Feral Jundi

Friday, November 27, 2020

Industry Talk: The Rebirth of Executive Outcomes!

Filed under: Africa,Industry Talk — Tags: , — Matt @ 2:32 AM

That is right, Eeben Barlow has restarted the famed Executives Outcomes company! I had read hints of him doing this ever since I got back a month ago, and I think it is fantastic news. He had also left STTEP recently, which was a surprise, but now makes sense.
It will be fascinating to see where EO goes first. Who knows, and watch this space. Congratulations to Eeben and the rebirth of his company! –Matt

The company will now make it part of its mission to expose those media and intelligence whores that thrive on lying for secret payments. Likewise, we will investigate—and expose—those so-called academics and scholars that create fiction and publish deception to establish their position in academia.

Executive Outcomes will, once again, assist African and other governments with the development of strategies (including campaign strategies), and provide advice, training and mentoring to those governments that request it. However, the company will not work in South Africa. This decision was taken as a result of the public outcry in the country when EO successfully assisted in countering domestic crime as well as crime on the Lesotho border. The company will not subject itself to such intelligence, law enforcement and media hypocrisy a second time.

Strategic partnerships have already been put in place with two companies that have a likewise reputation for adding value to governments, and I look forward to helping them establish themselves in Africa.

Monday, February 3, 2020

History: Farewell To A Legend–Mad Mike Hoare Dies At Age 100

Mad Mike Hoare.

I first read about Mad Mike Hoare in the pages of Soldier of Fortune magazine back in the eighties. I had seen The Wild Geese back then, but really had no idea about the background and it’s relation to MMH. Now I know. The title of the movie was inspired by the 5 Commando patch that MMH wore, which also had a flying goose. This reference was to the Irish soldiers who left to serve in European armies in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.

An original 5 Commando Patch.

What I wanted to do in this post is present the various eulogies out there, from some of the top figures and publications in this industry that were inspired by Hoare. On the FB links, definitely click on those and read the comments and support.

The first is from his son, Chris Hoare. Chris wrote the last book and biography on his father, and it is definitely an excellent tribute to his father’s legacy. MMH also wrote a ton of books about his exploits, so there is that resource as well. Many of the well wishers on FB and elsewhere, found MMH through his books and via the numerous articles written about him over the years.

Chris also did some youtube interviews and podcasts and has an excellent website to promote the book and his father’s life. Definitely worth your time to check out.

Next up is Soldier of Fortune. They have definitely been an influence on many in this industry, to include myself, and here is what they had to say.

One of the best eulogies I read was from another industry great, Eeben Barlow. Here is his statement on Facebook. Eeben actually got a chance to meet MMH at his last birthday!

Of course here is the trailer of the movie The Wild Geese. Richard Burton’s character was said to be influenced by MMH, and MMH was an advisor on the film. Pretty cool. I think a modern film actually based on MMH is in order, and it would make for some fascinating film if done correctly. Rest in peace… –Matt

Monday, December 17, 2018

Industry Talk: US Goes Back To Somalia, With PMSC Help

Filed under: Africa,Industry Talk,Somalia — Tags: , , , — Matt @ 12:24 PM

A picture of the old US Embassy in Mogadishu, Somalia.

This story is pretty cool. The other day SOC put out a deal on Facebook that they were glad to be a part of the US establishing a permanent diplomatic presence in Somalia. I thought that was interesting, because we haven’t had an official presence there since 1991. The US closed the embassy because of how dangerous it was and have operated out of Kenya for Somalia diplomatic business. The Battle of Mogadishu is a good example of how bad it really was at the time and the US leaving was quite the episode.

Fast forward to now, and here we are opening up shop in Mogadishu. Apparently the old embassy is not being used and the current office is somewhere near the airport. Surprisingly there are quite a few embassies that are open in Mogadishu, and many of them use the services of PMSC’s or private logistics companies to take care of their people.

The reason for this latest move? It is a combination of the past administrations efforts to establish a presence in Somalia, and partly due to the current administrations new Africa strategy.

As to this specific deal with SOC, Department of State actually put out on FBO that details exactly what is going on. SOC was picked because they had the people with the right qualifications and the license to do security work in Somalia. They even had to do this as a soul source because of how fast this need to be stood up. Here are the reasons, and because SOC had all of this in place, they won.

