Iraq occupation makes possible record profits for British private military

Soldiers die and civilians die, but the merchants of death continue to see record profits.

Iraq occupation makes possible record profits for British private military contractor

By Harvey Thompson
28 February 2006

The British private military company Aegis Defence Services announced profits of £62 million for last year. The firm has seen turnover rise more than 100-fold in the past three years, thanks largely to contracts for the US Pentagon in Iraq

Aegis Defence Services is run by Lt. Col. Tim Spicer, the former Scots Guards officer at the centre of an arms-running scandal implicating the British government in a military coup in Sierra Leone to bring to power the pro-British regime of Ahmed Tejan Kabbah in 1998.

According to Spicer, three-quarters of the record profits came from contracted work in Iraq. The official figures are still to be posted at Companies House. In 2003, the firm’s first full year of operation, turnover was £554,000. “We have expanded a great deal and will continue to expand,” said Spicer.

Officially Aegis coordinates communications between US-led coalition forces in Iraq, civilian contractors and their private security guards. Amongst the functions of the company is to pass on information on the activity of insurgents, providing a daily intelligence service to contractors, as well as tracking the position of their vehicles.

Estimates for the value of Aegis’s contract range up to £230 million. Last year the firm, which employs 900 staff in Iraq, was awarded a deal with the United Nations to provide security for the constitutional referendum and elections. It hired hundreds of expatriates and Iraqi bodyguards.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/feb2006/cont-f28.shtml

British companies draw huge profits from occupied Iraq
By Harvey Thompson
1 April 2006

...British firms include private security/military services, banks, PR consultancies, urban planning consortiums, oil companies, architects offices and energy advisory bodies.

...The report acknowledges that although British corporations still lag behind the huge profits paid to US companies (the latest Halliburton/KBR military contract alone is worth about £2.85 billion), in two areas British firms are playing a central role. The Iraqi insurgency means private security companies (PSCs) or private military companies (PMCs) are in great demand, and it is the one area where British firms are on a par with their US equivalents. Corporate Watch estimates there are between 20,000 and 30,000 security personnel working in Iraq, half of whom are employed by companies run by retired senior British officers and at least two former defence ministers.

...Loukas Christodoulou of Corporate Watch has been monitoring British business relations with Iraq since the March 2003 invasion. He says in his conclusion to the joint report: “The presence of these consultants in Iraq is arguably a part of the UK government’s policy to push British firms as lead providers of privatisation support. The Department for International Development has positioned itself as a champion of privatisation in developing countries. The central part UK firms are playing in reshaping Iraq’s economy and society lays the ground for a shift towards a corporate-dominated economy. This will have repercussions lasting decades.”
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/apr2006/prof-a01.shtml