cr%C3%A9cy) you should be ok.
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I wish that didn't matter. At least with enemies, you know where their allegiances lie. With sellswords...
...you also know exactly where their allegiances lie.
So long as you have a greater cashflow than the opposition...
Which constantly fluctuates according to numerous variables both within and without your control.
But, please, do go on about how we can trust mercenaries.
Kerowyn and the Skybolts would like a word with you.
Ironbite-oh wait real life mercs.
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Ya know, we keep going after ISIS and the like, why the hell is this guy still alive? Shouldn't building a fucking air force, in secret, with no knowledge of his host government be some serious kind of international crime?
At the risk of saying the obvious, I imagine being white, male, and rich helps.
This is the relevant part. Money buys a lot of blind eyes and deaf ears.
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Seeing as Blackwater attacked US allies and robbed their weapons depot to sell the arms to the enemies of USA (I seem to recall it was officially called "lateral means of acquiring funds" or something like that) being the richest customer or highest bidder does not seem to guarantee loyalty from mercs.