Irlandinitiative Heidelberg - Kerry opposes contract for controversial colonel

US Presidential candidate John Kerry has publicly backed calls for an investigation into a decision to award a multi-million dollar security contract to a controversial former British army colonel.

Mr Kerry is one of five US senators, including Teddy Kennedy and Hillary Clinton, who have written to US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld about a lucrative security contract awarded to former British Army colonel Tim Spicer.

Mr Spicer has acted in defence of the two soldiers who murdered 18-year-old Peter McBride in the New Lodge area of Belfast in 1992. Mr Spicer said he was "delighted" when Scots Guards James Fisher and Mark Wright were retained in the British Army despite being convicted of the murder.

In 1999, Mr Spicer’s former security company Sandline International was at the centre of a political controversy after a parliamentary inquiry found it had illegally shipped arms to Sierra Leone in breach of a UN embargo.

In a letter to Mr Rumsfeld, the senators wrote: “The US government requires all contractors to be responsible bidders.

“We would like to know whether the government considered human rights abuses, or an individual who vigorously defends them, as part of this record.”

Irish National Caucus spokesman Father Sean McManus, who is leading the campaign to have Mr Spicer’s contract overturned, welcomed the support of the influential US politicians.

"I am very grateful to these five Senators", said Fr. McManus, who had written to all of them asking for their support. "They are showing sensitivity to the family of Peter McBride, and a concern for basic human rights and decency.

"President Bush must do likewise. He must cancel this contract. President Bush must decide if he wants the respect of Irish-Americans or the gratitude of Timothy Spicer for the fat contract. He cannot have both."

Saturday-Tuesday, 28-31 August, 2004

Feature: Some Mother's Son

By Danny Morrison, www.dannymorrison.com

Only once did I feel any sympathy for Margaret Thatcher. It was January 1982 and her son Mark was lost in the Sahara Desert whilst rallying. A camera caught her going into Number 10 and she was clearly distraught at the thought of her helpless son dying from hunger and thirst. It occurred to me: maybe now she realises how the mother of a hunger striker felt.

Anyway, 29-year-old Mark was found by a search party after three days. As we know to our cost, this personal experience never humanised Thatcher.

Before she left office she brought back the concept of hereditary honours which is why her son is now Sir Mark. Or, rather, Sir Mark, POW.

Yes, the brat was arrested in South Africa on Wednesday in connection with allegedly funding an attempted coup against President Obiang of Equatorial Guinea. The alleged plotters were said to be hoping to exploit Equatorial Guinea's massive oil reserves by installing their own leader, Severo Moto.

There was no time for loving when they came in the morning. Thatcher was seized in his silk pyjamas. The South African authorities moved against him when they discovered that his house had been put on the market, his bags had been packed, his two children had been booked into boarding schools in the USA and Sir Mark and his wife had one-way tickets to the States. However, he made bail and is now under house arrest in Cape Town.

Sir Mark's neighbour and close friend in the exclusive Cape Town suburb of Constantia was Simon Mann, a former SAS officer who served in the six counties before becoming a soldier of fortune. The two were involved in business deals together. Last March Mann was arrested on the runway of the main airport in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe. He was waiting to take possession of rifles, mortar bombs, rocket launchers and ammunition. They were to be loaded onto a Boeing 727 which had been specially converted so that it could land on a short strip. On board the plane were 64 former South African soldiers who had fought for the apartheid government but who had turned mercenary.

Last January Mann had been introduced by Nick du Toit to a Zimbabwean arms dealer and paid a deposit on the weapons worth £100,000. Du Toit, whose business partner is a minister in the government of Equatorial Guinea, was being monitored by South African intelligence. After Mann's arrest in March the authorities in Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea, swooped on Du Toit and fourteen others, who were, apparently, part of the advance party. They were charged with plotting, along with exiled opposition leader, Severo Moto, to overthrow the government in a coup. Moto, who was on stand-by in a neighbouring country, was to fly by helicopter to Malabo after the coup and be declared President. It is suggested that a week before the attempted coup Mark Thatcher deposited $100,000 dollars into Mann's account to cover the costs of the helicopter.

