Feral Jundi

Friday, December 28, 2012

Industry Talk: DynCorp Police Mentor Joseph Griffin Killed In Afghanistan

Filed under: Afghanistan,Industry Talk — Tags: , , , , — Matt @ 11:22 PM

Rest in peace to the fallen and my heart goes out to the friends and family of Joseph Griffin. What makes this green on blue incident different from others is that it was a female police officer that shot him. –Matt

 

DynCorp International Police Mentor Killed in Afghanistan
FALLS CHURCH, Va. – December 24, 2012 – Joseph Griffin, 49, of Mansfield, Ga., was tragically killed in Kabul, Afghanistan, on December 24, 2012, while supporting the Afghan Ministry of Interior and Afghan National Police Development Program (AMDP). Mr. Griffin worked in support of several of the company’s global training and mentoring programs since November 2000; he began his most recent assignment in July 2011. A veteran of the U.S. military who served in various U.S.-based law enforcement positions over the years, Mr. Griffin was an experienced professional who will be missed by his colleagues.
“Joe spent his career helping people all over the world, most recently working to help the Afghan people secure a better future,” said Steve Gaffney, chairman and CEO of DynCorp International. “The loss of any team member is tragic but to have this happen over the holidays makes it seem all the more unfair. Our thoughts and prayers are with Joe’s family, loved ones and colleagues during this difficult time.”
Under the AMDP contract with the U.S. Army, DI assists the NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan/Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan (NTM-A/CSTC-A) by providing training and mentoring services for the Afghanistan Ministry of Interior and Afghan National Police.
Press Release here.

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Mission to help costs Griffin man his life
By Craig Schneider
The pain had a precise beginning for the family of Joseph Griffin: the moment on Christmas Eve morning when government agents came to the door, bringing his wife, Rennae, the news dreaded by every wife of a man at war.
When the pain will ease, nobody can say, because it is compounded by the strangeness of his death and the lengthy process of unraveling why he died.
Griffin, a Newton County resident working as civilian adviser to the Afghan police, was shot and killed Monday at police headquarters in Kabul by a woman described as a police sergeant.
Questions have been swirling since: Who is the woman? Did she have permission to be there and carry a gun? What was her motive? Was the killing without either political overtones or personal connections, as authorities have said?
This week, the family struggled with their grief. They had a Christmas anyway at the family farm near Cedartown, if only to let the kids open gifts.

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Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Industry Talk: Afghanistan Seeks Taxes From Contractors To US

Filed under: Afghanistan,Industry Talk — Tags: , , , , , — Matt @ 11:07 PM

These guys kill me. What part of this bilateral agreement do the Afghans not understand? Here it is again, just to emphasize how stupid this is.

A 2003 bilateral agreement states the U.S. government, “its military and civilian personnel, contractors, and contractor personnel shall not be liable to pay any tax or similar fees assessed within Afghanistan.” A subsequent 2004 Military Technical Agreement also carved out a tax-free status for contractors to the U.S., a view that has been reinforced by U.S. officials in correspondence with Afghan officials.

Not only that, but because of this dumb APPF force, these companies are forced to used government security. I don’t know if the APPF was protecting Contrack International or not during this latest attack, but I do know that according to the business folks in that area, they have been screaming for more security in that area for awhile. It is a logistics hub, and attacks on such sites are part of the Taliban goal of inflicting economic damage.

We will see if the US can press back and protect these companies that are essential to the war effort. I think this quote says it all, if the US cannot square this away.

A person involved in logistics issues said the matter could come to a head if the Afghan government imposes fees or restrictions on cargo that slows the delivery of goods to forward operating bases, or FOBs.
“We’ve been told [by the coalition] to reduce stocks. So they’ll run out of fuel and they’ll go on MREs on some of these FOBs,” the person said, referring to the military’s packaged rations. “And little Johnny’s going to call Mom, and that’s now going to be all over the press.”

We will see how it goes? –Matt

 

 

Afghanistan Seeks Taxes From Contractors to U.S.
By NATHAN HODGE
Afghanistan has launched tax audits of major contractors to the U.S. military, government officials say, in a bid to shore up the country’s finances as the international military presence winds down and reconstruction funds dry up.
In particular, Kabul is focusing on the U.S. military’s main food supplier in Afghanistan, Supreme Foodservice GmbH, alleging that the company and similar logistics firms are abusing their status to illegally bring taxable goods into the country for resale.
Supreme says it isn’t engaging in any commercial activity in Afghanistan that should make it liable for taxes.
Kabul’s move potentially puts the Afghan government at odds with Washington, which has viewed, with limited caveats, materials imported to support the 66,000 U.S. forces here as exempt from taxation and customs fees. Since 2005, the Pentagon spent more than $7.9 billion on its food-supply contract with Supreme alone, awarding the company an additional $1.5 billion extension contract this past summer.

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Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Publications: US Demand For Private Security Services To Reach $63.8 Billion In 2016

Filed under: Industry Talk,Publications — Tags: , , — Matt @ 10:07 PM

Interesting news about how the domestic market looks for security in the US. Luckily there are legions of veterans of the wars willing to jump into these various markets throughout the US. It’s just these veterans would be well advised to get involved with the technology side of security services.

