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Originally Posted by Bored_Wombat

No. I missed that debunking. Do you have any details of it?

Anastrophe might like to note that the video is still being quoted as authentic up until as recently as two months ago in a mainstream US newspaper. The story broke in the UK Sunday Telegraph under the headline "Trophy Video Exposes Private Security Contractors Shooting up Iraqi Drivers" and was discussed by a TV program, Countdown, on November 28, 2005 between Keith Olbermann and "MSNBC terrorism analyst and the founder of globalterroralert.com, Evan Kohlmann":

OLBERMANN: It looks like private security guards shooting, seemingly at random, at passing vehicles on the road to the Baghdad Airport, all of it captured on video, video that reportedly first appeared on a Web site that is unofficially linked to a British contracting firm called Aegis Defense Services. And you and I are paying Aegis defense services $293 million as part of a contract awarded by the Pentagon last year.

[...]KOHLMANN: I think there are two thing to be said about this video. Number one, I don't begrudge private contractors from the right to self- defense. Supposedly, these videos were taken on the road between Baghdad and Baghdad's Airport, which is probably one of the most dangerous roads on earth.

In one three or four-month period, there were 150 separate attacks on that road, Including Many suicide bombings perpetrated by Abu Musab al- Zarqawi. These attacks target convoys of western vehicles. They look for when vehicles slow down at check points, at stoppage points and they try to attack them.

So look, if you're a contractor, and you have a vehicle headed towards you at 60 miles an hour, you only have a few seconds to make that decision. It is either your life or theirs. It could be a suicide bomber. It could be an Iraqi family rushing to the hospital.

And these incidents happen with the U.S. military as well. Just last week in Iraq, a U.S. military convoy fired on a civilian vehicle, killing four, including two kids north of Diala (ph) because it was a suspected suicide bomber.

That being said, I think that you draw a line when you compose a video, edit it and add music to it. If the people who filmed this video are the same individuals who added music to it, not only are they sick and twisted, but what is more, is that they are doing tremendous disservice to the United States and great Britain in Iraq.

[...]This is sick. It is twisted. And it's absolutely no different from what Abu Musab al-Zarqawi does. He broadcasts suicide bombings and glories the killings of civilians. We should not be a party to that same kind of propaganda.

The most recent mention is in the Chicago Sun-Times of September 10, 2006: "5 of the worst war profiteers: There's money to be made - by any means necessary", by Charlie Cray:

No. 4: Aegis Defense Services

The General Accounting Office estimates that 48,000 private security and military contractors are stationed in Iraq. The Pentagon's insistence on keeping a lid on military force requirements - thereby avoiding the need for a draft - is one reason for that astronomical growth, which has boosted the fortunes of the "corporate warriors" so much that observers project the industry will be a $200 billion a year business by 2010.

The introduction of private contractors has put "both the military and security providers at a greater risk for injury," the GAO says, because they fall outside the chain of command and do not operate under the Code of Military Justice.

[...]Industry critics, including Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), say that, at a minimum, Spicer's contract suggests that government agencies have failed to conduct adequate background checks. While it's hard to say how often private military contractors have committed human rights violations in Iraq, the Charlotte News-Observer reported in March that security contractors regularly shoot into civilian cars. The problem was largely ignored until a "trophy video" of security guards firing with automatic rifles at civilian cars was posted on a Web site traced back to Aegis.

Although the Army's Criminal Investigation Division says no charges will be filed against Aegis or its employees, critics say that only proves how unaccountable contractors are under current laws. Even the International Peace Operations Association, a fledgling industry trade association that insists the industry abide by stringent codes of conduct has rejected Aegis' bid to join its ranks.