Foro de Inteligencia, Espionaje y Servicios Secretos

Anxious to rid itself of the lawlessness that still plagues Iraq’s southern capital, Basra’s governor has hired a private military company run by a British general who helped capture the city from Saddam Hussein.


Maj Gen Graham Binns, who is the chief executive of Aegis Defence Services, commanded the 7th Armoured Brigade when it led the siege of Basra in 2003.


Four years later he supervised the handover of the city to Iraqi security forces. Now, amid growing concern about a fresh wave of terrorist violence across the country, Basra’s governor has invited Maj Gen Binns’s company back to assist at a “strategic level”.


Aegis will be asked to provide help with setting up specialised CCTV detection and checkpoint systems across the city, establishing a “ring of steel” security system to thwart suicide bombers.


It will also set up an academy to help security forces improve coordination and intelligence-gathering techniques.
The contract is politically sensitive as it will put British military experts in an influential position in Basra, advising the governor’s top-level security committee. Although most Basrawis insist that the British are now welcome once more, the city still harbours remnants of the Shia militias who forced the British into a hurried departure.

Maj Gen Binns, 56, who joined Aegis after retiring from the Army in 2010, said that he was “honoured” to return to the city to help.

“The governor is keen to improve the security situation there, and for me personally it is a great honour to be coming back, having been involved there with both 7th Brigade and the subsequent handover,” he said.

“We have signed a contract with the Basra governor, and will initially be supporting them in procuring specialised equipment for search and detection purposes and CCTV, but that may expand.”

Bloodshed in Iraq has escalated anew, with a campaign of car bombing by a resurgent al-Qaeda pushing the monthly toll of violent deaths up to around 1,000.

There has been concern about the ability of Iraqi security forces to meet the challenge. Earlier this week, al-Qaeda fighters temporarily forced the Iraqi army to withdraw from the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi, west of Baghdad.

While Basra has largely been spared the violence further north, al-Qaeda continues to carry out sporadic car bombings there.

The huge amount of money generated by Iraq’s only port and principal oil city also makes it a haven for criminal gangs, smugglers and kidnappers.

In an interview with an Iraqi newspaper, Majid al-Nasrawi, who took over as governor last year, said he wanted to move away from security being led by Iraqi military, which is often accused of heavy-handedness.

“The mechanisms in place for fighting terrorism are basic, limited and non-innovative,” he said. “I believe that the problem of terrorism cannot be solved via a military leader, but rather through security experts, surveillance technology, and training and developing the capabilities of the intelligence agencies.”

Aegis, which is based in London, was founded by Tim Spicer, a former Scots Guard who also founded Sandline International, a private military company.

Aegis has had a presence in both Iraq and Afghanistan for most of the past decade, and has won multi-million-dollar contracts to protect US personnel.

Maj Gen Binns stressed that the new role in Basra would involve “consultancy” rather than “boots on the ground”.

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Former Canadian brigadier-general Daniel Ménard, who was fined and demoted for having a sexual relationship with a female subordinate, has been sitting in an Afghan jail for nearly three weeks, the Toronto Star has learned.


The former head of Canadian forces in the country, who now works for private security firm GardaWorld, was detained on or about Jan. 12. He was picked up by local authorities after leaving a meeting with Afghan government officials to discuss issues related to the development of Afghan security forces, Joe Gavaghan, a spokesman for the company, said in an interview Wednesday.


“He was leaving a meeting at the ministry office and a couple of officials approached him. They said, ‘We’ve got a problem with something and we’d like you to come with us to clear it up.’ Off he went and the next thing he knew he was going to be detained until they cleared it up.”


Ménard has not been charged with breaking any laws, Gavaghan said, adding the incident is based on an “administrative misunderstanding” related to its licence to operate in Afghanistan as a private security firm.


Gavaghan said the former commander of the 5 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group, based out of CFB Valcartier, appeared in a Kabul court Wednesday.


“This involves some kind of administrative issue with our operating licence. It was kind of a technicality. It’s been cleared up and we believe that the individual is going to be released very shortly,” Gavaghan said.


“Right now we’re just trying to do everything we can to make sure there’s no further complications or anything that would delay that.”


Calls and emails seeking information on Wednesday from the Afghan Embassy in Ottawa were not returned.


Ménard has been employed as managing director for Afghanistan by the global security firm GardaWorld since November 2011. Splitting his time between Kabul and the company’s Dubai headquarters, he oversees the GardaWorld’s operations across Afghanistan and manages its contracts with the U.S. government, non-governmental organizations and other companies, according to an online profile.


Canadian embassy officials in Afghanistan are being kept abreast of the situation, said Derek Burney, chairman of GardaWorld’s International Advisory Board.


Company officials in Dubai “have been in contact with the embassy, in fact as recently as (Tuesday) as far as I know, but I have no more detailed information on where matters stand other than that,” he said.


The Foreign Affairs ministry in Ottawa confirmed that “consular services are being provided to a Canadian citizen who has been detained in Afghanistan.”


The incident highlights the difficult and often antagonistic relationship that exists between security firms and the Afghan government, which is to take full responsibility for security in the country after the vast majority of international military forces pull out this year.


“Some companies, particularly from the U.S., have a cowboy reputation and unfortunately when that happens that kind of paints everybody with the same brush,” Gavaghan said.


“You need to be constantly sensitive to cultural differences, the way the company operates, how the government works and just try and do everything you can to be in compliance and have good relationship with all the people that you need to work with.”


In 2010, Ménard was relieved of his duties as commander of Canadian troops in Kandahar after revelations he was having an affair with a lower-ranked soldier.


He had already resigned from the army when he was convicted by a military court of fraternizing while deployed and trying to mislead investigators by asking a military chaplain to convince his lover, Master Cpl. Bianka Langlois, to lie on his behalf.


He was demoted to the rank of colonel and fined $7,000. Langlois, who pled guilty for her part in the affair, was fined $700.


“This happened in the worst place, at the worst time — in a theatre of operation,” said military judge Lt.-Col. Louis-Vincent d’Auteuil as he handed down the sentence.


Ménard and Langlois began their affair in 2008. While deployed to Afghanistan, the military charge sheet said that they had sexual relations between Nov. 15, 2009 and April 27, 2010.


Prior to this, Ménard was also courtmartialed for mishandling his assault rifle in March 2010, accidentally firing two rounds into the ground while boarding a military helicopter at Kandahar Airfield during a visit from his then-boss, retired general Walter Natynczyk, the former chief of defence staff.