private security companies

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Kidnap And Ransom: Pemex Executive Kidnapping Rattles Mexico Oil Industry

Filed under: Kidnap And Ransom,Mexico — Tags: kidnappings, Mexico, oil, Pemex, private military companies, private security companies, ransoms, security — Matt @ 3:58 AM

Between the kidnappings and the pilfering of the oil by cartels, Pemex has some issues. Just one suggestion for Pemex, and that is if you want to retain some of that oil and stop paying ransoms, then make the investment in a competent security company to protect your stuff and people. You can buy some pretty kick ass security for well under the 750 million dollars that you are losing every year (on top of what ever you are paying for in ransoms). –Matt

Edit: 5/20/2010 – Check out this story about former Mexican presidential candidate that was kidnapped recently.

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Pemex exec kidnapping rattles Mexico oil industry

May 11 2010

By Robert Campbell

Driving home along rough, poorly lit roads to the southern Mexican city of Villahermosa, an oil executive and his driver stopped at a roadside eatery for dinner when they were cornered by armed men.

The gunmen seized Nestor Martinez, who manages a production unit for energy monopoly Pemex in the oil-rich state of Tabasco, and sent his driver on to deliver the news he had been kidnapped, industry sources say.

Martinez was released a few days after his abduction last month but a spate of kidnappings of Pemex executives has shaken the oil industry in a country where drug cartels and organized crime gangs are increasingly spooking foreign investors.

“Everyone has heard about it but there has been no official statement. It’s really frightening,” said a Pemex employee in Villahermosa, who declined to be identified because he is not authorized to speak with reporters.

A Pemex spokesman declined to comment on the case, and the industry sources could not confirm local media reports that a large ransom was paid to free Martinez, also president of the national petroleum engineers’ association.

Mexico is in the grip of a brutal drugs war that has killed some 23,000 people, mainly traffickers and police, since President Felipe Calderon took power in late 2006. The army crackdown launched by Calderon has fanned turf wars between rival gangs and battles against security forces.

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Industry Talk: Rest In Peace Ryan Lozier, Adam Spain, and David Hughes

Filed under: Afghanistan,Industry Talk,Iraq — Tags: Adam Spain, Afghanistan, contractors, David Hughes, deaths, G4S secure solutions, Global Security Solutions, Iraq, private military companies, private security companies, Ryan Lozier, security — Matt @ 2:24 AM

Rest in peace to the fallen and all prayers and condolences go out to the family and friends of these brave men. –Matt

Edit: July 9, 2011–Ryan Lozier was awarded the Defense Medal of Freedom medal posthumously. Here is the link.

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Middletown grad killed in Afghanistan

Ryan Lozier died ‘doing what he loved’

By Rick McCrabb, Staff Writer

May 11, 2010

MIDDLETOWN — Two days before Mother’s Day, Viki Lozier was notified that her oldest son, Ryan Lozier, 30, a 1998 Middletown High School graduate, was killed by an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan while working for Global Security Solutions, a private security company.

Viki Lozier said her son served eight years in the Army Ranger Battalion in Afghanistan and Iraq. He worked for a year in the private sector, then joined the security company.

“He told me, ‘Mom, this is what I’m meant to do. I want to save people and this is what I love,’ ” she said Monday, May 10.

“As a mother, I have to honor that. I can’t be mad. There is nobody to blame. That’s how he lived. He died doing what he loved.”

She described her son as “big, bold and bright,” and he didn’t do anything “half-measured, even when he was getting in trouble.”

Lozier, a standout athlete, played football at Madison High School, then transferred to Middletown High School for his junior and senior years.

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Somalia: Respected Islamic Scholars Declare War As ‘Un-Islamic’

Filed under: Africa,Al Qaeda,Somalia — Tags: Al Qaeda, Blackwater, clerics, hizbul islam, islam, mosques, private security companies, Somalia, terrorism, war — Matt @ 12:49 AM

You know, I think this is pretty significant. There have been some new and startling developments in the war in Somalia, and I think it is important to highlight what is really going on. The other reason I want to post this, is to set the record as to who is really responsible for all of this chaos over there.

