Lt. Col. Tim Spicer OBE's mercenary firm (sorry "Private Military Company") Aegis "Specialist Risk Management" - formerly known as Trident Maritime (2002), formerly known as Strategic Consulting International (2001), formerly known as Crisis Risk Management (2000), formerly known as Sandline International (1999), formerly known as Executive Outcomes (1997) - has been hit by a scandal (see above) which may seriously hinder the right honourable bung-taker's ability to support himself and his lavish lifestyle.

CAN YOU HELP?!

Lt. Col Spicer OBE needs a new name yet again, in order to be able to dissolve his old company and emerge fresh, new and gleaming once more into the daylight and carry on making money. There's a $236 million Iraq contract at stake here for the love of jimminy!

Suggested new names so far include:

"Crisis Access Strategic Holdings"
"Empirica"
"Terra Firma"
"World Optimisation Network Gain Analysis"
"Complicita"
"Spice World"
"Latitudinal Operative Overseas Taskforce"
"East India Solutions"

But these aren't enough - we need options! We need more names!

Tell us, or tell Aegis at:  centre@aegisworld.com

...or tell the "men on the ground who are the heart and soul of the company":  psdteam@aegisiraq.co.uk

The Aegis Appreciation Society badly needs your assistance!

Spicer's original Aegis "incarnation", Executive Outcomes (to 1997), drew heavily on the use of veteran Apartheid-era South African soldiers and police. Interesting then that the man rumoured to have been firing the gun at the Iraqi civilian cars in that video has been named as a South African former soldier, Danny Heydenreycher. Heydenreycher reportedly served in the British army for six year. No mention of what he did before, or how many ANC activists he tortured to death in the process

 http://www.commonbits.org/crooksliars112820056

Executive Outcomes could be considered the progenitor of the modern private military company. They operated in Africa through out the 1990's and closed shop in 1999.

They were started by Luther Eeben Barlow, a member of the South African Defence Force, in 1989. Barlow, who had extensive experience in SA's wars in neighboring countries in the 70's and 80's, headed the European Section of the Orwellian named Civil Co-operation Bureau.

It is alleged EO's beginnings were as a front company for the CCB to circumnavigate arms embargos against South Africa. As the CCB began to break under investigations, many members made their way over to EO.

EO's first contract that led them to becoming the role model for copy-cat companies was with DeBeers and Branch Heritage Group via the goverment of Angola. Branch's oil site in Soyo, Angola had been captured and retained by UNITA forces. Through contacts with Simon Mann, Barlow met Branch CEO Anthony Buckingham and the idea of how to recapture control of the site led to a deal with the Angolan government (backed by DeBeers), EO and Branch.

The success EO had in Angola instigated a flood of PMCs in Africa, many of them formed by ex-EO officers. EO was also a part of a corporate maze created, in part at least, by accountant and CEO of Plaza 107, Michael Grunberg, and designed to obscure the relationships between soldiering companies, mineral and oil extraction companies, and key people in government positions.

EO and EO related companies along with Branch Oil and other mineral related companies worked all through out Africa in 1990s. Some of the hotspots were Angola, Sierra Leone, Burundi, and the Congo. When the criticisms began to get heavy, many of EO's work went to side-formed Sandline International headed by Lt.-Col Tim Spicer, which operated with the system already in place.

Subsidiaries like air support firm Ibis Air were owned by Barlow's umbrella company, Strategic Resources Corporation, the same company whose directors managed EO profits. Ibis provided air support for all of EO's operations and subsequently for Sandline International. The operator of Ibis, Crause Steyl, was recently the operator of Air Ambulance Africa which provided air logistical support for the 2004 failed coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea.

This is the nature of the legacy of Executive Outcomes. Among the companies formed by ex-officers are:

Alpha 5
Stabilco
Omega Support Ltd.
Panasec Corporate Dynamics
Bridge Resources
COIN Security
Corporate Tracking International
Safenet
Southern Cross Security
Among Executive Outcomes subsidiaries, sometimes via SRC have been:

Saracen International
Bridge International
Shibata Security
Teleservices International
Lifeguard
Ibis Air
Ibis Air and other subsidiaries were housed in the Plaza 107 maze run by Michael Grunberg. Grunberg was also a partner with Buckingham in DiamondWorks as well Barlow served as director on the Branch Energy board, a Branch Heritage subsidiary. All companies stood to benefit from the actions of the rest, and though they tried to remain as publicly distant from each other, their obvious proximity stands as the modern model between business ventures and the extreme edge of the private military industry. (1)

Relations Denied

Many of the relationships pieced together here by the source cited below have been denied in a release by Sandline ( http://www.sandline.com/comment/list/comment22.html)

SourceWatch Resources

Simon Mann
Tim Spicer
Aegis Defence Services
Coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea
War profiteering
Defence Systems Limited
Control Risks Group
Southern Cross Security
Northbridge Services Group, Ltd.

