How can they possibly expect a quality product with this kind of training program? All I know is that whatever companies get involved with this contract, they are going to be earning every penny of their contract. And the Coalition in Afghanistan should do a little more to support this industry in the media, seeing how we are ‘coming to the rescue’ it seems. All I know is that I certainly hope the industry can pull this off, and I will be cheering them on.

    Which makes me wonder.  Is this an outcome of the Dutch leaving, and is this an example of contractors ‘picking up the slack‘?  Boy, if it is, I think the Obama Administration, and the war planners, should do a little more to show their thanks to this industry.  Politically and militarily speaking, we are absolutely vital to the war effort right now.  Especially if any other NATO folks decide to bail out last minute. -Matt

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GAO blocks contract to firm formerly known as Blackwater to train Afghan police

By Joby WarrickTuesday, March 16, 2010

Federal auditors on Monday put a stop to Army plans to award a $1 billion training program for Afghan police officers to the company formerly known as Blackwater, concluding that other companies were unfairly excluded from bidding on the job.

The decision by the Government Accountability Office leaves unclear who will oversee training of the struggling Afghan National Police, a poorly equipped, 90,000-strong paramilitary force that will inherit the task of preserving order in the country after NATO troops depart.

GAO officials upheld a protest by DynCorp International Inc., which currently conducts training for Afghan police under a State Department contract. DynCorp lawyers argued that the company should have been allowed to submit bids when management of the training program passed from State to the Army. Instead, Pentagon officials allowed the training program to be attached to an existing Defense contract that supports counternarcotics efforts in Afghanistan.

Xe Services, the new name of Blackwater, was poised to win one portion of a much larger group of contracts, shared among five corporations, that could earn the companies more than $15 billion over five years.

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   Now on to some thoughts with this.  We must do a better job at containing the border, and we must do a better job at protecting folks in Mexico.  This attack is a clear message by the cartels that they are not pleased with the U.S. It is my view that once we said ‘hey, we will help Mexico out’, then we just declared war on the cartels.  So when the cartels actually strike back and kill one of our own, we should now know that this is an act of warfare, and not some random killing.

    Obviously we have been assisting Mexico in their war down south for awhile, and I have talked about that here. The question I have is will this attack result in us ratcheting up our assistance, or backing off? I also expect more demand on the private side of the house, when it comes to protecting companies operating down there. Hell, we might even see an increase of WPPS folks for Mexico. And of course, there is always the idea I floated here on the blog about how to deal with these thugs.  Who knows, and I would like to hear what the readership thinks? -Matt

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A captured drug cartel cell and their tools of warfare.

Drug Slayings in Mexico Rock U.S. Consulate

March 15, 2010

By ELISABETH MALKIN and MARC LACEY

CIUDAD JUÁREZ, Mexico — The married couple gunned down Saturday as they drove back from a children’s birthday party with their infant daughter in the back seat were concerned about the violence plaguing this border town, but they never believed they could be its next targets, the husband’s brother said in an interview on Monday.

The couple, Leslie Enriquez, 35, a pregnant American consulate worker, and her husband, Arthur H. Redelfs, 34, an officer at the county jail in El Paso, were within sight of the bridge leading to the United States border crossing when gunmen said to have links to drug traffickers drove up to their car and opened fire, killing them both.

“He was a wonderful man,” said the brother, Reuben Redelfs. “We just regret this as a senseless act of violence.”

Gunmen also killed the husband of another consular employee and wounded his two young children in a near-simultaneous shooting elsewhere in the city, in what appeared to be coordinated assaults on American officials and their families. The killings provoked outrage from Washington and raised new questions about whether employees of the United States and their family members were increasingly at risk of being swept into the cross-fire of Mexico’s bloody drug wars.

The couple had been married for a couple years and lived in El Paso, where they were raising their 7-month-old daughter, who was unharmed in the shooting. Mr. Redelfs said he was now caring for the girl.

Despite concerns about the security in Ciudad Juárez, the couple traveled frequently between Texas and Mexico, where they had friends and Ms. Enriquez worked in the visa section of the American Consulate, Mr. Redelfs said.

“They weren’t worried as targets,” he said.

Asked if he believed the couple were targets because of Ms. Enriquez’s consular job, Mr. Redelfs chose his words cautiously, saying, “I find it more than a coincidence that two separate incidents involving consular employees who were shot and killed occurred on the same day.”

Silvio Gonzalez, a spokesman for the United States Consulate in Ciudad Juárez, said the agency would be closed Tuesday “as we mourn the loss in our community.” The consular office was closed Monday for a holiday.

The killings came during a particularly bloody weekend when nearly 50 people were killed nationwide in drug-gang violence, including attacks in Acapulco as American college students began arriving for spring break.

