| by
Wayne Madsen
WWW, 2006 (Archived) - A
video has surfaced on the Internet showing
private security contractors working for
Aegis Defense Services "Victory"
Group firing indiscriminately at Iraqi
civilian motorists in Baghdad.
Since the news has been released,
acknowledged by the mainstream British
press, including The Telegraph (see article
below), the video has been removed.from the
Aegis co Iraq website
CLICK
HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE VIDEO
Following the removal of
the Video clip, The following message
was posted on the MESSAGE BOARD of Aegis Co
Iraq at:
http://www.aegisiraq.co.uk/Message_Board.htm
To all the media contacting this
site requesting copies of the other nine
Video Clips you have been miss informed.
[sic]
To Aegis I mailed one man and one
man only within your company to mention
nine more clips.
The Victory Director
Strange that the media should be
asking for the same figure
A souvenir
video has surfaced on the
Internet showing private security
contractors working for Aegis Defense
Services "Victory" Group firing
indiscriminately at Iraqi civilian motorists
in Baghdad. The video was reportedly taken
by an Aegis employee and posted on a web
site run by an ex-Aegis
employee. The video has since been removed
from the site. The video contains four clips
showing Aegis mercenaries firing at civilian
automobiles. The video's soundtrack includes
Elvis Presley's "Train I Ride."
Aegis is run by former British Scots Guard
officer Lt. Col. Tim Spicer, an
international mercenary who has been
involved in UN sanctions busting in Sierra
Leone and Bougainville invasion planning in
Papua New Guinea. Spicer's firm, Aegis, was
awarded a $293 million security contract in
Iraq. Spicer's men also stand accused of
shooting teenager Peter McBride in the back
in Belfast in 1992. That has prompted a
number of members of the Irish Caucus in the
Congress to demand the Pentagon withdraw its
contract to Aegis. The Pentagon has rejected
such action.
Aegis
maintains its head office in London's
Picadilly. It is also reported to have an
office on K Street in Washington, DC.
The
Pentagon has had a longstanding relationship
with Spicer. The Pentagon's love affair with
mercenary firms began in the 1990s when they
were viewed with favor for their military
activities, including sanctions busting, in
Africa. Under the Clinton administration,
mercenary firms blossomed. Under George W.
Bush, they have flourished. On June 24,
1997, the Defense Intelligence Agency
sponsored a seminar titled "The
Privatization of National Security Functions
in Sub-Saharan Africa." This conference
ushered in the present cooperation between
mercenaries, oil companies, diamond and
other mineral companies, U.S. intelligence
agencies, the military, and non-government
organizations (NGOs), including the always
suspect Human Rights Watch, an NGO that
often obscures and obfuscates important
facts, as it did with the causality of the
Rwandan genocide and as it is currently
doing with regard to offering an incomplete
list of CIA prisoner aircraft in Europe.
WMR has obtained the
attendee list for the 1997 Pentagon
mercenary seminar. Spicer attended along
with two colleagues from Sandline
International (for which Spicer served as
CEO), a mercenary firm that had already been
implicated in illegal Sierra Leone and Papua
New Guinea operations.
Newspeak" are
referred to as "Private Military
Contractors," "Private Security
Contractors (PSCs), and Personal Security
Details/Detachments (PSDs), are viewed by
informed observers as the future military
forces that will continue to protect US
business interests in Iraq after the
planned withdrawal of a large number of
U.S. troops next year. These companies are
not governed by any military regulations
or international legal constraints.
According to informed sources within the
security contractor community, three U.S.
firms, Phoenix, Anteon, and Sytex, should
be looked at closely by U.S. authorities
for their interrogation operations in
Iraq. Sytex is currently advertising for
interrogators for the US Central Command's
Area of Responsibility (AOR), which
includes Iraq and Afghanistan. Military
interrogators who were charged with
sexually humiliating prisoners at
Guantanamo and Iraq are now working for
firms like Anteon and Phoenix Consulting
Group.
'Trophy' video
exposes private security contractors
shooting up Iraqi drivers
By Sean Rayment, Defence Correspondent
(Filed: 27/11/2005)
The Telegraph
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.
Lt Col Tim Spicer is
investigating the incident The video, which
first appeared on a website that has been
linked unofficially to Aegis Defence
Services, contained four separate clips, in
which security guards open fire with
automatic rifles at civilian cars. All of
the shooting incidents apparently took place
on "route Irish", a road that
links the airport to Baghdad.
The road has acquired the
dubious distinction of being the most
dangerous in the world because of the number
of suicide attacks and ambushes carried out
by insurgents against coalition troops. In
one four-month period earlier this year it
was the scene of 150 attacks.
In one of the videoed
attacks, a Mercedes is fired on at a
distance of several hundred yards before it
crashes in to a civilian taxi. In the last
clip, a white civilian car is raked with
machine gun fire as it approaches an
unidentified security company vehicle.
Bullets can be seen hitting the vehicle
before it comes to a slow stop.
There are no clues as to
the shooter but either a Scottish or Irish
accent can be heard in at least one of the
clips above Elvis Presley's Mystery Train,
the music which accompanies the video.
Last night a spokesman
for defence firm Aegis Defence Services -
set up in 2002 by Lt Col Tim Spicer, a
former Scots Guards officer - confirmed that
the company was carrying out an internal
investigation to see if any of their
employees were involved.
The Foreign Office has
also confirmed that it is investigating the
contents of the video in conjunction with
Aegis, one of the biggest security companies
operating in Iraq. The company was recently
awarded a £220 million security contract in
Iraq by the United States government. Aegis
conducts a number of security duties and
helped with the collection of ballot papers
in the country's recent referendum
Lt Col Spicer, 53, rose
to public prominence in 1998 when his
private military company Sandlines
International was accused of breaking United
Nations sanctions by selling arms to Sierra
Leone.
The video first appeared
on the website www.aegisIraq.co.uk. The
website states: "This site does not
belong to Aegis Defence Ltd, it belongs to
the men on the ground who are the heart and
soul of the company." The clips have
been removed.
The website also contains
a message from Lt Col Spicer, which reads:
"I am concerned about media interest in
this site and I remind everyone of their
contractual obligation not to speak to or
assist the media without clearing it with
the project management or Aegis London.
"Refrain from
posting anything which is detrimental to the
company since this could result in the loss
or curtailment of our contract with
resultant loss for everybody."
Security companies
awarded contracts by the US administration
in Iraq adopt the same rules for opening
fire as the American military. US military
vehicles carry a sign warning drivers to
keep their distance from the vehicle. The
warning which appears in both Arabic and
English reads "Danger. Keep back.
Authorised to use lethal force." A
similar warning is also displayed on the
rear of vehicles belonging to Aegis.
Capt Adnan Tawfiq of the
Iraqi Interior Ministry which deals with
compensation issues, has told the Sunday
Telegraph that he has received numerous
claims from families who allege that their
relatives have been shot by private security
contractors travelling in road convoys.
He said: "When the
security companies kill people they just
drive away and nothing is done. Sometimes we
ring the companies concerned and they deny
everything. The families don't get any money
or compensation. I would say we have had
about 50-60 incidents of this kind."
A spokesman for Aegis
Defence Services, said: "There is
nothing to indicate that these film clips
are in any way connected to Aegis."
Last night a spokesman
for the Foreign Office said: "Aegis
have assured us that there is nothing on the
video to suggest that it has anything to do
with their company. This is now a matter for
the American authorities because Aegis is
under contract to the United States."
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