Licensed to Kill: Hired Guns in the War on Terror

[...] BOOK REVIEW Mercenaries or 'contractors'? Licensed to Kill by Robert Young Pelton Reviewed by David Isenberg Sometimes doing a book review is difficult. An author may write informatively and lucidly in one chapter and bomb in the next. A reviewer wants to praise where warranted but also feel compelled to point out its flaws. Trying to strike a balance can be difficult. Fortunately, that is not a problem here. This book is, in a word, terrific. Anybody who is remotely interested in the world of private security contractors should run, not walk, to the bookstore and buy this book immediately. It is going to be the gold standard on private military and security companies for years to come. That being said, a little background is in order. For years now the media have increasingly publicized what is usually described in sensationalistic purple prose as the murky world of corporate mercenaries. While such firms started gaining attention back in the early 1990s with the exploits of, for example, the now-defunct South African-based Executive Outcomes, which did actual combat operations in Angola and Sierra Leone, and gained more publicity with the training contracts of MPRI in the Balkan wars of the mid-1990s, the war in Iraq propelled the industry to the top of the media and pop-culture food chain. Such firms as Blackwater Security, Triple Canopy, and DynCorp are now conversational staples. And yet while there have been numerous articles in the periodical press and even many academic books, one of which - Peter Singer's Corporate Warriors - even achieved a measure of popular acclaim when it was published in 2003, they all lacked one key ingredient essential to a real understanding of this world. And that is culture. The key to really understanding any society is to understand its culture. And, as anthropologists have long understood, true cultural understanding comes only from living in the midst of it. While some people, usually foreign or war correspondents, have limited exposure to this world, very few have the patience, thoughtfulness, humor, objectivity, curiosity, broad historical perspective, knowledge of geopolitics, or eye for detail, not to mention a nonchalant, breezy, blunt but respectful style of writing that is so entertaining that at times it will leave you laughing so hard you will be gasping for air. It is an intended tribute to the author that very few people in the world could have written a book this witty and informative aside from him. That naturally raises the question: Just who is Robert Young Pelton? Originally from Canada, he moved to the US to make his fortune, which he did with enough success that one day he decided to get out of it and start traveling to the world's hot spots and war zones as a neutral observer and chronicler of the truth, which is never an easy thing to ascertain. As an author Pelton is best known for his classic work The World's Most Dangerous Places, which is sort of an underground Fodor'

Licensed to Kill is Robert Young Pelton's broad survey of the modern world of mercenaries. Strike that, of contractors. Mercenaries, after all, as Doug Brooks of IPOA (International Peace Operations Association) said in the movie Shadow Company: anyone convicted as being a mercenary should be shot along with his lawyer (Doug, pardon my paraphrasing). Regardless, Pelton's subtitle captures what these guys are: hired guns. Or as one of the contractors in the book put it: "guns with legs". Pelton's book is (or can be) a quick read. It's conversational, often with the feel that you're sitting in a pub having a beer while he tells you a story (as you do in his World's Most Dangerous Places books). For me, however, it wasn't a quick read. I found myself highlighting sentences, scribbling in the margins, and applying colored flags for quick and future reference. Pelton may challenge the journalist\ community with how he gets into the action (journos not always being the type who will ride with the bad guy when something might happen), but this is how he gets the facts, the story, and the respect that opens doors later. A perpetual cycle, his access gets him more access and so on. Unlike other others who seek to justify a point of view, Pelton comes off balanced, telling it like it is and, very importantly, with context. Licensed to Kill is more than a narrative of private operators, it is an almost forensic look into the use of private military forces. High profile actors in the world of hired guns, such as Erik Prince and Blackwater, Tim Spicer, Simon Mann, and Michael Grunburg (profiled deeper in Three Worlds Gone Mad) of various ventures, and even a con-artist who's convinced he's the greatest American hero. This book is a great resource that pulls the curtain aside to see how PMCs operate, a look into their motivations, and where they are being used. If you're not provoked to learn more, you're not paying attention.

