
US mercenaries arrested in Haiti, part of a scheme to move $80M for president - jbegley
https://theintercept.com/2019/03/20/haiti-president-mercenary-operation/
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teddyh
Note: The “president” in the title is Haitian President Jovenel Moïse.

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smn1234
I first thought it was Trump, before reading the article

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stronglikedan
Through no fault of your own, no doubt. You thought exactly what the author
(or editor) intended for you, and everyone else, to think.

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rchaud
I did not get that impression. The Intercept has covered a number of stories
about Haiti and there are plenty of people who are aware of the political
situation over there.

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kickopotomus
Putting "US", "president", "$80M", and "scheme" in the title was definitely
done on purpose. The title could have easily been phrased differently to make
it clear that the president in question was the Haitian president but that
wouldn't get as many clicks.

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ilamont
_U.S. authorities have so far failed to bring charges against the contractors
for illegally traveling out of the United States with their weapons, which
requires a license._

I'm skeptical charges will ever be brought. Ex-military security contractors
are ubiquitous in certain parts of the world, and seem to live by a different
set of rules.

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hetspookjee
I'd love to read more about the process of contractors acquiring those special
rights. Maybe you got some further reading?

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pytyper2
It's all about who you call after you have been detained.

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trhway
for example, private military contracting is outright explicitly illegal in
Russia. That didn't prevent in anyway a well known Russian private military
company to fight in Ukraine and Syria ... both times of course for the side
supported by Putin.

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sremani
The Russian "Blackwater" is called Wagner Group.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wagner_Group](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wagner_Group)

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ochoseis
These guys are also in Venezuela right now:

[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/25/venezuela-
madu...](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/25/venezuela-maduro-
russia-private-security-contractors)

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Vaskerville
People are so exhausted from the aforementioned demonstrations I doubt anybody
will demonstrate based on this new information. (I know people who went two
weeks without any water in their home.) I just can't imagine Moise remains
president for much longer. Note: I live in Haiti.

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sevensor
This incident with the mercenaries, is it the thing Haitians are particularly
concerned with, or is it more of an episode in a bigger story?

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Vaskerville
The bigger story is the missing $2B - the story does touch upon that. Many
contracts were handed out for works to companies owned by people in government
or their friends and the works were not done.

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thinkcontext
This was small potatoes compared to the UAE hiring ex-SF to conduct
assassinations in Yemen.

[https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/aramroston/mercenaries-...](https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/aramroston/mercenaries-
assassination-us-yemen-uae-spear-golan-dahlan)

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joncrane
Is this a follow up from a front page post about a week ago titled "My Boss
Will Call Your Boss?"

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getcrunk
Search didn’t help, link?

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hetspookjee
Someone posted the link 1 min after your comment unfortunately :')

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19368175](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19368175)

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jmull
It’s unclear to me how the “caper” was supposed to work... the goal,
apparently, was to achieve a money transfer.

So... was the plan that the armed group of foreigners would intimidate bank
personnel into allowing a transfer they otherwise wouldn’t allow? A kind of
“soft” bank robbery?

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iooi
Previous discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19368175](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19368175)

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ChuckMcM
There is a comedy movie script in here somewhere I'm sure of it.

It almost reads like somebody was watching the TV series Mission: Impossible,
and said, "Yeah, we should get some guys like that and move the money before
anyone can catch us."

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hopler
Three Kings movie, starring George Clooney

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UI_at_80x24
I find it amusing (and sad) that the title is equally believable if you think
that "President" was referring to Trump.

I had to RTFA to find out.

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social_quotient
The title of this feels a little like bait. Sadly it’s only because current
political climate in the US has had it’s share of “schemes” to “move” money.

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social_quotient
Whoever downvoted. Maybe you could leave a comment in support of the title so
I can understand your point of view? Or at least a counter to my comment.

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Kavenerinds
I agree with you. How can they give the article that title while the last
sentence states, "It is unclear what that assignment might have been?" While I
believe the title may be correct based off of other information in the
article, the authors make themselves look incompetent (i.e., maybe covering
their asses) by ending the article with that assertion.

