private military security industry place
also: sector
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Related entities (most co-mentioned)
Aegis Defense Servicesorganization · 10Irancountry · 7U.S. State Departmentorganization · 7Tim Spicerperson · 4Afghanistancountry · 3Barack Obamaperson · 2Hillary Clintonperson · 2Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstructionorganization · 2Marcy Kapturperson · 2Dogs of Warplace · 2David Eisenbergperson · 2Yemencountry · 1Ford Foundationorganization · 1Africaplace · 1Robert Gatesperson · 1United Statescountry · 1Operation Gladiooperation · 1Algeriacountry · 1Triple Canopyorganization · 1United Kingdomcountry · 1Djibouticountry · 1Robert Reynoldsperson · 1Control Risksorganization · 1Nigeriacountry · 1
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Mentions (26)
▶ 31:22
Witty and sober, he spoke for a long while about the evolution of the sector, as he called it, the private military security industry. Quote, the American companies came later. The British were early, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s. Unquote. And why Br…
▶ 31:50
Spicer saw the trajectory of private military security companies as analogous to the history of the American railroad industry. At first, they were accused of everything, but they were essential as the world was changing and they in turn ch…
▶ 32:21
You start off wild and then become part of the establishment. Experimental music becoming mainstream. It's like rap. It took 20 years, but now it's just a regular form of music. What should cause a real fuss from his point of view was not h…
▶ 32:49
It wasn't as much of an issue that the private militaries were threatening democracy as it was that democracies were threatened by economic and geopolitical instabilities that the private military companies could tackle more successfully th…
▶ 37:15
If wisdom becomes folly because it does not know its own limits, in all such cases, the situation is ironic. In the story of the rise of private military and security companies, irony is abundant. That an industry making its living from ins…
▶ 37:42
That a soldier in the U.S. Special Forces whose dreams of becoming a SF officer was shattered by a bullet by a man working for a company employed by the soldier's government, a company that was part of an industry rooted in the history of S…
▶ 39:37
Very soon, however, it wouldn't really matter what the private military security contractors were called. Quote, everyone was busy trying to identify, label, vilify what was really part of the past, the dogs of war, unquote, said Congressma…
▶ 40:07
The mercenary scare in Switzerland in August was an event of minor significance. For, as Kaptur said, things were happening on a grander scale, though unnoticed and greater ironies were taking shape. While President Obama told Americans abo…
▶ 40:36
This looked like the action the industry abolitionists were hoping for, but that was not the case. Behind the scenes, private military companies were competing for State Department contracts, one of which was $10 billion for worldwide prote…
▶ 42:02
But the contract was awarded despite presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's pledge in 2008 to ban Blackwater from federal contracts and to show these contractors the door. And while the news of withdrawing troops and cutting the defense b…
▶ 42:31
sending the bill to the State Department to allow a replacement, task by task, of the job necessary to make Iraq a secure place for development. You know, Western development. Despite economic recessions and global instability, this industr…
▶ 43:01
part of that $10 billion contract, contracted to train private security contractors to replace troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. By now, Aegis was one of the biggest stars in the galaxy. With its U.S. contract in Iraq twice renewed, having ga…
▶ 43:27
It operated one national command center in six regional branches across Iraq, out of which it provided daily intelligence for every security firm and the U.S. military. You know, because we want our intelligence from the mercenary who's sho…
▶ 43:59
including one from the DOD, to oversee private security companies in Afghanistan, basically setting up another command post in Afghanistan. It monitored their activities and investigating any escalation of force incidents. That's, again, th…
▶ 44:30
The firm was also finding work in Africa, turning its attention to oil and thus following the lead of other private military security companies, such as Control Risk Group, Inris, Triple Canopy and Armor Group. The Niger Delta, for example,…
▶ 44:58
and Sudan, as well as Yemen and Djibouti, where Aegis had recently entered negotiations with the government to set up a control center that would monitor piracy threats and disseminate risk information to vessels in the Gulf of Aden. And go…
▶ 45:28
in charge of determining whether there's a threat to put security on ships, what do you think my answer is going to be? I make more money if there's a risk. So regardless of whether there's a risk or not, there's going to be a risk. In 2010…
▶ 45:59
the quote-unquote watchdog, that's another irony, for the Iraq reconstruction contracts, which would surely boost the company's respectability. In the report, the inspector general commended Aegis's financial record-keeping and control of i…
▶ 46:26
Most of the actual people were contracted out. They weren't on Aegis' books. They were the money funnel. On the occasion of the audit, columnist Dave Eisenberg wrote a piece for UPI with the tagline, Dogs of War, Contractor Fulfilling a Con…
▶ 46:55
to do what it was contracted to do without waste, fraud, and abuse? They noted that, of course, the answer is going to be yes. For a company with a history like Aegis, to reach this point was monumental. Aegis, wrote Eisenberg, was now cons…
▶ 47:24
its strategies and developments as a thriving enterprise. In 2010, the components of its success were becoming apparent. For example, more board members with political connections. That year, Aegis LLC added two former senior CIA officials …
▶ 47:56
the CIA's procurement office. And the other was a former number two man at the CIA's clandestine service. You know, the shop of dirty tricks that runs Operation Gladio that causes all the destabilization. So Aegis can run right in and secur…
▶ 48:26
especially considering this was a business renowned for secrecy. Aegis even opened a charity, because of course they did. That's how they money launder and pay people off. The Aegis Foundation to help dispel the image of a money-making merc…
▶ 48:56
In one case, it teamed up with an oil concern in the Gulf region south to spend $450,000 to refurbish a gym. Wonder who got that contract? Another tactic for escaping the mercenary image was litigation, or at least the threat of it. The U.S…
▶ 49:27
And in its early years, when it was trying to shape an image and downplay the mercenary part of the owner's past, ages had a reputation for being legacious, particularly with journalists. So if you write a real story, we will threaten to su…
▶ 50:28
And that was that the president, whom the industry feared would curtail his work, especially after Obama and Clinton's pledges in 2008 to escort the contractors to the door, made possible an expansion in the number of private military and s…