Feral Jundi

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Afghanistan: Government Has Barred Compass ISS And Watan Risk Management

Filed under: Afghanistan,Industry Talk — Tags: , , , , , — 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.

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Iraq: Here Comes China And Their ‘Astonishing’ Oil Demand

Filed under: Africa,China,Industry Talk,Iraq — Tags: , , , , , , — Matt @ 2:34 AM

   China’s demand for oil jumped by an “astonishing” 28% in January compared with the same month a year earlier, the International Energy Agency (IEA) says. 

*****

   Here is a quick run down on what China is doing in Iraq, and it is all about oil.  I find it interesting that China is getting more involved with really risky resource ventures in places like Iraq or the Congo. And what that means to this industry, is that the Chinese will find a way to secure these ventures and investments.  You will either see Chinese security folks, or they will use local nationals for the work.  But like with most security work, they tend to go with the kind of security they can really trust and depend upon for the most sensitive projects.  Especially to guard oil executives.

   The other thing about this that is frustrating, is that information about Chinese private security companies is very thin.  Maybe there is tons of stuff on Chinese servers?.  Who knows, but it is an area that I would like to learn more about as the fight for resources increases in the coming future. Our industry will only see more involvement in that resource war, and it is important to track this stuff.

   In Iraq, you could very well see a situation where you see Chinese security contractors rolling down the highway in SUVs, or posted at some gate of some oil facility. If any readers have any stories about bumping into Chinese military or contractors in Iraq, please feel free to post away in the comments.  Like I said, there is nothing written about Chinese PMC’s or PSC’s, and I would like to see Feral Jundi’s archives fill up with some more data about that.  I will keep looking, and if anyone finds anything else, let me know. Especially for Africa, because China is really involved there. –Matt

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Chinese guards at the Ahdab field Thaier Al-Sudan/Reuters 

Red Star Over Iraq

January 21, 2010

China’s ambitions in the Iraqi oil fields could change the landscape

By Stanley Reed and Dexter Roberts

It may be the start of the biggest oil job in the world. Each day, 20 workers from BP and China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) buckle down to the task of prepping the Rumaila oil field in southern Iraq for rapid development. In industry lingo, Rumaila is a “supergiant”—a 50-mile-long deposit of sweet crude with estimated reserves of 16 billion barrels, whose output may someday rank second only to Saudi Arabia’s vast Ghawar field. The Saudis, though, have carefully managed their oil assets for decades. In contrast, Rumaila, a lightly inhabited expanse of date groves and Bedouin encampments, has not had a proper upgrade since the 1970s. The Iraqis contracted with BP and CNPC last year (BP) to juice Rumaila’s production from 1.06 million barrels a day to 2.85 million, all in seven years. No one has ever tried such a ramp-up at a field as huge as this one. Putting Rumaila back in full working order will take tens of thousands of workers, 1,000 new wells, and billions in investment.

BP is the largest partner in the venture, but only by a dipstick: It has a 38% stake, while the Chinese hold 37% (the rest is owned by an Iraqi company). The media focus has been on BP’s decision to take up the Rumaila challenge for a low fee of only $2 for every barrel the venture produces. But the more important story could be China’s role. “CNPC’s involvement brings together the country with the most rapid growth in energy demand in history with the country that plans the greatest buildup of production capacity ever,” says Alex Munton, an Iraq specialist at Edinburgh-based oil consultants Wood Mackenzie.

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Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Haiti: Security Update–What About All Those Thousands Of Escaped Prisoners?

Filed under: Chile,Disaster Response,Haiti — Tags: , , , , , , , , — Matt @ 2:01 PM

   So this is what I found out after a little bit of hunting for stories.  I wanted to know what the impact of all of those escaped prisoners in Haiti had, and from what I have found out, it ain’t pretty.  These guys are trying to organize gangs in the slums, they are raping women in the relief camps, they are getting back to the business of selling drugs and organizing, and the Haitian police and security forces are still overwhelmed.

   Worse yet, the UN is doing a terrible job of coordinating the relief and security efforts, and all those US and International military teams are leaving in the near future. These criminals are still loose and just counting the days until the good guys leave so they can really ‘go to town’ with their criminal ventures.  The Haitian authorities have tried to get the local populations to turn in these criminals, but because there are so many, it is still a huge issue. Even the Dominican Republic is getting worried about all these folks, and beefing up security efforts to stop them at the borders.

