Iraq contract under fire
By Tom Griffin, The Irish World, London, www.theirishworld.com
Irish-Americans last week lobbied US President George Bush to cancel a £158 million Iraq security contract awarded to Aegis Defence Services, the company run by controversial former British Army officer Tim Spicer. p
Spicer was the commanding officer of Scots Guards Mark Wright and James Fisher, who shot dead 18-year-old Peter McBride in the New Lodge area of Belfast on 4 September 1992. Spicer defended the actions of the soldiers and campaigned for their release after they were subsequently convicted of murder.
Father Sean Mc Manus, President of the Washington-based Irish National Caucus, has written to President Bush, asking him "in the name of decency to cancel the Spicer contract as it has Peter McBride's blood on it".
He goes no to tell Mr. Bush, " This could undo any credit you gained from Irish-Americans for you support of the Irish peace-process. US dollars should not subsidize such a person as Lt Col Spicer. And long-suffering Iraq needs him no more than Northern Ireland needed him". " We are determined not to accept this terrible insult to the McBride family and to Irish-Americans. I cannot believe that President Bush would have approved such an outrageous contract. He has got to undo this great wrong. Iraq does not need the likes of Spicer , and U.S. dollars should not be funding him - and, in effect, endorsing the murder of Peter McBride", he concluded.
Fr. McManus also raised the issue during a briefing at the State Department last week by Dr. Mitchell Reiss, Special Envoy for Northern Ireland.
"Dr. Reiss acknowledged he had concerns about the contract,” Fr. McManus said. The Irish National Caucus has also written to Democratic presidential candidate Senator John Kerry and other members of Congress.
"We are calling on them to denounce the awarding of the contract to Spicer and demanding that it be cancelled. We are determined to make this an election issue,” Fr McManus said.
The lobby effort by Irish-Americans follows an appeal by Peter McBride’s mother Jean on the issue. “Given the involvement of private security firms in torture and murder in Iraq I shudder to think that Spicer has been awarded a contract to create the world's largest private army,” she said recently. “As Commanding Officer of the Scots Guards he told a pack of lies about Peter's murder and dragged his name through the dirt. God knows what his own private army will do in Iraq."
The Aegis contract is also facing strong opposition in Washington from rival US military contractor Dyncorp, which has submitted a formal protest to the US Congress’ Government Accountability Office over the way the contract was awarded.
The Financial Times last week reported that the British government was worried about the ‘potential political fallout’ from Mr Spicer’s involvement in the contract.
Spicer is a former director of Sandline, the company which contravened a UN arms embargo during the civil war in Sierra Leone in the 1990s. He later claimed he had acted with British government approval.
The Financial Times quoted a Foreign Office official as saying that "The contract in question was awarded by the US government to Aegis and the British government is not a party to the contract nor has it been involved in any way in its negotiation."
Copyright © 2004 Irish World
U.S. Contract to British Firm Sparks Irish American Protest
Anger Over Iraq Deal Stems From 1992 Murder in Belfast
By Mary Fitzgerald, Washington Post
Irish Americans are lobbying the Bush administration to revoke a $293 million Iraq security contract awarded to a British firm after raising concerns about the chief executive's military past in Northern Ireland.
The contract, the largest yet awarded for security in postwar Iraq, was granted to Aegis Defense Services Ltd. in late May. It calls for Aegis to provide security teams for the Project and Contracting Office, the body responsible for overseeing $18.4 billion in U.S. reconstruction funds.
Aegis is run by Tim Spicer, a former lieutenant colonel in the Scots Guards who sparked a political scandal in Britain in the late 1990s because of the involvement of his then-company Sandline International in Papua New Guinea and Sierra Leone.
Some Irish American and human rights groups oppose the Aegis contract because of Spicer's support for two soldiers convicted of murder while under his command in Northern Ireland. The two soldiers shot Belfast teenager Peter McBride to death in 1992.
Spicer defended the two soldiers, and despite the original convictions and appeals in which the murder verdicts were upheld, he continued to insist they were innocent.
In a recent letter to President Bush, the Rev. Sean McManus of the Irish National Caucus (INC), a D.C.-based lobbying group, warned the contract award could damage the Bush administration's relations with Irish Americans in the run-up to the November election.
"Just when you need to reach out to Irish Catholics, your Department of Defense does something to insult and offend them," McManus wrote.
In an interview, McManus said the contract had caused outrage among Irish Americans.
"This is a deeply offensive and insensitive move and represents a real kick in the teeth for Irish Americans," McManus said. "President Bush should tear up this contract immediately out of decency and respect."
The State Department confirmed it had referred INC's concerns to Defense after McManus raised the issue during a briefing by Mitchell B. Reiss, Bush's envoy for Northern Ireland.
Paul O'Connor of the Pat Finucane Centre, a human rights group in Northern Ireland, also called for the contract to be withdrawn.
"As commander in Belfast, Tim Spicer believed his soldiers were above the law and he disputed their convictions for murder," he said. "We need to know if his background was taken into consideration when this contract was awarded."
In Britain, Sandline was at the center of a political controversy in 1999 after a parliamentary inquiry found that an intervention by the firm in Sierra Leone included shipping arms to the country despite a U.N. embargo.
Sandline said it had acted with British government approval, but the inquiry cleared British ministers of wrongdoing.
