Over the last few days evidence has come to light of the deliberate murder of Iraqi civilians by security contractors employed by the British firm Aegis Defense Services:
A “trophy” video appearing to show security guards in Baghdad randomly shooting Iraqi civilians has sparked two investigations after it was posted on the internet, the Sunday Telegraph can reveal.
The video has sparked concern that private security companies, which are not subject to any form of regulation either in Britain or in Iraq, could be responsible for the deaths of hundreds of innocent Iraqis.
Booman Tribune has now obtained a copy of a memo that implicates employees of a second private security company, Triple Canopy, Inc., an American firm operating in Iraq, in the possible homicide of two Iraqi civilians on the road from Ramadi to Amman near the Jordanian border in December, 2004.
The memo appears to have been sent in January, 2005 from a Director of Intelligence Services for SEC Associates to one of SEC’s employees based in Baghdad, regarding the need to investigate a possible double homicide by a PSD (“Personal Security Detail”) working for Triple Canopy.
URGENT
052300Z JAN 2005
FROM: SEC DIRINTEL TAMPA FL US TO: //DERVISH// BAGHDAD IZ
INFO: //SCORPION SEVEN ONE// BAGHDAD IZ SEC OPS TAMPA FL USC O N F I D E N T I A L PROPIN
COUNTRY: (U) IRAQ (IZ)
SUBJ: (C/PR) REPORT OF DOUBLE HOMICIDE BY PMC PSD TEAM DEC 2004
IR 00 8 004 0105 1500 05
DOI: (C/PR) [050105] SOURCE: (C/PR) //MAKIDJ//
INSTR: (C/PR) PRIORITY INVESTIGATION DIRECTED.
REPORT TO DIRINTEL VIA OPSO
//SCORPION SEVEN ONE//SUMMARY: (C/PR) //MAKIDJ// FORWARDS INFO REPORTING POSSIBLE DOUBLE HOMICIDE OF UNARMED IRAQI TRUCK DRIVERS BY PMC PSD TEAM OPERATING IRAQ EARLY DEC 2004 WEST-BOUND ON AMMAN- BAGHDAD HIGHWAY NEAR JORDANIAN BORDER.
TEXT: 1. (C/PR) MAKIDJ REPORTS A PSD TEAM WORKING FOR TRIPLE CANOPY, INC. DEPARTED RAMADI EARLY DECEMBER VIA MAIN HIGHWAY TO JORDAN. TEAM CHOSE OVERLAND DEPARTURE DUE TO BIA CLOSURE AT THE TIME. A FEW MILES FROM BORDER CROSSING TEAM ENCOUNTERED TWO IRAQI TRUCKS (W/DRIVERS) ACTING “ERRATIC”. PSD TEAM DECIDED DA WAS NEEDED AND ENGAGED THE TWO VEHICLES WITH OVER 200 ROUNDS OF 5.56, KILLING TWO UNARMED IRAQI MALES. TEAM STOPPED AND TOOK PHOTOGRAPHS, THEN CONTINUED ENROUTE JORDAN BORDER.
2. (C/PR) TEAM WAS STOPPED ON IRAQI SIDE OF BORDER BY ENGLISH-SPEAKING IRAQI CUSTOMS OFFICER. CUSTOMS OFFICER ASKED IF THE TEAM HAD ENCOUNTERED ANY TROUBLE ON THE HIGHWAY. TEAM MEMBERS RESPONDED IN THE NEGATIVE, INDICATING THEY HAD ENCOUNTERED NO PROBLEMS. CUSTOMS OFFICER FURTHER INQUIRED AS TO WHY THERE WAS OVER 100 ROUNDS EXPENDED 5.56 BRASS FOUND AT THE SITE OF A REPORTED “INCIDENT” WHERE TWO IRAQI TRUCK DRIVERS WERE FOUND SPRAWLED ON THE GROUND WITH THEIR HEADS “BLOWN OFF” BY WHAT IS DESCRIBED AS CONTACT WOUNDS TO THE FACE.
