I think the title kind of says it all, wait a second are they privatizing our domestic jails too ? I thought war profiteering was treason. Wait lets start over, problems need solutions, the problem is the solutions. Follow the Worm Hole.

I wanted to learn more about Security contractors after I heard so much about them in the news on Iraq and Afghanistan. I found this book and read it quite quickly for it was very interesting and for the most part worth the money. Robert Pelton has written a engaging investigation where you feel for both the contractors and the opponents against their existence. There is one chapter about a con artist that I felt didn't need to be included in the book but nonetheless I commend Mr Pelton for his good writing ability.

Licensed to Kill : Hired Guns in the War on Terror is a damn good book. It's an unfiltered and unjudgemental look at the security contractors who do security, assault and intelligence work on behalf of governments around the world. If you've heard of companies like Blackwater, DynCorp or Aegis, then by all means, pick up this book.

1. So who are these guys? Who are these guys are all over the news these days, with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? Basically, security contractors are highly-trained masters of warfare. They are usually ex-special operators (e.g. Green Berets, Navy SEALs, Army Rangers, Marine Recon) or at the very least, ex-infantrymen or cops in the governmental forces. Some do security detail work for top dogs like Afghan President Hamid Karzai and former Iraq administrator Paul Bremer. Others guard escorts and convoys, and other work as non-official spies.

On one extreme end there is a guy like Billy Waugh, an ex-Green Beret-turned-CIA-turned-contractor. He is extremely experienced, guile and professional. Most of all, he is very patriotic, and his zeal to defend America keeps him going even though he's almost 80.

And just like sports teams, there are the walk-ons. This one guy named Shannon Campbell is the security contractor's answer to Rudy. He's not a veteran of the Special Forces or SAS, but a regular Joe who had a dream of making it. He trained in martial arts and firearms until he could break in to the industry, and he did!

2. And what are these guys like? They are basically just humans, just like us. They just happen to be extremely alpha. Although many media outlets portray them to be these monsters who have no remorse and shoot kids on the streets of Baghdad for fun, Robert Young Pelton does a great job keeping things in perspective. Security contractors have fun; they have camaraderie; they have fear; they worry about family and finances; they surf the web for porn. They are just like guys out there in the regular "world." It's like asking what NBA players are like, or what NFL players are like. Until you've lived in their world, you don't know what it's like. But if you want to know what they are like as human, just look at the people around you.

Of course, with the good and normal, you have the bad and the ugly. Besides the possibility of someone going berserk on some women and children after having seen too much war, you have guys motivated greatly by greed, greed and more greed. On one hand, you have companies like Sandline and Executive Outcomes and guys like Niek du Toit and Timothy Spicer, who scour for unstable nations rich with resources like Equatorial Guinea and Papua New Guinea and try to capture the market - even overthrowing the government is not out of the question. Niek du Toit sits in a Equatorial Guinean jail, and is unlikely to ever see daylight again.

And in a market that is exclusive, secretive and relatively unregulated, you must always watch out for the opportunists, like Jack Idema. Portraying himself as a well-connected and well-informed ex-Special Forces member, Idema scammed journalists, filmmakers and locals in Afghanistan. Like Niek Du Toit, Jack Idema is currently rotting away in an Afghan prison.

3. And what is the future of the private military/security industry? Only God knows, but the faithful founder of Blackwater, Erik Prince, has ambitious dreams. He visions Blackwater fielding a battalion-sized force of security operators with small-arms, heavy weapons and planes, that can be deployed globally on short notice. It may sound bolsterous, but with Blackwater's capital, reach, and track record, Prince's plan is certainly not unrealistic.

Also, with small conflicts popping up everywhere, urbanization, and the rise of mixed martial arts, I can certainly imagine more Shannon Campbells popping up. With more manpower neededm with elite war vets who decide to pass on becoming contractors, and with companies that offer tactical training, it is not unrealistic to envision young males decide to get in shape, learn hand-to-hand and weapons, and join in for some gold and glory.

