U.S. Contract to British Firm Sparks Irish American Protest

Anger Over Iraq Deal Stems From 1992 Murder in Belfast

By Mary Fitzgerald
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, August 9, 2004; Page A13

Irish Americans are lobbying the Bush administration to revoke a $293 million Iraq security contract awarded to a British firm after raising concerns about the chief executive's military past in Northern Ireland.

The contract, the largest yet awarded for security in postwar Iraq, was granted to Aegis Defense Services Ltd. in late May. It calls for Aegis to provide security teams for the Project and Contracting Office, the body responsible for overseeing $18.4 billion in U.S. reconstruction funds.

Aegis is run by Tim Spicer, a former lieutenant colonel in the Scots Guards who sparked a political scandal in Britain in the late 1990s because of the involvement of his then-company Sandline International in Papua New Guinea and Sierra Leone.

Some Irish American and human rights groups oppose the Aegis contract because of Spicer's support for two soldiers convicted of murder while under his command in Northern Ireland. The two soldiers shot Belfast teenager Peter McBride to death in 1992.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50566-2004Aug8.html