3. (U) TEAM WAS HELD AT THE BORDER FOR 9 HOURS WHILE VEHICLES AND GEAR WERE FULLY SEARCHED. NO FURTHER DETAILS ARE AVAILABLE ON WHAT ELSE TRANSPIRED DURING THE SEARCH. APPARENTLY IT WAS RESOLVED IN SOME MANNER AND THE TEAM WAS ALLOWED TO PROCEED ON ITS WAY.
COMMENTS: 1. (C/PR) MAKIDJ DESCRIBES AT LEAST ONE TRIPLE CANOPY, INC. PSD TEAM MEMBER AS “AN INDIVIDUAL WHO HAD A SHORT 3 YEAR TOUR IN CONVENTIONAL ARMY AND THEN WENT INTO LAW ENFORCEMENT, UNTIL THIS BIG COWBOY CONTRACTOR OPPORTUNITY CAME ABOUT.”
2. (C) MAKIDJ EXPRESSES GRAVE CONCERN THAT “THESE GUYS WERE ON THE WAY HOME AND DECIDED THAT THEY NEEDED TO KILL A FEW IRAQIS JUST FOR THE HELL OF IT—COWBOYS AND MURDERERS LIKE THESE [EXPLETIVE DELETED] ARE GOING TO UNDERMINE THE ENTIRE EFFORT IN IRAQ. THEY HAVE STAINED THE NAMES OF THE US MILITARY PERSONNEL WHO HAVE BEEN KIA OR WIA IN IRAQ. IF I WAS [IRAQI] I’D BE TRYING TO KILL THESE [EXPLETIVE DELETED] ‘CONTRACTORS’, TOO!”
The writer of the memo clearly feels that the behavior of the Triple Canopy employees in killing the Iraqi truck drivers appeared suspicious, and may very well have constituted an unlawful homicide, rather than self defense as claimed. This quote from the memo is particularly striking in light of the recent revelations about the shootings by security contractors employed by Aegis:
(C) MAKIDJ EXPRESSES GRAVE CONCERN THAT “THESE GUYS WERE ON THE WAY HOME AND DECIDED THAT THEY NEEDED TO KILL A FEW IRAQIS JUST FOR THE HELL OF IT—COWBOYS AND MURDERERS LIKE THESE [EXPLETIVE DELETED] ARE GOING TO UNDERMINE THE ENTIRE EFFORT IN IRAQ. THEY HAVE STAINED THE NAMES OF THE US MILITARY PERSONNEL WHO HAVE BEEN KIA OR WIA IN IRAQ. IF I WAS [IRAQI] I’D BE TRYING TO KILL THESE [EXPLETIVE DELETED] ‘CONTRACTORS’, TOO!”
SEC Associates is a firm, based in the United States, that provides a multitude of services to private and governmental clients related to security issues, including intelligence and investigative services. It is unclear at this time why a director of SEC was directing an SEC employee in Baghdad to conduct an investigation of this incident involving a two person PSD team employed by Triple Canopy. The identity of the individual referred to as “Majidk” in the memo, and the basis of his or her information regarding this incident is also unclear. As soon as more information is available to us, Booman Tribune will update this report.
Update [2005-12-3 1:4:4 by Steven D]: Crooks and Liars also has this story. The .pdf file for the memo is here. C&L also has a video of Aegis/UK, which was covered here yesterday by Londonbear in “Aegis Security – Bush’s Terrorist Contractors.”
FURTHER information regarding Triple Canopy, Inc. and its work in Iraq follows after the break.
From the Center for Media and Democracy:
Triple Canopy, founded by veterans of the US special force’s Delta unit, headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, employs over 300 employees, attracts Green Berets and Delta Force soldiers, and is owned privately . . .
It is reported Triple Canopy has more than that in Iraq alone, with around 350 . . . They are an active firm, already involved in firefights in Iraq . . .
Triple Canopy is one of several companies mentioned as pooling their resources with others in Iraq. Though this is often necessary, given the situation and the lack of US troops to back them up, some are concerned this is leading to a consolidation of power of private companies in a war zone. . . .
