Saturday, May 13, 2006
Another Bout of Madness
, March 10, 2005
Another Bout of Madness
Doug Farah breaks a crucial Viktor Bout story: Aerocom, the Boutco whose AOC was revoked by Moldova for cocaine-running, is flying personnel from Aegis Defence Systems, British mercenary Tim Spicer's company, about the Middle East on US government business. The former boss of Sandline International is also, it seems, connected with Bout's partner Sanjivan Ruprah through his partner in Executive Outcomes, Anthony Buckingham. Tim, of course, was also associated with the "Mark Thatcher" coup plot in Equatorial Guinea.
Let's let that sink in....not only are they still using Viktor's services, but they are using an airline that had an aircraft seized by the DEA with a load of blow last year, whose reputation is so filthy they were thrown out of Moldova. Just what is wrong with these people? Interestingly, Aerocom's historic fleet includes aircraft that were both acquired from Jetline International (operators of Richard Chichakli's private BAC111 3C-QRF) and also ones they transferred to Jetline. Not only that, but they also used aircraft belonging to Jet Line International - another Moldovan Boutco. This may be an emerging answer to the question of whether the "Jetline" in Iraq was Jet Line or Jetline (if you see what I mean) and hence whether a link between Chichakli and the Iraq contracts exists.
Comment
Tom Griffin @ 9:26PM | 2005-03-10| permalink
Very interesting story.
Maybe I'm being pedantic but as I read his article its not clear if he's got definite information that Aegis is using Bout's company, or he's putting two and two together.
I suppose if they're flying contractors around Aegis is a good bet even without the link through Ruprah and Buckingham, (whose company Heritage Oil incidentally has a big concession in Kurdistan.)
Hannah K. O'Luthon @ 5:49PM | 2005-03-18| permalink
In a rare bit of real news from the Washington Post Craig Whitlock
http://www.washingtdynonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A30275-2005Mar12?language=printer
reveals some interesting tidbits about Premier Executive Transport Services, Inc.,
a CIA front apparently used "for rendering", including the tail number of one of its planes N313P. A bit of Googling reveals that the CIA spooks have not lost the
sense of black humor for which they are so justly famous: the owner of the plane is purportedly one "Richard Griff" (with a middle-of-nowhere
Idaho address), a name previously best known as belonging to a member of the well known hip-hop group "Public Enemy", which, shortly after Griff's departure released the hit single
"911 is a joke".
Alex @ 5:16PM | 2005-03-20| permalink
N313P is the other of the two well-known prisoner transports. T'other's N379P - one of them, the Gulfstream, used to be N8068V until last year. One of them is a Boeing Business Jet, basically a 737 with a small number of fancy seats and extra fuel tanks for range.
If the figure of 10,000 detainees that "sources" have repeatedly told the British press is accurate, and the accounts of the released (usually suggesting multiple air moves) are honest, then it might be possible to estimate the annual transport requirement - which would tell us if there are more.
Original: http://yorkshire-ranter.blogspot.com/2005/03/another-bout-of-madness_10.html
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Wednesday, March 09, 2005
Bout Continues to Fly, and the Pentagon's $293 Million Contract with Mercenaries (Which May Explain Bout)
From my sources on the ground in the region, it seems that Viktor Bout's Aerocom continues to fly for the U.S. military, using the call sign designator "MCC." While it seems somewhat incredible that nine months after the State Department circulated a letter to the rest of the U.S. government telling them not to deal with Bout, and specifically that company, that he continues to enjoy the largess of U.S. taxpayer dollars. But there is an emerging story that may explain Bout's longevity and the inability/unwillingness of the Department of the Defense to cut him loose. It is a bit convoluted, but here goes:
Last year, in a move noted only in passing by the U.S. press, the Pentagon awarded the largest security contract in Iraq to a new company, Aegis Defense Services Ltd, a British firm. The three-year contract is worth $293 MILLION, to coordinate security groups there and provide security to diplomats and others. Aegis is run by Tim Spicer, a familiar name in the world of African mercenaries and illegal gun runners. His long and rather checkered past seem to have been ignored by the Pentagon, including his blatant violation of international arms embargos. But the Pentagon says the Brits, to whom Spicer is very well known, raised no objections. A good review of Spicer's past can be found in the Nation, but here is a brief recap:
Spicer is a former British officer who, beginning in the mid-1990s, pioneered the modern incarnation of Private Military Companies (PMCs), which is a nice way of saying mercenaries. He helped found Sandline International, a PMC that claimed to only fight on the side of good guys. In 1997 he was paid $36 million to help surpress a rebellion in Papua New Guinea, and move that backfired and ended in a coup and the collapse of the government he was hired to protect.
