Modern Adventurers in War Zones; war correspondents and mercenaries

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Crakkerjakk

Yeah, that's what I was thinking re:Libyans and the timing of your campaign.

No doubt someone from the same Alma Mater as the scholars-of-not-at-all-Things-Man-Was-Not-Meant-to-Know was involved in Libya. Qaddafi seemed like an open-minded chap, when it came to questionable things that nevertheless could have practical applications for an enlightened tyrant.

Originally Posted by Crakkerjakk

If you're concerned about Russians still being tied into state intelligence, what about Chechnians or Georgians who fought the Russians?

Those are indeed the sort of fellows I was talking about. Perhaps some North Caucasian chaps who were initially religiously motivated and may even have gone abroad on jihad, but whose idealogical fervour burnt away, leaving little but a skill set useful only on a battlefield and a marked lack of the sort of socialisation that makes for a content civilian.

I'm concerned that military experience on the part of Georgians in the 2008 war might have been short-lived. And the Georgian armed forces did not exhibit the sort of game stats that are sought-after abroad.

They presumably did have some special operators and I guess a capable soldier might have left in disgust after the defeat. They lost a single SF trooper and had a lot of wounded from the company-sized formation that took part.

As for any other prospects, I don't know what is a plausible way to go from 'disaffected highly-skilled soldier in Eastern Europe' to 'mercenary in the Middle East'. Where does someone like that go to get the contacts?

If he hires on as an at least marginally respectable PMC/PSC contractor, how does he get into contact with someone who can vouch for his trustworthiness (up to certain limits) and utter lack of scruples to the Arabic (and some French) speaking recruiters?

I'm not even ruling out ethnic Russians, as long as they have lived for several years outside Russia and taken part in some mercenary activity that Russia doesn't have any observable reason to be involved in. Anyone who has worked for a series of African warlords and dubious Middle Eastern sheiks is likely to be perceived as 'authentic'.

The paranoia over a hostile government-planted spy mostly extends to people who arrive with the right skill set more-or-less directly from a given country. They don't think that anyone will set up an operation going five years back in time, a period when no one had any reason to want to infiltrate their unknown group, and allow a spy to work as a mercenary and maybe even commit crimes in the eyes of his home government during that time.

In particular, anyone who has committed war crimes would be trusted not to be a spy working for any non-rogue state intelligence agency. Of course, he might be a self-interested, back-stabbing treacherous monster of a man, but they more or less assume this about all their higher-ranking members anyway.

They're likely to want to find men who have trained commando forces for particularly unsavoury African regimes or even the rebels in some civil war. That, or work for an actual criminal enterprise as a security guard.

Of course, the linguistic and cultural background of the recruiters means that they are only likely to find someone who has worked in the Middle East at some point. But if they find one man who has been a bona fide mercenary, they are likely to try to recruit a lot of his acquintances.

Originally Posted by Crakkerjakk

Bosnians or Serbs whose demons were brought to the forefront of that war?

Absolutely.

But I still have to answer the question of what such men did for the 10+ years after their war ended and until reaching their current employment.

What does someone do if his war ends and he discovers that he can't really function in society any more? That something within him is broken and he can't express his bitterness and anger except through violence?

Does the French Foreign Legion take people who are good soldiers and function well in a hierarchical organisation, but who not only have Callous, but may have other psychological Disadvantages that make them pretty much unemployable in any non-violent profession?

I mean full-on functioning sociopaths. The sort of person who will, reluctantly, be able to refrain from killing people if ordered to avoid it, but will greet orders to open fire with eager joy. Someone who will commit atrocities any time he reasonably expects to get away with it.

Does anyone else that isn't a cinematic organisation looking for henchmen hire such people? What kind of army, PMC or other organisation has psychological screening loose enough so that someone with the right skills, but the wrong Disadvantages for most organisations that have to function in a civilised society, could get through?

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Does anyone else that isn't a cinematic organisation looking for henchmen hire such people? What kind of army, PMC or other organisation has psychological screening loose enough so that someone with the right skills, but the wrong Disadvantages for most organisations that have to function in a civilised society, could get through?

I suspect that the work is mostly short-term freelancing. For an example of a group of such people, pulled together in a hurry, and less competent than they believe themselves to be, see Christopher Brookmyre's novel One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night. It's dark grey comedy, but it feels pretty plausible in its characterisations.

[Sword-dancer]

Local Guys, Nepali with Nasty Knives for example or other third world Country, Cooks, Laundry...

NGOs,

You will also find a few german Reporters,

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Sword-dancer

Local Guys, Nepali with Nasty Knives for example or other third world Country, Cooks, Laundry...