Recently, Triple Canopy has stopped recruiting from the Philippines and started in war-experienced rich El Salvador. Company spokesman, Joe Mayo, says, “They’ve got the right background for the type of work we are doing.” After training in Jordan, the troops will head to Iraq for site security. . . .
Three executives each wrote $2,000 checks for the Bush-Cheney campaign in March . . . Two $1,000 donations were made by Eddie Payne, a Triple Canopy subcontractor, to the RNC and to the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign. . .
In July 2005, Triple Canopy Inc. announced that it was relocating its offices from Chicago and moving to a federal government-centric location in Fairfax County. Specific terms of Triple Canopy’s lease agreement with property owner America’s Capital Partners have not been revealed. America’s Capital handles its own leasing activities and currently markets office space in the six-story building, located at 2250 Corporate Park Dr., for about $26 per sf. . .
A report in the New York Times, on August 14, 2005, by Daniel Bergner, (full text of the article without the NYT firewall is here), provides the following information about the company:
It was early last year [January, 2004], and the company [Matt Mann] and two partners created, Triple Canopy, had just won government contracts to guard 13 Coalition Provisional Authority headquarters throughout Iraq. (The renewable six-month deals were worth, in all, about $90 million.) . . .
Yet when Triple Canopy was hired, it scarcely existed. Mann and one of his partners, Tom Katis, an old friend from Special Forces, talked after 9/11 about starting a business that might somehow address the threat of terrorism. . . . They were a name, a notion, when they heard about the C.P.A. security work and started bidding for the contracts.
. . . Triple Canopy now [i.e., as of August, 2005] has about 1,000 men in Iraq, about 200 of them American and almost all the rest from Chile and Fiji. Its rivals include British firms that draw from the elite units of the U.K. military and outfits that draw from South African veterans of the wars to save apartheid. Australians and Ukrainians and Romanians and Iraqis are all making their livings in the business. Many have experience as soldiers; some have been in law enforcement. The firms guard the huge American corporations struggling to carry out Iraq’s reconstruction.
. . . Triple Canopy was awarded its work in January 2004. Other companies received, or already had, their portions. (Meanwhile, the corporations actually doing the rebuilding, the hearts-and-minds element of the American occupation’s campaign, were spending up to 25 percent of their U.S. government money on hired protection.) The deployment of private gunmen grew and grew into a profusion that may be explained partly by the subtle shift in perception that had removed some of the old mercenary stigma, and partly by the emphasis on outsourcing that had been gathering momentum in the U.S. military since the early 1990’s (but that had been focused on logistical, unarmed support). Most immediately, though, the explosive growth may be explained by the strength of the insurgency in Iraq and by the apparent fact that there weren’t enough troops on the ground to fight it.
. . . Triple Canopy has come a long way from its haphazard beginnings. Its current contracts in Iraq, mostly with the U.S. Department of Defense and the State Department, are worth almost $250 million yearly.
. . . There is no effective regulation in Iraq of whom the firms hire or how the men are trained or how they conduct themselves. ”At best you’ve got professionals doing their best in a chaotic and aggressive environment,” Lyle Hendrick said in an e-mail from Iraq in July, describing his colleagues in private security there. He had spent six months with one company in the country’s north and is now with another down in Basra. ”At worst you’ve got cowboys running almost unchecked, shooting at will and just plain O.T.F. (Out There Flappin’).”
Triple Canopy recently took over the contract for the provision of all security services within the “Green Zone” in Baghdad. A recent report indicates that many of the individuals it employs in the Green Zone as security guards come from the Latin American countries of Peru, Chile, Guatamala and the Honduras. Most are former veterans of military or paramilitary units with experience fighting local insurgencies.
I think there will be far more to Triple Canopy than the ‘eclectic collection of various interests’ that describes their employees. I always view the random killings in Iraq with caution. Most of the time they have circumstances that resemble assasinations. I have no idea if that’s the case in the Triple Canopy incidents but their history makes it worth a closer look.
Check this out…
The connections to Gun Supply, et al is consistent with other stories about Triple Canopy’s recruiting practices linked above in the diary.
Here’s the possible inside track to the VA leaseholder they moved to and the connection for contract bidding.