His most notorious outing was in 1998, when he imported some 30 tons of weapons into Sierra Leone, obsentibly to help restore the ousted government there. The move directly violated a U.N. arms embargo Britain had pledged to uphold. As Peter Singer of the Brookings Institution wrote, however, Spicer's "client in the case was described by Robin Cook, the British foreign minister, as 'an Indian businessman, traveling on the passport of a dead Serb, awaiting extradition from Canada for alleged embezzlement from a bank in Thailand.' When Mr. Spicer told the press that the British government had encouraged his operation, it nearly brought down Prime Minister Tony Blair." (Singer's complete and excellent analysis of the cost of privatizing our military, which ran as an op-ed in the New York Times, can be found here).
But that is not all. One of Spicer's main business partners in the 1990s was Anthony Buckingham, and oil entrepreur with interests in Africa. Together they founded Executive Outcomes, a forerunner of Sandline (see above). One of Buckingham's interests in Africa was Branch Energy in Kenya. On the board of directors of Branch Energy was Sanjivan Ruprah, international arms dealer and frequent partner of Viktor Bout. As Ray O'Hanlon wrote in the the Sept. 29, 2004 issue of Irish Echo, "there is only one degree of separation between Ruprah and Tim Spicer, Buckingham being the connecting dot. This is not to suggest a direct link between Ruprah and Spicer, but suffice it to say, all these individuals have been swimming in the same opaque sea."
Could it be that our tax dollars paying a British mercenary almost $300 million also provide the umbrella and protection under which Bout continues to fly despite the protestations of the State Department and obstensible U.S. policy? One of Aerocom's main businesses now seems to be flying U.S. contractors around Iraq and the Middle East, an activity Aegis has a direct interest in and some say over. Demands the Aegis contract be revoked because of unfair bidding practices (charges made by DynCorp and four other companies who lost out) were found to be baseless by the GAO. Any further information welcome.
posted by Douglas Farah at 8:27 AM
4 Comments:
Stygius said...
People should also check out Singer's first book Corporate Warriors. It's a broad overview of the increasing privatization of military functions.
-- Stygius
9:24 PM
Hannah K. O'Luthon said...
Hail, hail, the gang's
all here. Spicer, Ruprah, Bout et al.
Great reporting. I can't
help wondering if a connection do David Paul
Tokoph and Aero Zambia won't turn up too,
just to complete the gathering. Keep up the
great work. You're one of the few reporters
worthy of the name.
4:12 AM
Tom Griffin said...
This is a massive story.
Do you have definite information that Aegis is using Bout's services?
It is worth noting that Buckingham's company has an oil deal in Iraqi Kurdistan.
http://www.heritageoilcorp.com/press/JV_Iraq.pdf
The gang really is all there.
3:04 PM
Douglas Farah said...
I don't have definitive proof, it is just the circumstances that gives some order to the chaos of Bout's continued operations. I didn't know of Buckingham's oil venture in Iraq, but it may also be a piece of the puzzle. Many thanks, and more information welcome.