Aegis Defence Services was awarded a $293 million contract by the Pentagon in May 2004 to act as the "coordination and management hub" for the fifty-plus private security companies in Iraq. They will also contribute seventy-five teams of eight armed civilians each to assist and protect the Project Management Office of the United States. They also provide protection for the Oil-for-Food Program inquiry.

As Peter W. Singer says in his article in the June 15, 2004 New York Times[1] ( http://www.brook.edu/views/op-ed/fellows/singer20040615.htm), this is "a case study in what not to do." The lack of oversight and management from the government leaves too much room for corruption to take place. The contract contains a "cost-plus" arrangement which pays companies more the more they spend. The lack of accountability aside, Singer asks why the new Iraqi government was left out of the decision making process, especially so close to the "sovereign turnover."

And for that matter, why Aegis? A company that is not on the State Department's list of recommended security companies, and only a little more than a year old.

Aegis was started by Tim Spicer, former CEO of Sandline International, and Mark Bulloug. Spicer left Sandline in 2000 and started a new company, Strategic Consulting International, which he later changed to Trident Maritime. Trident became a 50/50 partner with Hudson Marine Management Services to form Hudson Trident. The new endeavor was successful and provided the time and money for Spicer and Bulloug to begin Aegis on the side. In August of 2003, SCI and Trident were listed as subsidiaries of Aegis on their website. [2] ( http://web.archive.org/web/20030812031345/http://www.aegisdef.com/).

Because of a few major controversies while running Sandline, Col. Spicer enlisted the help of publicist Sara Pearson of The Spa Way to polish his image. She ghost wrote An Unorthodox Soldier, (ISBN 1840183497), which portrays him as a kind of hero aiding those in troubled regions when no one else would.[3] ( http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=11350)

Singer says the deal was decided by the Army transportation command in Fort Eustis, Va. an office "with no apparent experience in dealing with the private military industry." DynCorp shared this view and registered a protest with the US Government Accountability Office alleging they were unfairly excluded from the bidding process. The protest was denied. [4] ( http://www.ffhsj.com/govtcon/ffgalert/gcarch/nb040903.htm)

An audit released on April 22, 2005, by the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction asserted that Aegis could not prove they had properly trained or vetted a number of armed Iraqi employees. The audit showed a random sample of 20 armed guards resulted in no training documentation for 14 of them. The report also faulted the company for not documenting background checks on 125 Iraqi employees. The audit reported the Army's contracting office in Iraq as being poorly fitted for oversight. Auditors claim the findings mean, "there is no assurance that Aegis is providing the best possible safety and security for government and reconstruction contractor personnel and facilities."[5] ( http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=12137)

[edit]Letter from Congressman Meehan
On August 11, 2004, Congressman Marty Meehan (D-MA) sent a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in regards to Aegis' contract with the Pentagon and specifically Tim Spicer's history. Meehan is a member of the House Armed Services Committee and the Congressional Friends of the Irish National Caucus.

In his letter ( http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/ma05_meehan/NR040811PentagonIraqContractLetter.html), Meehan expresses "serious concerns" about the contract due to the history of its founder and CEO. Spicer's defense of two Scot Guards who shot to death an unarmed Catholic teenager in Belfast, despite evidence and two convictions "for the 1992 murder" to the contrary, continues to this day. He also cites Spicer's illegal arms trade to Sierra Leone and involvement "in brutally suppressing a rebellion in Papua New Guinea."

Because Spicer "has been implicated in numerous human rights abuses and violations of international law", as a member of the CFINC, Meehan is "deeply concerned" this contract "sends a troubling message to the people of Northern Ireland and Irish Americans alike that the United States does not uphold its commitments to internationally recognized human rights." Meehan ends by respectfully urging Defense Secretary Rumsfeld to "reopen the contract for competition."