Equatorial Guinea is a former Spanish colony with a population slightly larger than Belfast's. Its inhabitants live in abject poverty. It became a coveted possession after oil and gas were discovered and produced in the 1990s. The people live under the dictatorship of President Obiang who killed his own uncle to take power in a coup in 1979.

It just shows you the damage that Thatcher caused when she ended the right to remain silent. Du Toit couldn't wait to tell the court in Guinea that the mastermind of the coup attempt was Simon Mann. Mann couldn't wait to make a signed statement after his arrest stating that Ely Calil (a Chelsea-based oil billionaire) introduced him to Severo Moto in Madrid. In jail in Zimbabwe Mann - who had clearly never heard of H-Block 'comms' - wrote his wife a very, very large smuggled letter which was intercepted by South African Intelligence. You would hardly have needed Enigma to break the clever codes used by the former Etonian who demanded that his friends on the outside use their money and influence to get him released.

"Our situation is not good and it is very URGENT. They [the lawyers] get no reply from Smelly and Scratcher [who] asked them to ring back after the Grand Prix race was over!

"We need heavy influence of the sort that [removed for possible legal reasons] Smelly, Scratcher. David Hart and it needs to be used heavily and now. Once we get into a trial scenario we are fucked. Anyone and everyone in this is in it - good times or bad. Now its bad times and everyone has to fucking pull their weight."

After a glance the authorities worked out that Scratcher was slang for Thatcher and Smelly slang for Ely (Calil, whom Equatorial Guinea accuses of helping to organise the coup). David Hart, a millionaire property developer, was a journalist for 'The Times' and an adviser to Thatcher during the 1984 miners' strike.

The investigation also shows that one JH Archer - otherwise known as Jeffrey - deposited $134,000 dollars in Mann's account, four days before the attempted coup. Last Thursday Mann pleaded guilty to attempting to buy arms but denied planning a coup and said the arms were for guarding mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He will be sentenced in September. The mercenaries on the plane admitted breaching immigration and aviation laws.

Sympathy has been pouring in for the young, 51-year-old Mark. In an editorial the Scottish 'Daily Record' said: "Don't even think of shedding a tear for Mark, sorry, Sir Mark. This waste of space would be even more of a nonentity than he is if he did not trade on the name of his discredited mother, Margaret. With no achievements of his own, he lives a sad life, only defined by being the offspring of a hate figure. Still, he manages to make an obscene amount of money on the back of his mother's infamy for putting 3.5 million people out of work and consigning a generation to a life of misery and poverty."

Mark did very well at school and left with three 'O' Levels. He failed his accountancy exams three times. Then he got lost in the desert. He married Texas millionaire Diane Burgdof and they moved to South Africa, where he was questioned as part of an anti-corruption investigation of government officials. There have been hurtful allegations that he shamelessly traded on his mother's name and through her connections in Saudi Arabia and Oman made a fortune on arms deals.

Mrs Thatcher is now in a terrible predicament. Frankly, it would be awful if Mark was extradited as a common criminal to Equatorial Guinea where there is state censorship, they ill-treat people, have non-jury courts and shoot-to-kill. How would she cope seeing her son in a prison uniform? How would she cope herself with strip searches? And after all she has done for the poor of Africa. Is there no justice in this world?

Monday, 30 August, 2004

McBride family welcome US intervention

By Pat Finucane Centre

Jean McBride, mother of murdered Belfast teenager Peter McBride, has welcomed the intervention of a number of US Senators who have called for an investigation into the award of a US DoD Iraq contract to a firm led by Tim Spicer, a former Scots Guards officer who was CO in Belfast when her son was murdered. Spicer later claimed that the murder by soldiers under his command was justified, that Peter McBride 'probably' had a weapon which locals disposed of, that he had lured his soldiers into a trap and that Wright and Fisher should never have been prosecuted. Spicer's claims, which caused great hurt to the family, were rejected at trial. Responding today Jean McBride said,

"Peter's anniversary is this coming Saturday and it is comforting to see such high profile support from the US. We are awaiting judgement from the courts in the battle to have Wright and Fisher kicked out of the British Army and its great to see that our family is not alone. Even the US presidential candidate John Kerry, has taken this on board and spoken out against this contract. Surely some day soon justice will be done."