I’ve been trying to talk about these private corporate militias for some time now. Glad you got everyone’s attention to look at it.
(bold emphasis mine)
Thanks.
Steve, Rumi, or anyone else who is developing info. on Triple Canopy – I have a substantial amount of research on Triple that was taken from their website. It took quite a while to assemble and I would like to contribute it to those of you who have time to develop it and include in a larger body of info.
Triple has a link on their website referring to the catalog on the GSA site and when I followed the link there was info. on their current present contracts…..dogs handling, training, an admin asst. position for dog handling.
Triple Canopy has an enlightening website for sure.
I read it all and it is a piece of work. Excellent Continuity writing, but I found it scary to realize they are addressing worldwide but also emcompass U.S. stateside. Board of Directors and advisors include heavy weight corporation reps. Some employees seem to have gravitated to Triple Canopy when the dollar sources dried up in other areas.
But, Katrina came to mind. These fools and others like them fit right into the Katrina failures. Needless to say, it doesn’t feel like America anymore. I tried clicking my ruby red slippers but I still wasn’t in Kansas anymore.
Let me know if you want the info and suggest where I might send it. There are many, many valuable links. Just reading the bios of the group tells a story in itself. Don’t believe most of us have a clue how comprehensive this BS really is. Easy to understand why FEMA professionals civil servants have jumped ship because there is a vast diversity in wages. Some of the bios include Liberty Univ. Other corporate honchos came from MCI, Dynacorp, etc.
These soldiers only do in country 60 days and look what our National Guard troops sacrifice and the disparity in pay. Unreal.
Apologies for such a stream of consciousness post, but I have been reading all night and wanted to get the word out to someone who can use this info. Barely able to put two words together at this point.
PaintyKat
I’ve been digging into the PSCs for a while now and I have no doubt to their power/potential. My diaries seem to lack recognition so I stopped making them. I would be happy to contribute to a collaborative effort if one is started.
This is HUGE, Steve.
And what a great job you did … you made it so even I could understand! THANKS!
Thanks Susan. Kudos back at you and Boo.
Nice!
…the U.S. ran its own death squads in Vietnam under the name of Phoenix. In the ’70s and ’80s, depending on the country, the U.S. trained or funded death squads (or looked away when they did their work). Now, it’s an outsourced function. But murder is murder.
I agree that this is for from the first time that the US has run death squads, but I think that they outsourcing is the big deal here.
In the past, these death squads had a least the notion that they had a chain of command that ended at the president and was subject to civilian control, in the past this was coveniently ignored. But now with outsourcing, the idea of civilian control is challenged. These mercs owe their allegiance to whoever pays them, and thousands will be returning to the US. What’s to prevent their use at home, with similiar results.
Blackwater was in New Orleans.
We’ve created a Praetorian guard that works for the people who pay them and not for the government. If we allow this to grow, what’s to prevent them from being used as enforcers for the republican party?
The power to compel others to act against their will with neative sanctions escalating to and including death is supposed to be the sole province of the sovereign state. President Bush has placed that power into private hands. It is this precedent more so than the atrocities committed in Iraq by these mercs that should worry us.
…this is a good idea to remember: The Praetorian Guard at various times knocked off the old emperor and picked the new one from their own ranks.
Exactly.
once we’ve allowed the military to be privatized, what’s stopping them from pirvatizing the police?
Loyal to profit margins before all else.
While this information is breaking it certainly doesn’t surprise me. I’m only surprised that this kind of infor is starting to be made public. We already know that ‘security’ companies guard all officials and Karzi in Afghanistan and they also were guarding Bremmer and others in Iraq….which is no doubt why bush can say so definately that there won’t be a draft. We’re hiring more and more of these shadowy companies to do do all kinds of dirty work and they have no oversight whatsoever…but the taxpayers are paying up the ass for it in more ways than one. With our money and these yahoos are making sure the ‘hearts and minds’ of the Iraqi’s are dead set against us by who know what other atrocities these contractor/mercenaries are doing over there.
