Feral Jundi

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Industry Talk: The Difference Between Fault and Responsibility, by Jake Allen

   Excellent post by Jake about the AGNA stuff, and the difference between fault and responsibility. Check it out, and this was also posted at Combat Operator and Private Military Herald. –Matt

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The Difference Between Fault and Responsibility

Sep 16, 2009

By Jake Allen

The more I read about our government in the mainstream media the more I realize how neither one seems to understand the difference between ‘fault’ and ‘responsibility’.  The ArmorGroup fiasco at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul is only the latest incident but I will use it here because it is fresh on everyone’s mind and it is particularly illustratrative.

It’s critically important that we separate the terms fault and responsibility. Sometimes a person or an entity is both ‘at fault’ and ‘responsible’ but the two are not synonymous.  In other words there is room for ‘blame’ or ‘fault’ at both ArmorGroup and at the State Department but the ‘responsibility’ for what happened only comes down in one place.

There is little doubt that the antics being conducted primarily by C-shift on the expatriate guard force was nearly 100% the doing of immature and poorly supervised and lead ArmorGroup contractors.  ArmorGroup is ‘at fault’ for hiring these low-end nonprofessionals.

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Friday, February 6, 2009

Industry Talk: PMC 2.0, by David Isenberg

Filed under: Industry Talk — Tags: , , , , , — Matt @ 7:08 PM

   Great little article by David about the evolution of the industry, with a mention of Combat Operator and Eeben’s blog.  I like the PMC 2.0 phrase, and that would be cool to see that as the new buzzword ‘du jour’.  –Matt

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Dogs of War: Private military contractors — mysterious? No.

Published: Feb. 6, 2009 at 3:09 PM

By DAVID ISENBERG

WASHINGTON, Feb. 6 (UPI) — A common refrain from many who observe the private military contracting industry is that it is opaque, shadowy, veiled, secretive, hidden, non-transparent, etc. Is this true? Yes and no, but mostly no.

When I first started following this industry in the early 1990s, it really was difficult to get information on it. Partly that was because there were relatively few companies to follow. Three companies garnered most of what little coverage existed: Executive Outcomes of South Africa, Sandline of Great Britain and U.S.-based MPRI. And the first two were not particularly eager to answer press inquiries.

MPRI, whose not-so-modest motto back then was “the greatest corporate assemblage of military expertise in the world” because it was founded and run by relatively high-ranking retired U.S. military officers, escaped that pigeonhole thanks to the efforts of one of its vice presidents, whose openness and charm enabled MPRI to gain enormous publicity for its training efforts in the Balkan wars. But it was an anomaly back then.

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Monday, January 26, 2009

Podcasts: Combat Operator Radio Interviews Doug Brooks, CEO of IPOA

Filed under: Podcasts — Tags: , , , , — Matt @ 3:14 PM

   This was a great interview between Jake and Doug Brooks of IPOA.  The scope of the conversation was outstanding, and both talked a lot about the role of contractors in today’s wars and peace and stability operations.  They even discussed the new administration and what the feeling in Washington DC is about the industry. 

   As for Doug’s predictions–more peace and stability related operations contracts in Africa. Hillary Clinton’s tone will be changing over time, because of the reality of the situation on the ground in places like Iraq.(she was pretty negative on contractors during her Presidential campaign) That contracts in the future will be more about working with local nationals and that to be competitive in the industry, you must show some proficiency working with local nationals.(which in the scope of the industry, is nothing new)   

   It was a great little podcast at about 27 minutes, and it was a treat to listen and learn a little from these two.  Also, as a heads up, Eeben Barlow of Executive Outcomes fame will be on Combat Operator Radio on January 29, 2009.  Be sure to check it out.  –Matt

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