Foro de Inteligencia, Espionaje y Servicios Secretos

Namibia deports US security employees
10/14/2007, 1:50 p.m. EDT
By RODRICK MUKUMBIRA
The Associated Press

WINDHOEK, Namibia (AP) — Authorities have ordered the deportation of two Americans working for a security firm that was trying to recruit Namibians to work as guards at U.S. facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan, a government minister said.

The Namibian Cabinet also recommended the closure of the local branch of the Las Vegas-based security firm, Special Operations Consulting-Security Management Group (SOC-SMG), which was set up earlier this month, Information Minister Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah said Friday.

Nandi-Ndaitwah said two American employees of the firm — Paul Grimes, the firm's country representative and Fredric Piry, the chief of operations — were to be "immediately removed" from the country. They had been given 24 hours to leave Namibia, she said Friday.
It was not clear Sunday whether Grimes and Piry, who were staying at a five-star hotel in the capital Windhoek, had left the country. Calls to their mobile phones were not answered.

The U.S. Embassy in Windhoek and the State Department did not immediately comment on the situation Sunday.

Private security firms operating in Iraq and Afghanistan have come under increasing scrutiny. The Iraqi government has ordered Blackwater USA expelled from the country within six months following the shootings of 17 Iraqi civilians last month. Officials are also investigating the shootings of two Iraqi women by guards working for an Australian-owned firm on Tuesday.

Some U.S. lawmakers have said the government relies too heavily on private contractors who fall outside the military courts martial system. Many of the contractors working in Iraq are also third-country nationals. Triple Canopy, a security company that has State Department contracts, has scores of Peruvian guards working checkpoints in the Green Zone.

According to SOC-SMG's Web site, the firm's clients include the U.S. departments of defense, state and energy, as well as the U.S. Army, Air Force, Marines and Naval special forces.

The company had aimed to recruit at least 3,000 Namibians to work in Iraq and Afghanistan through a local employment agency, with promised salaries of $1,000 a month, local newspapers reported. It is not clear whether anyone had been recruited yet.

Local media quoted Grimes as saying the company had the blessing of the country's labor and safety and security ministries. "We are looking for noncombatant security guards to guard dining facilities, gyms, military base hospitals in Iraq," Grimes was quoted as saying in one newspaper.

Under Namibian law, however, it is illegal for citizens to participate in security or military activities in foreign countries without the written permission of the Defense Ministry. Last week, Nandi-Ndaitwah warned citizens that they risked prosecution if they were recruited by the company.

The firm had been targeting Namibians over the age of 25 as well as veterans of Namibia's lengthy war with South Africa for independence. The company is reported to have held meetings with some increasingly disaffected war veterans, who have been campaigning for hefty pensions and gratuities from the state for their roles in the guerrilla war.

A sparsely populated desert country, Namibia presents an easy option for companies hoping to operate under the legal radar. The country also presents an alternative to neighboring South Africa, where controversial anti-mercenary legislation has been introduced which will clamp down on citizens wanting to work in security and military sectors abroad.

An estimated 2,000 to 4,000 South Africans worked in Iraq last year, helping guard oil installations, hotels and foreign residents. Thousands more are in other countries like Nigeria and Afghanistan. Many of them are white former members of the apartheid-era armed forces."

PMCs no-occidentales y de potencias emergentes y en expansión, subcontratación de guerras, ejercitos entrenados por empresas privadas bajo bandera de conveniencia...

The Times of India escribió:Private security firms from India and Israel in joint venture
25 Dec 2008, 0238 hrs IST, TNN


MUMBAI: Barely a month after the Mumbai carnage which claimed 174 lives, the first ever joint venture (JV) between two private security firms from India and Israel was launched on Monday. The venue itself was symbolic-the Rooftop of the Tower wing of the Taj Mahal hotel, which reopened on Sunday.

The JV is between the ARES Group of Israel and APS Group of India. The ARES Group, comprising ex-military and secret services officers, is a global provider of advanced security training and consultancy services, specialising in homeland vigilance and counter terrorism. It will counsel and train the APS Group personnel.

ARES Group CEO Asaf Nadel said, "We have full confidence in the local police. Our company only provides consultancy, expertise and training.'' He refuted the perception that Israeli commandos would have been faster in neutralising the terrorists holed up in Nariman House and said the Indian team did a good job.

Executive director of the Delhi-based APS Group, Anil Puri, said, "The security scene in India has changed. It requires a paradigm shift in the manner in which vigilance has to be provided. World-class knowhow, experience and training has to be imparted to our manpower.''

Among the services offered by the Israeli firm are "psychological profiling and polygraphy and reliability analysis''. This test evaluates job candidates and staffers through a customised questionnaire. The system, LVA 1, is a technology to measure truth and emotion in the voice. It analyses changes in voice frequency caused by uncontrollable physiological reactions in individuals when they intend to deceive. "It has had an 80% success rate. It can detect a terrorist, a liar or a fraudster,'' said Nadel.