Saturday, March 26, 2011
Quotes: Libyan Rebels ‘Considering Hiring Security Experts’, Says Reporter
A hat tip to Wired’s Danger Room for finding this little nugget of information. As far as I have heard, the only involvement of PSC’s in Libya was the initial stages of rescuing clients caught in the chaos. Although it would not surprise me if there are already a few freelancers running around doing their thing–but that is not confirmed.?As to involvement of PMC’s in the actual offensive operations or advising the rebels?
Boy, whatever company that takes that on will need some serious blessings from the highest levels of government. I am talking a license from the US government or from the UN, or both. Preferably both, and that license should cover everything. The US already has such a thing that they issue through ITAR. But that is for other than offensive operations.
For offensive operations or actual authorization to kill Qaddafi and his troops, it will take something with a little bit more legal teeth.?What I am talking about is somewhere along the lines of a death warrant, bill of attainder or Letter of Marque and Reprisal. Something that gives the acting party the ultimate in legal protections to do what it has to do out there. That document must also have all the right signatures and blessings.?Of course the other way to contribute is via the outlaw way, or just do it without official legal blessing.
Good luck getting any of the serious players in this game with that kind of set up. They would much rather stick to the safe and ‘legal’ PSC work in Iraq and Afghanistan.?I am also reminded of what happened in Rwanda and the world’s reaction back then. At that time everyone sat and watched as a genocide played out before our eyes. There were also calls to do something, and no one sent troops to stop it. The UN was so desperate at the time that they reached out to Executive Outcomes and asked for a quote for their services. Of course the UN was not hip on contracting the services of a capable PMC. They also thought EO’s price was too expensive, and yet ended up spending even more money for a UN only mission that responded way too late to the massacre and failed at saving lives. I often wonder how many people could have been saved if EO was contracted and tasked to saved the day there? –Matt
They do know that. And it‘s an emotional thing. They don‘t want to see Gadhafi thrown out by the 82nd American Airborne Division, or the 101st or anything like that.?But if there were groups of 12 Team Alphas, the Special Forces here, hidden away someplace, giving them advice and communicating with aircraft, I know they would accept that. I spoke with some rebel leaders who definitely want that.?They‘re even considering hiring security experts on their own—and there are a lot of I guess you could call them mercenaries that are available on the open market, British, SAS, people who retired and are now working more or less freelance. They‘re looking actively to hire people like that, and it would certainly be more effective and cheaper and less chaotic than having all of the wannabe Rambos flowing in if they had some sort of direct communication with the people who are giving them military cover.-Richard Engel, Reporter In Libya.
Industry Talk: ASIS Awarded DoD Contract To Develop Standards To Improve Performance And Acountability Of PSC’s
Very interesting news and this reminds me of the discussions we all had with Jake Allen and others on his website about implementing an ISO standard for the industry. This is also the next phase of the International Code of Conduct that made the news awhile back.
What this means for everyone is that companies will have to maintain these standards in order to be contract compliant. So that in turn will apply to contractors seeking work with the companies and the training they will have to go through. I like it because then there will not be any guess work as to the industry standard for training. It is either government/ISO/ANS approved, or it isn’t.
Be sure to stay tuned as to what those standards are so you can train and be prepared for them. My guess is that you will not see too much deviation from what most of the top tier companies already do based on current contract requirements. I would suggest that the DoS standards for security contractors is probably the closest thing to industry best practices right now, just because of how much attention has been placed on that training, and how dangerous the job is for those PSC’s involved with protecting DoS folks.
ASIS also has a lot of experience with close protection and security management. It makes sense that they were chosen for this contract and we will see what they come up with. Also be sure to give them a call if you would like to help their committee with developing this standard. I am sure folks like David Isenberg or Doug Brooks will be called upon extensively for guidance. Not to mention the vast pool of highly experienced security contractors and combat veterans that have performed these dangerous tasks in this war for close to ten years now. –Matt
ASIS Seeks Committee Members for Private Security Contractor Standard
By Lisa Williams
Mar 25, 2011
ASIS International is developing a standard that will be a cross between the ISO 9001, ISO 31000 and ANSI/ASIS.SPC.1 (quality, risk and resilience management, respectively) for private security sector organizations, according to Marc H. Siegel, chair of the PSC.1 technical committee and commissioner, ASIS Global Standards Initiative.
