Yarow said his government, which controls only part of Mogadishu in a country that has seen mostly anarchy for two decades, wanted assistance, but only from companies with distinguished records.
“The Cabinet has today overwhelmingly voted against Saracen International,” Yarrow said.
Yes, but the Puntland contract is still in place. But as far as this contract, who knows who they will choose to replace Saracen? Whomever the donor country is, they are they ones forking over the money and will find a company the TFG can deal with.
As for dropping Saracen purely because of Erik Prince’s supposed involvement, is pretty stupid if you ask me. More than likely he was just advising the main planners. I am sure his connections were useful as well. But really, you use guys like this because they can see the whole picture and have experience with really dangerous projects. And because someone else was paying for his services, why would the TFG care? Hell, that government needs all the help they can get, and here they are ditching a security training contract.
Of course the media loved fueling whatever negativity they could. Blackwater does not exist anymore, Xe has nothing to do with Saracen, and Erik Prince is doing his own thing in another country. And yet as soon as Prince was mentioned in some report (that I have yet to see), all of a sudden Saracen International becomes the new Blackwater. Pffft. Meanwhile, islamists and pirates win another one. –Matt
Edit: 01/28/2011 – Check out the story I posted in the comments. The reporters at the Associated Press are really going off on this deal. All I can say is bravo to the Puntland government for not being influenced by a biased media.
Somalia cancels military training project linked to Blackwater founder
By Mohamed Sheikh Nor
January 27, 2011
MOGADISHU, Somalia — Somalia’s government decided on Thursday to cancel an agreement with a private security company linked to the founder of Blackwater Worldwide to train Somali forces to go after pirates and insurgents, a senior official said.
Deputy Security Minister Ibrahim Mohamed Yarow told The Associated Press that the Cabinet, meeting behind closed doors, ended the agreement with Saracen International in a decision he said is “irrevocable.”
The AP reported last week that Erik Prince, whose former company Blackwater Worldwide became synonymous with the use of private U.S. security forces running amok in Iraq and Afghanistan, had quietly taken on a new role in the project to train troops in lawless Somalia. Blackwater guards were charged with killing 14 civilians in 2007 in the Iraqi capital.
Yarow said his government, which controls only part of Mogadishu in a country that has seen mostly anarchy for two decades, wanted assistance, but only from companies with distinguished records.
“The Cabinet has today overwhelmingly voted against Saracen International,” Yarrow said.
Lafras Luitingh, the chief operating officer of Beirut-registered Saracen International, did not immediately return phone calls or text messages from AP seeking comment.
Yarow said the contract had also envisioned reviving social services in Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital which has been heavily damaged by ongoing fighting, including building health facilities.
On Jan. 21, a day after the AP report appeared, U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters in Washington that the United States was “concerned about the lack of transparency regarding Saracen’s funding, its objectives and its scope.”
Crowley said the U.S. had made these concerns known to Somali officials.
Luitingh had told AP that his company signed a contract with the Somali government in March. He declined to say then whether Prince was involved in the project and said he was not part of Saracen. But a person familiar with the project and an intelligence report seen by AP said Prince was involved in the multimillion-dollar program financed by several Arab countries, including the United Arab Emirates.
It aimed to mobilize some 2,000 Somali recruits to fight Somali pirates who are terrorizing mariners sailing far off the African coast. The force was also to go after a warlord linked to Islamist insurgents, one official said.
Blackwater gained a notorious reputation in Washington after a series of incidents.
A U.S. federal judge threw out the charges related to the 2007 Baghdad shootings on the grounds that the defendants’ constitutional rights were violated. Last year, Iraq’s Interior Ministry gave all contractors who had worked with Blackwater at the time of the shooting one week to get out of the country or face arrest for visa violations.
The European Union is training about 2,000 Somali soldiers with U.S. support, and an African Union force of 8,000 Ugandan and Burundian peacekeepers is propping up the government.
Prince, now based in the United Arab Emirates, is no longer with Blackwater, now known as Xe Services. He has stoutly defended the company, telling Vanity Fair magazine that “when it became politically expedient to do so, someone threw me under the bus.”
