Africa's new breed of 'dogs of war' http://www.blacklistednews.com/Africa's_new_breed_of_'dogs_of_war'/13960/0/38/38/Y/M.html

A new generation of soldiers of fortune, successors to the "Dogs of War" who fought in the Congo, Angola and other post-colonial wars, is operating across Africa, except today they're known as Private Military and Security Companies.While the modern breed is more likely involved in logistics than combat, they are still armed civilians operating for profit and aren't recognized soldiers under the Geneva Conventions. 

Peter Singer of the Brookings Institution said some of the PMSCs are operating at the "tip of the spear" in Africa and are directly descended from their mercenary forebears.One catalyst for the mercenaries' re-emergence in their latest incarnation appears to be the U.S. Africa Command.Inaugurated in October 2008, Africom's stated mission is to help train counter-terrorism forces across the continent where al-Qaida has gained footholds in East Africa, Somalia and North Africa.

But critics say its true purpose is to provide a framework to protect U.S. energy interests since West Africa is the world's hottest oil boom zone and is expected to supply about one-quarter of U.S. oil imports by 2015, which gives it strategic status.Whatever Africom's mission, there are opportunities for PMSCs under lucrative U.S. outsourcing contracts, such as the U.S. State Department's Africa Peacekeeping Program, worth $1 billion over five years.The program involves security, aerial surveillance, logistics, construction and training in countries like Somalia, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

[NOTHING NEW TO ME,NOT EXECUTIVE OUTCOMES,NOT AFRICOMS ROLE IN TRAINING ANTI TERRORISM COURSES NOT COUP IN GINEA BY BRITTISH FINANCIAL INTERESTS..I EXPOSED THIS FOR YEARS NOW zzzZZZZ, SEE MY AFRICA SECTION ARCHIVES..IN FACT I CALL BROOKINGS TAKING THIS ON ACTUALLY FLUFF