Comments on: A small matter of terminology

By: Richard

Richard — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 21:01:54 +0000

There’s been a determined PR effort around the rebranding of “mercenaries” since the late 1990s, and the extent to which the media has played along is pretty damning. The Centre for Public Integrity has some interesting stuff on it here:

http://www.publicintegrity.org/bow/report.aspx?aid=149

Tim Spicer (of Sandline, and latterly Aegis) and his PR buddy Sara Pearson both claim not to remember how the term “private military companies” came into existence, but this was the term of choice from about 1997 until the Iraq war, when PMCs became “Private Security Contractors”. Aegis have certainly gone to a lot of trouble to make sure that this is now how everyone describes them; for example, one of a small number of wikipedia edits linked to Aegis by “Wikiscanner” involves redefining Aegis as a “Private Security Company” on the entry for Aegis CEO, Tim Spicer: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=prev&oldid=32244204

PR and image-airbrushing is absolutely central to what these people do, and it’s striking how meekly the media and governments parrot the euphemistic terms that they have invented for themselves.

By: ejh

ejh — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 10:24:03 +0000

The US government fears the incident could further inflame anti-American feelings among Iraqi civilians

Not out of the question, I shouldn’t imagine

By: Letters From A Tory

Letters From A Tory — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 09:06:02 +0000

The US government really needs someone to help them quash any resistance to their ‘liberation’, so I’m sure they are grateful for the help.

By: Justin

Justin — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 08:42:09 +0000

I'd like to bet that precisely zero Blackwater contractors leave Iraq. Secretary of State Rice has already yanked Prime Minister al-Maliki's chain.

By: michael greenwell

michael greenwell — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 08:32:05 +0000

blackwater have recently been told to get out of iraq after one massacre too many