I don't want to go on forever, but Licensed to Kill : Hired Guns in the War on Terror by Robert Young Pelton was a great read, and I could not put the book down. And I don't think you'd be able to either.

Licensed to Kill : Hired Guns in the War on Terror is a damn good book. It's an unfiltered and unjudgemental look at the security contractors who do security, assault and intelligence work on behalf of governments around the world. If you've heard of companies like Blackwater, DynCorp or Aegis, then by all means, pick up this book.

1. So who are these guys? Who are these guys are all over the news these days, with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? Basically, security contractors are highly-trained masters of warfare. They are usually ex-special operators (e.g. Green Berets, Navy SEALs, Army Rangers, Marine Recon) or at the very least, ex-infantrymen or cops in the governmental forces. Some do security detail work for top dogs like Afghan President Hamid Karzai and former Iraq administrator Paul Bremer. Others guard escorts and convoys, and other work as non-official spies.

On one extreme end there is a guy like Billy Waugh, an ex-Green Beret-turned-CIA-turned-contractor. He is extremely experienced, guile and professional. Most of all, he is very patriotic, and his zeal to defend America keeps him going even though he's almost 80.

And just like sports teams, there are the walk-ons. This one guy named Shannon Campbell is the security contractor's answer to Rudy. He's not a veteran of the Special Forces or SAS, but a regular Joe who had a dream of making it. He trained in martial arts and firearms until he could break in to the industry, and he did!

2. And what are these guys like? They are basically just humans, just like us. They just happen to be extremely alpha. Although many media outlets portray them to be these monsters who have no remorse and shoot kids on the streets of Baghdad for fun, Robert Young Pelton does a great job keeping things in perspective. Security contractors have fun; they have camaraderie; they have fear; they worry about family and finances; they surf the web for porn. They are just like guys out there in the regular "world." It's like asking what NBA players are like, or what NFL players are like. Until you've lived in their world, you don't know what it's like. But if you want to know what they are like as human, just look at the people around you.

Of course, with the good and normal, you have the bad and the ugly. Besides the possibility of someone going berserk on some women and children after having seen too much war, you have guys motivated greatly by greed, greed and more greed. On one hand, you have companies like Sandline and Executive Outcomes and guys like Niek du Toit and Timothy Spicer, who scour for unstable nations rich with resources like Equatorial Guinea and Papua New Guinea and try to capture the market - even overthrowing the government is not out of the question. Niek du Toit sits in a Equatorial Guinean jail, and is unlikely to ever see daylight again.

And in a market that is exclusive, secretive and relatively unregulated, you must always watch out for the opportunists, like Jack Idema. Portraying himself as a well-connected and well-informed ex-Special Forces member, Idema scammed journalists, filmmakers and locals in Afghanistan. Like Niek Du Toit, Jack Idema is currently rotting away in an Afghan prison.

3. And what is the future of the private military/security industry? Only God knows, but the faithful founder of Blackwater, Erik Prince, has ambitious dreams. He visions Blackwater fielding a battalion-sized force of security operators with small-arms, heavy weapons and planes, that can be deployed globally on short notice. It may sound bolsterous, but with Blackwater's capital, reach, and track record, Prince's plan is certainly not unrealistic.

Also, with small conflicts popping up everywhere, urbanization, and the rise of mixed martial arts, I can certainly imagine more Shannon Campbells popping up. With more manpower neededm with elite war vets who decide to pass on becoming contractors, and with companies that offer tactical training, it is not unrealistic to envision young males decide to get in shape, learn hand-to-hand and weapons, and join in for some gold and glory.

I don't want to go on forever, but Licensed to Kill : Hired Guns in the War on Terror by Robert Young Pelton was a great read, and I could not put the book down. And I don't think you'd be able to either.