(Note-Details will be released later this week of a protest planned to mark the anniversary.)

See www.serve.com/pfc for detailed background on Spicer and the Iraq contract.

Monday, 30 August, 2004

More Trouble for Spicer Contract

U.S. Senators Join Caucus Campaign to Block Deal

CAPITOL HILL. August 30, 2004 --- Presidential Candidate John Kerry, Senators Teddy Kennedy, Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd and Charles Schumer have lent their support to a campaign launched by the Irish National Caucus to have the U.S Separtment of Defence cancel a contract it, incredibly, gave to Timothy Spicer, former commander of the British Army unit that murdered unarmed and innocent Peter McBride in Northern Ireland in 1992.

The five powerful Senators have written to Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, urging him direct the Inspector General to investigate how the contract came to be awarded.( See their letter at the end).

" I am very grateful to these five Senators", said Fr. Sean Mc Manus, President of the Irish National Caucus, who had written to all of them asking for their support. " They are showing sensitivity to the family of Peter McBride, and a concern for basic human rights and decency.President Bush must do likewise . He must cancel this contract. President Bush must decide if he wants the respect of Irish-Americans or the gratitude of Timothy Spicer for the fat contract. He cannot have both."

Monday, 30 August, 2004

Open letter to Rumsfeld

Honorable Donald Rumsfeld Secretary of Defense Room 3E880 The Pentagon Washington, D.C. 20301

Dear Secretary Rumsfeld:

We are writing to request you to ask the Inspector General to investigate a $293 million Iraq security contract given troubling concerns that recently have come to light.

The contract, which we understand is the largest yet awarded for security in postwar Iraq, was granted to a British company, Aegis Defense Services Ltd., in May to provide security teams for the Project and Contracting Office, the body responsible for overseeing $18.4 billion in U.S. reconstruction funds for Iraq.

The company is led by Tim Spicer, a former lieutenant colonel in the Scots Guards. The Boston Globe has reported that Mr. Spicer has "a reputation for illicit arms deals in Africa and for commanding a murderous military unit in Northern Ireland." Two soldiers in the unit shot and killed Peter McBride, a Catholic teenager in Belfast in 1992 while under Mr. Spicer's command. The two soldiers were convicted of murder. Even after he retired from the military, Mr. Spicer defended the two soldiers, who shot Mr. McBride in the back. He argued for their release, which occurred in 1998, and the soldiers were inexplicably reinstated in the British Army.

The United States Government requires all contractors to be "responsible bidders". Contractors have to "have a satisfactory record of integrity and business ethics" (48 CFR 9.104-1(d)). We would like to know whether the government considered human rights abuses - or an individual who vigorously defends them - as part of this record.

Additionally, the United States Government requires consideration of the contractor's "past performance" (48 CFR 15.304(c)(3)). We would like to know whether the contracting team adequately reviewed the contractor's record, identified past human rights abuses or defense of abuses, and whether the contractor received a poor past performance rating on that basis.

We would also like to know the extent to which these factors were evaluated in awarding this contract to Aegis. If they were evaluated, we would like to know the rationale for awarding the contract.

In light of the recent revelations of abuses of detainees in Iraq, it is important that U.S. actions, whether by military personnel or contractors, have respect for the law. It is troubling that the Government would award a contract to an individual with a history of supporting excessive use of force against a civilian population.

Certainly we understand the urgent need to establish a secure environment, but the United States Government is also working to create a democracy in Iraq in which respect for fundamental human rights is guaranteed.

