Private Military Companies (firms)

French PMC

SECOPEX is staffed by personnel of elite military, security and civil backgrounds. Their mastery of the whole range of theoretical, methodological and operational know-how guarantees the quality of our services, our respect of commitments, our confidentiality and independence. SECOPEX can call on a team of 300 specialists and seeks to propose a French alternative on the international security market which has traditionally been dominated by English-speaking countries.

Recruitment:
SECOPEX, 1 rue Georges Cuvier
11000 Carcassonne
FRANCE
Tel/fax : 00 33 (0) 4.68.25.55.81

E-mail contact:
info@secopex.com

The role of Aegis in Iraq

Aegis Defensive Services was given a $293 m "cost-plus" contract ($92 m in the first year for a three year maximum of $293 m) to manage private security for the Iraq program management office (PMO). It was awarded by an Army transportation group in Virginia. It includes the following roles:

• Bodyguards for top personnel. 75 x 8 person teams to protect PMO officers from "assassination, kidnapping, injury and embarrassment."
  
• An intelligence clearing house. "Their job is to disseminate information and provide guidance and coordination throughout the four regions of Iraq."
  
• Responsibility for vetting PMCs operating in Iraq.

Aegis was incorporated in Britain in September 2000.

Contact info.
Employment.

Diligence LLC

Diligence was founded by former members of the Central Intelligence Agency and Britain’s MI5 Intelligence Services. Today, Diligence has the experience and international network of contacts to provide companies with the highest quality commercial information, competitive analysis and due diligence support, even in the most difficult of operating environments.

Staff

Advisory board

Contact info

Middle East subsidiary

CACI under fire

LA Times. The U.S. government has launched a review of one of the private contractors involved in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal to determine whether to bar the company from future federal business, company and government officials said Thursday.

Titan buy-out by Lockheed Martin at risk

PMCs have been lucrative targets for acquisition by weapons-based defense firms. The involvement of PMC employees in the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib has now added new risk to the acquisition: liability and bad publicity. Lockheed Martin's purchase of Titan may be at risk.

Sadr offers new bounties for British troops

AP. A senior aide of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr told worshippers during a Friday sermon in southern Iraq that anyone capturing a female British soldier can keep her as a slave. Al-Bahadli said 250,000 dinars - about $350 - will be given to anyone capturing a British soldier and 100,000 dinars - or $150 - to anyone killing one.

Prosecuting Contractors in Iraq

NPR. An internal Army report on the abuse of detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad cites several civilian contractors suspected of participating in the incidents. But legal experts say it's unclear whether these contractors would be prosecuted in a U.S. military court, an Iraqi civil court or a U.S. federal court.

CACI to probe Iraqi employees

Washington Post. Two CACI employees were named in an unreleased internal Army report about abuses at Abu Ghraib, according to a New Yorker article published last week on the magazine's Web site. The report alleges that one employee allowed or ordered untrained military police to set conditions for interrogations that amounted to abuse, and recommends he be fired, according to the New Yorker account. It recommends that the other be disciplined.

CACI acknowledged that its employees had been interviewed by Army officials as part of the investigation, but said in an e-mailed statement that it has "received no indication from the Army that any CACI employee was involved in any alleged improper conduct with Iraqi prisoners."

"CACI has initiated an independent investigation of the actions of Company employees in connection with this matter," the statement said. It was unclear who was conducting the investigation. Company spokeswoman Jody Brown and the company's chief executive and chairman, Jack London, did not return calls yesterday for comment.

"We are appalled by the reported actions of a few," the company statement said. "The Company does not condone or tolerate illegal behavior on the part of its employees when conducting CACI business in any circumstance at any time."

CACI, which gets about 64 percent of its revenue from the Pentagon, has declined to disclose how many employees are working in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Weapons Permits??

Telegraph. The four Italian security guards kidnapped in Iraq had their personal protection weapons confiscated by American soldiers just hours before they were seized by suspected rebels, colleagues have revealed.

Breaking his silence about the incident, Mr Simeoni said the Americans claimed that the Italians had flouted gun permit rules. The soldiers issued a receipt so that the arms could be collected at a later date.

The men, who had been on their way back to Italy, were forced to return to their hotel and search for substitute weapons. They managed to find just a single machine pistol and two handguns, which friends fear left them vulnerable to their attackers.

One of the hostages, Fabrizio Quattrocchi, was executed by the kidnappers, an Iraqi Islamist group, two days after the men were captured, on April 12. His death was videotaped and the plight of the three remaining captives continues to cause intense public anguish in Italy.

Assistance for PMC forces?

The Guardian has obtained details of a firefight in the town of Kut, 100 miles south-east of Baghdad, between Iraqi insurgents and five security personnel of the Hart Group, a Bermuda-registered security consultancy run by former SAS and Scots Guards officer Richard Bethell, the son of Lord Westbury.

Gray Branfield, a South African, was killed during the battle after coalition forces from Ukraine failed to respond to repeated pleas for assistance from the small group of besieged guards.