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Completely devoid of preaching, no axes to grind, no ideology to promote... you have to wonder how this ever got published in the USA. Not a trace of faux compassion. No uplift. In short, an almost miraculous book. Remarkable achievement.

I really enjoyed this book. A very interesting take on the life of a contractor, without the political objective.

This was a fantastic book. I'm having a hard time finding unbiased literature about the modern trend of PMCs (mercenary companies). Books written by conservatives paint PMCs (especially American ones) as purely patriotic and heroic organizations. They often overlooking or minimize the problems PMCs create and in some cases the crimes they have engaged in. Books written by progressives describe PMCs as evil agencies with immoral killers who profit from death, nothing more.

Mr. Pelton covers how the trend toward smaller government (including militaries) have lead to the rise in PMCs. He describes incidents where mercenaries have stepped into help nations the world will only talk about. He also covers incidents where mercenaries have illegally tried to topple small governments.

Unlike many "expert" authors, Pelton went to hot spots around the world to assess each situation for himself. He spoke with leaders and with people on the ground in and around the business.

Pelton credits the Bush administration for creating a situation where the US military is required to rely heavily on PMCs in Iraq and for their lack of accountability. He also credits the international community's lack of involvement for the fact that smaller nations have resorted to PMCs to end their violent conflicts.

If you think PMCs are the greatest thing on earth, here to promote democracy around the world, or if you think they're hired killers, here to kill innocent indigenous people in the name of corporate wealth and racist regimes, please read this book. Don't merely read books with an agreeable point of view.

Mr. Pelton does express a concern about the lack of oversight and accountability with PMCs around the world, but if he was trying to push another political message, I didn't see it. Great reporting. This is a book with a wealth of information that I didn't have to read with a grain of salt or read with the mindset that the author was trying to manipulate my views one way or another.

You may also want to view the DVD "Shadow Company," which covers the same topic.

Mr. Pelton's book hits a great medium. It is neither pro nor anti, it simply displays the information without bias. The stories he tells are informative and easily read. His insights from spending time with PSCs in the field are poinant in regards to the situation in Iraq as they explain what it is to drive "Route Irish" one moment and swig Whisky while smoking cigars the next. I found that the book humanized a sometimes inhuman subject; namely the business of providing security in a war torn environment.

This is a great book about the war on terror. The US is changing the world of warfare in ways that are fascinating but also scary. Really strange implications for the future which should be considered. A great book.

This was an excellent book and it gave information on other books that pertain to the same topic. It opened my eyes to contractors running open loop and not accountable to any one. My only prior knowledge about security contractors had come from news reports. This book is a good read and quite an eye opener!

An intriguing non-fiction work about the rise of mercenary groups and their use by U.S. government agencies at home and abroad. Book is very informative, but repetitious in places, and overly involved with minor details. However, for anyone interested in the "outsourcing" of protective services and growth of private militia this study highlights the three largest providers. Anyone interested in how private military contractors got started and operate, many under the umbrella of U.S. agencies like the CIA, should read this book.

I bought Pelton's 'World's most dangerous places' a few years ago. I'm always interested in the shady world of mercenaries, contractors and hired guns so of course I wanted to buy this book as soon as it was out. And it was spot-on. This is a very well written book, it gives you a no-nonsense look into the world of the contractors and after you have read it, you know a lot more about the matter than the average newsreader. What I liked most was the parts about Sandline and Executives Outcomes. Definetely a must-read if you want to know something more about contractors and 'mercenaries', or better put: the difference between those two. I recommend it highly.

Robert Young Pelton has been reporting from global hotspots for the past 15 + years. His record of reporting from far a field is impeccable, including stints in Afghanistan, Columbia, Kashmir, Algeria, and now Iraq. Having long been acquainted with private military contractors throughout his travels, Pelton ventures to Iraq to experience first hand the move towards privatization in the US military.

