Feral Jundi

Friday, September 18, 2009

Industry Talk: Interview With AGNA Whistleblower John Gorman and How Congress Did Nothing About This in 2007!

Filed under: Industry Talk — Tags: , , , , , — Matt @ 9:32 AM

   This is crap.  How is it that all of these politicians, to include key politicians currently on the wartime commission, knew exactly what happened in Kabul with this contract, and are now showing shock and dismay about it–two years later! This little tidbit of info, made the hearings that were on CSPAN the other day seem like a joke now.

   That is great you guys are trying to get down to the bottom of it now, but where was your outrage when this was first going on? Are you saying that it took pictures of a frat-style party, to awaken your inner responsibilities as leaders? And what committee is going to put these politicians on a stand, and ask them why they didn’t do anything about this in 2007?  Especially Shays. (I am still shaking my head on that one, as I remember watching Shays go off on Samuel during the hearing)

    Here at FJ, we have put blame on AGNA and State, but when Congress knew about this as well and did nothing about it at the time, then they are just as bad in my book.  The buck stops in DC, and this is certainly a prime example of poor leadership.

   Also check out the story below this interview.  Samuel Brinkley, VP of Wackenhut and in charge of this contract, could be in some trouble.  He swore up and down during the hearings that he just found out about this stuff in August of this year, and according to Gorman, he knew about it in July of 2008.  Interesting.

    Semper Fi John and Marie Anne, and good job! –Matt

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Interview with ArmorGroup Whistleblower John Gorman

John Gorman — Marine, Patriot, Whistleblower

By Marie Anne St. Jean

John Gorman, retired U.S. Marine, was hired by ArmorGroup (AGNA) in 2007 to support security at the American Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. Numerous reports of AGNA activities are available elsewhere in the media, as well as my own articles here and here. John has previously provided a written press release as well as televised interviews with major networks, as seen here. With this interview, I’m allowing John Gorman to tell his story, what he believes needs to be said.

John, you and I go back several years. I remember how excited you were when hired by ArmorGroup to be the Camp Commandant in Kabul, to have this opportunity to once again serve your country. We never really hang up our uniforms, do we?

When you first reported AGNA’s shortfalls in 2007, what was your expected outcome? What do you think should have happened that didn’t?

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Thursday, September 17, 2009

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

Filed under: Industry Talk — Tags: , , , , — Matt @ 5:12 AM

   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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India: Becoming a Private Guard Becomes Tougher

Filed under: India,Industry Talk — Tags: , , , , — Matt @ 4:39 AM

   Bravo, and I am pretty impressed with the standards they have put together. It is a start at least and hopefully we will get some feedback, good or bad, from any industry folks from India about this.

   It is also important to point out, that incidents like the Mumbai attacks require competent first responders to stop the attack.  Police cannot be everywhere, nor can the military, but all of the hotels in Mumbai use private security (I assume).  This new focus on standards for guards is a good thing, if they want to increase the chances of stopping future attacks.

     Strangely enough, it almost looks like they are implementing a system that looks a lot like what I have been promoting here on FJ.  Something that resembles the Red Card system with the Federal Fire Services here in the states.  Even the mentor program reminds me of the task book system that I am familiar with. Oh, and they are teaching disaster management? That sounds like Incident Command stuff there. Hmmmm, interesting. –Matt

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Becoming a private guard becomes tougher

Anil Kumar M, TNN

2 September 2009

BANGALORE: You’ve probably wondered how some podgy men in uniform ended up as security guards. Simply because it was open house with few standards. But not anymore.

The government has framed fresh guidelines — Karnataka Private Security Rules — and brought all private security agencies in the state under its ambit.

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Monday, September 14, 2009

Film: The Video Game ‘Army of Two’ to be Made Into a Movie

Filed under: Film,Games,Industry Talk — Tags: , , , , — Matt @ 1:49 PM

“The ambiguity of these private military corporations lends weight to an intelligent thriller with relevance to what’s going on in the world right now. You have contractors with their own agendas, and two guys whose friendship supersedes all the politics.”

     Wow, so the guy who wrote the Bourne Ultimatum, Scott Burns, is writing the script for Army of Two?  And he wants to give it a serious treatment?  Wow, and I applaud that. So will this film be like Tango and Cash, Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man, Starsky and Hutch, (fill in favorite action buddy film)? lol

     Although I am highly skeptical of what the end product will really be.  Unfortunately, hollywood is on the kick of defining PMC’s and PSC’s as evil.  Would they and could they actually give the subject fair treatment?  I wonder what the investors have to say about what the ‘correct’ money making view on PMC’s and PSC’s should be?

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Iraq: KBR Employee Lucas Vinson Shot Dead at Camp Speicher

Filed under: Industry Talk,Iraq — Tags: , , , , , — Matt @ 8:18 AM

   Tragic.  I hope PTSD wasn’t a factor, and that there was some mistake at a post or whatever.  I guess there could be a crime of passion thing going on too? Maybe Ms Sparky will post in the near future and give us what she knows? Who knows, and eventually the investigators will lay down the real story.

   My heart goes out to the family and friends of Lucas. -Matt

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KBR Employee Lucas Vinson Shot Dead at Camp Speicher

09/13/2009

BAGHDAD — A civilian contractor was shot and killed Sunday on an American military base in the Iraqi city of Tikrit and a U.S. soldier has been detained in connection with the incident, the military said.

The contractor was shot at 8:30 a.m. at Camp Speicher, the military said in a statement.

Houston-based KBR confirmed the man killed was one of its employees, 27-year-old Lucas Vinson from Louisiana.

“As the Army is leading the investigation of the incident, KBR is not providing further comment at this time,” spokeswoman Heather Browne said in an e-mailed statement. “We are of course fully cooperating with the Army on its continued investigation.”

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