We appreciate your consideration of this request, and we look forward to the results of the Inspector General's review.

Sincerely,

Edward M. Kennedy

Christopher J. Dodd

Hillary Rodham Clinton

Charles E. Schumer

John F. Kerry

Wednesday, 1 September, 2004

Tim Spicer, Simon Mann, Mark Thatcher and the old boys network

By Pat Finucane Centre

As US Senators call this week for an investigation into the awarding of a private security contract in Iraq to Tim Spicer because of his involvement in the Peter McBride case (see previous email update) it is fascinating to read of the links between Spicer and another former Scots Guard who is in the headlines this week, Simon Mann, who is languishing in a Zimbawean jail. His arrest is of course linked to that of Mark Thatcher, son of Margaret, in South Africa. The link below is to an article by Duncan Campbell on the website of the Washington based Center for Public Integrity. Spicer and Mann go back a long time and and appear to share a philosophy that the current version of the 'white man's burden' entails setting up 'private military companies' (PMCs) and toppling governments that just happen to have oil, diamond and other mining resources.

http://www.publicintegrity.org/bow/report.aspx?aid=149&sid=100

Thursday, 2 September 2004

ASBO order against NIO minister to mark anniversary

By Pat Finucane Centre

(12 noon Friday - Duncairn Ave entrance to Girdwood Barracks)

A symbolic Anti Social Behavior Order is to issued tomorrow (Friday) against NIO Minister John Spellar MP to mark the 12th anniversary of the murder of N. Belfast teenager Peter McBride. The actual anniversary is on Saturday but protesters will gather on Friday at the Duncairn Avenue entrance to Girdwood British Army barracks to launch a poster featuring the ASBO ‘forbidding’ Spellar from entering the area.

The NIO Minister sat on the first Army Board that ruled that the killers of Peter McBride had committed “an error of judgement” in shooting the unarmed teenager in the back. The decision caused massive controversary and the two guardsmen, Mark Wright and James Fisher, remain serving soldiers, 12 years on and despite worldwide condemnation. Earlier this week Senators Kerry, Clinton, Kennedy, Dodd and Schummer raised the McBride case in a letter to US Sec of State Donald Rumsfeld.

Paul O’Connor of the Pat Finucane Centre urged support for the McBride family at the event,

“John Spellar has taken the lead in the introduction of anti social behaviour orders aimed at young people in this community. The initiative itself faces widespread opposition but coming from a man who believes that graffiti writers should face sanction while murderers should get off scot-free is hard to stomach. He rewarded two soldiers convicted of murdering Peter McBride by allowing them to stay in the British Army. One has since been promoted. What kind of message does that send out? Anti-social is about the most harmless description of Spellar’s attitude towards the family. This symbolic gesture, supported by various community groups in Belfast and Derry, will send out its own message. Dismiss Wright and Fisher from the British Army now!

The text of the ASBO will be read out by a member of the McBride family at 12 noon. Local elected representatives from Sinn Fein and the SDLP have been invited to speak.

Wednesday, 8-14 September, 2004

Spicer, 'Scratcher' and the dogs of war

By Ray O'Hanlon, Irish Echo

The backdrop to the row over the "Spicer" contract with the Pentagon for security-related work in Iraq is beginning to resemble the plot of a Frederick Forsythe novel. "The Dogs of War," to be precise.

The affair is turning up a whole slew of British public-school types who served queen and country before deciding to turn a faster buck in the rapidly expanding international security and private army business.

Characters cropping up in this stranger than fiction saga include former Lt. Col. Tim Spicer, Simon Mann, Anthony Buckingham and, lo and behold, Mark Thatcher, son of Margaret and a man who has cobbled together a healthy income over the years -- not to mention a knighthood -- without apparently breaking too much sweat.

The specific story surrounding Spicer and the Iraq contract has fanned out on Web sites and newspapers around the globe.

