Aegis Defence Systems chief Tim Spicer first gained public notoriety as a result of his involvement in civil wars in Sierra Leone and Papua New Guinea.
By Noah Shachtman
One of the world’s most notorious mercenaries may soon be overseeing all of the State Department’s security convoys in Iraq.
The New York Times is reporting today that the Department of Defense is taking control of the State Department’s convoys of security contractors, like Blackwater. The Pentagon already coordinates its outsourced security details through a single, Defense Department entity, the Reconstruction Operations Centers, which tracks movement of security convoys to make sure they and the military don’t trip over one another. Most likely this existing mechanism will be expanded to monitor Blackwater, Triple Canopy and DynCorp convoys for the Department of State.
But here’s the interesting twist: The Reconstruction Operations Centers are themselves outsourced, through a recently renewed $475 million contract to the British firm Aegis. And Aegis is run by the infamous old-school gun-for-hire, Tim Spicer. He’s the guy, you may recall, who tried to use his mercenary army to launch a counter-coup of the government of Sierra Leone — and plotted the overthrow of the authorities in Equatorial Guinea. Later, in Iraq, his boys filmed a rather nasty “trophy video,” in which contractors took video of themselves shooting at civilians, set it to the Elvis song “Runaway Train,” and put it on the Internet.
Kind of ironic, dontcha think, that this could be the Bush Administration’s
way of bringing greater accountability and oversight to Blackwater?
. . .
Related
MI6 front company in Top 10 profiteers from Iraq
war
A company which acts as a cover for the British secret
service has been named as one of the top ten companies sharing in the huge
profits from the war on Iraq. The company is run by Colonel Tim Spicer who has a
long history of promoting war and instability, and of course making money, by
selling arms and terrorists (aka “mercenaries”) to dangerous regimes. A private
security firm headed by a former British Army colonel, Tim Spicer, has been
named as one of the “top 10 war profiteers” of 2004.
The Pilgrims Society, Mercenaries and Private
Intelligence
Field Marshall Lord Peter Inge, who’s a member of
the Privy Council and the Order of the Garter, is a non-executive chairman of
the mercenary firm Aegis Defence Services. Aegis has been awarded a $293 million
contract for Iraq in 2004. CEO of Aegis is Lt. Col. Tim Spicer, a controversial
former SAS officer who also headed its predecessor, Sandline International. Inge
also sits on the board of Hakluyt, a private intelligence firm set up by former
MI6 agents that often works for multinationals, and is a consultant to BAE
Systems and Vickers Defence Systems.
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