On a side note, guess how much this report costs? The hard copy sells for $5100! lol And for the record, I have not read the report because I do not plan on paying for a copy of this thing, nor am I getting any kick backs from the company for promoting it. –Matt

 

US Demand For Private Security Services To Reach $63.8 Billion In 2016
December 4, 2012
US demand to rise 5.2% annually through 2016
US demand for private contracted security services is projected to increase 5.2 percent annually to $63.8 billion in 2016. The market will be supported by a high perceived risk of crime (from conventional violent and property crimes to white collar crimes and terrorism) and a concern that public safety officials are overburdened. The outsourcing of security activities to contracted firms, instead of relying on in-house security, will support demand. The privatization of some public safety operations, such as guarding government facilities and correctional facilities management, will also boost gains.
Higher tech services hold especially good prospects
Security services that capitalize on continuing technological developments hold especially good prospects. For instance, both security consulting and systems integration revenues will see above-average growth. Security consultants and systems integrators are able to manage a wide variety of services when creating, upgrading or implementing security plans and when installing or upgrading complex electronic security devices. In addition, the trend toward more sophisticated and automated security electronics that are increasingly integrated with other building operations will boost growth for these services.

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Monday, December 3, 2012

Industry Talk: ‘Bahrainisation’ And PMSC’s

Filed under: Bahrain,Industry Talk,South Africa — Tags: , , , , , — Matt @ 9:45 PM

Sometimes stories like this pop up that barely get any mention, but are pretty interesting and actually tell a bigger story. In this deal, Bahrain is actually trying to get more Bahrainis to work in private security, and this has become difficult to do for these security companies. It is a wealthy nation, and security guard work is not exactly the most attractive occupation.

That, and these security companies would probably have to pay more in order to attract more Bahrainis. I have written in the past about companies like the Fauji Foundation that have been providing Pakistani security contractors for years in Bahrain. Companies like this would have to now contend with having a certain percentage of Bahrainis in their ranks in order to continue working in the country–and would have to eat the cost of increased salaries. But hey, if this is what the king wants, this is what he will get.

You also see a little bit of this type of thing in South Africa currently. There, they have been trying to push through some legislation requiring that security companies operating there must be a majority owned by South Africans. A ‘South-Africanisation’ of the security industry so to speak.

There is also equal protest against such a move. Here is a quote from the Security Industry Alliance about this legislation.

Security Industry Alliance (SIA), an umbrella group of large security firms, said the proposals could cause many companies to “divest, leaving skills, capability and technical support gaps”.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out in both countries, and to see if similar deals happen elsewhere? –Matt

 

Security firms’ plea to Premier
Sunday, December 02, 2012
An appeal has gone out for His Royal Highness Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa to intervene and save private security companies from closing down and dismissing Bahrainis. Owners of 14 such companies called on the Premier to issue directives to the Labour Ministry to this effect. They said the ministry has disregarded their repeated calls for consultations to reach a satisfactory formula for recruitment and a Bahrainisation percentage to suit the nature of security guard work. Bahrainis had turned away from becoming security guards and they said they had requested the ministry to reconsider the Bahrainisation percentage. They presented recommendations to address the shortage of Bahrainis in the field, notably, reducing Bahrainisation in this sector for a temporary period while raising work visa fees for an expatriate security guard to BD300.
Story here.

Sunday, December 2, 2012

India: Topsgrup Showing An Appetite For Risk

Filed under: India,Industry Talk — Tags: , , , — Matt @ 10:15 PM

TOPSGRUP is a leading ISO 9001:2008 certified, Total Security Solutions group offering bespoke security and safety solutions to thousands of delighted customers across the world and employs over 93,000 trained human capital assets. TOPSGRUP offers a holistic approach to mitigating enterprise continuity risks across India and the United Kingdom and has ambitious plans of expanding to other corners of the world including Australia, Asia, China, Africa, Europe and USA. TOPSGRUP operates out of 120 offices around the world and is globally headquartered in London, United Kingdom. -from their brochure.


This is a great article on a company making some moves in the world of security. India’s Topsgrup is definitely growing, and ever since the Mumbai attack, private security has been a boom over there. For some background on the company, here is an older ‘company spotlight’ post that I did on them. –Matt

 

India’s Topsgrup: appetite for risk
November 23, 2012
by Neil Munshi
Not every company would be happy to have a prominent right-wing extremist on its roster of clients. But for Topsgrup, India’s largest private security company, Bal Thackeray – leader of the Hindu nationalist Shiv Sena political party and one of the most powerful men in Mumbai before he died this month – was just an ordinary Joe.
Thackeray, a man who in life – and, it turned out, in death – could pack the streets with fanatical multitudes at short notice, entrusted his travel in his waning days to ambulances provided by Topsgrup.
He was one among the company’s 8,000 private and corporate clients, which include other leaders of India’s elite and many of its biggest companies such as the Tata Group, ICICI Bank and the Times of India. Topsgrup also provides security at events including Indian Premiere League cricket matches. In July, it completed a £19.5m acquisition of the Shield Guarding Company of the UK, in which it bought a 51 per cent stake in 2008.

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