Re: Something of a scenario idea

[Janne Kemppi <jkemppi@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> This list is awful quiet lately.

	Yes. That is good.

> I just read an editorial on the conflict with Afganistan and the writer suggested that Congress issue Letters of Marque.  It must first declare war on terrorism, but once that is done they can issue the letters to non-government organizations and individuals for bounty hunting purposes.  I doubt this will occure in our world, but what if in the ME timeline Congress does this and BE is issued a letter.  This would allow the active hunt for known terrorists.  Or, an individual 'wrongly' hunted by a group with a letter, hires BE to protect him or convince the group they have the wrong man.

	Mmm...  you should give this idea a good long thought before
	putting it into your game. For one this means legalizing all
	kinds of riff-raff to do whatever they want. 

	It ends up having a huge number of bandits running up and down
	in Afganistan trying to kill anyone they think is a terrorist
	and thus terrorizing the whole place in the end. Fact is that
	these groups have no intelligence on place and as such would 
	work on basis of torturing information out of people they are
	capturing. I think that BlackEagle would try to stay away from
	such a detail because it would hurt their business image.

	BE has no real intelligence means to do such work (and if they
	are reliant on data procured from governments, the government
	troops can do same job in-house with zero security risks using
	outsiders like BE for the work would entail). The whole concept 
	of hunting down someone is uncomprehensible, counterproductive
	and harmfull to BlackEagle as corporation.

	As far as protection is concerned, it again depends on how much
	heat there is. A lot of thugs (BleackEagle employees ARE thugs)
	can work against powers that be when they do favours to said
	powers that be. Thus BE (that works for money) has to think very
	carefully will it burn bridges behind it if it does such work.
	Assuming it does not (please remember that being guilty has 
	nothing to do with this), they might do this if they get bundle
	of cash for it. Essentially this means protecting a banker or
	supporter or prominent member whose family back home wants him
	protected.

> Another idea relating to the current conflict.  There are several US civilian missionaries held captive by the Taliban.  The US and allied governments are publicly saying they are not mounting rescue efforts.  If the parents or independant organization, the church that sent them, hires BE to rescue the captives.  While in country the BE team runs into the US Special Forces or British SAS team sent to rescue the captives.  This could be really sticky if they show up at the objective at the same time.

	In real life Taliban government forbades preaching christianity 
	and thus there are situations where people (typically foreigners)
	have been arrested for that charge. Penalty is death for that.

	Thus work (assuming you want to play such a scenario) would
	mean 1) establishing contact with Taliban, 2) escorting some
	negotiator to do work or handling negotiatons on your own.
	Second phase gets rather interesting twist when you escort
	families of captured people to plea for their release in
	exchange of getting exiled from Afganistan (this is what did 
	happen in reality). Third pahse is escorting said people and
	any possible negotiators to safety from Afganistan (that is 
	also quite dangerous since there are bandit groups in those
	mountains). Rescuing means handling skillfully negotiations.
	This would be something I might actually run as adventure
	since it is believable operation.

	As far as armed rescue is concerned, I do not believe that
	BlackEagle has any skills or personnel capable of making such
	a move when it is compared to professional organizations.
	BE is strictly amateur hour and any BE 'operative' would
	probably know it and bow out as soon as one does see real 
	soldiers around.