But the fuel behind its initial headline-making in the U.S. was generated by the Pat Finucane Center in Northern Ireland and an e-mail from there to Fr. Sean McManus of the Irish National Caucus in Washington, D.C.

Spicer, the PFC reminded the INC, was the officer in charge of the Scots Guards regiment in Belfast when teenager Peter McBride was fatally shot in the back by Scots Guardsmen in September 1992.

"Tear Up That Contract, Mr. Bush. It has Irish blood on It," was the heading on a subsequent press release from McManus that played up a letter he had written to President Bush.

The release was followed by stories in newspapers, including the Washington Post and Boston Globe.

The Irish link to the Spicer/Aegis contract was enough on its own to prompt the reports, but interest generated by the Pentagon/Aegis deal has been stirring the pot in places far from the U.S. and indeed the street in Belfast where Peter McBride's life was so abruptly ended.

Try Botswana, for starters.

A few days after the Spicer story broke, a letter came into the hands of "IF."

It was from a Dr. Alexander von Paleske, head of the department of oncology at the Princess Marina Hospital in Gaborone, the capital of Botswana. In addition to curing ills, von Paleske is also lawyer and freelance journalist who writes for The Standard, a newspaper in Zimbabwe that describes itself as independent. No mean feat these troubled times.

In his letter, von Paleske stated that before founding Aegis, Spicer had worked with Anthony Buckingham, one of Britain's wealthiest men, in a company called Sandline.

According to von Paleske, Buckingham's worldwide business dealings included an oil deal with the now unemployed Saddam Hussein.

Buckingham stayed in a Baghdad hotel during a visit to Iraq in 1995. The hotel had a rather unusual front door mat. Imprinted on it was the face of the elder President Bush. Arriving and departing guests had to walk on the former president's image to gain entry to the lobby.

Sandline was in the business of providing so-called "private military companies," or PMCs, to its clients, which are often governments in unstable countries. The company, and Spicer along with it, became ensnarled in a coup in Papua New Guinea in 1997. Spicer was arrested there at one point but later released.

The company was also cited for violating a UN arms embargo clamped on Sierre Leone during its bloody civil war. This turned into a matter of some embarrassment for the Tony Blair government after Spicer claimed that the arms shipments had been given the nod of approval by London.

Spicer quit Sandline in 2000, according to the Washington Post, but the company soldiered on. Meanwhile, one man's PMC is another man's mercenary army, and this was certainly the view of von Paleske and co-writer David Masunda, who penned an investigative series "Guns for Hire" in The Standard, which ran in two parts in June.

Sandline was linked in their report to the arrest of a group of men in Zimbabwe in March. The men, accused of being mercenaries by the Zimbabwe government, were apparently en-route to oil-rich Equatorial Guinea in West Africa to support a coup against that country's government. The men detained at Harare airport were led by a Briton, Simon Mann. Mann was at one time in the Scots Guards with Spicer. Just over a month after Mann and the others were arrested, Sandline closed down its Web site.

The story of Mann and his comrades continued to rumble on, but took a sensational turn just a few days ago with the arrest of Mark Thatcher in Cape Town.

Thatcher is suspected by South African police as being a moneyman behind the alleged plot to overthrow the Equatorial Guinea regime. That government is now eager to talk with "Scratcher," as he is known to his old school chums. Extradition proceedings are yet possible, but, in the meantime, Thatcher has to twiddle his thumbs until a court appearance in November.

His nerves have been relieved somewhat by his mum, Dame Maggie, who last week posted a $300,000 bail bond.

A few miles up the Veldt, meanwhile, Simon Mann awaits his fate. He faces a possible 10 years in prison. Newspaper reports have described him as an "acquaintance" of Thatcher. An attorney for Thatcher has downplayed their relationship, describing it as "neither here not there."

Spicer, meanwhile, is having to twiddle a little bit, too. Because of all the uproar, a hold has been placed on his Iraq contract while a rival Texas-based company, DynCorp, is yet pressing its case for the deal. A decision is expected by the end of September.