First off, my message to these extremists groups in Somalia is that Blackwater did not bomb your mosques. Nor did Blackwater dig up Sufi graves and hide the bodies. Nope. Nor did Blackwater allow piracy to continue under their watch in Somalia, or cut off food supplies to the people of Somalia via banning the World Food Program food shipments, or proclaim that a 13 year old girl who was gang raped by thugs to be a whore and then have her stoned to death in public. Nope, Blackwater didn’t do any of that.

But I will tell you who did. It was al Shabab and company, and now that Somalia’s true Islamic scholars have spoken and rejected their war, from here on out they will have that hanging over them. How can you wage holy war, when you don’t have a case for such a thing?

Further more, I will go as far as to say that al Shabab and company care more about power and making money, than living some kind of purist lifestyle under Sharia Law. In other words, I call them hypocrites. You administer your form of sick justice on helpless little girls, yet look the other way when it comes to piracy, desecrating graves, bombing of mosques, chewing khat, recklessly launching mortars into population centers and otherwise making a hard life for the people of Somalia, even worse. And now you have lost the support of the guys who are more knowledgeable of Islam than you. And last I checked, these scholars said nothing about Blackwater at the Garowe Islamic conference. Nope, they were referring to your now ‘un-holy war’ and you have no one to blame but yourselves.

On a side note, I do think it is funny that islamic extremists fear contractors as much as they do. It used to be that the Marines or Special Forces where the ones that everyone feared or put the blame on for everything. But hey, if you guys want to make us into the new bogeyman, so be it……. Boo! lol –Matt

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Aweys rejects clerics’ verdict on Somalia war

11 May 11, 2010

The Islamist leader of Somalia’s Hizbul- Islam rebel group Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys dismissed the declarations of the country’s most respected Islamic scholars, who were in attendance at the recently concluded Garowe Islamic conference, Radio Garowe reports.

The Islamic conference was held last month in Garowe, capital of Puntland in northern Somalia, where more than 50 respected Somali clerics declared that the ongoing war in Somalia as un-Islamic.Aweys defended the war his waging against the foreign troops and UN-backed government as “in accordance with Islamic law.’“The war we are waging is in accordance with Islamic law, because we are not after power. We want to implement Sharia Law in the country,” said the 65-year old cleric.

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Sunday, May 9, 2010

Afghanistan: Government Has Barred Compass ISS And Watan Risk Management

Filed under: Afghanistan,Industry Talk — Tags: Afghanistan, Compass ISS, private military companies, private security companies, security companies, watan risk — Matt @ 11:21 AM

Wow, Compass ISS and Watan Risk are huge companies that have been operating for awhile there, so I am not sure if this is a for sure deal or not. If so, all of their competitors are probably licking their chops right now.

Overall, this is a necessary move in order to get a handle on the situation and send a message to the 52 registered security companies in Afghanistan. Which is a good thing, because every innocent killed will only enrage the civilian population, and increase support for the Taliban shadow government.

Now if I was the Afghan government, I would pour on the juice when the Taliban kill civilians. Do not give them a free pass, and every time a Taliban force kills a civilian, it should be highlighted as to how un-islamic they are and how little they care for the civilian population’s safety. It’s called propaganda and it should be part of their strategic communications plan. The Afghan government must sell itself as a better idea than the Taliban, and win over the civilian population. –Matt

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Afghanistan bars security firms

04/09/2010

KABUL — Afghanistan has barred two private security firms from one of the country’s most dangerous highways after their guards shot and killed two civilians, the government said Sunday.

The victims were killed accidentally in separate incidents on the road that connects the Afghan capital Kabul to the south — the heartland of the Taliban militants waging a bloody insurgency against the Western-backed government.

Civilian deaths are a highly sensitive issue in Afghanistan and interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary said both companies had also been ordered to pay compensation to the victims’ families.

“The perpetrators of both incidents have been arrested and are being prosecuted,” he told journalists at a press conference in Kabul following the killings, which both occurred in the last two weeks.

“The ministry of interior warns all private security firms to conduct their operations within the boundaries of the law and avoid shooting at people.”

The two firms, Compass and Watan Risk Management, are among 52 private security companies registered to operate in Afghanistan, where security has deteriorated in recent years.

