Pentagon defends Spicer contract

international | anti-war / imperialism | other press Friday April 15, 2005 17:39 by redjade

The US Government has defended its decision to award a £293 million Iraq Security contract to British mercenary Tim Spicer, in reponse to concerns raised by the family of Belfast man Peter McBride, who was shot dead by Scots Guards soldiers under Spicer’s command in 1992.

British mercenary Tim Spicer

Pentagon defends Spicer contract
By Tom Griffin, 15 April 2005
http://www.theirishworld.com/homepage.asp?fname=2005-04-15\news\2.htm

The US Government has defended its decision to award a £293 million Iraq Security contract to British mercenary Tim Spicer, in reponse to concerns raised by the family of Belfast man Peter McBride, who was shot dead by Scots Guards soldiers under Spicer’s command in 1992.

In a letter to the Pat Finucane Centre last month, Melissa Rider of the US Army Contracting Agency said the US had determined that Spicer and his company Aegis Defence Services “both possessed satisfactory records of integrity and business ethics and were responsible. The issue you have raised, though surrounded in political controversy, does not support any grounds for overturning the responsibility determination by our contracting officer. The actions you attribute to Mr Spicer do not appear to have resulted in any conviction for any illegal activity bearing on his integrity and business ethics. The fact that others could have reached a different conclusion does not mean that this determination was unreasonable.”

Rider said that there was no legal basis to deny the contract to Aegis, adding “I now consider this matter closed.”

--- --- ---

→ Background info....

Tim Spicer's World
by Andrew Ackerman
December 29, 2004
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050110&s=ackerman

Military contracts are big game. And one of the most notorious hunters is a former British soldier whose past business ventures include violating a UN arms embargo in Sierra Leone and unwittingly triggering a coup in Papua New Guinea. His name is Tim Spicer, and in March his London-based company, Aegis Defense Services, bagged a $293 million contract from the Pentagon to protect US diplomats in Iraq.

One might think that the government would be wary of awarding such largesse to a man with a dubious background. But not only did the Pentagon have no idea who Spicer was when they gave his company a huge contract, they didn't seem to care when challenged about it.

- - -

Marketing the New 'Dogs of War'
By Duncan Campbell
WASHINGTON, October 30, 2002
http://www.publicintegrity.org/bow/report.aspx?aid=149&sid=100

In an article for Britain's Daily Telegraph in May 1998 Spicer wrote, "At Sandline, we maintain a strict, self-imposed code of conduct. We will only work for legitimate governments, those recognised by the U.N. We then apply our own moral template."

The template was firm. "The real problem comes when you get to a country where the insurgents are in the right. We can't work for them because if we did we would be helping to overthrow recognized governments," he wrote.

Spicer's position appears now to have changed. On publicizing his new companies in 2001, Spicer told the Financial Times that SCI "would look carefully on a case-by-case basis at working for liberation movements in overseas countries," the paper reported. Asked at a conference in 2002 on "Europe and America – a New Strategic Partnership – Future Defense and Industrial Relations," sponsored by the prestigious Royal Institute of International Affairs, how he would resolve his contradictory pronouncements, Spicer replied:

"I don't think anyone would object if a private military company, American, British or whatever – was to become involved at the behest of the international community with the Iraqi resistance. I don't think people would have objected if a PMC was working with the Northern Alliance. Other countries, it's more complicated. Sudan is a complicated issue. I suppose the question of Zimbabwe has been raised, but it's not at that stage yet. So I would duck that particular question at the moment."

- - -

Pity the Iraqis: Tim "Rambo" Spicer is Coming!
by William Hughes
Wednesday 11 August 2004
http://world.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/8869/

The $293 million security contract was granted by the Pentagon to Aegis in May, 2004. It is the largest yet awarded for security in Iraq. At press time, the Department of Defense has refused to revoke the deal and Rumsfeld, its top boss, remains uncharacteristically silent. It has been reported that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) is taking under consideration a protest lodged by DynCorp, a Texas based security firm, that had also bid on the contract. The GAO's decision is due out by Sept. 30th, according to the TWP. Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), too, has also not responded to requests by activists to intervene in the dispute, nor has British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, who has ignored countless pleas from the McBride family to see that justice is finally done in the murder case of teenager Peter McBride.

- - -

IRAQ: Tim Spicer's World
by Andrew Ackerman, The Nation
December 29th, 2004
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=11766

How the Army was so inept in awarding Aegis a contract is anybody's guess. The Army invalidated four other competing proposals, including one from a much larger and more experienced firm, DynCorp International LLC, which has drawn its share of controversy, including when it fired a whistleblower who revealed that DynCorp employees in Bosnia were running a sex ring using 12-year-old prostitutes.

- - -

The Irresistible Rise Of Lieutenant Colonel Tim Spicer
In Baghdad's Private Security El Dorado
By Rémy Ourdan
Translated from Le Monde
http://www.williambowles.info/iraq/aegis.html

The American government has also been using these private companies and others, more discreet, for secret activities, as the Abu Ghraib prison torture scandal revealed recently. Intelligence agencies subcontract their activities, notably for interrogations. Not only are these private “soldiers” not subject to military discipline or prosecution, but their companies are paid, or see their contracts renewed, on a pro rata basis, according to how much information is obtained. This would appear to have pushed some contractors to extract fantastical confessions from prisoners through torture.

In the Iraqi jungle, some, like Lieutenant Colonel Tim Spicer and many others, are managing, with Washington's and London's help, to find their way, making fortunes in the process. And their employees can't complain. Paid between $5,000 and $20,000 a month, these “gunners” come from all over the world. Mercenaries, soldiers, legionnaires, police, and even discothèque bouncers, American, British, South African, Lebanese, French, Serbian, or Nepalese, they are all participants in this new gold rush.