I mentioned one other time(and can’t find a link now)that bush himself is using these fucken private mercs to guard him when he goes anywhere instead of any of our noble soldiers he likes to rhapsodize about.
Rummy is hellbent on getting his privatized cowboy armies isn’t he…probably has stock in some of them.
I fear we are seeing the beginning of corporate armies which at some point this century may rival or surpass in strength many traditional national military forces.
And the better to suppress us unruly masses if we try and rise up in protest at what is happening in our country. Mercs aren’t going to have any allegiance to us citizens but to who pays them..which ironically we’ll be doing with taxpayer money anyway. That’s like a win/win situation for Rummy and bushco.
All this talk of the military being broken, out of supplies isn’t some misguided mistake on bushco’s part, but part of the plan so they won’t be able to defend us when the time comes.
Boy am I really really tired, I’m letting my paranoia show tonight.
In many cases it’s already too late. These same ‘equity groups’ and private contractors own the technology patents that dictate or outright control the systems in place as well as future developments.
The coincidence of innocent people being subjected to torture by rendition and random killings in Iraq has more to do with business competition than anything else. Maher Arar worked for a company that was subsequently involved in patent lawsuits and was on the cutting edge of the wireless market technology that much of the Iraq killing was also for…..remember Nick Berg?
There are 100,000 support personnel in Iraq in addition to the 150.000 troops. Many of these support people are security.
I will bet anything these security firms are bribing everybody to get these contracts.
They are in the business of creating, then establishing paranoia. They have to create paranoia….that’s how these secruity fims sell themselves by selling everyone on how dangerous everything and everybody is. There is no danger until they arrive. Then they kill innocent, harmless people not only out of paranoia but to relieve themselves. They are no doublt taking steriods, poppin pills and looking for trouble.
These security people are criminals. They are attracted to crime and like the cover that being a member of ” law enforcement” or security provides them.
Yes Stu, it certainly is profitable not only for the so called owners, but the mercenaries themselves. The creation of fear is definitely a solid marketing tool for them.
But I believe they are MUCH WORSE than just plain criminals. I think these are potential pyschopaths, wherein the so called “training” solidifies these traits front and center. Once that pandoras box is open, its impossible to close.
I worked with a guy at Nielsen TV Ratings. He was in the National Guard. He signed up for “specialized intelligence/security training”. Couldn’t explain exactly what it is because “too secret”. After 8 months of training he was sent to Afghanistan first time. Also been to Iraq twice.He has come and gone 3 times since, and as the rest of us say, “He keeps missing his wars”. He has become very, very strange. now, and cannot adjust to civilian life at all. It has cost him his family and wife and will cost him a civilian livelihood, but I am not sure that matters to him now. Seems some switch was flipped on, and nothing seems to turn it back off -even psychological help.
This makes me think guys who go into Delta and other special forces are selected for intelligence, physical endurance, and an adherence to some kind of codes. What needs to change is that testing be done so that those with sociopathic and psychopathic tendencies are weeded out at the beginning regardless of their skills.
All of them should come under international law and be subject to WAR CRIME trials, irregardless of where their corporate offices are based or where their -personnel come from. If convicted they should again be evaluated. The “lost causes” get to spend the rest of their lives in prison. The others get a sentence determined by severity of the crime. Draconian – NO- provides accountability and there is no out from consequences.
I have written to my senators and congressman each time. But one voice is not enough. If we collectively do nothing then we are in fact allowing the astronomical growth of these so called security firms and the horrible consequences that Chocolate Ink envisions. I freely use the word MERCENARIES and I refuse to call them “security” as that professionalizes these people.
If we go back to basics, the constitution is about WE THE PEOPLE, which is why I get angry when Sen Obama states we need to allow them to vote “their” conscience!! Excuse ME!!! The work for and our paid by us. They need to do their jobs and represent US – WE THE PEOPLE irregardless of what THEY would like to do.
