Sharpshooter(s) in Iraq (pics, video, texts) updating...

[Rob]

http://www.ifilm.com/player/;jsessionid=ANONYMOUS?ifilmId=2677403&bw=300&mt=WMP

:shock:


Best I can tell, its civilian contractors from the Blackwater security firm operating in Najaf, Iraq; Will post more info. FWIW, my best friend was in that town (and Bagdahd and Fallujah for that matter) for a while with NG, supporting 1st Armored (iirc)

Another:

http://www.big-boys.com/articles/convoyambush.html

:shock: :shock:

same company doing 'executive protection' type stuff with a military escort.

R3v member RedBaron86325 (might be others I don't know about..) has been serving in Iraq in a contractual capacity for a while now, and I believe he has agreed to another 6 months after a short break here. We should acknowledge his courage and appreciate the sacrifices our guys/gals of every pay grade are making, whether or not you agree with the conflict. :shock: :shock:

Another thing: if anyone is wondering why I'm posting this, I'll explain. Very little of the news coverage I seen on a day to day basis shows the progress, victories or heroism of our forces in the area, and I'd like to show a little bit of that, and at the same time highlight the brass (tungsten?) balls of our boys that go over their, whether for Uncle Sam or themselves.

[marakka]

Good vid's. I love that towel head killin shit..... Always good to see the good guys on top.

I spent 13 months there and lost 5 of my good friends. I spent 500+ hours patrolling and searching areas for weapons caches and illegally owned weapons. The 500+ number is a large one when your job title is Bradley Mechanic..... Those were all volunteer hours also. I also did some time flying the UAV during night ops looking for suspected IED's and such. Was some fun doing what we did.... but boy it got hot and heavy at times. Wish I coulda been in some hot shit like those guys though. *LOL* That is da bomb.

Worked with Special Forces on a couple of raids where we just ran in and did the ol smash and grab with some AIF's. Always fun to throw a flash-bang and see the looks on peoples faces at 3am as you whisk their husbands or sons away. *LOL*

[Jarvis]

"Jesus Christ, it's like a fuckin' turkey shoot."

Wow that video was awesome. I would not mind a job like that. Too bad there's no video to see the damage they're doing.

[E30godz]

i just checked out the requirments for getting hired by Blackwater.


guess im going military when i got out of school. :twisted:

[asubimmer]

yeah i wonder what it looks like on the other side. If i ever went into the force i would be a sniper :twisted:

[Over Boost]

How much are those Blackwater security guys making?

[E30godz]

on their site it says depends on how long the deployment is and the assignment, i can imagine it varies greatly.


though id like to get some sort of number yea?

[Rob]

I've lightly looked into the requirements, simply out of curiosity, and they seem pretty tight. as for pay, I've seen lots of figures, most recently $75K for a 6 month stint+$300/day per diem. I'm sure it varies, so dont quote me on that, and I have no idea how the tax works on that. I've also seen that their folks sent to the Gulf Coast areas (hired by businesses, etc) were getting $350-400/day, and complaining about that. This is all military/firearm forum info, so take it with a hearty grain of salt

I also think its interesting to see the proliferation of private forces like this. Maybe they've always been around and no one made a big deal out of it, I'm not sure. I've also noticed they are a target of some media outlets and branded as mercanaries, contract killers, etc. IMHO, it simply depends on you definition, although I call them security contractors. *shrug*,

[Dave]

they are mercenaries by definition - private troops for hire. The problem is, the term "mercenary" conjures up images of hired thugs to start revolutions in third world countries - such as the banana companies did in the Central Amreican countries decades ago. These guys are a bit different.

Notwithstanding my personal views on the clusterfuck in Iraq, you've got to give it up to these guys who can do this job. Very intense environment. Those are men.

[Rob]

Dave- exactly, on all points, especially the last one.



here's another one I found, these guys look slightly less professional with the racial slurs, etc.

http://rapidshare.de/files/3409218/Blackwater_in_Najaf.wmv.html

"This happened at Camp Baker in Najaf a few months before my unit replaced the Salvadorians (the Spanish had left earlier).

