http://uk.news.yahoo.com/elections/dont-panic-post/post/dont_panic/16/exposed-government-relationship-with-shady-private-military-companies.html

Posing as a private military company, we went to see UKTI DSO to see how they could help us. Our secret filming can reveal the following:



- UKTI DSO staff offer advice to PMCs on how to get around what little regulations there are in this area
- UKTI DSO staff offer to help private military companies whose directors have criminal records set up in Iraq even though the Iraqi Ministry for the Interior stipulate that foreign PSCs can't employ staff with criminal records.
- Embassy staff and rooms are put at the disposal of Private military companies and given government seal of approval despite criminal records of directors.
- UKTI DSO official admits that PSCs operating in Africa have to bung people.



UKTI DSO costs the taxpayer over £21 m a year. Their function – to help British arms and security companies to sell their wares in war torn countries. But at what cost? The papers have been full of stories of violence and corruption by British and American private military companies over the last few months – Blackwater (or Xe), KBR and G4S, to name but a few. And it’s because there is so little regulation in this area that we have such a problem. It seems bizarre that if you want to export flowers abroad, you need a licence, but if it’s private soldiers to unstable developing countries you’re selling, then it’s really not necessary.



Which of the three main parties will condemn this shocking lack of regulation and misuse of British Embassies and their staff?