WE THE PEOPLE collectively need to start making LOTS AND LOTS of noise to our congressional people, and we collectively will have to research a way not to pay taxes any more if they DO NOT LISTEN. Cindy Sheehan went to court to have it stipulated she no longer has to pay taxes, but I am not sure what she did. I have also heard that there are organizations that are similar to “conscientious objector groups” for the service. If you belong to one of these organizations you can legally stop having taxes withheld, or paying them into the US Treasury. You do have to put the monies into some kind of escrow account. I am not sure of the details – sorry.
But bottom line – it is UP TO WE THE PEOPLE to stop this insanity.
I would agree with you that the overwhelming anecdotal evidence is that most of those serving in special forces emerge damaged so that they are unable to function in civilian society. The same has also to be said of many involved in other branches of the services like the marines. These seem to apply to those in both the US and UK services.
There are exceptions. One such is Lord “Paddy” Ashdown who is currently UN High Representative in Bosnia and who has guided the country to the start of discussions about EU entry. He served in Borneo during fighting in which the British actually won a victory over Communist insurgency at the same time the US was losing in Vietnam. He served in the Special Boat Squadron – the naval version of the SAS. However, he did not serve partularly long compared to those who eventually retire from the special services after the maximum time. He joined the Diplomatic service, left to work in industry (a manufacturing company) and became leader of the UK Liberal Democrats.
Whenever I met him or saw him, he was always extremely intelligent, humerous and above all compassionate. Perhaps the fairly short time he served meant that he did not become inured to the suffering of others. He seems to be very much the exveption to the general rule though.
It does make a person wonder if there’s something, either conscious or not, that selects for psychopathic tendencies.
I think people who join the security forces or even police departments, often feel “special” after joining. They feel they have been “chosen” to become aware of “secret knowledge” that others are not privy too.
The knowledge of how to kill, the experience of killing and the sight of death become part of a kind of a new identity as someone who has special and unique and “important” and experienced in life.
They also imagine that they are worldly and wise. In fact they are made stupid and become forever trapped from whatever hill billy, provinical world they came from and have made themselves unnecessarily vulnerable by their imagined importance.
Worldly people avoid problems, they do not look for them or make putting their lives in danger an occupation. That is something for fools to do. Worldly people are people who have been exposed to disturbing things without seeking them out, and find them unpleasant, yet are capable of handling situations that are uncomfortable without collapsing or making things worse.
This is why America has been defeated in Iraq. It is delusional in it’s importance and has simply made it’self vulnerable to attack both militarily and politically and morally.
What a gravy train these people have found.
And it’s frightening that companies that barely existed are rewarded with such huge contracts and so much power, without controls and checks/balances.
Call me cynical but I believe these companies that weren’t even formed were being put in place by contacts through people like Rummy himself and others to profit even more themselves…with stock or whatever in these companies..it’s all one big circle-jerk, clusterfuck money train…at our expense.
so the jist of it is, these people are like American street gangs. wonder if they’ve recruited in Watts, L.A., etc. ?
Jesus. 714,285 of our tax dollars for each mercenary. Let me guess, no-bid, right?
Here’s another article from 2004 that shows the type of battles these PSCs are getting themselves into. It appears that for some time they were relying on US/coalition military support and somehow expected it to be there even when their calls were ignored. I don’t think the incident in the original diary was just a random killing.
(bold emphasis mine)
Does anybody have any further biographical details on the Matt Mann quoted as being one of the owners of Triple Canopy? More to the point, is he any relation of the Simon Mann who owned the South Afican firm Executive Outcomes, which was a subcontractor to the owner of Aegis’s then company in Papua New Guinea, and who was convicted of trying to organise a coup in the African country of Equitorial Guinea? (See my diary referenced and linked above)
I ask because the name is fairly unusual and there was in the late 80s/early 90s an exodus from South Africa of those involved in the “darker” operations of their special forces during the apartheid years. The USA was a favorite destination for those getting out before what they predicted would happen to them under majority rule as it provided a safe haven for the transfer of funds. With enough money, they could maintain the lifestyle they had become used to and even if you could not get a “kaffir” to run your house cheaply, you could aways get a Mexican housekeeper.
.
FWIW from Triple Canopy site, see my detailed comment below on thread. May just be a pack of lies, I’ll dig deeper.