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*****

   Here is a quick run down on what China is doing in Iraq, and it is all about oil.  I find it interesting that China is getting more involved with really risky resource ventures in places like Iraq or the Congo. And what that means to this industry, is that the Chinese will find a way to secure these ventures and investments.  You will either see Chinese security folks, or they will use local nationals for the work.  But like with most security work, they tend to go with the kind of security they can really trust and depend upon for the most sensitive projects.  Especially to guard oil executives.

   The other thing about this that is frustrating, is that information about Chinese private security companies is very thin.  Maybe there is tons of stuff on Chinese servers?.  Who knows, but it is an area that I would like to learn more about as the fight for resources increases in the coming future. Our industry will only see more involvement in that resource war, and it is important to track this stuff.

   In Iraq, you could very well see a situation where you see Chinese security contractors rolling down the highway in SUVs, or posted at some gate of some oil facility. If any readers have any stories about bumping into Chinese military or contractors in Iraq, please feel free to post away in the comments.  Like I said, there is nothing written about Chinese PMC’s or PSC’s, and I would like to see Feral Jundi’s archives fill up with some more data about that.  I will keep looking, and if anyone finds anything else, let me know. Especially for Africa, because China is really involved there. -Matt

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Chinese guards at the Ahdab field Thaier Al-Sudan/Reuters 

Red Star Over Iraq

January 21, 2010

China’s ambitions in the Iraqi oil fields could change the landscape

By Stanley Reed and Dexter Roberts

It may be the start of the biggest oil job in the world. Each day, 20 workers from BP and China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) buckle down to the task of prepping the Rumaila oil field in southern Iraq for rapid development. In industry lingo, Rumaila is a “supergiant”—a 50-mile-long deposit of sweet crude with estimated reserves of 16 billion barrels, whose output may someday rank second only to Saudi Arabia’s vast Ghawar field. The Saudis, though, have carefully managed their oil assets for decades. In contrast, Rumaila, a lightly inhabited expanse of date groves and Bedouin encampments, has not had a proper upgrade since the 1970s. The Iraqis contracted with BP and CNPC last year (BP) to juice Rumaila’s production from 1.06 million barrels a day to 2.85 million, all in seven years. No one has ever tried such a ramp-up at a field as huge as this one. Putting Rumaila back in full working order will take tens of thousands of workers, 1,000 new wells, and billions in investment.

BP is the largest partner in the venture, but only by a dipstick: It has a 38% stake, while the Chinese hold 37% (the rest is owned by an Iraqi company). The media focus has been on BP’s decision to take up the Rumaila challenge for a low fee of only $2 for every barrel the venture produces. But the more important story could be China’s role. “CNPC’s involvement brings together the country with the most rapid growth in energy demand in history with the country that plans the greatest buildup of production capacity ever,” says Alex Munton, an Iraq specialist at Edinburgh-based oil consultants Wood Mackenzie.

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Buy the stuff here.

*****

   This battle is getting interesting now.  You see, DynCorp realizes that if they can apply more pressure to public opinion about this by engaging with the media, then maybe Congress might step in and halt this action do to the negative attention on all of this.

    I also noticed that a few media groups are really pushing congress and the public on the issue of disbarring Xe from the current list do to the latest stuff in Afghanistan. Strategically speaking, DynCorp benefits from this latest media attack on Xe, but you won’t hear DynCorp talking about that.

   Now what could possibly be happening though is some low grade corporate espionage and/or smear campaigns.  What I mean by that, is that companies can benefit from the downfall of their competition, and they will do what they can to help that process along. To maintain a moral and righteous stance, they would do what they can to feed that process on the sly.

     A prime example of this, is when a contractor is fired from one company, and then goes on to work for a competitor of that company.  That individual now knows a lot about the inner workings of his former company, and probably knows some dirt as well.  The temptation for that individual to feed their current company corporate office with information that could potentially hurt their former company, is great. Then a few anonymous tips to some Juicebox Commandos and bam, you have now just struck a blow against your competitor. This is yet again, another reason to treat your contractors right and not play games with them.  The non-disclosure agreement is not a ‘100 percent insurance policy’ solution against that type of thing.

   I also would not doubt that there are corporate moles in place at a few of the companies.  You see this in other industries, and I could totally see that happening with ours.  The competition for these contracts is extreme, and the temptation for companies to do this is great.  Plus, most of the companies are filled with guys who specialize in that kind of thing with their prior military, police, private investigator or ‘other’ career.  The amount of money on the line with these contracts is huge and everyone is seeking an edge in the market.