   My thoughts on the whole deal is that private security coupled with the local national security they will hire, could totally help in securing the populations as these military units leave.  They can also help buy some time as law enforcement continues the hunt for these criminals.  And we are not talking about a couple criminals here and there. We are talking about 5,000 to 7,000 escaped criminals, with a good percentage who are violent criminals.  These guys are free, and they will do all they can to take advantage of a country that is in disarray.  And guess what, they are!

   Here is another issue that really irks me.  These reporters who keep ignoring these facts, and continue to slam my industry as being disaster capitalists, are only helping out these criminals.  I have a news flash for you folks, criminals like the idea of ‘less security’ and not ‘more security’.   They also like ‘unorganized security’, as opposed to ‘organized security’.  My industry will provide that organized security, because that is what we do for a profession.  There is nothing dishonorable or unethical about what we do, and in my view that service has value. If these folks don’t want to recognize that value, then they will continue to see a population at risk in Haiti. There will continue to be more rapes, more murders, and more gang/drug related problems during the rebuild of that country.

   My industry is also more adept at working with local national security and getting the job done based on the contract than the UN.  I would suggest that companies like ITG/Steele Foundation, could do a better job of organizing the security effort there than the UN, any day.  Just look at what the UN has done in places like the Congo, and tell me they are the best organization for the job in Haiti? Or better yet, how do you fire the UN if they do a poor job in Haiti?  At least with private industry, you can actually fire poor performing companies.

   One more thing.  It looks like escaped prisoners are one of the main culprits of looting and crime after that earthquake in Chile.  Anyone else seeing a pattern here?  After these quakes, disaster response should include security forces tasked specifically to contain the prisons and recapture these criminals.  Especially if the criminals are violent and criminally insane (which is the case with Haiti).  They are a threat to crippled society and to the relief effort, and to not respond to that during the initial attack and extended attack is pure negligence in my opinion.  We must call upon every resource we can to stop that, to include using private industry, and to not do that is just stupid and irresponsible in my book. But don’t take my word for it, just read all the reports that I have collected for your reading pleasure below. –Matt

P.S. – I posted five stories below, if you are interested in reading the entire update.

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U.N. Is Faulted as Lacking Coordination of Aid and Security in Haiti

By NEIL MacFARQUHAR

March 2, 2010

UNITED NATIONS — Humanitarian efforts by the United Nations in Haiti have lacked sufficient coordination with local organizations in delivering aid and establishing security, according to an independent assessment released on Tuesday.

One consequence was a surge in the sexual abuse of women and girls living in camps for the displaced, with some young girls trading sex for shelter, said Emilie Parry, an aid consultant who helped write the evaluation of the United Nations’ effort for Refugees International, a nonprofit organization that advocates on behalf of refugees.

“Women reported to us that there has been a lot of violence and sexual abuse at nighttime,” Ms. Parry said, noting that there is no system of nighttime patrols in the makeshift camps where many displaced people have been living.

“By all accounts, the leadership of the humanitarian country team is ineffectual,” said the report, based on 10 days of evaluations in February. The report, titled “Haiti: From the Ground Up,” also acknowledged that the scale of the disaster made the response a singular challenge.

Closer work with Haitian organizations, as well as better knowledge about conditions, would also enhance the ability of local groups to deal with problems long after the international groups left, Ms. Parry said.

The report suggests a number of ways to improve the delivery of aid, including allowing more participation by Haitian organizations whose leaders are now living among as many as several million displaced earthquake victims.

While the United Nations does not actively discriminate against such groups, it effectively bars them through a lack of advertising and the system of passes that are needed to attend meetings, Ms. Parry said. Appointing liaison officers dedicated to such groups would help, the report suggests.

It also recommended that the United Nations appoint one person responsible for leading the team distributing humanitarian aid in the country, rather than have the responsibility be among many tasks taken on by senior management.

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Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Chile: Looting Sparks Security Concerns In Post-Quake Chile

Filed under: Chile,Disaster Response — Tags: , , , , , — Matt @ 7:24 PM

   No word if any companies will be responding to this disaster. I will assume that Chile has all the security forces it needs with it’s police and military, but you never know.  We will keep a look out for anything that pops up.