Matt has 23 years of military experience with the the U.S. Army’s 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (Delta Force), including counterterrorism assignments, dignitary protection, crisis response management, air traffic control operations, security enhancement surveys, counter-sniper operations, land warfare and navigation and emergency medical care. He has supervised ambassador-level diplomatic security details at high-risk locations overseas and conducted operational and facility security enhancement surveys for U.S. federal agencies throughout the world.
In addition, Matt developed, taught and managed a variety of counterterrorism, diplomatic security and crisis response training programs for elite military and law enforcement special operations units from the U.S. and allied nations.
Source: Triple Canopy, Inc.
###
Google “Matt Mann” security
“Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.”
▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
.
Friday December 2, 9:22 am ET
Expert Advisors to Steer Fast-Paced Security Solutions Leader
HERNDON, Va., Dec. 2 PRNewswire — Triple Canopy, Inc., a security solutions company, today announced the formation of its Strategic Advisory Board. “We are fortunate to have individuals with such incredible experience join our team,” said Ignacio “Iggy” Balderas, CEO of Triple Canopy. “When we set out to create our Strategic Advisory Board, we only imagined a team like this.”
The objective of forming a Strategic Advisory Board is to tap into a seasoned group of outside advisors who know how to manage fast growth intelligently and who add value by focusing on the longer-term effects of Triple Canopy corporate decisions.
Joining the Board are
Dan Bannister, former Chairman and CEO of DynCorp;
David Binney, former Deputy Director of the FBI and former Director of Security for IBM; BGEN
Stephen A. Cheney, USMC (Ret.) currently the Chief Operating Officer for Business Executives for National Security (BENS), member CFR
Catherine Lotrionte Yoran, former Assistant General Counsel with the Central Intelligence Agency and an Adjunct Professor and Senior Fellow at Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and Law Center.
“Our goal was to create a Board that will counsel, question and support an aggressive, competitive, management team as it moves through the often extreme changes that affect a company during a period of rapid growth,” said Tom Katis, Co-Founder and Co-Chairman of Triple Canopy. “With this group we have found that dynamic.”
Special Operations Warrior Foundation
Triple Canopy presents a check for $50,000 to the Special Operations Warrior Foundation at a reception held at the Airborne & Special Operations Museum. From left to right: Cathe Kaohi, Ray Randall, Julie Simpson, Tom Katis, SOWF Director Dick Davis, Gregg Mulligan, Nick Etten, Triple Canopy President, Iggy Balderas, Brandon Seabolt.Triple Canopy plans to add additional members to the Board in the future, to assist the Company in defined areas such as International, Technology, Marketing and Finance.
“I’m excited to formalize my relationship with Triple Canopy,” stated Dan Bannister, former Chairman and CEO of DynCorp. “I’ve encountered challenges, success, difficulty and excitement during my 50 year career with DynCorp. Triple Canopy is a highly motivated group of individuals performing difficult and critical missions. I hope my experiences can serve to help them succeed on their journey.”
About Triple Canopy
Founded in 2003, Triple Canopy delivers security and protection solutions to governments and private corporations worldwide. The company integrates security solutions to secure success for its clients. Triple Canopy’s services include security assessment and analysis, technical surveillance countermeasures, tactical training, and full-scale security and protection operations.
——————————————————————————–
Source: Triple Canopy, Inc.
“Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.”
▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
It’s like the agencies alumni organization.
One thing I noticed in researching it last night is that Triple-C is one of a very few of the PSCs that was pushing for governmental oversight in several countries.
On top of all this the Pentagon goes and hires a company called Aegis(British)to the tune of 250 Million to supposedly oversee and coordinate all the security companies that are running around in Iraq… Which to me sounds just like another layer of a pyramiding boondoogle/war profiteering at taxpayer expense.
I’ll look for link back to Aegis when I come back after a bit. My understanding also is that Aegis has the security contract to protect and keep the Green Zone safe-guess the troops aren’t good enough eh. Is that really like it sounds that we’re hiring mercs to actually guard our soldiers…I know some company has a contract to guard the Army Core of Engineers-not the troops. I think what we know of these so called security companies is just the tip of the iceberg also and the amount of money being spent on them.
