Feral Jundi

Monday, November 10, 2008

Industry Talk: Changing the Culture of Pentagon Contracting Report

Filed under: Industry Talk — Tags: , , , , — Matt @ 1:29 PM

      Boy, where do I start with this thing.  First of all, in their panel of experts and contributors to this report, I didn’t see any security contractors?  What is up with that?  You would think these guys would at least bring in a couple of actual guys that have done the job out there and could give some perspective about the industry.  I was never contacted about this, nor have I seen them advertise on the forums.  The only names I recognized were Robert Young Pelton and David Isenberg.  Pelton is a travel author who writes books about traveling to war zones, that also wrote a book about security contractors. Isenberg has a column about the industry over at UPI, and that is it for input about the industry. The rest of the panel were experts in foreign policy and other related fields. I think they would have produced a better product if they would have actually included us ‘grunts’ that have some ground truth input about the industry.

      The other one that killed me about this report, is they made the suggestion that security contractors should only be used for static security posts in the war.  That PSD and Convoy operations should be done by the military.  Where I disagree on this, is this completely limits operational capability for the companies over there that are operating on their own.  And this also rips away the military to serve civilian supply efforts.  So will these civilian companies pay the military to do these services.  How about for transporting employees for leave or for medical situations?  Will the military provide an on call shuttle service for us civilians operating at these camps?

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Wednesday, October 29, 2008

News: Suicide Attacks Kill Dozens in Somalia

Filed under: Somalia — Tags: , , — Matt @ 1:27 PM

   The thing I wanted to note in this story, besides the fact that I loath the mufsid Shabaab, is that they were able to get a VBIED into the compound to detonate.  Who was the security manager of that facility, because obviously they dropped the ball.  Have they not witnessed the attacks in Pakistan or when the UN was attacked by VBIEDs in Iraq–where is the memory of that?  You must control vehicles, and you must treat each one as a threat until they have been searched.  And the searches need to be happening far away from the people.  

    You would think that this would be common sense, no matter who is running operations out there.  I just shake my head when I hear about ‘vehicles or people’ slipping past security and detonating.  If care was taken to prepare the defense and implement a best industry practices security plan, maybe this kind of thing could have been prevented. My guess though, is yet again a organization (the UNPD) was paying peanuts, and they got monkeys.  Pay the money for quality security professionals and security equipment, and give your employees the best shot at survival out there. It is the right thing to do, and to me, your number one priority is to protect your people so they can do their good work. –Head Jundi      

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Suicide attacks kill dozens in Somalia

Three car bombs attack UN, diplomatic and government institutions in the breakaway Somaliland region

Wednesday October 29 2008 17.14 GMT

 

A wave of synchronized suicide attacks on UN, diplomatic and government institutions in northern Somalia killed up to 31 people today.

Three car bombs detonated in Hargeisa, the capital of the breakaway Somaliland region. Another two vehicles exploded in neighbouring Puntland, which, like Somaliland, has been relative peaceful compared to the rest of the country.

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Friday, October 10, 2008

Industry Talk: Piracy, Somalia, and Using Private Security

Filed under: Industry Talk,Somalia — Tags: , , , — Matt @ 5:23 PM

    So this is where we are at with anti-piracy off the coast of Africa.  The UN has given the plea, as has most organizations out there, that we need to do something about the rampant piracy going on in the Gulf of Aden.  But where it all goes is up in the air.  We need action, and not just talk, if the issue of piracy is to be dealt with properly.  This latest resolution is nice, but if none of the nations out there are willing to contribute to this effort with naval support or they do not have the resources, then I really don’t see how the job could be done.  Unless….. we actually re-visit the idea of private naval companies and using contract security companies to protect these ships.  

     I disagree with those that say a private force could not properly protect these ships.  My best analogy for this is convoy security in places like Iraq or Afghanistan.  If set up correctly with Rules for the Use of Force, and with good UN oversight, then security contractors could do an excellent job.  But yet again, that would take the UN to re-evaluate it’s view on this type of activity. 

    Another idea is to have private naval companies provide the boats and crews, and have either US Navy or Marine troops man the guns.  If the US Navy or whatever navy does not have the vessels in their system to perform these tasks, I am sure if they were to contract this out, they would get some providers.  And the concept below, with putting a tank on top of one of these vessels looks funny, but the more I think about it, the more I like it.  

    But back to the legalities– if the UN will only allow a Nation’s military to perform these activities, then maybe this military/private military combination is a possible solution?  In Iraq, you would see US military escorting civilian driven trucks hauling food and water and fuel all the time–let’s just switch this over to water convoy operations.  And the targeting system on an Abrams tank would be very impressive on the high seas and could be used to effectively shut down these guys.  

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