Jackbooted thugs, mercs and non-gov paramilitaries

[Gabriel Rocha]

I don't normally forward articles, but this one might be of interest to
some here. I especially like the part where these guys are exempt from
the legal system...

http://www.economist.com/world/europe/PrinterFriendly.cfm?Story_ID=2539816

British companies have been grousing about losing out to the Americans
in Iraq. But in one area, British companies excel: security


THE sight of a mob of Iraqi stone-throwers attacking the gates to the
Basra palace where the coalition has its southern headquarters is no
surprise. What's odd is the identity of the uniformed men holding them
off. The single Briton prodding his six Fijians to stand their ground
are not British army soldiers but employees of Global Risk Strategies, a
London-based security company.

Private military companies (PMCs).mercenaries, in oldspeak.manning the
occupation administration's front lines are now the third-largest
contributor to the war effort after the United States and Britain.
British ones are popular, largely because of the reputation of the
Special Air Service (SAS) regiment whose ex-employees run and man many
of the companies. They maintain they have twice as many men on the
ground as their American counterparts. According to David Claridge,
managing director of Janusian, a London-based security firm, Iraq has
boosted British military companies' revenues from #200m ($320m) before
the war to over #1 billion, making security by far Britain's most
lucrative post-war export to Iraq. 

It's a lucrative business. A four-man ex-SAS team in Baghdad can cost
$5,000 a day. Buoyed by their earnings, the comrades-in-arms live in the
plushest villas in the plushest quarters of Baghdad. Their crew-cut
occupants compare personal automatics, restock the bars and refill the
floodlit pools of the former Baathist chiefs. 

Established companies have expanded; new ones have sprung up. Control
Risks, a consultancy, now provides armed escorts. It has 500 men
guarding British civil servants. Global Risk Strategies was a two-man
team until the invasion of Afghanistan. Now it has over 1,000 guards in
Iraq.more than many of the countries taking part in the
occupation.manning the barricades of the Coalition Provisional Authority
(CPA). Last year it also won a $27m contract to distribute Iraq's new
dinar. Erinys, another British firm, was founded by Alastair Morrisson,
an ex-SAS officer who emerged from semi-retirement to win a contract
with Jordanian and Iraqi partners to protect Iraq's oil installations.
CPA officials say the contract is worth over $100m. Erinys now commands
a 14,000-strong armed force in Iraq.

In industry jargon, these companies' manpower is split into Iraqis,
.third-country nationals. (Gurkhas and Fijians) and .internationals.
(usually white first-worlders). Iraqis get $150 a month, .third-country
nationals. 10-20 times as much, and .internationals. 100 times as much.
Control Risks still relies on westerners, but ArmorGroup, a British
rival, employs 700 Gurkhas to shepherd America's primary contractors in
Iraq, Bechtel and KBR. Erinys's corps of pipeline protectors is
overwhelmingly Iraqi. The cheapness of the other ranks, compared with
western soldiers, is one reason why PMCs are flourishing. .Why pay for a
British platoon to guard a base, when you can hire Gurkhas at a fraction
of the cost?. asks one.

Nobody knows how long government contracts will last after the CPA
dissolves on June 30th. But multi-billion World Bank and UN
reconstruction funds should provide rich pickings. Amid rising violence,
the Program Management Office, which handles America's $18.6 billion aid
budget for Iraq, has raised its estimates of security costs from an
initial 7% of contracts to 10%. Blackwater, the American firm protecting
Iraq's American proconsul, Paul Bremer, says in many cases costs run to
over 25%. That's bad news for Iraqis hoping for reconstruction, but
great news for PMCs.

The boom has led to two worries. The first is lack of regulation.
Stressed and sometimes ill-trained mercenaries operate in Iraq's mayhem
with apparent impunity, erecting checkpoints without authorisation, and
claiming powers to detain and confiscate identity cards. A South African
company guarding a Baghdad hotel put guns to the heads of this
correspondent's guests. According to the CPA, non-Iraqi private-security
personnel contracted to the coalition or its partners are not subject to
Iraqi law. Even the industry is concerned. Regulation is vital, says
ArmorGroup's Christopher Beese, if Iraq is not to descend into the law
of the jungle. 

Second, the boom may be eroding Britain's defences. Just when the war on
terror is stretching the SAS to the limit, the rising profitability of
private sector work is tempting unprecedented numbers of its men to
leave. An SAS veteran estimates that some 40 of its 300 corps requested
early release from their contracts last year. Another guesses that there
are more ex-SAS people in Iraq than there are currently serving in the
regiment. Head-hunters poaching military talent, say critics, risk
turning the army's elite corps into little more than a training school
for PMCs.