3:21 PM
Original: http://www.douglasfarah.com/2005/03/bout-continues-to-fly-and-pentagons_09.html
Another Bout of Madness
Doug Farah breaks a crucial Viktor Bout story: Aerocom, the Boutco whose AOC was revoked by Moldova for cocaine-running, is flying personnel from Aegis Defence Systems, British mercenary Tim Spicer's company, about the Middle East on US government business. The former boss of Sandline International is also, it seems, connected with Bout's partner Sanjivan Ruprah through his partner in Executive Outcomes, Anthony Buckingham. Tim, of course, was also associated with the "Mark Thatcher" coup plot in Equatorial Guinea.
Let's let that sink in....not only are they still using Viktor's services, but they are using an airline that had an aircraft seized by the DEA with a load of blow last year, whose reputation is so filthy they were thrown out of Moldova. Just what is wrong with these people? Interestingly, Aerocom's historic fleet includes aircraft that were both acquired from Jetline International (operators of Richard Chichakli's private BAC111 3C-QRF) and also ones they transferred to Jetline. Not only that, but they also used aircraft belonging to Jet Line International - another Moldovan Boutco. This may be an emerging answer to the question of whether the "Jetline" in Iraq was Jet Line or Jetline (if you see what I mean) and hence whether a link between Chichakli and the Iraq contracts exists.
Comment
Tom Griffin @ 9:26PM | 2005-03-10| permalink
Very interesting story.
Maybe I'm being pedantic but as I read his article its not clear if he's got definite information that Aegis is using Bout's company, or he's putting two and two together.
I suppose if they're flying contractors around Aegis is a good bet even without the link through Ruprah and Buckingham, (whose company Heritage Oil incidentally has a big concession in Kurdistan.)
Hannah K. O'Luthon @ 5:49PM | 2005-03-18| permalink
In a rare bit of real news from the Washington Post Craig Whitlock
http://www.washingtdynonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A30275-2005Mar12?language=printer
reveals some interesting tidbits about Premier Executive Transport Services, Inc.,
a CIA front apparently used "for rendering", including the tail number of one of its planes N313P. A bit of Googling reveals that the CIA spooks have not lost the
sense of black humor for which they are so justly famous: the owner of the plane is purportedly one "Richard Griff" (with a middle-of-nowhere
Idaho address), a name previously best known as belonging to a member of the well known hip-hop group "Public Enemy", which, shortly after Griff's departure released the hit single
"911 is a joke".
Alex @ 5:16PM | 2005-03-20| permalink
N313P is the other of the two well-known prisoner transports. T'other's N379P - one of them, the Gulfstream, used to be N8068V until last year. One of them is a Boeing Business Jet, basically a 737 with a small number of fancy seats and extra fuel tanks for range.
If the figure of 10,000 detainees that "sources" have repeatedly told the British press is accurate, and the accounts of the released (usually suggesting multiple air moves) are honest, then it might be possible to estimate the annual transport requirement - which would tell us if there are more.
Original: http://yorkshire-ranter.blogspot.com/2005/03/another-bout-of-madness_10.html
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Wednesday, March 09, 2005
Bout Continues to Fly, and the Pentagon's $293 Million Contract with Mercenaries (Which May Explain Bout)
From my sources on the ground in the region, it seems that Viktor Bout's Aerocom continues to fly for the U.S. military, using the call sign designator "MCC." While it seems somewhat incredible that nine months after the State Department circulated a letter to the rest of the U.S. government telling them not to deal with Bout, and specifically that company, that he continues to enjoy the largess of U.S. taxpayer dollars. But there is an emerging story that may explain Bout's longevity and the inability/unwillingness of the Department of the Defense to cut him loose. It is a bit convoluted, but here goes:
Last year, in a move noted only in passing by the U.S. press, the Pentagon awarded the largest security contract in Iraq to a new company, Aegis Defense Services Ltd, a British firm. The three-year contract is worth $293 MILLION, to coordinate security groups there and provide security to diplomats and others. Aegis is run by Tim Spicer, a familiar name in the world of African mercenaries and illegal gun runners. His long and rather checkered past seem to have been ignored by the Pentagon, including his blatant violation of international arms embargos. But the Pentagon says the Brits, to whom Spicer is very well known, raised no objections. A good review of Spicer's past can be found in the Nation, but here is a brief recap:
Spicer is a former British officer who, beginning in the mid-1990s, pioneered the modern incarnation of Private Military Companies (PMCs), which is a nice way of saying mercenaries. He helped found Sandline International, a PMC that claimed to only fight on the side of good guys. In 1997 he was paid $36 million to help surpress a rebellion in Papua New Guinea, and move that backfired and ended in a coup and the collapse of the government he was hired to protect.
