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US mercenaries arrested in Haiti, part of a scheme to move $80M for president
- joncrane 8y agoIs this a follow up from a front page post about a week ago titled "My Boss Will Call Your Boss?"
- getcrunk 8y agoSearch didn’t help, link?
- hetspookjee 8y agoSomeone posted the link 1 min after your comment unfortunately :') https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19368175 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19368175
- bonecrusher2102 8y agoYep, looks like it. I'm actually glad to have a little more color - the previous article didn't give the actual reason the mercenaries were in the country.
- scelerat 8y agoYes Here's another article which follows the original as well: https://haitiantimes.com/2019/03/12/question-remain-unanswered-about-american-mercenaries-detained-in-haiti-new-evidence-points-to-american-owned-company-preble-rish/?fbclid=IwAR3lVf0iMgySvs__t_iwU5TsqCeqKCEQ1C_rfQl7UwPKK-PEmVuykED3MaM https://haitiantimes.com/2019/03/12/question-remain-unanswer...
- ilamont 8y agoU.S. authorities have so far failed to bring charges against the contractors for illegally traveling out of the United States with their weapons, which requires a license. I'm skeptical charges will ever be brought. Ex-military security contractors are ubiquitous in certain parts of the world, and seem to live by a different set of rules.
- hetspookjee 8y agoI'd love to read more about the process of contractors acquiring those special rights. Maybe you got some further reading?
- pytyper2 8y agoIt's all about who you call after you have been detained.
- trhway 8y agofor example, private military contracting is outright explicitly illegal in Russia. That didn't prevent in anyway a well known Russian private military company to fight in Ukraine and Syria ... both times of course for the side supported by Putin.
- sremani 8y agoThe Russian "Blackwater" is called Wagner Group. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wagner_Group https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wagner_Group
- ochoseis 8y agoThese guys are also in Venezuela right now: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/25/venezuela-maduro-russia-private-security-contractors https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/25/venezuela-madu...
- onetimemanytime 8y agowink and a nod. Poor Obama has to give speeches to make some money, rulers in Haiti like countries make that much before 8am. Charges against such rulers are brought only when the wheels are not greased all the way, or when the opposition wants to take over. USA knows that, but they know that the next person will also steal, maybe even more, so they ignore a lot of things if you do a service for them. My guess is that this guy was given an un-offical pass, as long as... The country may be poor but the budgets are still in the billions or tens of billions. x% goes to the leaders, plus a lot more for permits, buying state enterprises, telecom licenses, solve tax issues etc etc...
- iooi 8y agoPrevious discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19368175 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19368175
- teddyh 8y agoNote: The “president” in the title is Haitian President Jovenel Moïse.
- smn1234 8y agoI first thought it was Trump, before reading the article
- stronglikedan 8y agoThrough no fault of your own, no doubt. You thought exactly what the author (or editor) intended for you, and everyone else, to think.
- cafard 8y agoReally? It didn't occur to me that it could be a president of any country but Haiti.
- rchaud 8y agoI did not get that impression. The Intercept has covered a number of stories about Haiti and there are plenty of people who are aware of the political situation over there.
- kickopotomus 8y agoPutting "US", "president", "$80M", and "scheme" in the title was definitely done on purpose. The title could have easily been phrased differently to make it clear that the president in question was the Haitian president but that wouldn't get as many clicks.
- wxfn3h 8y agoIt's The Intercept, so...
- Vaskerville 8y agoPeople are so exhausted from the aforementioned demonstrations I doubt anybody will demonstrate based on this new information. (I know people who went two weeks without any water in their home.) I just can't imagine Moise remains president for much longer. Note: I live in Haiti.
- sevensor 8y agoThis incident with the mercenaries, is it the thing Haitians are particularly concerned with, or is it more of an episode in a bigger story?
- Vaskerville 8y agoThe bigger story is the missing $2B - the story does touch upon that. Many contracts were handed out for works to companies owned by people in government or their friends and the works were not done.
- barberousse 8y agoDM me if you know someone in Haiti with my username for a surname
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- thinkcontext 8y agoThis was small potatoes compared to the UAE hiring ex-SF to conduct assassinations in Yemen. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/aramroston/mercenaries-assassination-us-yemen-uae-spear-golan-dahlan https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/aramroston/mercenaries-...
- jmull 8y agoIt’s unclear to me how the “caper” was supposed to work... the goal, apparently, was to achieve a money transfer. So... was the plan that the armed group of foreigners would intimidate bank personnel into allowing a transfer they otherwise wouldn’t allow? A kind of “soft” bank robbery?
- ChuckMcM 8y agoThere is a comedy movie script in here somewhere I'm sure of it. It almost reads like somebody was watching the TV series Mission: Impossible, and said, "Yeah, we should get some guys like that and move the money before anyone can catch us."
- hopler 8y agoThree Kings movie, starring George Clooney
- UI_at_80x24 8y agoI find it amusing (and sad) that the title is equally believable if you think that "President" was referring to Trump. I had to RTFA to find out.
- ItsOk4Be 8y agoThe lügenpresse being at it since the election certainly doesn't help.
- social_quotient 8y agoThe title of this feels a little like bait. Sadly it’s only because current political climate in the US has had it’s share of “schemes” to “move” money.
- social_quotient 8y agoWhoever downvoted. Maybe you could leave a comment in support of the title so I can understand your point of view? Or at least a counter to my comment.
- Kavenerinds 8y agoI agree with you. How can they give the article that title while the last sentence states, "It is unclear what that assignment might have been?" While I believe the title may be correct based off of other information in the article, the authors make themselves look incompetent (i.e., maybe covering their asses) by ending the article with that assertion.