1. Licenses: Host nation licenses are often the source of significant delays, especially when mobilizing for new work. The prime must be licensed to provide security services in Somalia and registered to conduct business in Kenya. Having both these licenses mitigates the substantial risk of performance delays due to approval of new licenses.

2. Clearances: Bio-approvals and SECRET level security clearances for newly hired personnel can exceed ninety days. Vendors without an actively employed, approved, and cleared labor pool have a much higher risk of failing to meet the mobilization timeline.

3. Training: The first step for any non-performing WPS II vendor selected for this requirement would be to submit training curricula to the Department. The Department would have to approve these curricula (a minimum of one week) and to have instructors reviewed and approved (one to two weeks), and then begin training. Completion of training requirements varies but can extend to several months.

4. Availability: Required resources must be readily available for deployment.

The amount paid for these initial services was $15 million, and I am sure that will only go up in future contracts. According to the DoS award, once the presence is established in Somalia, then they would go back to a more competitive WPS 2 IDIQ set up.

So with that said, would they be going back to the original compound where the embassy once stood? Who knows… I know the Somalis gave the US the deed to that compound. The question though is if it is a good spot from a security point of view and do we actually want to rehab that site? Either way, it is private security that answered the call and helped bring the US back to that country. That is significant and bravo to all those involved. –Matt

US Restores ‘Permanent Diplomatic Presence’ in Somalia
The United States has resumed a “permanent diplomatic presence” in Somalia’s capital after an absence of nearly throe decades.State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement that the new mission opened Sunday. “This historic event reflects Somalia’s progress in recent years and is another step forward in formalizing U.S. diplomatic engagement in Mogadishu,” the statement read.The U.S. formally recognized Somalia’s new federal government in 2013, but has based its diplomatic outpost at the U.S. embassy in Nairobi, Kenya.Veteran U.S. diplomat Donald Yamamoto arrived in Mogadishu last month as Washington’s ambassador to Somalia.The new mission will not be a full U.S. embassy, and some diplomatic staff are expected to remain stationed in Kenya.The U.S. embassy was closed in January 1991 when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and Somalia descended into civil and anarchy.Then-President George H.W. Bush deployed U.S. forces to Somalia in late 1992 to provide stability and allow aid to reach suffering Somalis.But the mission turned tragic months later, when two U.S. military helicopters were shot down and 18 U.S. soldiers killed during an operation against a warlord.

Monday, June 25, 2018

Industry Talk: Eeben Barlow Interview On RT

Filed under: Africa,Industry Talk — Tags: , , , , , , — Matt @ 10:23 AM

This is unique. I have not seen Eeben do a interview like this and typically I have only heard him do podcasts or write on his blog. He usually does not offer interviews to the media because of how poorly they have treated him and his companies in the past. With that said, this was a great little interview and they covered some interesting territory. Luckily RT posted a transcript.

Some things of note before I dig in. It was obvious to me that Sophie, or the host of the show, was getting her questions via a microphone in her ear. Which is standard, but it just didn’t seem like she was all that engaged into the whole process. More like she was just going through the list of questions and making follow ups based on what came in via the earpiece. I should also note that Sophie is the granddaughter of Edward Shevardnadze.

Now being that this is a Russian owned news group doing a interview like this, you would think that there would be some mention of PMC Wagner in the conversation? There was none. Matter of fact, I went on RT to look up PMC Wagner, and there is nothing on the group. When referencing the incident involving PMC Wagner back in February, RT made no mention of the company and only referred to Russian citizens that were in Syria. I get it, they don’t want to talk about their own PMSC’s. But they certainly wanted to hear about other companies, to include Eeben’s.

Which going back to the interview, this was filled with some good stuff. If anyone is familiar with what Eeben has written in his blog or at Facebook, you would be familiar with all the territory he covered in this interview. If you want to read what Eeben had to say about this interview, I would recommend going to his FB page.

My personal take on all of it is that Eeben just wrote and published a fantastic book called Composite Warfare, and these interviews and podcasts are a way to reach out to African governments or any other potential clients. I have a copy of CW and it is a handbook on waging war in Africa. But it is also a handbook that requires an advisor/mentor to best help apply the handbook to a country’s military reorganization and conflict resolution. The book is filled with references to either EO or STTEP and their successful operations throughout Africa, and those successes are absolutely leveraged in the message within this book.

