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Mercenaries

Short On Troops, Israel Turns To Mercenaries

November 15, 2024 Mohamed Nader Al-Omari, The Cradle. , , , , , ,
Facing increasing domestic pressure to reveal the true extent of their military losses in Gaza and Lebanon, Israeli officials have released figures that are likely to only reveal minimal numbers. The data claims that since the beginning of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on 7 October 2023, around 12,000 soldiers and officers have been injured or forced into rehabilitation under the occupation state’s Ministry of Defense. This includes 910 wounded during what Israel calls a "limited ground maneuver" launched by Tel Aviv on the Lebanese border, in addition to the deaths of over 760 officers and soldiers and 140 left completely disabled.

Anticipating Escalation: Neutralizing Swarming’s Armed Front

October 18, 2024 Misión Verdad, Orinoco Tribune. , , , , , ,
In her effort to readjust the agenda of regime change and in the face of a clear mood of demobilization within her ranks, María Corina Machado has decided to publicly incorporate the concept of “swarming“ into her narrative. This decision reflects the consolidation of a path that goes beyond what is attempted to be presented as “peaceful protest” by proposing a more aggressive form of confrontation, embedded in the scope of military operations, while using the discourse on human rights to counteract the possible limitations suffered by the violent actions that the far right hopes to set in motion.

Venezuela Arrests Another US Citizen In Alleged Mercenary Plot

September 19, 2024 Odry Farnetano, Orinoco Tribune. , , , , , ,
The Venezuelan Minister of the Interior, Justice and Peace Diosdado Cabello reported that another US citizen linked to a terrorist plan against the peace of Venezuela was arrested. “We were following him, he took photos of military facilities, electricity infrastructure and state entities, using the excuse of being a tourist,” he said during his speech at the plenary session of the National Assembly on Tuesday, September 17, where he was invited to present of the newly unveiled mercenary plot. Following the alert about a terrorist plot to smuggle grenades and explosives into the country, an investigation was carried out that led to the capture of three citizens.

US Citizens Among 37 Sentenced To Death Over Congo DR Coup Attempt

September 16, 2024 Al Mayadeen, Orinoco Tribune. , , , , , ,
Three US citizens were among 37 defendants sentenced to death by a military court on Friday for their involvement in a failed coup attempt in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in May. On May 19, armed men briefly seized control of a presidential office in Kinshasa before security forces killed their leader, US-based Congolese politician Christian Malanga. Among the Americans on trial were Malanga’s son, Marcel Malanga, and his friend, Tyler Thompson. Thompson had accompanied Marcel to the DRC. The third American, Benjamin Zalman-Polun, was a business associate of Christian Malanga.

Israeli Regime Turns To Western Mercenary Groups To Back Genocide

December 13, 2023 Reza Javadi, Orinoco Tribune. , , , , ,
Apart from the lavish military aid offered by the United States and Europe, the Israeli military is turning to Western mercenary groups in its genocidal war against the Gaza Strip. In a recent interview with Spanish newspaper El Mundo, Pedro Diaz Flores, a notorious Spanish mercenary, revealed that the Israeli regime is recruiting Private Military Companies (PMCs) to achieve its interests in the besieged territory. He revealed that “many” mercenary groups have joined Israel’s army, which pays them “very well.” “So I came for the economy, for money. They pay very well, they offer good equipment and the work is calm."

In The Heart Of The Beast

March 22, 2022 Patrick Carey, Popular Resistance. , , ,
On February 27th, the British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said she supported individuals from the UK who might want to go to Ukraine to join an international force to fight the Russians.  After all, this is a fight between Good (Ukraine/NATO/the West) and Evil (Putin/Russia/the East). In an interview on BBC One’s Sunday Morning programme, the UK foreign secretary replied “absolutely” when asked whether she would back anyone wanting to volunteer to help Ukrainians “fighting for their freedom”. She told the programme: “The people of Ukraine are fighting for freedom and democracy, not just for Ukraine, but for the whole of Europe.”  Yet by March 10th, speaking at a Washington press conference alongside the US Secretary of State, the oleaginous British politician claimed, “I have been very clear that the travel advice from the United Kingdom is not to go to Ukraine...”

Biden Isn’t Ending The Afghanistan War, He’s Privatizing It

April 18, 2021 Jeremy Kuzmarov, Covert Action Magazine. , , ,
On April 14, President Joe Biden announced that he would end the U.S.’s longest war and withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan on the 20th anniversary of the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks. Over 6,000 NATO troops will also be withdrawn by that time. “War in Afghanistan was never meant to be a multigenerational undertaking,” Biden said during his remarks from the White House Treaty Room, the same location from which President George W. Bush had announced the war was beginning in October 2001. “We were attacked. We went to war with clear goals. We achieved those objectives. Bin Laden is dead and al Qaeda is degraded in Afghanistan and it’s time to end the forever war.” Biden’s claim that he is ending the forever war is misleading.

US Mercenary Exposes Trump Administration Links To Abortive Venezuela Invasion

November 4, 2020 Bill Van Auken, WSWS. , , ,
Senior Trump administration officials were in on the planning of and offered assistance to the abortive May 3, 2020, invasion of Venezuela carried out by a mercenary band that included at least two former US special forces operatives, according to a lawsuit filed in Miami, Florida, last Friday. The conspiracy to carry out the illegal invasion was hatched, at least in part, at the Trump Hotel in Washington D.C. and at a Trump golf course in Florida, and was facilitated by individuals with close ties to the US president and Vice President Mike Pence.

