Feral Jundi

Friday, September 10, 2010

Industry Talk: The Father Of Modern Counterinsurgency Dr. David Kilcullen, Joins MEP’s Board Of Advisors

Filed under: Industry Talk,Leadership,Strategy — Tags: , , , , , , — Matt @ 12:23 AM

     This is a little late, but none the less very important to bring up. Dr. Kilcullen will now be advising MEP on company strategy, ethics, and world affairs. Not to mention that the other board members are pretty impressive as well. Still, the father of today’s counterinsurgency strategy and modern day Lawrence of Arabia has joined a PMC! How cool is that?

     Now the question I have is if this new board will actually take the company to the next level? To me, that level has always been to be profitable as well as earn the respect of it’s employees, world and peers. Could a PMC achieve the status of some of today’s more respected companies, like Google or Apple?

     That is a tall order for our industry. At this point, PMC’s really don’t have a great reputation and are frequently attacked. Hell, I just posted a deal where ABC News attacked MEP. This entire blog is filled with the various problems and histories of this industry, and we need all the help we can get.

     If Dr. Kilcullen can do for this company and this industry what he did for today’s military and counterinsurgency strategy, then that would be really impressive. Perhaps he or one of the board members could come up on the blog and do a little ‘strategic communications’? That’s if they care to engage with one of the ‘few’ new media sources out there that really cares about this stuff? –Matt

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Mission Essential Personnel Announces New Board of Advisors

July 26, 2010

Mission Essential Personnel, LLC, (MEP) today announced the creation of a board of advisors to counsel senior company leadership on company strategy, ethics, and world affairs. A trio of highly accomplished professionals, this board will enhance MEP’s strategic planning, thought leadership, and superior performance throughout the world.

MEP CEO Chris Taylor said, “MEP’s exponential growth has brought us great success and new challenges and choices. In order to ensure we continue to deliver certainty to our customers, we will look to the collective wisdom of our Board of Advisors to help us critically think through the opportunities of the new global economy and how MEP can continue to create value for our stakeholders. We are all excited about this new relationship and Mitchell, Sarah, and David will serve as the cornerstones of MEP’s bright future.”

The board of advisors consists of:

Ambassador Mitchell Reiss – Recently made the 27th president of Washington College, Reiss was previously Vice Provost at the College of William & Mary. He is a scholar and diplomat best known for successful negotiations during the Northern Ireland peace process and the North Korean nuclear crisis. From 2003 to 2005, he was Director of Policy Planning at the US State Department under Secretary of State Colin Powell and earned the Foreign Affairs Award for Public Service. Reiss concurrently served as President George W. Bush’s Special Envoy to Northern Ireland Peace Process until 2007. As a White House Fellow from 1988-89, he served as special assistant to the national security advisor.

Sarah Sewall – Sewall teaches international affairs and directs the Program on National Security and Human Rights at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and is the founder and faculty director of the Mass Atrocity Response Operations (MARO) project. She led President Obama’s Transition National Security Agency Review process. Sewall is a member of the DOD’s Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee and the Center for Naval Analyses Defense Advisory Committee. She served as the first Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Peacekeeping and Humanitarian Assistance in the Clinton Administration. From 1983-1996, she served as senior foreign policy adviser to Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell.

Dr. David Kilcullen — Kilcullen served more than 20 years as an Australian light infantry officer before joining the US Government and serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Southeast Asia and the Horn of Africa in counterterrorism, diplomacy, international development, strategy, and counterinsurgency roles. In 2007, Kilcullen was Senior Counterinsurgency Advisor to Gen. David Petraeus, then Commanding General, Multinational Force-Iraq. In 2008-2009, he served as Special Advisor for Counterinsurgency to the Secretary of State. Since leaving government, he has worked closely with NGOs, international aid agencies and communities affected by conflict. He is the author of “The Accidental Guerilla” and “Counterinsurgency” and is a consultant to NATO in Afghanistan and to the US and allied governments.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Media News: Mission Essential Personnel Calls Out ABC News Over Report On Linguists

Filed under: Industry Talk,Media News — Tags: , , , , , , , — Matt @ 11:17 PM

Marc Peltier, MEP’s chief operating officer, said in an interview with ABC News that he had “no reports from the field” of translators who could not communicate in Dari or Pashto, and said the company has received “100 percent outstanding” ratings from the Army and shared a copy of what he said was an internal company survey that showed 82 percent of its customers were satisfied with the performance of its translators. An attorney accompanying Peltier to the interview said the company would answer Funk’s allegations in court, and not in the media.