A standards development organization, ASIS announced the contract award from the U.S. Department of Defense in mid-March, seeking applications from the security industry and client and rights groups worldwide. The deadline to submit an application to standards@asisonline.org is March 30. Details of the contract award were not disclosed.
(more…)
Friday, March 25, 2011
Military News: Putting The ‘Green’ In The Green Machine–The Marines And ExFOB
Over the last ten years, we have become more lethal, but we have become heavy. We have lost speed. To reset the balance, we must return to our Spartan roots—fast, lethal, and austere.-From the Marine Corps Expeditionary Energy Strategy and Implementation plan.
This is an excellent article and website that details all of the benefits that the Marines have gained from becoming more self-reliant and energy efficient out there. It is also a big heads up to private industry that as the military becomes more Spartan, so shall the PMC/PSC industry.(if they want to compete)
I could also see new job types popping up because of these energy strategy initiatives. Contracts could stipulate that there be a ‘Energy Resource Manager’ on site, whose sole purpose is to monitor energy and water use and keep it at a certain level. Could we see a day where in order to be contract compliant, that a company had to maintain a certain amount of energy and water use, or be penalized? Hmmm. Well, if the Marines think energy management is of strategic importance, then perhaps logistics contracts will begin to emphasize this kind of thing?
Of course the other reason why energy management and going green is important is that it can save lives. The less fuel convoys or water convoys needed to sustain a remote site, the better. That means less exposure to the roads for those convoy teams, and less targets for the enemy. It also means that if a site can operate without that artery of logistics, then that alleviates a huge burden both for private industry and for the military.
This minimized dependency on logistics also expands the reach of a unit or company in the field, and allows them to venture further away from the larger FOBs, or to patrol longer in AOs that need constant attention in this COIN-centric war.
Finally, if you watch the big picture of energy–it absolutely sucks to depend upon other nations for oil. Especially nations in the Middle East that are impacted by regional instability. The Ares Blog mentioned that ‘A $10 increase in the price of a barrel of oil, at current consumption levels, would be equivalent to the entire Marine Corps’ procurement budget.’
That is startling to think about, and that is just the Marines. A ripple in the energy world definitely impacts the cost of operations in the war, and becoming more energy efficient and diversifying our energy sources is smart and a necessity in my view.
Finally, I wanted to highlight ExFOB’s website and latest FBO request. They are looking for a way to charge all of their gadgets from their vehicles, without wasting all of that fuel required to run a vehicle’s generators. If you think about all of the thousands of vehicles being used by the military, with each vehicle filled with energy consuming electronic devices, you can see the scope of energy consumption problem here? Perhaps one idea is to just arm everyone with smart phones and solar panels, and give our infantry a horse to ride? ….lol –Matt
Marines and sailors of India Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, and their Afghan national army counterparts, pose in front of a modified ZeroBase Regenerator at Patrol Base Sparks, in Sangin District, Dec. 29. The ZeroBased Regenerator, nicknamed the Raptor, after the type of power cells in its six solar panels, can keep more than 17 computers and 15 lighting units running throughout the night. The Marines of 1st Platoon, added four more panels to their Raptor for further solar energy conservation.Renewable energy vital to Marines success in Afghanistan
January 12, 2011By Gunnery Sgt. William Price , 1st Marine Division
FORWARD OPERATING BASE JACKSON, Afghanistan — The Marines and sailors of 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment have tapped into a vital renewable energy source – the sun – to help take the fight to the enemy in Sangin District.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Kaizen: The Launch Of A New Feral Jundi Blog Theme And Blog Features
Finally I can get back to the business of blogging. First off, let me tell the story here about what exactly happened. Google Adsense shut down my publisher’s account last week because I had a link somewhere on the blog that they did not agree with. News to me, and yet the owner of that link decided to file a DMCA which Google takes seriously, and they shut down my subscription. Hence why I do not have Google Adsense on the blog right now.