The company's involvement in efforts to quash rebels in Papua New Guinea in 1997 was followed by an army rebellion and a coup.
Spicer resigned as Sandline's chief executive in September 2000, and the firm wound up operations in April 2004.
DynCorp, a Texas-based security firm and one of six bidders for the contract, has filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office, contesting the grounds on which the contract was awarded to Aegis. The GAO is expected to report on the case Sept. 30.
Following DynCorp's complaint, the Department of Defense issued a "stay" notice, putting the contract on hold. This was later lifted, according to Sara Pearson, a spokeswoman for Aegis, and the contract is proceeding as planned.
"The awarding of the contract was extremely rigorous and all relevant facts were obviously known by the authorities. We have nothing further to add to that," she said.
Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Tex.) has raised concerns about Aegis's lack of experience in Iraq in a letter to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.
"It is inconceivable that the firm charged with the responsibility for coordinating all security of firms and individuals performing reconstruction is one which has never even been in the country," Sessions wrote.
Copyright © 2004 Washington Post
U.S. ignores protest over Spicer contract
By Ray O'Hanlon, Irish Echo, London
The British company awarded a huge contract by the Pentagon for security operations in Iraq has been coming under increasing criticism and scrutiny this week.
However, it appeared unlikely that the U.S. would back out of the deal.
President Bush has been urged to cancel the contract that involves a onetime British army officer linked to the death of a teenager in Northern Ireland.
The death of Peter McBride, shot dead by two members of the Scots Guards regiment, remains one of the most controversial during the troubles.
The regiment was commanded at the time by Lt. Col. Tim Spicer.
Spicer, since retired from the British military, now heads a private security company, Aegis Defense Services, which was recently awarded a $293 million contract in Iraq, the largest given out by the U.S. government to date for security work in that country.
Fr. Sean McManus, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Irish National Caucus, wants President Bush to scrap the deal.
"I hope this contract will be torn up. And that's not just being said from an Irish or Irish-American point of view," McManus said. "This company almost brought down the Tony Blair government in Britain as a result of false allegations." McManus has previously described the contract between the Pentagon and Aegis as having "Irish blood on it." He warned President Bush in a letter that it could undo any credit he had gained from Irish-Americans for his support of the Irish peace-process
"U.S. dollars should not subsidize such a person as Lt. Col. Spicer," he wrote. "And long-suffering Iraq needs him no more than Northern Ireland needed him."
McManus, in a separate statement, said that the INC was "determined" not to accept what he described as a "terrible insult" to the McBride family and Irish Americans.
McManus raised the issue of the contract during a recent meeting in Washington between representatives of Irish American groups and Ambassador Mitchell Reiss, the Bush administration's envoy to the North peace process.
The Washington Post reported that after the issue was raised, the State Department passed on the concerns raised by McManus to the Defense Department.
Peter McBride, who was 18, was shot twice in the back by Scots Guards soldiers as he ran from a checkpoint in Belfast on Sept. 4, 1992. McBride was unarmed. Two soldiers were jailed for McBride's murder in early 1995 but were released in August 1998.
In a letter to the Times newspaper of London, Spicer defended the actions of his men, stating that they had been involved in a terrorist incident and had acted in accordance with the law and their military training.
However, despite the questions surrounding Spicer, and a controversy that stretches into other parts of the world including Asia and Africa, the contract looked this week as if it will be carried to fruition.
U.S. officials and Washington sources have indicated to the Echo that the Defense Department is firmly committed to the Aegis deal and is not considering a replacement for the company, which was awarded the contract in May.
The contract allows Aegis to provide security teams for the Project and Contracting Office, which is responsible for overseeing $18.4 billion in U.S. reconstruction funds for Iraq.
The contract is proceeding despite reports in the Washington Post and Boston Globe referring to the involvement of Tim Spicer in a scandal that erupted in Britain in 1999.
The scandal was linked to problems surrounding Sandline International, a company Spicer also ran and which was involved in defense-related work in Papua New Guinea and Sierra Leone.
A British parliamentary inquiry found that Sandline had shipped arms to Sierra Leone in contravention of a UN embargo.
Sandline claimed it had acted with British government approval. The accusation had serious implications for the Blair government but the inquiry cleared British ministers of any culpability.
Separately, Sandline's involvement in efforts to quash rebels in Papua New Guinea in 1997 was followed by an army coup.
"When that country's army learned that he had received a $36 million contract from the government to brutally suppress a rebellion, the army toppled the sitting government and arrested Spicer, later releasing him," the Boston Globe reported shortly after Aegis secured the Iraq contract.
Spicer, Sandline's chief executive officer, quit the company in September 2000 and Sandline went out of business in April of this year, just a few weeks before Aegis secured the Pentagon contract.
Meanwhile, according to the Washington Post, DynCorp, a Texas-based security company, and one of six original bidders for the Iraq contract, has filed a protest with the U.S. government contesting the grounds on which the contract was awarded to Aegis.
Also, the INC's Fr. McManus vowed to continue his efforts to have Aegis removed from the Pentagon's list of contractors.
"I will continue to urge the U.S. to scuttle this contract," he said.
(Susan Falvella-Garraty in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.)
This story appeared in the issue of August 11-17, 2004
Copyright © 2004 Irish Echo