.
Aegis Security – Bush’s Terrorist Contractors ◊ by Londonbear
“Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.”
▼▼▼ READ MY DIARY
Well that makes me a bit red in the face….I don’t know how in the heck I missed that as I’ve been trying to follow this whole merc thing really since the whole blowup with those Blackwater mercs getting killed near Fallujah. Certainly is yet another one of those 800 pound gorilla stories the MSM doesn’t follow through and report on….do they do anything real reporting at all?
Anyway thanks Oui for pointing out and putting up the links.
I wonder just how much of that 6 Billion a month we’re spending is actually going to help our troops instead of all these contractors, Halliburton and who knows who else the Pentagon is paying…and add that apparent 300 or so million to the Lincoln group for planting feel good stories in Iraq.
.
≈ Posted earlier in my diary ::
Explosives Used in London 7/7 Bombings ‘originated in the Balkans’ ≈
“According to a confidential report produced the day after the bombing by a private London security firm, Aegis Defense Services, Ltd., which was seen and read by Pentagon officials, the team was probably four to six strong . . . The Aegis report says it is possible that the explosives were ‘constructed by an experienced bomb maker, possibly coming to the U.K. for that very purpose.'”
Aegis and its chief Tim Spicer are intimately involved with the Pentagon’s Iraq operations. Spicer is also implicated for murders in Northern Ireland in the 1990s. Aegis is also tied to the sponsoring of an aborted coup in the West African nation of Equatorial Guinea, which resulted in the arrest of Sir Mark Thatcher, son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
Tim Spicer involved in civil warsSierra Leone and Papua New Guinea.
How did Aegis conclude that the foreign origin for the bomb maker, when no such evidence was available? What role does this British security firm serve in helping drive Washington-London “war on terrorism” planning, and what was this confidential report “seen and read by Pentagon officials”?
● PBS – Analysis London Bombing
● The Nation – Tim Spicer’s World
● America’s Deal With the Devil
[Article has been edited with additional links – Oui]
“Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.”
▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
I just remembered something this morning concerning the private security corporations. About 2 years ago Ollie North visited Argentina as an advisor for Trident security Ollie North visited Argentina as an advisor for Trident Security.
Also, Tim Spicer was involved with Trident Maritime.
These people are all interrelated, so let’s keep digging up their dirt.
or been wounded defending this mercenary scum? The mercenaries answer to no one, yet the governments involved in their wars take the responsibility for protecting them. When they are killed or kidnapped they are used to enrage Americans into supporting the “war”.
Apparently the mercenaries operate without constraint by the nations they supposedly “defend”, without even the limitations that regulate the behavior of ordinary American citizens abroad. They answer only to their employers. Let the US government end any and all support, protection, and information sharing with the mercenaries. They are the creatures of their corporate employers. Let those corporations be their sole support. They have no right to one more dime’s worth of US government aid.
Isn’t it special that these right-wing jackboots constitute such a multi-cultural force?
There numbers in Iraq will no doubt rise as a so-called “drawdown” begins.
Excellent work, Steven & rumi. Thanks.
The sad detail in here somewhere is the disparity in wages between US/Brits and employees recruited from South America. It’s something to the effect of 750.00/1,000.00 a day to 45.00-100.00. The same theme of cheap foreign labor never goes away.
These global companies will likely drop a current employing country for a better paying competitor. There are also allegations of too few trainers to increase profits.
Someone mentioned the Aegis oversight contract. Another coincidence is the accont(s) of other PSCs calling for military backup and never receiving it. That would be Spicer’s Aegis responsibility to coordinate. Bad stroke of luck or dicking the competition in a life and death situation?
I’d say some reported attacks are the pissed off PSCs attacking each other.
http://www.govexec.com/features/1004-01/1004-01s2.htm Another good article from this site(govexec watch)about ‘security’ contractors. And giving an inkling of how much money is being shoveled out by the Pentagon for these contractor companies.
This is a fucking nightmare! Too shocked to say more although I thought I was almost at the point where nothing these assholes would do could suprise me!