   Luckily, Chile’s buildings were better built than what was in Haiti, and that is good.  I am sure they would have had way more deaths if they weren’t. My heart goes out to the victims of this earthquake, and I hope they are able to respond fast enough to save everyone. –Matt

Edit: 3/6/2010 – Thanks to Rosa for sending me this link on an interesting site that compiles all the available news video footage on the event, and does some analysis based on that compilation.  Check it out here.

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Looting Sparks Security Concerns in Post-Quake Chile

Michelle Ruiz

March 1, 2010

Rescuers searched for survivors in the rubble-strewn streets of Chile today as widespread looting sparked security concerns following the earthquake that has killed more than 700 people and displaced more than 2 million. Three more aftershocks hit the country this morning, according to a published report.

“The catastrophe is enormous,” President Michelle Bachelet said at a news conference Sunday, adding that her declared “state of catastrophe” would continue as the Chilean military maintains order in the streets and the air force flies basic supplies to the hardest-hit regions.

“We are confronting an emergency without parallel in Chile’s history,” she said.

In the heavily damaged city of Concepcion, looters descended on supermarkets and electronic stores and police fought them

with tear gas and water cannons.

Firefighters in Concepcion who were ready to lower a rescue worker into the rubble were halted when the scent of tear gas forced them to stop.

“It’s sad, but because of the situation you have to confront the robberies and at the same time continue the search,” police officer Jorge Guerra told The Associated Press.

Bachelet gave the military control of security in the area, where nearly every market had been emptied and no food or drinking water was available, according to the AP. Power outages kept the city in the dark.

“We are overwhelmed,” a police officer told the AP.

Looters reportedly cleared the contents of a shopping mall in San Pedro, even robbing ATM machines and siphoning gas from underground tanks.

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Maritime Security: Arming The Vessel’s Crew Vs. Armed Security Professionals

Filed under: Industry Talk,Maritime Security — Tags: , , , , , — Matt @ 10:38 AM

   Finally, someone is starting to talk some sense when it comes to this stuff.  I commend the Captain for giving an honest assessment and presenting a voice of reason.  If you are in the maritime security business, this is the kind of stuff that should be required reading. It will give you the necessary market intelligence about what your customers are dealing with, and how you can modify your services to meet their demands.

   It sounds to me like vetting crew members on these boats is lacking.  One idea for companies, is to provide some basic vetting of not only their security team, but the ship’s crew, as part of a total security package.  From the sounds of it, this is a major concern on these boats, and the ship’s captain is constantly given a crew that is not properly vetted. (that gives us incite into how little these shipping companies care I guess) I really feel bad for them when it comes to the non-US vessels, because it sounds like vetting is non-existent.

   The other thing I picked up on is the maritime security company mentioned called Lakonian International.  I did a quick Google search, and low and behold that company is an affiliate of NEK.  Which is interesting, because NEK has been advertising for awhile for maritime security specialists, and I guess now they are setting up a separate company to deal with that market entirely.  That, and the author singled them out specifically. Get your resumes into NEK so you can get in on a chance to wear one of those cool Lakonian International t-shirts. lol –Matt

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 Lakonian International

Arming the Vessel’s Crew vs. Armed Security Professionals

By Captain Jim Staples

02/19/2010

    A common question asked by the general public in the United States following the Maersk Alabama incident has been, “Do you have guns onboard the ship to protect yourselves?” This question is a good one and the reason sound; however, the reality of shipboard operations, crew nationalities and religious beliefs make it a complicated solution globally.By looking onboard U.S. vessels, we find that crew turnover and how a crew member finds employment present some of the difficulties that go along with arming a crew. The employment of a U.S. crewmember begins at a hiring hall. The seaman puts in a shipping card once a job has been posted on the bulletin board. Who gets the job depends on a few variables.        The candidate must first be qualified to take that position. He must have his STCW for the rating he intends to sail in. He must be drug free and competent according to USCG regulations. To receive his documents, the seaman must have had a background check which is completed by the USCG when he applies for or renews his documents. A background check is done every renewal period at five year intervals. Background checks on American seaman are comprehensive and extensive. Generally most seamen have a clean record and receive their documents with no problem at all. Nothing is perfect and this is true with the American Merchant Seaman who has been checked out by the USCG and FBI It has been found that some seaman have extensive criminal backgrounds and never should have been allowed onboard American vessels never mind foreign vessels. Yet they seem to find their way onboard and become part of the crew. This does not happen often, but it does happen.

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