Since the signing of the Saracen contracts, a new Somali government took office and appointed a panel to investigate the deal and others, Minister of Information Abdulkareem Jama said earlier this month.
The U.N. is quietly investigating whether the Somalia projects have broken the blanket embargo on arms supplies to Somali factions.
Story here.
Somali region defies fed gov't over Saracen deal
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A semiautonomous regional government in Somalia on Friday defied the central government's decision to end relations with a private security company linked to the founder of Blackwater Worldwide, underscoring the weakness of the authorities in Mogadishu.
Somalia's Minister of Information Abdulkareem Jama insisted on Friday that the decision to end the relationship with Saracen International applies to regional governments.
"The decision is binding on all Somali territories. That will apply to all parts of Somalia," said Jama.
But Abdirizak Ahmed, the head of the counter-piracy program in the semiautonomous northern region of Puntland, said it does not necessarily recognize the authority of the federal government to make that decision. Saracen International has already begun training forces in Puntland, whose administration has been distancing itself from the Mogadishu-based government, saying it hasn't delivered security and services.
"I don't think the decision they have made will change anything in Puntland," Ahmed said. "I don't think it will have an impact on the relationship Puntland has with Saracen … it's not a (national government) issue."
Other Puntland officials did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
Last week The Associated Press reported on links between Saracen International and Erik Prince, who founded Blackwater Worldwide. Killings by Blackwater guards in Afghanistan and Iraq — including a 2007 incident in Baghdad in which 14 Iraqi civilians were shot dead — raised global concerns over the lack of accountability of private security contractors in war zones.
Lafras Luitingh, the chief operating officer of Saracen International, sent a statement which seemed to recognize that the Saracen deals, at least with Somalia's federal government, are over.
"We are proud of the work we performed for the Somali government who invited us to provide important counter-piracy and humanitarian assistance. We are ready to serve again if called upon to do so," it said. Luitingh did not return calls Friday seeking comment.
Saracen has already begun training a force of over 1,000 men in Puntland that is supposed to go after pirate gangs on land. It may also be deployed against Islamist insurgents in the region.
Saracen also signed a deal with a previous Somali government to train a presidential guard and possibly a second antipiracy force of over 1,000 men in the Somali capital, but the new administration voted on Thursday to abandon the deal.
The AP reported last week that several companies linked to Saracen International had given authorities false addresses or registration information. Saracen has declined to identify those funding their multimillion dollar project but Luitingh said last week that the donors are in the process of notifying the U.N. A person familiar with the project and an intelligence report said Prince was involved in the multimillion-dollar program financed by several Arab countries, including the United Arab Emirates.
Saracen has declined to elaborate on its relationship with Prince. A statement by Prince's spokesman said simply that he has provided advice to several antipiracy operations.
If the Puntland government defies the national government's decision to ax the Saracen deals, it could lead to a serious breach between the two regions. Puntland is generally considered more stable, and the U.S. has indicated it would be willing to funnel more aid to the region. But most international donors still focus heavily on the Mogadishu-based government, which controls only a few neighborhoods in the capital and is under assault by an Islamist militia linked to al-Qaida.
The U.S. had previously raised concerns over the lack of transparency in the Saracen deals, saying it was unclear who was funding them, who was responsible and what the new forces would be used for.
Jama said the Somali government does not even have a copy of a signed contract with Saracen. Luitingh has said the contract was signed on March 1 by the then-deputy prime minister and minister of finance and witnessed by the Somali ambassador to Kenya.
.
Comment by headjundi — Friday, January 28, 2011 @ 10:59 AM
Very interesting piece, Matt.
I am sure that many will be thrilled at this news, especially as it will again prove that no-one really wants the issues of piracy and lawlessness resolved. I also think that the media played their usual role of calling for contracts to be ended in order to allow terror to flourish. After all, peace is not something interesting to write about, is it?
As we witness the downward spiral of Egypt – in essence the centre of gravity between the Middle East and North Africa – I can only surmise that things in that general area will deteriorate and the impact will spread southwards.
Saracen will have their work cut out for them but at least they are trying – something everyone else seems to have no stomach for.