It's all been too much for Peter McBride's mother, Jean. She has appealed for the contract to be withdrawn from Aegis.

"When soldiers under [Spicer's] command murdered my son, Lt. Col. Spicer lied through his teeth and dragged Peter's name through the mud," she said in a recent statement. "He compared shooting Peter to 'falling off a horse' and wanted to send the soldiers straight back out on patrol. God knows what will happen if he is put in charge of private security in Iraq."

Who knows who next will be linked with whom in all this? One thing is clear, and that is the Pentagon jumped into a deal with the head of a company who has a highly questionable past and who is a good deal less than six degrees separated from some very dodgy characters indeed.

Wednesday, 8-14 September, 2004

Slain man's family welcomes political support

By Anne Cadwallader, Irish Echo

BELFAST -- The family of murdered Catholic man Peter McBride have welcomed U.S. intervention in their campaign against the U.S. government awarding a multi-million-dollar security contract in Iraq to the officer who claimed the killing was justified.

Jean McBride, the dead man's mother, welcomed the intervention of five of U.S. senators who called for an investigation into the awarding of the contract to a firm led by Tim Spicer.

He was the former Scots Guard who was commanding officer in North Belfast when her son, aged 19, was murdered in 1992. Spicer later claimed that McBride "probably" had a weapon which locals disposed of. He also claimed that McBride had tried to lure his soldiers into a trap and that the two men convicted should never have been prosecuted. Spicer's claims, which caused great hurt to the family, were emphatically rejected at trial.

Responding, Jean McBride said it had comforted her that such high-profile support had come from the U.S.

"Even the U.S. presidential candidate John Kerry, has taken this on board and spoken out against this contract," she said. "We are awaiting judgment from the British courts in our battle to have the soldiers thrown out of the British Army and it's great to see that our family is not alone".

Others concerned include Sens. Ted Kennedy, Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd and Charles Schumer, who all lent their support to the campaign. The Irish National Caucus is also seeking to have the U.S. Department of Defence cancel the contract.

The five Senators have written to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, urging him direct the Inspector General to investigate how the contract came to be awarded.

SDLP justice spokesperson Alban Maginness also said the U.S. government should cancel the $160 million security contract. "In my view Spicer is unfit to hold any position in which he might ever have charge of people with guns in their hands," he said.

"Two of his men shot Peter McBride in the back. They were convicted of murder, but Spicer objected to them even having to answer for their crime. Now, they are pointing guns at Iraqis."

"Spicer's career of infamy continued when his company supplied arms to Sierra Leone, in contravention of a UN embargo. Whatever chance there is of establishing peace and democracy in Iraq must surely be made more difficult by the official involvement of gun-runners and protectors of murderers."

this article available at : http://www.irishecho.com/search/searchstory.cfm?id=15177&issueid=377

Friday, 10 September, 2004

Former Scots Guards commander linked to jailed gun runner in Zimbabwe

By Independent Network News (radio), Republic of Ireland

"The British ex-soldier convicted of gun running in Zimbabwe today is linked to the commanding officer of the Scots Guards regiment who defended his men for shooting dead a north Belfast teenager. A major row has already blown up in the US over the government’s award of a multi-million pound security contract in Iraq to former Scots Guard Tim Spicer.

Our Northern Correspondent, Anne Cadwallader, reports from Belfast:

After two of his soldiers shot dead Catholic teenager Peter McBride in north Belfast Tim Spicer said he’d tried to lure them into a trap, a claim refuted in their trial.

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, Ted Kennedy and Hillary Clinton, want to know why the Pentagon awarded a 160 million dollar security contract in Iraq to Mr. Spicer’s company.

In Zimbabwe today, Simon Mann, another former Scots Guard, who’s accused with Margaret Thatcher’s son, Mark of plotting a coup in Equatorial Guinea, was jailed for seven years.

Mann and Mr. Spicer jointly set up Sandline, a private security company accused of violating a UN arms embargo in Sierra Leone.

Anne Cadwallader Belfast"