This question stems from a couple of recent U.S. Cencom briefings on
the war in Iraq.  They contained references to "technicals",
commercial vehicles (invariably pickup trucks) with mounted weapon
systems (usually machine guns, but one page I found mentioned a
recoiless rifle).  The term rang a bell, and though it doesn't
amazingly rebound to my credit, I recognized the term as having
entered the popular mind from Operation: Restore Hope, the U.S.
misadventure in Somalia.  Despite my belief that I'm not too shabby in
the research department, I was not able to google out an answer to my
question.  To wit, what is the etymological orgin of the term
"technical"?  It seema curious to me, as the vehicles are manifestly
not technical, in the sense of highly complicated.  Also appreciated
would be: idle speculation on why the U.S. military has picked up the
term (suppose there's nothing else that does the trick) and pictures
(the Somalian ones were frequently covered in slogans).  Thanks, and I
must say I find this service quite neat.

scholastos -- 

Like pinkfreud-ga, I was tantalized by this question, and I believe I
have found the answer.

Three different online sources ascribe the use of the term
"technicals" for these converted civilian vehicles to a practice of
free-lancing local gang members during the Somali misadventure.  That
is, they would offer protection to international aid agencies under
the guise of "technical assistance," and the name "technicals" stuck
for the vehicles they used to provide this protection.

One of these online sources is a 2002 article in the Middle East Times
as reported by the AFP news service, According to that article:

"The vehicles are known as "technicals" – a term derived from the
accounting practices of international aid agencies hiring such trucks
in the early 1990's and claiming for "technical assistance" on their
expenses."
Middle East Times: Thirteen killed as clashes erupt near home of
Somali minister
http://www.metimes.com/2K2/issue2002-21/reg/thirteen_killed_as.htm


While this is only website I found with etymological information on
the term "technicals," I did find two very recent newsgroup postings
with the same information.  Here is one of those postings, purportedly
based on news reports at the time of the Somali conflict:

"The original explanation I recall from TV news reports was Somali
gangs would
offer international relief organizations 'technical assistance' or
protection from other bad guys -- for a fee.  The 'technicals' term
stuck on their gun trucks, and it seems to be used today."
Google Groups: rec.,models.scale (4/13/03)
http://groups.google.com/groups?q=%22+technicals%22+trucks&start=10&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&selm=20030413201701.25840.00000760%40mb-ff.aol.com&rnum=19


Here is the gist of the second such posting:

"When the UN was in Somalia, back in the early 90's they experienced
problems with raids on their aid convoys. In an effort to discourage
this the UN hired local thugs to defend the convoys. In the billing to
the UN for the payments to the local thugs they were called Technical
Assistance. a nice PC name for Hired Thugs, besides would you just put
Hired Thugs in your books? "
Google Groups: sci.military.moderated (4/11/03)
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&threadm=7c5510c.0304081300.24a2499e%40posting.google.com&rnum=2&prev=/groups%3Fq%3D%2Btechnicals%2Btrucks%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26selm%3D7c5510c.0304081300.24a2499e%2540posting.google.com%26rnum%3D2


With this corroboration of the single journalistic source, and no
contrary information, I am confident that this is the best wisdom that
is available on the subject.

As for its use of the term "technicals" in connection with the Iraq
operation, I suggest that it is not surprising that it has become part
of military lingo as a description of a makeshift mobile armed
vehicle.  A Google search using the terms "technicals trucks mounted" 
returns almost 300 online references, indicating that the term was in
widespread use in connection with Somalia.  It would seem to be
natural for military personnel to use this familiar term for
similar-appearing vehicles in Iraq.


Search Strategy:

After a lot of trial-and error Google searching, I found the Middle
East Report reference using the following search terms:

technicals militia OR military truck OR trucks
://www.google.com/search?q=technicals+militia+truck+OR+trucks&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&start=20&sa=N


In looking for corroboration of this source, I tried several more
focused searches, including:

"were OR are known as technicals"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22were++OR+are+known+as+technicals%22
"were OR are called technicals -basketball"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22were++OR+are+called+technicals%22+-basketball

I ultimately found the corroboration by searching Google Groups using
the following terms:

technicals trucks
http://groups.google.com/groups?q=+technicals+trucks&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&selm=7c5510c.0304081300.24a2499e%40posting.google.com&rnum=2



I am confident that this is the information you are seeking.  If any
of the above is unclear, please ask for clarification before rating
this asnwer.


markj-ga

markj- Excellent work!  I know the "please ask for clarification" bit
is pro forma, lest I cry "But you didn't tell me where Uncle Bob left
his car keys!"  However, I can't imagine how I could ask for anything
more.  Not only did I get an answer, it has a nice little cynical
twist, with "technical assistance" equating to young men with guns. 
Good thought searching the newsgroups.  Wish I'd thought of it myself,
but I guess that's why I'm paying you, and not vice versa.  Thanks
again.  Also, pinkfreud you rock!  That was quite slew of pictures you
found.  The second link is really impressive.  Thanks a bunch.

I have wondered about this, also. I haven't been able to find an
answer, but I speculate that, given the extreme poverty of Somalia, a
truck equipped with a machine gun may seem like a very high-tech item
to a Somalian (it's a heck of a lot higher tech than rock-throwing or
Molotov cocktails.) Another possibility that occurs to me is that
"technical" might be a corruption of "tactical."

Here's a fairly good photo of one of the technicals:

http://www.empereur.com/nations/somalia/technical.jpg

And here you'll find a collection of photos:

http://membres.lycos.fr/France40/technic.html

I hope another Researcher will be able to track down the origin of the
word "technical" when used in this sense, since I would really like to
know.

Wow! Great sleuthing, markj! My hat is off to you!

~pinkfreud

scholastos --

Thanks for the five-star rating, the tip and the kind words.  I
enjoyed tracking this one down for you. And I too applaud pinkfreud
for the visuals.

markj