Rgds,
Eeben
Comment by Eeben Barlow — Friday, January 28, 2011 @ 2:13 PM
Eeben,
Absolutely. And just to reinforce your comment here, I actually found an op-ed that discussed the case for Saracen in Somalia. He also mentioned EO.
——————–
The case for mercenaries in Somalia
By Jeff Jacoby
January 30, 2011
IN 1969, as a member of the presidential commission appointed to consider replacing the draft with an all-volunteer military, the great economist Milton Friedman had a famous exchange with General William Westmoreland, the US commander in Vietnam. Westmoreland strongly supported the draft, and told the commission that he didn’t want to command an army of mercenaries.
“General,’’ Friedman interrupted, “would you rather command an army of slaves?’’ Replied Westmoreland indignantly, “I don’t like to hear our patriotic draftees referred to as slaves.’’ Friedman shot back: “I don’t like to hear our patriotic volunteers referred to as mercenaries.’’
The economist pressed his point. “If they are mercenaries,’’ he told Westmoreland, “then I, sir, am a mercenary professor, and you, sir, are a mercenary general; we are served by mercenary physicians, we use a mercenary lawyer, and we get our meat from a mercenary butcher.’’
What brings that colloquy to mind is a report in the New York Times that the government of Somalia is being urged to hire Saracen International, “a controversial South African mercenary firm,’’ to protect Somali officials and help fight pirates and Islamic militants. Erik Prince, the former US Navy SEAL who created Blackwater Worldwide, another private military firm, has been involved in brokering the arrangement. The story was headlined “Blackwater Founder Said to Back Mercenaries,’’ and its disapproving tone was hard to miss.
That negative publicity may have undone the deal. The Times subsequently reported that Somali authorities “have cooled to the idea’’ of hiring private militiamen. “We need help,’’ a government official was quoted as saying, “but we don’t want mercenaries.’’
Somalia certainly does need help. It is one of the world’s most unstable and violent countries. It has been wracked for years by bloody insurgencies, and the central government, what there is of it, is under constant assault by al-Shabab, a lethal Islamist movement closely tied to Al Qaeda. Pirates plying the waters off Somalia’s shores menace international shipping.
The place is a hellhole, and each day that it remains one is another day of death and devastation for more innocent victims. Who is going to help them? The 8,000 peacekeeping troops sent in by the UN are inadequate to the job. “Western militaries have long feared to tread’’ there, as even the Times acknowledges. So why shouldn’t the Somali government turn to private militias for the help it so desperately needs?
It is fashionable to disparage mercenaries as thugs for hire, but private-sector warriors are as old as combat itself. Americans may dimly remember learning about the Hessian mercenaries who fought for the British during the American Revolution, but other mercenaries fought for American independence. Military historian Max Boot points out that many mercenaries have been heroes of American history. Among them are John Paul Jones, who became an admiral in the Russian Navy; the Pinkerton security firm, which during the Civil War supplied intelligence to the Union and personal protection for Abraham Lincoln; the Lafayette Escadrille, a squadron of American airmen who fought for France in World War I; and the Montagnards, the indigenous tribesmen who fought alongside American soldiers during the war in Vietnam.
Given such honorable examples, asks Boot, why should it be difficult “to imagine that mercenaries today could be equally useful?’’ He has long advocated hiring mercenaries to end the terror and genocide in Darfur. Several firms have offered their services, but so far no government, international organization, or philanthropist has shown any interest.
This is not an abstract argument. When Rwanda erupted in mass-murder in 1994, the private military firm Executive Outcomes offered to stop the slaughter for $150 million, Newsweek reported in 2003. The Clinton administration turned down the offer. In the ensuing carnage, some 800,000 Rwandans were killed.
In 1995, by contrast, the government of Sierra Leone hired Executive Outcomes to put down a savage rebellion by the brutal Revolutionary United Front. Before long the company had quelled the uprising and driven the rebels out. It may not be politically correct to suggest letting mercenaries deal with humanitarian nightmares like Somalia and Darfur. But political correctness doesn’t save lives. Sending in mercenaries would.
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opini…
Comment by headjundi — Tuesday, February 1, 2011 @ 8:09 AM