So the process here is that you send Google a letter explaining that you have removed the link with the hopes that somewhere in the Google machine, someone with some commonsense will actually reinstate my account. I have brought Google a lot of business for their advertisers to say the least, and it is Google’s loss.
In the ad spaces now are Chitika, which is a competitor of Google. Although they are not on the same scale as Google, and the quality of ads and type of ads are not the same. I intend to get back my account with Google Adsense, but until then, I will use Chitika or whatever else comes my way.
Now for the ‘Ad Center’ to the right. This is a cool new feature of the blog that I would like to promote. It rotates all of those affiliates and ads, has plenty of space, and it looks sharp. If you want to advertise on the blog here that is where I will put your graphic and link to your product/service (for $60 dollars a month of course).
If you want to do some affiliate marketing, that is where I will stick you as well (which does not cost $60 dollars a month, but is purely a profit sharing/promotional mechanism between the two parties). Jake Allen’s Security Contracting eBook and Bill Beaver’s Dangerzone and Oil Jobs ads are both affiliates, and both work through Plimus. I highly recommend using Plimus as a way to set up an affiliate marketing plan for your product or service because it works. It benefits the author and the the folks willing to promote it (like good ol’ Feral Jundi).
Now on to the new features of the blog that I am pretty excited about. First of all the blog is much more SEO friendly than the older blog, and I hope to get higher search ranking because of it. It is a Thesis based theme called ‘Arclite’ (I think that is a great theme for a military themed blog like mine-lol) and it is totally modified using modern WordPress plugins. That means I can insert functionality at the press of button, as opposed to inserting code all the time.
The comments section is powered by Intense Debate. I like this set up because it allows folks to use their Facebook account to login here and make comments. Or you can still comment the older way by entering your name and email–whichever works for you. I was also able to convert all the older comments into this new comments system.
You can also click on the ‘thumbs up’ or ‘thumbs down’ rating system for posts just to the right of the comment. So if you like what someone has said, definitely voice your opinion by clicking that. Although I still maintain total control of all posts–meaning everything stays civil and profanity free. Also, Akismet is still my primary safety system watching my back when it comes to filtering out spam.
The other features I am excited about is the Facebook like buttons and Twitter/Linkedin buttons. Please…. pretty please, if you ‘like’ a post here, click that button. It is such a simple thing to do to show your appreciation for a post and it takes a fraction of a second to do. If you do not have Facebook, Twitter, or a Linkedin account, disregard. (although I still recommend opening accounts so you can participate in that realm of social media–FJ is very active on Facebook)
The other features are self explanatory. I still have all the same categories and links, and nothing has changed there. You can still translate the page via Google Translate. You can still donate to the cause. The Close Protection PSD Jobs and Secure Aspects Job Board widgets are in the ‘Jobs For Security Contractors’ block. The social media block at the top right hand corner still has my RSS feed/email subscription, Facebook, Twitter, Scribd accounts, etc.
One cool detail that I have added to the blog is a print and PDF file creation button. When you bring up the full post, and you see that button on the bottom of the post, just hit that and you can have formatted print screen or you can download the item as a PDF file. Hell, you can even send it as an email to someone. In other words, it is a really handy feature to record and keep in your records, any information that you liked on FJ.
Now onto the artistic side of the blog. That header image and logo is extremely easy to change out. Meaning, I am all about changing that stuff from time to time to keep the blog visually interesting. I like the flames and the big bold white ‘Feral Jundi’, but all of that can change with the click of a button. In the future you might see some interesting custom logo and background imagery that will compliment the blog’s theme.
In true Kaizen fashion, the blog will continue to be improved upon and I am always open to feedback. I think Miyamoto Musashi, Col. John Boyd, Sun Tzu, Buffalo Bill Cody, Frederick Russell Burnham and General George Washington* would all approve. –Matt
*My new Facebook Profile avatar is General George Washington in a Marine uniform. lol