Britain is at centre of global mercenary industry, says charity
G4S is world’s largest security company as UK
leads booming global private military industry, War on Want says
http://www.911forum.org.uk/board/viewtopic.php?p=171920#171920
Members of a private security company in Baghdad
in 2007. War on Want says the private military
business is booming again as it did after the
invasion of Iraq. Photograph: Patrick Baz/AFP/Getty Images
<http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/feb/03/http://www.theguardian.com/profile/richardnortontaylor>Richard
Norton-Taylor - Wednesday 3 February 2016 07.00
GMTLast modified on Thursday 4 February 201601.17 GMT
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/feb/05/julian-assange-accuses-philip-hammond-insulting-united-nations
Britain is the “mercenary kingpin” of global
private military industry, which has been booming
ever since the “war on terror” began 15 years
ago, according to a report seen exclusively by the Guardian.
The UK multinational G4S is now the world’s
largest private security company, and no fewer
than 14 companies are based in Hereford, close to
the headquarters of the SAS, from whose ranks at
least 46 companies hire recruits, says the report
by British-based charity
<http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/feb/03/http://www.waronwant.org/>War
on Want.
The huge increase in the number of private
military and security companies, with contracts
running into billions of pounds, signals the
return of the “dogs of war” (mercenary) era that
followed the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq,
said John Hilary, executive director of War on Want.
At the height of the occupation of Iraq, about 80
British companies operated in Iraq; there are now
hundreds operating in areas of conflict around
the world, bound only by a system of self-regulation.
In Libya, UK companies led the way after the fall
of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, the report stated.
The Security Contracting Network, a recruitment
forum for the industry, posted a message in the
days following Gaddafi’s fall saying: “There will
be an uptick of activity as foreign oil companies
scramble to get back to Libya … follow the money, and find your next job.”
Leading UK private military company Aegis Defence
Services (now part of GardaWorld), Control Risks,
and Olive Group are also among the top
recruiters. Their senior executives and board are
dominated by former military officers, says War
on Want. The chief executive of Aegis, for
example, is former Gen Graham Binns, one-time
commander of British troops in Basra.
G4S last year secured a contract of up to £188m
to provide security for the Basrah Gas Company
and signed a five-year, £100m contract with the
British embassy in Afghanistan. Clients of
<http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/feb/03/http://www.theguardian.com/business/g4s>G4S,
whose annual turnover in Africa has reached
£500m, include Royal Dutch Shell and AngloGold Ashanti, War on Want reports.
Foreign Office spending on contracts with private
UK security companies rose from £12.6m in 2003 to
£48.9m in 2012, according to official figures.
The use of private armies and “floating
armouries” by shipping companies is also growing,
according to War on Want. Floating armouries are
ships harboured at sea, stacked with high-powered rifles, night-vision goggles.
More than half of the members of the Security
Association for the Maritime Industry (SAMI) are
British. Protection Vessels International Ltd, a
UK company, describes itself as the “global
leader in armed maritime security”. It was set up
in 2008 by senior former military figures “with
the express purpose of applying military
standards of security”, with a team “drawn from
the highest echelons of UK Royal Marines, UK
government intelligence and commerce”, War on Want notes.
The Guardian has
<http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/feb/03/http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jan/10/pirate-weapons-floating-armouries>reported
how private security companies protecting ships
against Somali pirates store their weapons on
floating armouries in international waters to
avoid arms smuggling laws. In 2013 Whitehall
issued 50 licences for floating armouries in the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden.
Hilary of War on Want said: “Private military
contractors ran amok in Iraq and Afghanistan,
leaving a trail of human rights abuses in their
wake. Now we are seeing the alarming rise of
mercenaries fighting on the frontline in conflict
zones across the world: it is the return of the ‘dogs of war’.”
He added: “For too long this murky world of guns
for hire has been allowed to grow unchecked. In
letting the industry regulate itself, the
government has failed: only binding regulation
will do. The time has come to ban these companies
from operating in conflict zones and end the privatisation of war.”
Britain has signed up to an international code of
conduct for “private security service providers”,
laying down principles covering accountability to
the law and human rights. However, it is a voluntary code of conduct.
The UN is drawing up plans for an international
convention that is legally binding on private
security and military companies. Switzerland bans
companies based in the country from operating in conflict zones.
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Please consider seriously the reason why these elite institutions are not discussed in the mainstream press despite the immense financial and political power they wield?
There are sick and evil occultists running the Western World. They are power mad lunatics like something from a kids cartoon with their fingers on the nuclear button! Armageddon is closer than you thought. Only God can save our souls from their clutches, at least that's my considered opinion - Tony
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