Pelton spends the majority of his time in Iraq with the controversial Blackwater USA; making runs along the "highway of death" between Baghdad Airport and the Green Zone. He gives a good description of the life of a military contractor in one the world's most dangerous zones. Pelton refrains from painting a too glorified picture of contractor life, and seems more to concentrate on the motivations of men working in the field.

Pelton also describes the history of the military contractor beginning in the early 1980s with such firms as the South African Executive Outcomes, and the British Sandline. He illustrates both the perceived benefits of private military intervention, such as quelling the RUF in Sierra Leone, to the not so clean interventions in Equatorial Guinea sponsored by the wealth-seeking interests of international business and finance.

All in all, I think Pelton does an excellent job refraining from the political bias which clouds much of the recent work on military contractors. Licensed to Kill serves as a readable description of the unstoppable move towards the expansion of private military contractors, and provokes thought and discussion on this new Pandora's Box.

Robert Young Pelton's Licensed to Kill is a book well worthy of the time invested in reading it. Pelton illuminates the world of modern private security contracting both from the inside and from an historical perspective. He draws a distinction between the security contractor, who is essentially a defensive fighter, and a mercenary, who undertakes offensive actions. The reader meets individual contractors and a few of the men behind the organizations. Tales of trial by fire mix with broader-perspective cautionary tales about where the trend in security contracting may be headed and the gray zone between the private security company and the mercenary army. Pelton's work offers valuable perspective on a phenomenon that has erupted since the start of the War on Terror and which deserves serious attention.

Licensed to Kill is many things at once. Pelton's book is a jigsaw puzzle of personal experiences with contractors on the ground, small-picture stories about individuals in the post-9/11 world of gun-for-hire opportunities, and big-picture stories that serve to frame the pre- and post-9/11 world of security contracting. A literary critic might argue that Licensed to Kill is a postmoderist work that lacks central direction or a single message. I believe that Pelton's book is a creditworthy effort at giving a human face to security contractors while creating a context for the world in which the War on Terror contractor operates.

At the personal level, Pelton devotes several chapters to his experiences in Iraq and North Carolina with contractors. Based on his subjects, Pelton to enjoys the closest contact with the American company Blackwater--one of post-9/11 private security success stories and one of the big winners of the outsourcing of security in Iraq. Pelton describes the Blackwater people in detail. The reader is imparted the knowledge that these are real people. The author sees most of them as men of (surprisingly) complex motives: they want to fight for their country; they want to support wives, children, etc.; they don't want to put up with the Big Army's bureaucratic nonsense; they want better pay than an Army junior enlisted man gets for putting his life on the line; they fear they have no other skills, so they want to earn a living marketing what they have; many are too old to go active duty, anyway; they crave the high that comes from danger.

As a mid-thirties National Guardsman and junior NCO who served in Baghdad in 2005, I understand the men Pelton describes reasonably well. Pelton describes a run down Route Irish to BIAP (Baghdad International Airport) and back to the Green Zone. I've made that run more than once myself. Although I find Pelton's description a touch dramatic, he's very authentic when he describes the hazards of the situation. I understand completely why these men hate the Big Army way of doing business. Soldiers in Iraq--NCOs included--are treated like irresponsible children, forbidden any sort of liberties, and subjected to the attentions of bored sergeants major who think the insurgency will be defeated by proper uniforms and correctly-laced boots. The contractors Pelton describes have found a way to get into the fight while avoiding the Army's less-attractive aspects. Many of my fellow soldiers talked about trying to come back as contractors so they could make twice as much money (or more) and be treated like men into the bargain. Pelton gives the reader an idea of who the contractors, mostly prior military, really are. Seemn through Pelton's eyes, contractors are not predominantly bloodthirsty raiders looking to spill as much innocent blood as possible. They are men being paid to carry a rifle to accomplish specific tasks and trying to survive while doing it.