When we got there we heard a lot of good things about the Salvadorians. They were supposedly left by a Spanish patrol and had to fend off insurgents hand to hand. They ended up killing quite a few. "

(lemme know if it doesnt work)

This is from the shooter in the first video:
"Gentelmen...
forget the racist comments! we were talking to the insurgents... and to clarify "White Boy"it was the Blackwater PSD team leaders callsign!

As being one of the 11 guys on the roof those few intense days I can answer a lot of these questions before they get out of hand...
I will also be putting some new video up soon to show what its like for 11 guys to fend off 1000 insurgents oh and a waffleswaffleswaffleswaffleswaffles ass Spanish Company that didnt fire a shot because the madrid bombings had just happedned and they were told not to fire a shot because they were ordered to pull out of iraq.
anyways I will have some new video up soon for your veiwing pleasure

Thanks,

TH
BW Counter Sniper/Najaf Iraq
"
another quote from him:
"The 5 man BW crew that was assinged tto CPA Najaf were coming under heavy small arms and mortor fire, the city was being taken over by insurgents. The Police stations and hospitals were taken by as well, after a day of fighting off hundreds of insurgents the city had been completly overran, with the CPA in the heart of the city and no way out.

the Team called up to Baghdad and reported the situation. they said they needed immediate extract which Gen Sanchez also denined due to the fact the city had been overran and they were no US troops there, only contractors. Well Ambassador Bremer was pissed at sanchez and I remember being on office watch during the massive arguments! ambassador bremer and our Baghdad TM Leader got together and Bremer said "I dont want another Bridge hanging! Get those boys out of there by any means nessassary!" so 12 of us 6pilots and 6 gunners loaded as much as we could in 3 MD530 little birds and headed 70 miles south. we flew in the first day and blind (no comms, and no intel on the heat) to try a resupply, land find out was was going on and then head back, rearm and get ready to go again. Well that night all hell broke lose and we flew back in. Over 1000 insurgents (reported by the F18 pilots) had taken the city and now wanted the CPA after a day of intense fighting by 11 BW guys, airstrikes, a handfull of Marines and 1 sniper we were able to hold them off. After it DIED down and gunships and SF guys finnally started to roll in the battle was soon over and we the CPA was saved.
That pretty much it in a nut shell...

TH"

http://209.200.17.142/images/ogrish-...i_building.wmv (right click, save as pls. bomb hitting building in iraq)

[325Projectz]

Thats a bad ass picture, nice vids.

[Rob]

I added a bunch to the previous post.

Here's a news article to ponder on: http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories...amp;ran=122276

and another:

"Private Guards Repel Attack on U.S. Headquarters

By Dana Priest
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 6, 2004; Page A01

An attack by hundreds of Iraqi militia members on the U.S. government's headquarters in Najaf on Sunday was repulsed not by the U.S. military, but by eight commandos from a private security firm, according to sources familiar with the incident.

Before U.S. reinforcements could arrive, the firm, Blackwater Security Consulting, sent in its own helicopters amid an intense firefight to resupply its commandos with ammunition and to ferry out a wounded Marine, the sources said.

The role of Blackwater's commandos in Sunday's fighting in Najaf illuminates the gray zone between their formal role as bodyguards and the realities of operating in an active war zone. Thousands of armed private security contractors are operating in Iraq in a wide variety of missions and exchanging fire with Iraqis every day, according to informal after-action reports from several companies.

In Sunday's fighting, Shiite militia forces barraged the Blackwater commandos, four MPs and a Marine gunner with rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47 fire for hours before U.S. Special Forces troops arrived. A sniper on a nearby roof apparently wounded three men. U.S. troops faced heavy fighting in several Iraqi cities that day.

The Blackwater commandos, most of whom are former Special Forces troops, are on contract to provide security for the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Najaf.

With their ammunition nearly gone, a wounded and badly bleeding Marine on the rooftop, and no reinforcement by the U.S. military in the immediate offing, the company sent in helicopters to drop ammunition and pick up the Marine.

