Bush/Cheney "win"- hired mercenaries in Iraq engage in murder for sport.

Wherever Tim Spicer turns up, he carries the kind of baggage that gives the private military business a bad name. An internet video showing private contractors shooting at civilian cars in Iraq, loosely linked to his company, has ignited a firestorm about unregulated gun-wielding security convoys, escorting reconstruction or government advisors, roaming the country.

This latest scandal comes at a time when the military security industry is reaping huge profits from the gun-carrying business in conflict zones around the world once dominated by rogue soldiers of fortune. As thousands of armed guards, working largely under U.S. contracts, travel the roads of Iraq, the industry is seeking respectability though a Washington trade group -- the International Peace Operations Association (IPOA).

The group calls itself “the most ethical and effective voice of the Peace and Stability Industry,” pledged to ensure that “their capabilities are not misused or abused.” Its members include industry heavy hitters like ArmorGroup, Blackwater, Hart, MPRI, the Olive Group and Triple Canopy.

http://corpwatch.org/article.php?id=12829

http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/FULL/530?OpenDocument

For the purposes of the present Convention,
1.A mercenary is any person who:
(a) Is specially recruited locally or abroad in order to fight in an armed conflict;
(b) Is motivated to take part in the hostilities essentially by the desire for private gain and, in fact, is promised, by or on behalf of a party to the conflict, material compensation substantially in excess of that promised or paid to combatants of similar rank and functions in the armed forces of that party;
(c) Is neither a national of a party to the conflict nor a resident of territory controlled by a party to the conflict;
(d) Is not a member of the armed forces of a party to the conflict; and
(e) Has not been sent by a State which is not a party to the conflict on official duty as a member of its armed forces.

The parties that hire them are breaking international law, too:

Article 2

Any person who recruits, uses, finances or trains mercenaries, as defined in article 1 of the present Convention, commits an offence for the purposes of the Convention.

Sure -- they will argue they are legally 'security guards', but if that were the case then Iraqi law could be used to prosecute them.

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:shrug: I know it doesn't matter because they will do what they damn well please no matter how many treaties they break..

are exempt from lawsuits. They can torture and murder and no one can take civil action against them.

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