
Our Boss Will Call Your Boss - howard941
https://cepr.shorthandstories.com/haiti-contractors/index.html
======
caprese
> If [the United States] believed in the institutions, why did the embassy
> prevent the contractors from facing a judge?

No single citizen in the United States respects any foreign government's
judicial system. The entire nation state concept is a joke and an
administrative nuance at BEST to anyone here.

The whole story is about how a random autonomous federal agency in the US was
either about to cause a regime change, or help the current regime destroy
documents in a fake Central Bank heist gone wrong, and people are worried
whether we would waste time with an irrelevent judicial trial that we were
going to undermine anyway?

haha, okay. well if it wasn't obvious before it should be obvious now from me
writing it out. The US provides financial support to everyone to maintain
relationships, it has nothing to do with respect for an institution.

~~~
onetimemanytime
> _If [the United States] believed in the institutions, why did the embassy
> prevent the contractors from facing a judge?_

USA almost certainly sent them, directly or indirectly (i.e., closed both ears
and eyes) in an illegal operation. Illegal in a lot of ways. So why would US
let them face a judge?

~~~
seppin
It was the local gov that let them off, it was them that hired the group.
Being an American national doesn't mean you work for the US Gov.

~~~
solotronics
Yeah I think it's more likely friends and associates in the military complex
got them out of a jam.

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MzxgckZtNqX5i
I'm the only one who thought to the dialog at the end of Lord of War?

~~~
snr
Which one?

~~~
FireBeyond
"Soon there's going to be a knock on that door and you will be called outside.
In the hall there will be a man who out-ranks you. First he'll compliment you
on the fine job you've done - on you making the world a safer place. That
you're to receive a commendation or a promotion. And then he's going to tell
you that I am to be released. You're going to protest. You'll probably
threaten to resign. But in the end, I _will_ be released.

The reason I'll be released is the same reason you think I'll be convicted. I
do rub shoulders with some of the most vile, sadistic men calling themselves
leaders today. But some of these men are the enemies of your enemies. And
while the biggest arms dealer in the world is your boss - the President of the
United States, who ships more merchandise in a day than I do in a year -
sometimes it's embarrassing to have his fingerprints on the guns. Sometimes he
needs a freelancer like me to supply forces he can't be seen supplying. So.
You call me evil, but unfortunately for you, I'm a necessary evil."

~~~
snr
Oh yeah. Sorry, confused the title with War Dogs.

Definitely one of my favorites! (Both movies are)

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duxup
It's very strange. There's really nothing to indicate what they were there to
do.

All the theories about motivation make the whole operation seems kinda clumsy
and weird.

~~~
mywittyname
We do know that these "contractors" do sometimes carry out missions that the
military wants performed, but either needs to be kept at arms length to
maintain plausible deniability on the world stage, or is used to implicate
some other group. There have been a few exposes on these types over the years
and their stories are pretty interesting.

I'm not sure this op was clumsy though. They are probably used to operating in
regions where the police force is less effective.

~~~
amch
Are there any particularly interesting exposes that you'd recommend? I'm
curious to read more about this sort of thing.

~~~
teachrdan
The case of Raymond Davis[0] is probably the most mind-boggling in recent
memory: A private contractor with a cover story as a cultural attache at the
US embassy in Pakistan sees he's being followed by a couple guys on motorbikes
while driving through Lahore, thinks he's going to get assassinated by
Pakistani security forces, and shoots and kills both of them. He's arrested
shortly thereafter with IR cameras, magazines full of bullets, and other
espionage-related gear.

The US ultimately negotiated a payment to the families of the men Davis killed
and secured his release.

0\.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Allen_Davis_incident](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Allen_Davis_incident)

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NedIsakoff
"That evening, the Haitian minister of justice personally intervened for the
contractors’ release, according to local reports, independently confirmed. "

\-- So someone high in the Government hired them.

~~~
panchicore3
the highest level as supposedly suggested one of the "special forces" members.

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sudoaza
Wonder how many "contractors" (aka mercenaries) are hanging around the
Colombia-Venezuela border right now.

~~~
exelius
Quite a few on many different sides -- Venezuela is a de-facto narcostate at
this point, and they're in deep with everyone from the Mexican cartels to
Islamist terror groups in North Africa. The military is getting rich off drug
money while the people starve, and a starving populace can't revolt. Unless
the US intervenes, there is a lot more money on the side that wants to keep
Maduro in power. You're not wrong about the mercenaries, thus the side with
the most money is the most likely to win.