I found a lot of information about TCNs working for PMCs and PSCs, mostly in service roles, but also as security professionals. What I did not find is information on less-respectable PMC/PSC that would do work for criminal organisations.

If an Afghan poppy grower wants to travel abroad, say to the UAE, for example, but still wants his personal security to be extensive, experienced and armed with fully-automatic weapons, can he hire anyone for that?

Are there real-world Private Security Companies that work for criminals and would be persuaded to turn a blind eye to their criminal activities?

Those are the kinds of companies my entirely-innocent-NPCs need to be recruiting their personal security from. And I'm wondering if they really exist or not.

Originally Posted by Sword-dancer

NGOs,

That's an interesting idea. What are the effects on NGOs when the United States Forces - Iraq leave?

What are NGOs mostly doing in Iraq?

Who oversees their work?

If one happened to be, for example, a front for antiquities thievery, smuggling and even less savoury things, who would find out and how?

Originally Posted by Sword-dancer

You will also find a few german Reporters,

What about Polish? Would there be any Polish-language news organisations buying articles from Iraq?

Or French? Aside from AFP, which news organisations are most likely to buy articles in French on Iraq?

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Or French? Aside from AFP, which news organisations are most likely to buy articles in French on Iraq?

I thought French is reasonably common as a third or even second language in the near-Arabic world. That might indicate people can just happen to know Broken/Accented French.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

I thought French is reasonably common as a third or even second language in the near-Arabic world. That might indicate people can just happen to know Broken/Accented French.

Just so.

On the other hand, I don't know French even at Broken, so I don't know the names of any news organisations other than AFP to drop as someone who has bought stories from a freelancer NPC.*

So I need to know what French newspapers, magazines and other publications would be likely to buy articles and publish them from a freelancer in Iraq. Who does their own foreign reporting these days?

Most news organisations just repost, translating if necessary, stuff that other media has already reported. This applies especially with foreign news. It's only the biggest and most image-conscious news outlets that would even consider the outlay that it involved with gathering their own news from foreign locations.

Which news organisations are these, in the French-speaking world?

I know Icelandic and English-speaking media well enough to be plausible when inventing stuff about them, but I don't know anything about French media.

*When the PCs have his background investigated, perhaps, because they are skeptical that he is just a journalist.

[acrosome]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Just so.

On the other hand, I don't know French even at Broken, so I don't know the names of any news organisations other than AFP to drop as someone who has bought stories from a freelancer NPC.*

So I need to know what French newspapers, magazines and other publications would be likely to buy articles and publish them from a freelancer in Iraq. Who does their own foreign reporting these days?
[/SIZE]

Agence France Presse

[Sword-dancer]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Are there real-world Private Security Companies that work for criminals and would be persuaded to turn a blind eye to their criminal activities??

would somebody to surprised if Blackwater did it or members of the US Forces.

Wasn´t that that the case with drug smuggling in Nam?

That's an interesting idea. What are the effects on NGOs when the United States Forces - Iraq leave?

What are NGOs mostly doing in Iraq?

Who oversees their work?

http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Sword-dancer

would somebody to surprised if Blackwater did it or members of the US Forces.

Wasn´t that that the case with drug smuggling in Nam?

There's no such thing as Blackwater at the time the game is set, in 2011. And Academi, the successor company, doesn't really have much of a presence in Iraq at that time, either.

The United States Forces - Iraq are leaving and the security for the State Department is mostly done by Triple Canopy.

And, yes, it would be a considerable surprise if serving members of the armed forces of any Western country contrived to be absent from their duties while on deployment in a war zone, for months, while they served as the private mercenaries of a criminal organisation.

Any high-profile PMC or PSC is also subject to far too much oversight for that to be plausible. If a shooting incident involving a couple of employees can cause an international incident, it's pretty clear that it's not possible for such companies to conceal the existence of a dozen or more employees who openly commit hundreds of crimes over a period of months, without it becoming the sort of scandal that leads to corporate ruin.

I did find an interesting publication SALW and Private Security Companies in South Eastern Europe: A Cause or Effect of Instability, which suggests that Bulgarian and Serbian PSC might be able to do that sort of thing on an international scale and that Albanian, Bosnian, Moldovan and companies from several other countries could do it inside their own borders.

I'll continue looking, see which other countries in the world have poor regulation over their PSC or PMC sector and where connections to organised crime might plausibly exist.

Originally Posted by Sword-dancer

http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/

Thank you. That's great.

[Sword-dancer]

Originally Posted by Icelander

There's no such thing as Blackwater at the time the game is set, in 2011.

that was meant as an metaphoric example.