Mercenary Territory

Is it the lies

Is it the style

It's a mercenary territory

I wish you knew the story

I've been out here so long dreaming up songs

I'm temporarily qualmless and sinking...

*Written by Lowell George, from Mercenary Territory, as performed by Little Feat.

From Sharon Weinberger, Danger Room, at Wired.com:

Private security contractor Blackwater Worldwide has purchased a light attack counterinsurgency aircraft, and over two dozen other aircraft, under the name of an obscure aviation company.

An Embraer Super Tucano was placed on the U.S. civil aircraft registry on February 21, 2008 under the name of EP Aviation LLC. Additionally, 28 other aircraft have been registered to this company, most over the past few months. The list includes 14 Bell 412 helicopters, as well as a number of fixed wing aircraft.

While Blackwater hasn't advertised this news, neither is it keeping it a state secret (EP Aviation isn't the sneakiest way to hide connections to Blackwater owner Erik Prince). A spokesperson for Blackwater, in fact, confirmed to Danger Room that EP Aviation is an affiliate of Blackwater.

Companies don't make capital expenditures unless business is good and is expected to stay good.

This is your outsourced, shadow military.