His most notorious outing was in 1998, when he imported some 30 tons of weapons into Sierra Leone, obsentibly to help restore the ousted government there. The move directly violated a U.N. arms embargo Britain had pledged to uphold. As Peter Singer of the Brookings Institution wrote, however, Spicer's "client in the case was described by Robin Cook, the British foreign minister, as 'an Indian businessman, traveling on the passport of a dead Serb, awaiting extradition from Canada for alleged embezzlement from a bank in Thailand.' When Mr. Spicer told the press that the British government had encouraged his operation, it nearly brought down Prime Minister Tony Blair." (Singer's complete and excellent analysis of the cost of privatizing our military, which ran as an op-ed in the New York Times, can be found here).
But that is not all. One of Spicer's main business partners in the 1990s was Anthony Buckingham, and oil entrepreur with interests in Africa. Together they founded Executive Outcomes, a forerunner of Sandline (see above). One of Buckingham's interests in Africa was Branch Energy in Kenya. On the board of directors of Branch Energy was Sanjivan Ruprah, international arms dealer and frequent partner of Viktor Bout. As Ray O'Hanlon wrote in the the Sept. 29, 2004 issue of Irish Echo, "there is only one degree of separation between Ruprah and Tim Spicer, Buckingham being the connecting dot. This is not to suggest a direct link between Ruprah and Spicer, but suffice it to say, all these individuals have been swimming in the same opaque sea."
Could it be that our tax dollars paying a British mercenary almost $300 million also provide the umbrella and protection under which Bout continues to fly despite the protestations of the State Department and obstensible U.S. policy? One of Aerocom's main businesses now seems to be flying U.S. contractors around Iraq and the Middle East, an activity Aegis has a direct interest in and some say over. Demands the Aegis contract be revoked because of unfair bidding practices (charges made by DynCorp and four other companies who lost out) were found to be baseless by the GAO. Any further information welcome.
posted by Douglas Farah at 8:27 AM
4 Comments:
Stygius said...
People should also check out Singer's first book Corporate Warriors. It's a broad overview of the increasing privatization of military functions.
-- Stygius
9:24 PM
Hannah K. O'Luthon said...
Hail, hail, the gang's
all here. Spicer, Ruprah, Bout et al.
Great reporting. I can't
help wondering if a connection do David Paul
Tokoph and Aero Zambia won't turn up too,
just to complete the gathering. Keep up the
great work. You're one of the few reporters
worthy of the name.
4:12 AM
Tom Griffin said...
This is a massive story.
Do you have definite information that Aegis is using Bout's services?
It is worth noting that Buckingham's company has an oil deal in Iraqi Kurdistan.
http://www.heritageoilcorp.com/press/JV_Iraq.pdf
The gang really is all there.
3:04 PM
Douglas Farah said...
I don't have definitive proof, it is just the circumstances that gives some order to the chaos of Bout's continued operations. I didn't know of Buckingham's oil venture in Iraq, but it may also be a piece of the puzzle. Many thanks, and more information welcome.
3:21 PM
Original: http://www.douglasfarah.com/2005/03/bout-continues-to-fly-and-pentagons_09.html
# posted by Always @ 8:07 AM 
