[News] Mercenaries Circling Haiti

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Mercenaries Circling Haiti

By <http://www.zcommunications.org/zspace/billquigley>Bill Quigley

Wednesday, March 03, 2010

http://www.zcommunications.org/mercenaries-circling-haiti-by-bill-quigley

On March 9 and 10, there will be a Haiti 
conference in Miami for private military and 
security companies to showcase their services to 
governments and non-governmental organizations 
(NGOs) working in the earthquake devastated country.

On their website for the Haiti conference, the 
trade group IPOA (ironically called the 
International Peace Operations Association until 
recently) lists eleven companies advertising 
security services explicitly for Haiti.  Even 
though guns are illegal to buy or sell in Haiti, 
many companies brag of their heavy duty military experience.

Triple Canopy, a private military company with 
extensive security operations in Iraq and Israel, 
is advertising for business in Haiti.  According 
to human rights activist and investigative 
reporter Jeremy Scahill, Triple Canopy took over 
the Xe/Blackwater security contract in Iraq in 
2009.  Scahill reports on a number of bloody 
incidents involving Triple Canopy including one 
where a team leader told his group, "I want to 
kill somebody today
because I am going on vacation tomorrow."

Another company seeking work is EODT Technology 
which promises in its ad that its personnel are 
licensed to carry weapons in Haiti. EODT has 
worked in Afghanistan since 2004 and provides 
security for the Canadian Embassy in South 
Africa.  On their website they promise a wide 
range of security services including force 
protection, guard services, port security, 
surveillance, and counter IED response services.

A retired CIA special operations officer founded 
another company, Overseas Security & Strategic 
Information, also advertising with IPOA for 
security business in Haiti.  The company website 
says they have a "cadre of US personnel" who 
served in Special Forces, Delta Force and SEALS 
and they state many of their security personnel 
are former South African military and police.

Patrick Elie, the former Minister of Defence in 
Haiti, told Anthony Fenton of the Inter Press 
Service that "these guys are like vultures coming 
to grab the loot over this disaster, and probably 
money that might have been injected into the 
Haitian economy is just going to be grabbed by 
these companies and I'm sure they are not the 
only these mercenary companies but also other 
companies like Haliburton or these other ones 
that always come on the heels of the troops."

Naomi Klein, world renowned author of THE SHOCK 
DOCTRINE, has criticized the militarization of 
the response to the earthquake and the presence 
of "disaster capitalists" swooping into 
Haiti.  The high priority placed on security by 
the U.S. and NGOs is wrong, she told Newsweek. 
"Aid should be prioritized over security.  Any 
aid agency that's afraid of Haitians should get out of Haiti."

Security is a necessity for the development of 
human rights.  But outsourcing security to 
private military contractors has not proven 
beneficial in the U.S. or any other 
country.  Recently, U.S. Representative Jan 
Schakowsky (IL) and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders 
(VT) introduced bills titled "Stop Outsourcing 
Security" to phase out private military 
contractors in response to the many reports of 
waste, fraud and human rights abuse.

Human rights organizations have long challenged 
the growth in private security contractors in 
part because governments have failed to establish 
effective systems for requiring them to be 
transparent and for holding them accountable.

It is challenging enough to hold government 
accountable. The privatization of a public 
service like security gives government protection 
to private corporations which are also difficult 
to hold accountable.  The combination is doubly difficult to regulate

The U.S. has prosecuted hardly any of the human 
rights abuses reported against private military 
contractors.  Amnesty International has reviewed 
the code of conduct adopted by the IPOA and found 
it inadequate in which compliance with 
international human rights standards are not adequately addressed.

This is yet another example of what the world saw 
after Katrina.  Private security forces, 
including Blackwater, also descended on the U.S. 
gulf coast after Katrina grabbing millions of dollars in contracts.

Contractors like these soak up much needed money 
which could instead go for job creation or 
humanitarian and rebuilding assistance.  Haiti 
certainly does not need this kind of U.S. business.

In a final bit of irony, the IPOA, according to 
the Institute for Southern Studies, promises that 
all profits from the event will be donated to the 
Clinton-Bush Haiti relief fund.


Bill Quigley is legal director of the Center for 
Constitutional Rights and a long-time human 
rights advocate in Haiti.  <mailto:Quigley77 at gmail.com>Quigley77 at gmail.com




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