by Muhammad Umar Muzaffar
Do you know when was the word, ‘Private Military Company’ became public ?
It was in 1996, after Spicer, Buckingham & Mann convinced Sandline during a lunch @ Chelsea La Famiglia Restraunt.
These were some of the first major players of early experimentations of PMC, Simon Mann, Tony Buckingham & Timothy Spicer. They started off with Executive Outcomes & accomplished their objectives which were far more than providing ‘security’ to African ‘Clients’ who contracted with them. Some of their assignments came with by-products like gaining hold of ‘Diamond rich areas of Papua New Guinea’, recovering Oil plants & more or less the same, the lust of this ‘business’ captured them so tightly that they moved on to collaborate with Sandline.
Sandline was managed by former British Army Lt Col Tim Spicer. Sandline billed itself as a "Private Military Company" (PMC) and offered military training, "operational support" (equipment and arms procurement and limited direct military activity), intelligence gathering, and public relations services to governments and corporations.
Sandline International, among its other controversial operations, its most controversial operation was the scandal of 35 tonne arms shipment brought by it & flown into Sierra Leone.
In 1998, the consignment, consisting of about 1,000 Soviet assault rifles, mortars, light machine-guns and ammunition, was bought by Sandline International from Bulgaria and flown via Lagos to Lungi airport, near the Sierra Leone capital, Freetown. On arrival, the weapons were impounded by Nigerian peace-keepers and not distributed.
The mass media often referred to Sandline as a mercenary company, the company's founders disputed that characterisation. It has been rumored that some, if not most of Sandline's personnel, are now part of Aegis Defence Services Ltd. company.
After Sandline International, Former Lt. Col Timothy Spicer headed Aegis Defence Services Ltd, which was also the main provider of ‘security’ in Iraq Malestorm & his fellows Mann & Tony, all come from Executive Outcomes/Sandline Petris dish or Private Military Company.
Before Y2K, i.e pre 911 decades, ‘rebranding’ of ‘Soilders-for-Hire’ started and it transformed into ‘Private Military Company’. The word ‘Mercenary’ was replaced with ‘Contractor’. It began the new ‘enlightened age of the Mercenary’.
Spicer’s Aegis Defence Services Ltd. Started in 2002 & in 2004 Pentagon hired it for $293 Million for a 3 year cost plus contract, that added upto half a billion dollars in revenue for Aegis. Aegis contract was then extended by Pentagon for 2005. In the meanwhile DynCorp was also among the bidders for Iraq.
In 1997, one year before Sandline Scandal, Blackwater was founded by Erik Prince who was a navy Seal Officer. At least 90 percent of the company's revenue came from government contracts, of which two-thirds were no-bid contracts. Xe provided security services in Iraq to the United States Federal Government, particularly the CIA on a contractual basis. Xe has contracts with CIA in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Israel & Haiti. Xe no longer have a license to operate in Iraq. Xe came from nowhere to have the same brand awareness of Older & larger corporations like Dyncorp, KBR, Armour Group & Control Risks Group.
Like Sandline Int. Xe’s ‘services’ also got uncovered, Xe men were found breaking laws & killing civilians in Iraq, it came to knowledge after 2 years that Xe Services LLC a.k.a Blackwater was jointly operating with JSOC (Joint Special Operations Command) & CIA in Afghanistan & Pakistan. It has been believed that it is also involved in political assassinations & sabotage activities in several countries around the globe.
No matter how business-like they try to become, these corporations will always remain paid killers.