Nicaragua Targeted For US Overthrow In 2020-21

August 2, 2020 S. Brian Willson, Popular Resistance. , , ,
The US has launched a brazen, criminal and arrogant plan to overthrow Nicaragua’s government. A well orchestrated plan financed by the United States to launch a coup d'état in Nicaragua over the next two years was leaked in a document from the US embassy and presented July 31, 2020 by Nicaraguan journalist William Grigsby on his political analysis program "Sin Fronteras", on Radio La Primerísima. The new coup plan is in response to the fact that the US realizes President Daniel Ortega will likely win the November 2021 elections.

State Dept Abandons Families Of Mercenaries Detained In Venezuela

July 27, 2020 Anya Parampil, The Grayzone. , , ,
The Grayzone has confirmed that former US ambassador to the UN Bill Richardson traveled to Venezuela on Monday, July 13, following conversations with the families of former Green Beret soldiers Luke Denman and Airan Berry. Venezuelan authorities detained Berry and Denman on May 4, after they participated in a failed mercenary invasion of Venezuela with the stated goal of kidnapping the country’s elected president, Nicolas Maduro.  Mark Denman, the younger brother of the detained mercenary Luke Denman, told The Grayzone that Richardson had agreed to help his family after the US Department of State failed to offer assistance.

The ‘New’ American Mercenary: A Pocket History

June 26, 2020 Danny Sjursen, AntiWar.com. , , ,
Though the bizarre story has been subsumed by other events, last month’s aborted invasion of Venezuela should’ve hardly shocked anyone. The United States has long used mercenaries to do its bidding. They have provided Washington distance and deniability for unsavory operations. During the Cold War, the U.S. hoped this would limit domestic and international protest. Policymakers also discerned mercenary alternatives to bloody, expensive quagmires like the Vietnam or Iraq Wars. Traditionally, most of these hired guns were foreigners – ex-soldiers of declining European empires. Much of this parallels the latest Venezuelan affair. However, American mercenaries and the system that produced them, are relatively new. The stillborn coup exposed the blurred line between what’s private and public in modern US warfare.

US Imperialism’s Decomposition Accelerates

May 14, 2020 By Francisco Dominguez, Public Reading Room. , , ,
On May 3rd a bunch of mercenaries, led by Rambo-like US soldiers of fortune attempted to disembark on the coastal town of Macuto in the La Guaira state in Venezuela’s Caribbean coast, in a so-called Operation Gedeon.  Their leader, ‘contractor’ Jordan Goudreau, CEO of US ‘security company’, SilverCorp, in interview with Miami-based extreme right wing Venezuelan opposition journalist, Patricia Poleo, candidly explained that the aim of their military incursion against the South American nation was to attack the presidential palace so as to overthrow the government of President Nicolas Maduro and install a de facto Guaidó-led government. Goudreau claimed to have deployed a mercenary force of 300 to carry out the military ‘mission’. The mercenaries received training in at least three camps in Riohacha, Colombia, had the full support of the Colombian government that has declared explicitly its desire to overthrow the government of President Maduro.

Corporate Media Don’t Think Americans Paid To Invade Venezuela Count Are Mercenaries

May 13, 2020 Joshua Cho, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. , ,
When an attempted invasion of Venezuela launched from the shores of Colombia was foiled on May 3, after armed commandos were intercepted at Venezuela’s coastline of La Guira, it seemed undeniable that the heavily armed men, possessing satellite phones and uniforms with the US flag emblazoned on them, had been paid to take part in a coup attempt to overthrow the Venezuelan government (People’s Dispatch, 5/6/20). In recent reports regarding the Bay of Pigs–style invasion, however, the term “mercenary” was accompanied by scare quotes, as if these men could only be seen that way from the perspective of an Official US EnemyTM (whose perspective is always illegitimate in the eyes of corporate media).

US Wants Release Of Two Veterans Who Led Failed Coup Attempt In Venezuela

May 11, 2020 Dave Lindorff, This Can't Be Happening. , , ,
Imperial overreach was on full display this week as the US government demanded that a pair of US citizens — former Special Forces soldiers leading a 60-man invasion of Venezuela with the goal of fomenting a coup and/or capturing or killing that country’s elected president — be released from arrest and returned to the US. Bad enough that the US almost certainly knew in advance about this invasion which involved multiple simultaneous border crossings and beach landings by mercenary forces, many of them reportedly sketchy former Venezuelan soldiers involved in the drug trade, who were on a payroll as soldiers-for-hire. But how about the gall to also claim that when the effort fails, the intended victim of the coup, Venezuela, has no legitimate right to punish the perpetrators, but must release them to their home country, the US — a country that has for years been trying to oust Venezuela’s elected government?

The Hidden Plot Of The New Failed US Attempt Against Venezuela

May 10, 2020 By Marco Teruggi, Resumen English. , , ,
The Venezuelan civil-military deployment is on high alert to the development of what is not yet over. According to the government, 56 mercenaries tried to enter the country, 54 Venezuelans and two Americans, some of whom have been arrested and others killed in Sunday morning’s confrontation. The objective of these groups was to attack the DGCIM, SEBIN and the Miraflores Palace. The structuring of the final plan to asphyxiate Venezuela The strategy of Caracas is to deactivate the actions before they happen, to avoid the execution of the coup plans. The captures, so far, have been early: before the mercenary’s entry and during the arrival of part of the boats. Venezuela is facing a new phase of an uninterrupted siege. The bet of the United States is to achieve that the set of variables with guerilla type attacks to finally succeed in overthrowing Nicolás Maduro so that the restoration and revenge foreseen within the strategy designed from Washington can begin.
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