The identity of the Marine and two other wounded men could not be established, but their blood was still fresh hours later, when the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, and spokesman Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt arrived to survey the battle zone.

Without commenting at a news conference yesterday on the role of the Blackwater guards, Kimmitt described what he saw after the fighting ended. "I know on a rooftop yesterday in An Najaf, with a small group of American soldiers and coalition soldiers . . . who had just been through about 3 1/2 hours of combat, I looked in their eyes, there was no crisis.

"They knew what they were here for," he continued. "They'd lost three wounded. We were sitting there among the bullet shells -- the bullet casings -- and, frankly, the blood of their comrades, and they were absolutely confident."

During the defense of the authority headquarters, thousands of rounds were fired and hundreds of 40mm grenades shot. Sources who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of Blackwater's work in Iraq reported an unspecified number of casualties among Iraqis.

A spokesman for Blackwater confirmed that the company has a contract to provide security to the CPA but would not describe the incident that unfolded Sunday.

A Defense Department spokesman said that there were no military reports about the opening hours of the siege on CPA headquarters in Najaf because there were no military personnel on the scene. The Defense Department often does not have a clear handle on the daily actions of security contractors because the contractors work directly for the coalition authority, which coordinates and communicates on a limited basis through the normal military chain of command.

The four men brutally slain Wednesday in Fallujah were also Blackwater employees and were operating in the Sunni triangle area under more hazardous conditions -- unarmored cars with no apparent backup -- than the U.S. military or the CIA permit.

One senior Blackwater manager has described those killings to U.S. government officials as the result of a "high-quality" attack as skilled as one that can be mounted by U.S. Special Forces, according to a copy of a report on the incident obtained by The Washington Post.

The four victims of that attack, according to Blackwater spokesman Chris Bertelli, were escorting trucks carrying either food or kitchen equipment for Regency Hotel and Hospitality. Regency is a subcontractor to Eurest Support Services (ESS), a division of the Compass Group, the world's largest food service company.

ESS provides food services to more than a dozen U.S. military dining facilities in Iraq, according to news accounts.

Blackwater, a security and training company based in Moyock, N.C., prides itself on the high caliber of its personnel, many of whom are former U.S. Navy SEALs. It has 450 employees in Iraq, many of them providing security to CPA employees, including the U.S. administrator, L. Paul Bremer, and to VIPs visiting Iraq.

Blackwater has applied to occupy a former MIG air base near Baghdad as a counterterrorism training facility for Iraqi forces. The training range will mirror the 6,000-acre Moyock site, which is frequented by U.S. law enforcement and military personnel."



TH's response to the above article:

"---the facts---

-the actual combat went on for 3 days! not 3hrs...the news got that one way wrong
-little birds flew in on 2 different occasions, 1 resupply with a little action, and then a full out resupply finish the fight landing.
-the BW team was always there, they were working the CPA of Najaf (5 guys protecting 1 man)
-when we flew in we had 12 more men 6 shooters and 6 pilots which were getting some trigger time as well)
-out of the 11 shooters there were:
-2 prior Force Recon
-3 prior Rangers
-3or4 prior SEALS/DevGrp
-2or3 prior SF guys

-High threat security is not just being a bodygaurd as most people see it. Special operations guys are liked for this job because of the precision shooting skills, and quick decision making under heavy duress. remember Delta Force started the whole high threat protection mission.
SD
"

[Rob]

here's yet another, i'm sure ya'll will love this one, it's a little bit less serious than the other:

http://www.militaryvideos.net/images/bw_in_baghdad.jpg

[george graves]

I know this is going to sound corny - but that is the clostest thing I've seen to like a real-life counter strike. (and that's sounds stupid cause it's just a game...whatever...you know what I mean)

UNREAL.....

....

[Ryan Stewart]

It is definately an interesting perspective you never get to see. Storytime with a friend who served as Marine Fleet Antiterrorist always manages to leave our eyes as big as saucers.