[edit]Board of Directors
Lt.-Col. Tim Spicer OBE: Chairman and CEO
Mark Bulloug: COO
Jeffrey Day: CFO
Dominic Armstrong: MD, Aegis Research and Intelligence
[edit]Advisory Board
General Sir Roger Wheeler GCB CBE, forner Chief of the UK General Staff
Sir John Birch KCVO CMG, former UK Permanent Representative to the United Nations
[edit]Shareholders in Aegis Defence Services
According to a report by the British American Security Information Council (BASIC), as of September 2004 Aegis's shareholders, and the number of shares they held in the company, were [6] ( http://www.basicint.org/pubs/Research/2004PMC.htm):

Tim Spicer - 5,000
Mark Bullough - 2,500
J Day Group Ltd - 2,500
Dominic Armstrong - 1,250
Frederick Forsyth - 414
Saad Investments Ltd - 414
Lombard Atlantic Bank NV - 414
MJ & AM Donovan - 138
D&T Pemberton - 138
R Sale - 138
AM Sladen - 138
C Wood & M Lemsey - 138
BAO Ltd - 138
Paragon Returns SDN BHD - 138
Pershing Keen Nominees - 138
Royal Bank of Canada Trustees - 138
Total shares issued - 13,734.
The BASIC report says that "According to one industry analyst the story on Aegis’s incorporation and shareholders is as follows: The executives in the company are the first four, totalling 11,250 shares, i.e., 81.9% of the equity. Some of these, such as J Day Group (Jeffrey Day) would have received their shares in exchange for making an investment in the business. Day may have invested £500,000 for his 2,500 shares, which have a face value of £25 but which gives him 18.2% of the ownership."

One notable shareholder is Frederick Forsyth, author of the classic mercenary novel, Dogs of War. His 414 shares give him a stake of 3.1% in the company.

[edit]SourceWatch resources
private military contractors
[edit]Contact
Aegis Defence Services
118 Piccadilly
London WI 7NW
United Kingdom
Tel: (44) 20 7495 7495
Fax: (44) 20 7493 3979
Email:  info@aegisdef.com
Web:  http://www.aegisdef.com

Tim Spicer in Iraq via US number directed to the CPA Program Management Office in Baghdad:
1-703-343-8136


[edit]External resources
Chart of reconstruction in Iraq ( http://www.govexec.com/features/0704-01/WebOfReconstruction.pdf)
Tim Spicer, "Corporations and Terrorism ( http://www.nixoncenter.org/publications/Program%20Briefs/PBrief%202003/vol9no25Spicer.pdf)", Program Brief, The Nixon Center, Vol. 9, No. 25. (This is an account of Spicer's presentation to The Nixon Center in Washington D.C. on November 10, 2003).
Jonathan Mann, "Security Experts Worry Over Combination of Piracy & Terrorism on High Seas ( http://cnnstudentnews.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0406/17/i_ins.00.html)", Insight, CNN, June 17, 2004. (Fetaures interview material with Dominic Armstrong from Aegis).
"Defense Experts Warn Al Qaeda Maritime Threat Growing ( http://www.bridgedeck.org/mmp_htmlcode/mmp_news_archive/2004/mmp_news040311.html#anchor2671944)", Wheelhouse Weekly, Volume 8, Number 11, March 11, 2004. (Dominick Donald from Aegis warns "Terrorism is imitative; it learns from other terrorists, and from organized crime.")
The Pat Finucane Centre ( http://www.serve.com/pfc/)
David Isenberg, "A Fistful of Contractors: The Case for a Pragmatic Assessment of Private Military Companies in Iraq ( http://www.basicint.org/pubs/Research/2004PMC.htm)", BASIC research report, September 2004.
Remy Ourdan, "The Irresistible rise of Lieutenant Colonel Tim Spicer in Baghdad's Private Security El Dorado" ( http://www.ufppc.org/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=923&Itemid=2) Le Monde, June 30, 2004.
Mary Pat Flaherty, "Iraq Work Awarded to Veteran of Civil Wars" ( http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A44945-2004Jun15?language=printer) The Washington Post, June 16, 2004
Sean O'Driscoll, "New Call for Prosecution Against Soldiers" ( http://www.irishabroad.com/news/irishinamerica/news/newcall.asp) IrishVoice
Ray O'Hanlon, "U.S. Ignores Protest Over Spicer Contract" ( http://www.serve.com/pfc/pmcbride/040811ie.html), Irish Echo, August 11-17 2004
Tom Griffin, "Irish-Americans target Iraq contract" ( http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FG30Ak03.html) Asia Times, July 30, 2004
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