Monday, August 30, 2004
day 68/reason 33: contracts with mercenaries
Been reading up on some companies awarded contracts in Iraq (and therefore receiving US taxpayer dollars to be hired guns).
One such British company, Aegis Defence Services is headed by a Lt-Col. Tim Spicer. You may never have heard of him, but many Irish-Catholics in both the US and Ireland have.
He also was involved in very dubious actions in Sierra Leone and Papua New Guinea.
Spicer's company Aegis Defence was awarded a contract for $293 million to provide security services in post-war Iraq.
The US inspector general for Iraq reconstruction is apparently auditing the Aegis contract at the request of US officials in Baghdad. The Irish National Caucus is encouraging the US government to rescind the contract, as is Aegis competitor DynCorp which lost several employees yesterday in Afghanistan.
¶ 9:24 AM
Been reading up on some companies awarded contracts in Iraq (and therefore receiving US taxpayer dollars to be hired guns).
One such British company, Aegis Defence Services is headed by a Lt-Col. Tim Spicer. You may never have heard of him, but many Irish-Catholics in both the US and Ireland have.
Spicer was in charge of a Scots Guards unit in Belfast in 1992, when two of his soldiers, Mark Wright and James Fisher, shot dead unarmed 18-year-old Catholic Peter McBride.
A military tribunal found the two guardsmen guilty of murder, but Spicer is reported to have helped them win early release from jail.
According to the Belfast-based Pat Finucane Centre for Human Rights and Social Change, Spicer also resisted prosecution of his guardsmen and wanted to send them back on patrol immediately after the killing.
He also was involved in very dubious actions in Sierra Leone and Papua New Guinea.
Spicer's company Aegis Defence was awarded a contract for $293 million to provide security services in post-war Iraq.
The US inspector general for Iraq reconstruction is apparently auditing the Aegis contract at the request of US officials in Baghdad. The Irish National Caucus is encouraging the US government to rescind the contract, as is Aegis competitor DynCorp which lost several employees yesterday in Afghanistan.
¶ 9:24 AM