Their clients include NATO and US-led forces, aid agencies and private businesses, which use them to provide armed escorts for convoys travelling on dangerous roads.

Civilian deaths caused by foreign forces fell 28 percent last year, the United Nations has said.

But such incidents continue to undermine efforts to win Afghan hearts and minds and are a source of tension between the Afghan government and foreign forces.

The United States and allies are ordering thousands of extra troops to Afghanistan, where foreign troop numbers are set to peak at 150,000 by August, in a bid to reverse the Taliban insurgency as quickly as possible.

Most of the extra troops will deploy in the southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand, where the Afghan government said three of its soldiers had been killed over the past 24 hours.

The troops were operating with international forces in the Sangin district of Helmand, the defence ministry said in a statement.

Story here.

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Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Guatemala: Private Security Is Good Business In Guatemala

Filed under: Guatemala,Industry Talk — Tags: business, Guatemala, Industry Talk, private security, private security companies, security contracting — Matt @ 1:25 AM

“The guards and the guns they wield — pump action shotguns and old revolvers — mark the front doors of businesses and the guard gates of wealthy neighborhoods. They have become accepted members of a culture numb to crime,” Fieser writes. Professor Ungar says: “Can you imagine walking into a Guatemala City shopping mall and not seeing a guard? People wouldn’t know what to do…. Guards have become a social phenomenon. They are part of the fabric of urban life.”

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Wow, sometimes you stumble upon some really cool statistics that just give you a pause. This article is filled with those kinds of statistics, and this thing delves into South African and Brazilian statistics on security guards as well.

My take away on all of this, is that the main theme I see repeated over and over again throughout the world when it comes to guards or security contractors is that if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys. Also, without standards and some kind of a regulatory body with teeth, you will have problems. And what do you know, our industry is coming up against these same issues, and I just don’t get why these lessons are not learned and applied? Well, I do know why–because security is a luxury in most folks minds, until someone gets hurt or killed, and regulating an industry takes effort and leadership. Most folks in charge in these countries are poor leaders and lazy or the government organizations tasked with monitoring and regulating, have no money or resources to do that job. (or they just don’t think it is a worthy expense)

Well, on the plus side, at least all of these security industries throughout the world have access to the internet. They can actually research what works and what doesn’t work, and the information is there for anyone interested in applying Kaizen to their industry. There are folks in these countries who care, and who are trying to do what is right, and bravo to them for keeping up the fight. Maybe the folks in Guatemala will be reading Feral Jundi and get a feel for the best industry practices? Who knows, but I have to think that everyone’s learning organizations will only be enhanced by what is currently out there. All they have to do is grab that information and ‘build a snowmobile’ out of it. –Matt

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Private security is good business in Guatemala

22 March 2010

In the United States there are 1.09 million private guards — that is, one guard for every 280 people; in Guatemala, a country of 13 million people, there are between 100,000 to 150,000 guards (the exact number is not known since many of these companies do not bother to register with the authorities); this is one guard for every 85 to 130 residents; the combined number of state and federal police in the United States is 883,600; Guatemala has roughly 22,000 active police officers

When it comes to crime and lawlessness, few countries could match South Africa. Just one example: The United States has a population of 307,000,000. South Africa’s population is 49,000,000. The number of murders committed in the United States between April 2008 and March 2009: 16,204. The comparable number in South Africa during the same period: 18,148. The murder rate in South Africa is 38.6 murders per 100,000 citizens. The world’s average for murder is 5 per 100 000.

The prevalence of crime, especially violent crime, is one manifestation of lawlessness. Another manifestation is the health of the private security industry. The business of private security thrives in countries on which the government does not offer sufficient protection to the people at the same time that it does not do enough to fight crime.

Two countries in which the private security sector thrives are South Africa and Brazil. There are other countries, too, in which offering private security services is a lucrative business.

Ezra Fieser writes in GlobalPost that Guatemala is one of these countries. Security guards employed by private companies in Guatemala outnumber police seven-to-one. Throughout Latin America private security guard forces dwarf police rolls (note that even the United States has more guards than police — 1.09 million to 883,600, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Fieser notes that this is about one guard for every 280 people).

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