   And to clarify so I don’t get some corporate lawyer knocking on my door, I am not at all saying that DynCorp or anyone in this industry is participating in this kind of activity. I just bring this stuff up, because the potential is always there. Especially when you see it happening in other high dollar, high stakes industries. -Matt

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How to Strengthen the Afghan National Police

March 11, 2010

To the Editor:

Your March 6 editorial “ ‘If You Bring In the Cops’ ”) rightly makes the case that Afghanistan’s future lies in the ability to successfully connect the Afghan people to their government. To that end, the question of how to strengthen the Afghan National Police is correctly front and center.

As the responsibility for police training transitions to sole Pentagon control, the consequences of the choice of contract to support this effort deserve examination. The proposed Army contracting vehicle, which was originally established for technology procurement, will have the net effect of restricting the potential choice to two, or possibly only one, provider for future training.

As the former commander of the Afghan National Security Forces training mission recently testified, this crucial mission will require experienced government contractors. It is critical that concerns about the current procurement approach, lack of adequate competition and resulting choice of contractor do not undermine confidence in the training.

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*****

   Hmmm, I wonder if FPS is reading Feral Jundi. lol Actually this practice of overt and covert inspections is pretty common in a few agencies out there.  The Postal Service even uses mystery shoppers to get a real feel for their customer service and inner workings of offices, so this is nothing new for federal agencies. Mystery shopping is very common in other industries as well, and I have covered that here before.

    But what boggles my mind, is why haven’t more private military companies used this concept?  If you truly care about what is going on with your company, you should be fully involved with collecting intelligence on the inner workings of your company. That means sending folks out to your sites and talking with the contractor on the ground.

    I am not talking about just talking with the managers either. I am talking about getting feedback from the backbone of your company, and that is the contractor doing the work. These are the folks who represent the end result of all of your company policies and training, and a lot depends upon them.  These guys and gals are the ones your customer sees on a daily basis, and makes their judgements about your company based on the actions of these contractors.  The managers are there to lead and to implement company policy and training, and the best gauge for seeing if they did their job, is to study the contractors they are in charge of.

   Also, it is important to note that this is not a witch hunt, or undercover gotcha stuff.  It costs money to fire and hire folks, so ideally, this information is used to tweak policies where it makes it easy for contractors to do the right thing.  It also helps in identifying inefficiencies or identifying key training points that need to be reworked or re-emphasized in order to get a better outcome.  That is what you use this intelligence for.  Of course if you catch criminal activity within your company, you should act upon that information pronto.  But all in all, the idea behind obtaining feedback is to feed your Kaizen machine and make your company a top performer.

   The mystery shopping or covert employee thing is something I have mentioned before, which is just one tool to gain that kind of information about the workings of your company.  It is an extra cost, but it is the kind of investment that will pay for itself handily down the line. Because you can ask folks what is going on with your company, and they might give the straight scoop. Or they might not, partly because they don’t think you will do anything about it or they don’t trust the idea of giving you information that may or may not cause reprisals (thats if your company has a culture that does not support feedback, and if that is the case, you need to fix that by actually acting upon feedback and showing you care).

     You could also use customer or employee feedback software to mine that information gold.  Either way, if you are not doing these things, and actually acting upon that information to make your company better, then you are certainly headed down a road of uncertainty and peril.  You are just gambling at that point, with the hopes that nothing bad will happen to your company and that everything is just rosy with your people. pfffft.

   I guess my point with all of this, is that don’t be the company where the head does not know what the tail is doing.  Seek that feedback gold, and invest in the necessary measures to make that happen.  Start by just asking honestly what the issues are (and be responsive to those issues!!!), and if that doesn’t work, do surprise inspections, use software to gain employee and customer feedback, and finally, use mystery employees and get a solid read on what is really going on with your company. -Matt

Edit: Also check out this article about Best Buy and how they used ‘employee feedback’ to their advantage.

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Use of private security guards at government buildings comes under scrutiny

By Ed O’KeefeThursday, March 11, 2010

There’s a saying among some private security guards in the Washington region: “There’s no security in security.”

Poor job security and the potential dangers that come with protecting government buildings make it a risky line of work, said guards interviewed this week.

Unlike officers with the Pentagon Force Protection Agency who gunned down shooter John Patrick Bedell last week, most security guards at federal buildings in the Washington region are employed by private firms that have contracts with the Federal Protective Service.

The FPS, part of the Department of Homeland Security, provides security at more than 9,000 federal buildings across the country and uses about 15,000 contract security guards to support about 1,200 officers, inspectors and administrative staffers, according to agency officials. A House hearing Tuesday will focus on the FPS’s future and its response to a 2009 Government Accountability Office investigation that exposed security gaps at 10 major federal buildings. The GAO report also faulted the FPS for inconsistent training and poor oversight of private guards.