*****

     I am not going to comment too much about the case between Mr. Funk and MEP, because I really don’t know enough about it. What I will comment on though is how ABC News decided to attack this company in such an obvious way. I would be cheering on this news broadcast if in fact their stuff was true or unbiased, but there are too many details that we are not privy too. I just cannot see how this mainstream media outlet thought that this was appropriate? It is more bashing of companies for the sake of ratings I guess?

     The show was completely one sided and the viewer is made to think that the translator in the film they showed from Afghanistan was one of MEP’s translators. This was not the case after reading MEP’s statement, and I was shocked. Who is ABC News for misleading the viewer, and especially when there were so many variables with this case?

     Also, I despise the idea of poor translators going out into the field like anyone else. I have witnessed exactly what poor translation services can produce. But really, if the government has identified poor service by MEP and they were not at all satisfied with the translators performance, then they should have reflected that in the customer surveys and reviews. Or better yet, they should have fired MEP and went with a better company. It makes no sense to keep paying for poor services, if in fact you are getting poor service. It’s called exercising your power as the consumer and the government does a terrible job of this. –Matt

Edit: 09/14/2010- Check out David Isenberg’s excellent post about the subject here.  He didn’t have much good to say about ABC’s track record on reporting and he pointed out many holes in this case.

Edit: 09/23/2010- The American Spectator did a story on this recently.

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Mission Essential Personnel Response To ABC’s 9/8/2010 Broadcast

9/8/2010

Mission Essential Personnel today released the following statement in response to the ABC News story “Whistleblower Claims Many U.S. Interpreters Can’t Speak Afghan Languages.”

MEP is an American success story and a responsible partner to the U.S. Government and to service members around the world. Our linguists play a critical role in sharing the United States’ message of goodwill and deciphering the hidden messages of those who seek to harm Americans. MEP’s linguists risk their lives each day to accompany brave troops into the field, and many have made the ultimate sacrifice to advance the U.S. mission in Afghanistan, while saving many lives. While there are always challenges on a changing battlefield, MEP, in partnership with the U.S. military, has helped bring a greater level of peace and stability to Afghanistan.

Industry Talk: Two Security Contractors Killed In Afghanistan

Filed under: Afghanistan,Industry Talk — Tags: , , , , , , — Matt @ 12:10 PM

    Rest in peace to the fallen.  This warrior below has certainly given his all in this war, as have many contractor/veterans whom have perished, and all of them have my deepest respect and appreciation. When the news comes out about the second man, I will put up an edit. Semper Fi. –Matt

Edit: 09/09/2010- The name of the other fallen security contractor is Matt Attilia. Thanks to all who sent me information about this so the sacrifice of these men could be counted. Rest in peace. Also, here is Matt’s obituary page where friends and family can sign the guest book.

Matt Attilai

Afghanistan casualty has U.P. ties

September 09, 2010

A memorial service is planned for this weekend at Faith Lutheran Church in Tilden Township

MARQUETTE COUNTY — A Canadian man with connections to Upper Michigan has been killed in Afghanistan.

Twenty-six-year-old Matthew Attilai was working security for a private contractor when he was killed by an IED.

He was on the Finland Calling program with his grandfather, George Koskimaki, who’s a World War II veteran and author.

Attilai followed in his grandfather’s footsteps by serving in the U.S. Army until 2009.

A memorial service is planned for this weekend at Faith Lutheran Church in Tilden Township.

Story here.

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Chris Vaile

Randallstown native killed by bomb in Afghanistan

He worked for private security firm after serving five years in Marine Corps, three tours in Iraq

By Jessica Anderson

September 8, 2010

When Chris Vaile was severely wounded by an improvised explosive device in January 2008, the Marine Corps sergeant refused to leave his squad in Iraq.It was his final tour. The wound permanently left shrapnel in his foot and earned him a Purple Heart, but he would not leave.”He was fearless and full of adventure,” Cara Vaile said of her son.Chris Jarrod Vaile, 25, a Randallstown native, was killed Sunday by an IED in Afghanistan, where he was working for a private security firm. The bomb exploded while Vaile was riding in a vehicle, killing him and another man, his mother said.