The most recent example of what they were able to do was in Nigeria when STTEP worked with that country’s military to fight Boko Haram. The results were stunning for the short time that STTEP was there, and I certainly think it was a mistake for the Nigerians to not retain their services. But elections have consequences as they say, and with a new leader in Nigeria came new ideas on how to approach their problem.

Finally, I wanted to post from the transcript what I thought was fascinating stuff. What are Eeben’s thoughts on the future of PMSC’s and private warfare? Here is a clip.

SS:Why is there a search in private military companies now? I mean, isn’t cheaper for a government to just recruit more people into the regular army than pay mercenaries double or triple of what a soldier makes?

EB: Well, I think there’s been a search in the requirement for private military companies given the unstable international arena that we all live in. I think, as instability grows it becomes much easier to outsource certain services to private entities. I also look at the cost of maintaining a large standing army. And then, I look at Africa in particular, whereas the doctrines that are used by many African armies and the troops that are trained in those doctrines are really doctrines that are totally irrelevant to Africa. These are doctrines that were designed to fight the Germans during WWII, or, when it comes to Western type of doctrines, to fight the old Soviets in Europe. And those types of things are totally irrelevant as far as Africa is concerned. Then, of course, there is an ability of many African governments to buy their own equipment because they’re advised to do that. All of these things become money wasters. And they have a lot of equipment and manpower that are actually unable to function coherently and to defeat an armed threat against that government.

SS:So, do you see this trend of hiring private military companies continuing? Can warfare be eventually privatized and outsourced to PMCs?

EB: I don’t think that it will eventually be outsourced in total. I think national armies are still there to protect the integrity of the state and the territorial integrity of their countries. However, given the role that many proxy forces are currently playing in Africa, and the size of these proxy forces and the way in which they are equipped, I think, it’s a government’s prerogative to call on any help they can, if they feel they need that help to defeat these armed threats they are facing. But that’s it, I don’t think the national armies will ever cease to exist. And I think that the correct type of PMC staffed by the correct people, who understand the culture and the type of environment they are operating in can certainly add value to the operation efficiency of any African army.

 

As someone that not only works in this industry, but also writes about the trends, I am always curious about where things are going. I continue to see signs of private militaries being used more for the offense. Be it STTEP in Nigeria, PMC Wagner in Syria, or even the Prince Plan for Afghanistan if that goes through. I do not see governments getting rid of their national armies, but it is obvious to me that private warfare is slowly becoming a legitimate option or tool for waging war. –Matt

 

Monday, July 13, 2015

Industry Talk: GardaWorld Buys Aegis Group For Expansion Into Africa And ME

This is some big news. Both GardaWorld and Aegis are big companies, and this is more sign of consolidation in the industry as the market compresses. The Iraq and Afghanistan wars have drawn down significantly since the hey day of contracting, and moves like this signal the latest strategies of the major companies–if they want to survive.

I first found out about Aegis shopping around for buyers from Intelligence Online. It has a paywall, but what little they said in the brief description is all I needed to know. As for GardaWorld, here is a snap shot from Wikipedia as to their size and status. Pretty big..

GardaWorld Security Corporation is a Canadian private security firm, based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, with 45,000 employees (by November 2013). Though GardaWorld International Protective Services, now the international division of the company, began its operations in 1984, Garda World Security Corporation was established by its Quebecer owner Stéphan Crétier in 1995, who initially invested $25,000 in the company, then named Trans-Quebec Security Inc. The company is the fifth largest consulting and security services firm in the world, with operations in North America, Latin America, Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. The company today runs heavily on physical security guard services as well as armoured car services in select countries and cities throughout the world. The firm has over 200 offices worldwide.

And then here is the size of Aegis and what they do, based on their Who We Are page on their site. The CEO is Tim Spicer by the way, who used to own Sandline International.