Pelton is clearly in the trenches with the contractors physically and sympathetically. He acknowledges as much, so we are free to take his anecdotal experience as exactly that: anecdotal.

That much said, Pelton is not a mindless promoter in Licensed to Kill. He raises questions about the legal framework of contracting. To whom do the contractors really answer? Soldiers are clearly representatives of their nation, and they are held to well-published standards of conduct. Contractors, though as former soldiers may be guided by the same moral and ethical compass as their uniformed brethren, are not bound by the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Pelton points out that contractors exist in a sort of legal and ethical limbo. This, Pelton claims, is what the US government wants. When a contractor messes up and is called to task for it, the US government can claim that the contractor does not represent the policies and intent of the United States. The contractor can be dismissed out of hand, Pelton tells us, and the government thereafter washes its hands of the whole thing. Deniability, the author claims, is one of the chief virtues of the contractor and, by extension, one of the chief moral pitfalls. What does it say about the United States of America when we engage disposable men to fight for our causes? Soldiers are expendable in that their lives may be sacrificed to accomplish a mission. However, soldiers receive a host of benefits and long-term investment as part of their service. Contractors receive pay and nothing more. Currently, they are mostly immune from legal consequences in Iraq; but when and if they do start to be charged with crimes for their activities, the US government can give them up with a clean conscience--no harm, no foul to the government. Compare this to the fallout associated with Abu Ghraib and other poor conduct by American troops, and one can see the allure of disposable, deniable contractors. Whether or not the rest of the world will buy the argument that the actions of contractors do not reflect on the government sponsoring the contract remains to be seen. Pelton's point is that the US government has been entranced by the prospect and is likely to remain so until circumstances invalidate the idea.

Pelton devotes some narrative to the world of security contracting prior to 9/11. The main point of doing so seems to be to illustrate the fact that while private security contracting is by no means a new activity, the War on Terror has completely transformed contracting and contracting companies. He also points out that the more mercenary activities of private contracting that occurred in the 1990's still exist as possibilities in the 2000's and beyond. Pelton tells us that the leadership of Blackwater in particular is interested in building a force larger, more capable, and much more powerful than the armies of a number of Third World countries. Pelton seems assured that the Blackwater leadership assumes a priori that a Blackwater army would be used only in support of American foreign interests and that this fact creates a satisfactory moral and ethical framework for the use of said force. At the same time, Pelton raises the question of what will happen when the bounties of the War on Terror cease to provide satisfactory employ for the growing mass of men and companies under arms by contract. Men like the men Pelton describes in detail in Iraq, Afghanistan, and North Carolina may find that having decided to live by the rifle in their post-military careers they are unable to resist bending their codes of conduct to take jobs that are neither entirely in nor out of line with American foreign policy and interests once the ratio of contractors-to-contracts starts to become more competitive. (Sooner or later, this will happen. The market makes it inevitable.) Where in the gray zone between security contractor and mercenary will these men then operate? This is no academic question. As Pelton points out, it is a reality being rushed along by the decision of the US government to privatize much of the security force of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Licensed to Kill is a worthy read. The men are real. The world in which they operate is filled with dangers, rewards, and uncertainties. The national policies unfolding today lead us down a road fraught with hazard and paved with the bodies and rifles of security contractors and those they have been engaged to fight. Pelton provides the reader with an interesting, informative read. Whether one agrees with him or not, Pelton paints a fascinating picture and raises important questions.

This book reflects on the history and modern evolution of private security forces, their influences on the war on terror and the implications of the acceptance of private security forces in society's future.
Beyond just a dry assessment of private security contractors in Iraq, Pelton, adds dramatic personal narratives of his interactions with security contractors, aptly painting a picture of their experiences in Iraq.
This is a must read for anyone interested in the blurring of the line between the military and privately fielded armed forces, which raises interesting questions regarding the US Military's self-sufficiency, the allegiances of private forces, the skill-drain occurring in the armed forces and the future of warfare.