(more…)

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Mexico: Drug Cartels Cripple Pemex Operations In Basin

Filed under: Industry Talk,Mexico — Tags: , , , , , , , , — Matt @ 9:45 PM

     This sucks for Mexico and Pemex, but until they do the things necessary to properly secure these pipelines, then they will continue to lose their so called ‘backbone of the nation’. If Pemex cannot trust local Mexican security companies, then hire globally. There are plenty of companies around the world who are providing security to oil companies operating in places like Iraq. Mexico is at war with these cartels and it would make sense to deploy military or contract security with experience in war zones to secure this vital national asset.

     Either lose that money to thieves, or spend that money to defend your property and livelihood. That is my thought on the matter.

     One other point that comes to mind about this troubling issue. If the drug cartels could do this to Pemex and Mexico, then why couldn’t they do this to oil platforms/drilling rigs? Especially the US owned rigs, because eventually the cartels are going to want to send a message to the US. Our money is helping to fuel Mexico’s war against the cartels, and we are naive to think that our actions will not invite any retaliation. Imagine a dozen BP style disasters? All I know is that if oil companies have not posted security on each rig, then we are giving an open invitation to terrorists and criminals to do all sorts of terrible things. –Matt

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Mexican drug cartels cripple Pemex operations in basin

September 06, 2010

By Tracy Wilkinson

The meandering network of pipes, wells and tankers belonging to the gigantic state oil company Pemex have long been an easy target of crooks and drug traffickers who siphon off natural gas, gasoline and even crude, robbing the Mexican treasury of hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

Now the cartels have taken sabotage to a new level: They’ve hobbled key operations in parts of the Burgos Basin, home to Mexico’s biggest natural gas fields.

(more…)

Afghanistan: The Future Of Training–More Money, More Demand For Trainers

Filed under: Afghanistan,Industry Talk,Training — Tags: , , , , , , , — Matt @ 1:04 AM

The United States expects to spend about $6 billion a year training and supporting Afghan troops and police after it begins withdrawing its own combat troops in 2011.

The estimates of U.S. spending through 2015, detailed in a NATO training mission document, are an acknowledgment that Afghanistan will remain largely dependent on the United States for its security.

That reality could become problematic for the Obama administration as it continues to seek money for Afghanistan from Congress in a time of increasingly tight budgets.

In Brussels, a NATO official said Monday that alliance commander Gen. David Petraeus had asked for 2,000 more soldiers, with nearly half to be trainers for the rapidly expanding Afghan security forces. The NATO official requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the subject. 

*****

    A couple of things with these stories. Will Petraeus get these extra troops if NATO cannot scrape the bucket and get them on the scene?  Because politically and economically, sending more troops to Afghanistan is a hard sell in all the countries participating, and not just the US. How will this look during the coming elections in the US if more troops are asked for on top of the already thousands of troops requested for the surge?  Hell, some countries are backing out last minute (like the Dutch) and these actions always cause ripples in the planing and operations of the war effort.  So as I have said before, as NATO falters, contractors will be taking up the slack.

   I also continue to see plenty of training job ads, and according to the second article below, the money will be there for training in Afghanistan well into the future. The only thing though is politically, this administration and probably the next will continue to have problems with sending troops or getting congress to sign off on that training money.  As the troops get more limited in presence, and money becomes more scarce, contractors will continue to be an important tool to execute these training duties.

    The other thing I could see happening is more hybrid training programs popping up.  Where military folks mixed with contractors will be used to train the Afghans. We already see a little bit of this, and I think this combination works because the customer (US government) can ensure there is military oversight on these projects. It would also ensure that there is consistency in the training programs, and a metrics can be maintained by the military itself.

    All of this is just speculation, but given what is already on the ground, the military and contractor relationship will become even more important as time goes on. –Matt

NATO eyes 2,000 extra troops for Afghanistan: official

US expects to spend big in Afghanistan for years

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NATO eyes 2,000 extra troops for Afghanistan: official

By Laurent Thomet

09/08/2010

US General David Petraeus, the commander of the war in Afghanistan, has requested 2,000 extra troops to bolster a crucial mission to train Afghan security forces, a NATO official said Monday.

The mission would come on the heels of the deployment of tens of thousands of soldiers who were sent as part of a surge strategy aimed at crushing a resilient Taliban insurgency, the official said.

“There is now a discussion under way for additional resources, principally trainers, that could be sent to Afghanistan to bolster the mission,” said the official, who requested anonymity.

At least 750 of the new soldiers would focus on training Afghan forces, he said, refusing to give more details about the rest of the mission. He said it was premature to say when the 2,000 extra troops would be deployed.

Getting Afghan security forces trained so they can take over security responsibilities is a paramount condition for the withdrawal of foreign troops from the nation, worn down by war.

(more…)

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