Aegis is today a diverse and comprehensive organisation operating in countries spread across several continents in a variety of service streams.
Founded in 2002, Aegis was established as a US government security provider from 2004, when it was awarded the ground-breaking Reconstruction Security Support Services Iraq (RSSS-I) contract with the US Department of Defense. The $1.3 billion lifetime value of this contract made it one of the largest security contracts ever awarded.
The experience and ethos built during the RSSS-I contract, and a range of other government and commercial contracts in Iraq, allowed Aegis to transition to the Security Support Services Iraq (SSS-I) contract, and to secure and successfully mobilise the security for the US Embassy Kabul, a project which currently employs over 1000 people.
The definition and requirements of security are ever changing. In recent years, we have grown a successful security service business in support of the extractives industry, focused initially on the Oil and Gas sectors in Iraq, but expanding into East and North Africa. We have also been in the vanguard of developing comprehensive business practices and ethical codes of conduct for the security industry and as such we are one of the first companies to become accredited to the industry standard (PSC 1).
Aegis now provides a wide breadth of complementary service streams including Kidnap for Ransom Response, technology integration, advisory and intelligence, training, consultancy, strategic communications and protective services. Across these areas we employ over 3500 people at any one time and run a fleet of over 300 vehicles.

That is 48,500 plus or minus employees and contractors!… Quite the army. lol

As to the details of this acquisition, I will post what the companies have sent out for PR. The news release mentioned a couple of interesting things. First is the fact that both companies are the first to be PSC-1 certified. The second interesting tidbit is that the new company wants to hit the African and Middle Eastern markets hard with their services. Aegis will definitely bring a lot to the table when it comes to those regions.

I have written in the past about GardaWorld and their goals in the middle east, and I view this as further proof of those plans drawn up by CEO Stephan Crétier. Although they have had some hiccups and the whole Daniel Menard episode in Afghanistan was one example. I also found an article that talked about how the draw down of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the fierce competition between those that were still on the scene, has resulted in companies like GardaWorld to ‘be competitive’. In other words, lowering salaries and hiring cheaper labor–something we have seen in the maritime security market as well. 

One final note. I have no idea if everyone that is working for Aegis now, will have to change t-shirts and wear the GardaWorld crest?…  Or if all the benefits and pay scales will change, now that Aegis has a new owner. We will see how that goes and that process can be kind of crappy for the employees and contractors of said company.

Sometimes with these things, the parent company likes to keep the newly acquired company intact with the same name and everything. Just different owners with a little crossover of upper and mid- management. But who knows, and we will see how the acquisition goes? I will leave it to those employees, contractors, upper management, etc. in the comments below to explain how things are going. –Matt

 

 

GardaWorld Announces Strategic Expansion to Become the Premier Security Provider in Africa and the Middle East

As part of its expansion, the company signs a binding agreement for the acquisition of Aegis Group

MONTREAL, QUEBEC–(July 13, 2015) – GardaWorld, the world’s largest privately owned security and cash services provider, announces today the strategic expansion of its protective services platform in Africa and the Middle East.

Over the past decade GardaWorld has continuously expanded its operational capacity as demand for specialized and professional services to protect high profile diplomatic staff, development projects and leading oil & gas companies dramatically increased in Africa and the Middle East. In the current geopolitical context, such comprehensive security services offering remains critical for companies and governments operating in the region and GardaWorld has committed to become a premier security provider globally. The company expects to complete this phase of its strategic expansion plan before the end of the year.

As the first phase of its strategic expansion, GardaWorld is pleased to announce that it has entered into a binding agreement for the acquisition of Aegis Group, a leading provider of highly specialized protective services with annual run-rate revenues of over CAN$450 million with a presence across 10 African and Middle East emerging markets.

“Aegis Group’s operational platform will complement GardaWorld’s offering and geographic footprint as we continue to build our protective services capabilities throughout Africa and the Middle East,” said Stephan Crétier, Founding President and CEO, GardaWorld. “Aegis Group and GardaWorld have both been truly committed to setting the highest professional and ethical standards in the industry. We are the first two private security providers in the world to obtain the PSC.1 certification, offering our clients a complete peace of mind service solution in emerging markets. Once we have completed the integration, we will become a clear market leader, providing premier professional security services with the unsurpassed depth of our offering and strength of our global platform.”

“In the next phase of our growth strategy, planned for later this year, we expect to further expand GardaWorld’s regional infrastructure and to double our physical footprint by reinforcing our presence on the ground in nearly 20 countries in Africa and the Middle East. Our goal is to offer a specialized and distinctive protective services offering, to more clients, including governments, diplomatic organizations, large critical infrastructures, mining, oil & gas companies, NGOs and Fortune 500 corporates, in more places and where they need us most than any other company in our market,” continued Mr. Crétier.

GardaWorld’s acquisition of Aegis Group is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals and is expected to close within the next 90 days.

(more…)

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