Next month, Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) plans to introduce legislation that addresses the agency’s future and broader threats and security measures at all civilian and military facilities, aides said.

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‘Not Responsible.‘ From LMS Defense-The Comics and Righteous Duke Designs.

   The thing about it folks, is that I like the LoM, and I think it is just one more tool that can be used in this long and costly war.  It gives congress a means to connect with private industry in a way that will be cost effective, and certainly effective if done properly.  The one caveat though, is that congress needs to understand the mechanisms at play with this concept, and they must have the tools on how to properly construct a LoM. It would take some modern day modifications to get it just right, but it is certainly not impossible, and all the pieces are there to put it together.

   Which leads me to my next point.  By far, Feral Jundi is the place with the most comprehensive collection and commentary about the subject of the Letter of Marque and Reprisal. I know, I search this stuff relentlessly, and have collected it all.  I invite the readership to explore all of this good stuff, and ‘build a snowmobile’ out of it. Hell, write congress and let them know about the LoM and your thoughts about it. Remind them about Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution and let’s get the word out. -Matt

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Letters of Marque and Reprisal: The Constitutional Law and Practice of Privateering

Theodore M. Cooperstein, U.S. Attorneys Office (SDFL)

Abstract

The United States Constitution grants to the Congress the power, among others, to issue “Letters of Marque and Reprisal.” Although the practice seems to have fallen into disuse in this century, it was an important tool of national power for the federal government created by the Framers, who placed great import on the federal government’s role in protecting international commerce and in enforcing international law.

Privateering played a significant role before and during the Revolutionary War, and it persisted in American history as an economical way to augment naval forces against an enemy in wartime. A significant outgrowth of the practice of privateering was the body of law resulting from prize court adjudications. United States courts, in deciding title to ships and goods taken prize, determined issues both of domestic and customary international law. In this manner the federal courts significantly shaped the role of international law in the United States jurisprudence as well as assured the role of the United States in the ongoing development of customary international law. Case law concerning prizes and privateering is accordingly a useful vehicle to examine the interplay of U.S. constitutional law and customary international law as they both developed through the Nineteenth Century.

Changes in the methods of warfare during the Twentieth Century diminished the role of privateering. But the Congressional authority to issue Letters of Marque and Reprisal remains. As a means to commission private actors to augment national forces in international crises, the Letter of Marque and Reprisal could yet have modern applications. It remains for innovative executive and legislative experiment to revive the ancient practice in a form befitting modern international problems.

Suggested Citation

Theodore M. Cooperstein, “Letters of Marque and Reprisal: The Constitutional Law and Practice of Privateering,” 40 J. Maritime L. & Comm. 221 (Apr. 2009)

Link to publication website here.

LinkedIn Page for Theodore M. Cooperstein here.

Download Pdf here.

   What will be cool, is if Doug can give an AAR on this conference, and provide some details that the readership might be interested in.  I think it is noteworthy that they only had three weeks or so to put this together, when normally these events take months to plan.  That to me only highlights the flexibility and speed of what the private industry is capable of if properly organized and mobilized.  I witnessed the same reaction of private industry during the Katrina Hurricanes back in 2005, and it is definitely a strength of the industry.  So the next step after this conference, is to see who goes where, and what they are doing. I will keep a watch on it, and see what pops up. -Matt

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Private Sector Eyes Opportunity in Haiti Rebuilding

By Pascal Fletcher

March 10, 2010

Rebuilding Haiti after its catastrophic earthquake should generate major contracts for private companies specializing in construction, logistics, transport and security, but U.S. executives say they need a clear reconstruction strategy to shape their business plans.

Private sector firms that focus on post-conflict or disaster relief operations gathered at a meeting in Miami this week to consider the business opportunities offered by Haiti’s recovery from the January 12 quake that devastated the capital Port-au-Prince and surrounding towns.

With Haiti’s government saying up to 300,000 people may have died, some economists are calling the Haitian quake the deadliest natural disaster in modern times. Relief experts and business leaders agree the mammoth task of rebuilding what was already the Western Hemisphere’s poorest state will be impossible without private sector participation.

“I don’t think they have any option but to get private companies in to help reconstruct Haiti,” Kevin Lumb, CEO of London-based Global Investment Summits Ltd, which organized the Haiti Reconstruction meeting in Miami, told Reuters.

“I think it opens up a great deal of business opportunities. Most of their infrastructure is destroyed, their roads, communications, buildings, it’s obviously affected water supply, electricity, so that all needs rebuilding,” Lumb said.

The Miami summit was also organized by the International Peace Operations Association, a trade group of companies working in conflict, post-conflict and disaster zones.

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