~~~
sverige
> a starving populace can't revolt

It has nothing to do with starving. It has everything to do with having all
their personal firearms confiscated by the government a few years ago.

~~~
vkou
How exactly did Eastern Europe revolt during the fall of the iron curtain? The
first thing that the communists did, when they sized power after WWII, was
take away everyone's guns.

And yet, as soon as the USSR stopped guaranteeing the security of the Warsaw
pact states, their regimes fell like dominoes.

~~~
sverige
By that point, though, the people who had guns (i.e., the military) supported
the overthrow of the existing order. It certainly wouldn't have happened with
their active opposition.

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amarant
Never seen or heard of this source before... Is it credible? Had this story
been reported anywhere else?

Don't mean to claim it's not, I just feel wary of believing stories that sound
incredible lately....

~~~
sudoaza
I did read it some days ago, it's real
[https://www.democracynow.org/2019/2/20/headlines/haiti_polic...](https://www.democracynow.org/2019/2/20/headlines/haiti_police_arrest_5_americans_amid_political_unrest)

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40acres
This is no surprise.

I am of Haitian descent, my parents both immigrated to the US in the 70s and
80s and just this past holiday my aunt told me a story about how she paid
hundreds of dollars for a fake passport to obtain passage in the US.

Ever since Columbus arrived Haiti has been a semi-lawless zone where something
shady is probably going on facilitated by foreign powers (usually the French
and Americans). The amount of corruption in this country is so great it's hard
to imagine. Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and if you
were to cumulatively rank all Western Hemisphere countries governments we'd
probably be at the bottom as well.

It's tough to see because Haiti has some potential. The northern port of
Labadee is a tourist destination and other parts of the island could be too
with the correct investments and stability in government. It's one of the
largest nations by population and land in Central America / Caribbean and
labor is so cheap that it could be a great spot for American multi-nationals
to set up shop. I always wonder when Haiti will get on it's feet and
experience growth like Vietnam or Bangladesh. I guess the answer is still:
'not any time soon'.

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caoilte
Unusual to see the IT department get involved in politics. Sloppy.

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ydnaclementine
It's all fine if the US does it

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SilasX
Anyone have a tl;dr? I know a lot of you like to read these like thriller
novels, but there's a lot to read here just to know what it's even about.

~~~
grendelt
Some dudes from the US (and a Serb) flew to Haiti to do something, they were
stopped and detained by police. "Our boss will call your boss" was said. Boss
duly made the call. Dudes were released because of high ranking intervention.

Theoreis abound because there were a guns, several magazines (clips), and sat
phones found but nobody is talking. All higher-ups/agencies involved are
staying tight lipped. It seems like a professionally-run, clandestine op that
was botched by a security guard that prob makes hourly pay.

The rest of the article goes on to highlight the suspicious aspects of the
whole case, but the reason for it all is speculative. The most suspicious
thing is how it went sour and how they were freed from orders from very high
up - yet nobody can figure out what was going on.

~~~
tgsovlerkhgsel
Thanks - I'm glad I didn't spend time reading the whole thing just to see that
it says "and we know nothing".

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Arxiss
So weird to see two Serbian (like me) contractors in all this.

~~~
salex89
Why? Sadly, Serbs (and other nationalities from the Balkans, but Serbs are a
majority,) have a lot of trained and experienced "operatives".

Rember Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo and the '99 bombing? That's a lot of experience
gathered in ways more useful than a regular soldier would have. Those wars
were full of improvisation, asymetric warfare, lack of logistics and what not.
Count in members of paramilitary and covert government agencies, people
leaving the country to make a living from crime during the '90s, and a
mentality that you don't have too much to lose, and you've got a nice pool of
people you can hire for some funky business. Besides, those Serbs are in
general good with English, look westerly (Caucasian, not raising suspicion),
not overly hindered by religion, cheap...

Don't get me wrong, I'm a Serb, but this isn't anything new.

~~~
noir_lord
Not to mention the reputation for been seriously scary bastards (whether lived
up to or not I wouldn't know).

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bluedino
Sounds like some local cops overstepped their bounds and probably messed up
some kind of operation.

~~~
codingdave
Lets turn that scenario around - if a group of armed military professionals
from outside the USA were hanging around a bank in NYC, and when stopped, told
the police that they were on a mission for their government... would the NYC
cops be overstepping their bounds by not accepting that answer, and detaining
them to investigate?

~~~
seppin
If the US Gov was dumb enough to hire them, then they would act in the same
way.

