Mercenaries

Nina Regli

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan arrived in Switzerland this year: a Swiss newspaper reported that Aegis Defence Service, one of the biggest private security companies, had opened a holding base in Basel. Aegis Defence Service, based primarily in London, employs 20,000 mercenaries in Iraq and Afghanistan who typically work on contract for the American defence ministry.

Pratap Chatterjee

On June 21 Jerry Torres, whose company provides translators and armed security guards in Iraq, was invited to testify before the Commission on Wartime Contracting (CWC). The bi-partisan body was created by the U.S. Congress in early 2008 to investigate waste, fraud and abuse in military contracting services in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Lisa Cullen

A mother of five who says she was sexually harassed and assaulted while working for Halliburton/KBR in Iraq is headed for a secretive arbitration process rather than being able to present her case in open court.
What it means: instead of having her case heard in court like a normal American citizen, Barker will have it dealt with in behind-the-scenes, private arbitration.

Then read what the judge actually said.

Between the 22 -25 of January 2010, WRI held its international conference in Ahmedabad, India. One of the main topics of the conference was the issue of war profiteering, with a special relation to its impact to the livelihoods of local communities. Here we report on some of the workshops on this topic.

Transnational campaigning against war profiteering – making links with the arms trade movement (ENAAT) and the local communities

Facilitator: Wendela de Vries

A former Blackwater employee and an ex-US Marine who has worked as a security operative for the company have made a series of explosive allegations in sworn statements filed on August 3 in federal court in Virginia, USA. The two men claim that the company's owner, Erik Prince, may have murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals who were cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company.

On the 27th of April twenty-two people were arrested at the Blackwater/Xe compound in Jo Daviess County Illinois as they carried out a nonviolent direct action against a company at the centre of some of the worst violence in Iraq. They were part of a larger group of about 75 people who marched on Blackwater to serve the company with a Notice of Foreclosure for Moral Bankruptcy.

In the last years an important number of private military companies have been formed in Spain as part of the general process of privatisation and outsourcing of the military. 'Outsourcing' in Spain is quite recent as the Spanish Ministry of Defence were reluctant to have civilian personnel working alongside the military, especially inside military installations. Here we look at two cases where war profiteers have built juice businesses.

Hallmark Security Solutions S.L.