Another successful presentation of Pelton's trademark seamless mixture of adventure travel, keen observation and wry humour. In this work he takes us on an incredible journey through the controversial world of private military companies. Up front he promises to take us along for the ride and we can form our own opinions, and by every measure in that regard he delivers. The breadth of the journey is astonishing. As a reader you feel as though you are tagging along for visits to Washington DC product launches, secret operations on the Afghan/Pakistan border and convoy trips along Iraq's deadly Route Irish. You can also vicariously attend training at the Blackwater facility in Myock NC, then go back in time to hear about the action in Sierra Leone and Equitorial Guinea. The view is as comprehensive as possible without sacrificing detail or overloading the reader. The question regarding the difference between a security contractor and a mercenary in artfully dealt with through stories of colourful characters. The book is rich in these, from conversations at a Dallas convention for security to imprisoned mercenaries. The point is made that the difference between a mercenary and a security contractor lies in a personal moral code. The high end of the spectrum is illustrated by a contractor nicknamed "Miyagi" who embodies professionalism and gives up police work to become a contractor in Iraq, incredibly to allow his wife to give up the stress of being a court reporter in LA. The low end of the spectrum is the circus tale of "Jack" Idema, an opportunist who travelled to Afghan to end up in jail. In seeing these characters we see the potential, both good and bad, of actors in the privatized security. The book really hits stride in the illustrations of corporate behaviour. Corporations by their very nature need profit in ever increasing amounts and Pelton walks us through how service providers have dealt with becoming corporate in the War on Terror. We read poignant stories about the temptations that can befall security companies in search of new profits with illustrations from the past. In this, the conversations with rising star security provider Erik Prince of Blackwater Security whose aspirations to field a privatized brigade transported by armoured monster trucks with air support from leased helicopter gunships sit side by side with the story of Simon Mann's ill fated attempt to raise a private force to overthrow Equatorial Guinea. It is when these heavily armed companies run out of problems to solve and begin creating their own solutions that we see the industry's potential at its most troubling. Pelton has given the characters, the context and told the reader where to look. It is up to the reader to make up his or her own mind on the subject. When it comes to an author of a book on an obscured topic without much clear information readily available otherwise, you can't ask much more than that.

Robert Pelton's book "Licensed to Kill" is a history book of the private army/modern contractor industry. It looks like about 3 years of traveling, living with contractors in Iraq, Afganistan and parts of Africa and a zillion interviews went into this work. The resulting book will likely become a standard for studying where the contractor came from and where the whole concept of private armies might be headed. This is about as close as you will get to understanding this high risk industry without being in the field yourself. There is a very disturbing thought that follows the logic of "Licensed To Kill". Back in the early 90's the U.S. government used sections of U.S. Code to prohibit militias from forming 'private armies'. Now Private companies can field a well equipped battalion at very short moment's notice. Since the U.S. Government is prohibited by law to use it's own militaries domestically could it then legally 'hire' a private force to quell a domestic disturbance? The question of what all can private armies be used for can be greatly expanded beyond foreign wars and conflicts. Can our own military be replaced by private contracts? How about our police forces across the country? I am not trying to sound conspiratorial here but I think that what you have seen and written about is the very beginning of a long trend that will likely grow beyond what anyone thinks now. Read this book. Mike Perrin

I was the guy that did the threat study that put private military contractors on the official targeting list for the US Government, establishing them as legitimate targets who needed to be understood by all available (secret and open) means as either belligerents or at least relevant actors in any situation. Robert Young Pelton, whom I know personally and admire as one of the most honest, courageous, and mature investigative journalists and adventurers (see my review of his Robert Young Pelton's The World's Most Dangerous Places: 5th Edition (Robert Young Pelton the World's Most Dangerous Places), is without question the best reporter and observer in the world of the "dogs of war." He ranks up with and above Robert Kaplan, Seymour Hersh, and John Fialka, three intrepid and intellectual reporters who help define the extraordinary talents and veracity of this author, Robert Young Pelton. When I received his book I dropped everything and offer here a few of the highlights: He distinguishes carefully between Mercenaries (soldiers for hire) and Private Military Contractors (PMC) who are security for hire. Blackwater, the best of the (PMC can train 35,000 men in a year, and delivers a lighter, faster, smaller (and more effective) security force than the U.S. Army. He recounts the history of CIA money into Special Operations Forces (SOF) black operations, which in turn created PMCs. Just as CIA funded the jihad in Afghanistan, so also has it funded--perhaps ignorantly in both cases--the emergence of the PMCs. Telling early story: before 9/11, lawyers reduced CIA and other action elements of the US Government to wimpy toast. It took 9/11 to frost the lawyers and unleash the real men in the USG and elsewhere. EDIT: Prior to 9/11, the lawyers were piss-ants such as those who advised the ABLE DANGER team to destroy evidence discovered pre 9-11 of two hijackers, instead of turning it over to the FBI. CIA lawyers, with a couple of exceptions, are also piss-ants. Real men include the guys that went into Afghanistan (see my reviews of Jawbreaker: The Attack on Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda: A Personal Account by the CIA's Key Field Commander and First In: An Insider's Account of How the CIA Spearheaded the War on Terror in Afghanistan), and the guys at US Special Operations Command who are on their own all over the world. I never imagined that NSA and CIA would simply turn the lawyers off and violate ALL of our civil liberties, including warrantless wiretapping and rendition (kidnapping to export for torture) and the denial of habeas corpus to US and UK and Australian citizens, among others. His overall account makes it clear that the new breed of PMC warrior is better in all respects (stronger, faster, smarter, better shot, more tech savvy) than the past SOF heroes, but FAILS in one important respect: tactical combat decision-making. He explains that communications has robbed the field men of all initiative, and they are now nothing more than risk t