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<h1 id="reader-title">Security Firm Guarding Dakota Access
Pipeline Also Used Psychological Warfare Tactics for BP</h1>
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<p><span class="caps"><a
href="http://www.desmogblog.com/user/7018">Steve
Horn</a> • Tuesday, September 13, 2016<br>
</span></p>
<p><span class="caps">G4S</span>, a company <a
href="http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/G4S-Admits-it-Guards-Dakota-Pipeline-as-Protesters-Get-Attacked-20160906-0036.html"
target="_blank">hiring security staff</a> to guard the
hotly contested Dakota Access pipeline (<span
class="caps">DAPL</span>), also works to guard oil and
gas industry <a
href="http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/article-1208774/G4S-benefits-guarding-Iraqs-war-ravaged-oil-fields.html"
target="_blank">assets in war-torn Iraq</a>, and has
come under fire by the United Nations for human rights
abuses allegedly committed while overseeing a <span
class="caps">BP</span> pipeline in Colombia and
elsewhere while on other assignments.</p>
<p>Recently, the <span class="caps">UK</span>-based <span
class="caps">G4S</span> placed job advertisements on
its website, announcing it would be hiring security
teams to work out of offices in <a
href="https://shrinktheweb.snapito.io/v2/webshot/spu-ea68c8-ogi2-3cwn3bmfojjlb56e?size=800x0&screen=1024x768&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcareers.g4s.com%2Fjobs%2FArmed-Custom-Protection-Security-Officer-Mandan-ND_71463%2F"
target="_blank">Mandan</a> and <a
href="https://shrinktheweb.snapito.io/v2/webshot/spu-ea68c8-ogi2-3cwn3bmfojjlb56e?size=800x0&screen=1024x768&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcareers.g4s.com%2Fjobs%2FArmed-Custom-Protection-Security-Officer-Bismarck-ND_73365%2F"
target="_blank">Bismarck, North Dakota</a>. These two
locales are only a 45-minute drive away from the ongoing
<a href="http://sacredstonecamp.org/" target="_blank">Standing
Rock Sioux Tribe-led encampment</a> unfolding along <span
class="caps">DAPL</span>'s route in Cannon Ball, North
Dakota. First among the list of required experience for
both locations is service related to military police,
elite military forces, or “any support role in a
combat zone.” </p>
<p>Monica Lewman-Garcia, Director of Communications for <span
class="caps">G4S</span> Secure Solutions in North
America, told DeSmog, “<span class="caps">G4S</span>
Secure Solutions is providing fewer than 10 security
officers, assigned to remote sites and providing limited
short-term unarmed patrol services.”</p>
<p>Lewman-Garcia also stated that <span class="caps">G4S</span>
was not on the scenes at the now-infamous Labor Day
weekend incident in which private security forces used
pepper spray against and allowed their <a
href="http://www.democracynow.org/2016/9/6/full_exclusive_report_dakota_access_pipeline"
target="_blank">dogs to bite Dakota Access pipeline
protesters</a>, adding that the company had not
deployed its K9 units and that those involved worked for
a different company. <span class="caps">G4S</span> also
said it could not comment on whether it was hired to be
in North Dakota by Dakota Access <span class="caps">LLC</span>,
by another company altogether, or by one of the local
police departments. </p>
<h3>“Chaos Company”</h3>
<p>Dubbed the “<a
href="http://www.vanityfair.com/news/business/2014/04/g4s-global-security-company"
target="_blank">Chaos Company</a>” in an April 2014 <em>Vanity
Fair</em> article, <span class="caps">G4S</span> is
often brought into the stickiest situations, such as <a
href="http://www.g4s.com/en/Media%20Centre/News/2015/09/11/G4S%20wins%20contracts%20in%20Iraq%20and%20Afghanistan/"
target="_blank">overseeing security for</a> the <a
href="http://www.basrahgas.com/an-iraqi-company"
target="_blank">Basrah Gas Company</a>, an Iraqi
natural gas company which Shell, Mitsubishi, and South
Oil Company jointly own.</p>
<p><span class="caps">G4S</span> touts its expertise in
doing high-risk security work for the oil and gas
industry in a <a
href="http://www.g4s.com/%7E/media/files/4pg%20pdf%20case%20studies/g4s_case_oilandgaslow_170111.pdf"
target="_blank">company pamphlet</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“In Nigeria, for example, its services include the
provision and manning of emergency vessels operating
in the Niger Delta for Chevron. It also has a
considerable presence in Iraq where it is well placed
to assist in the protection of the war-torn nation’s
oil production which could make that country the third
largest oil exporter within a few years.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>An article published by <em>The Telegraph</em> (<span
class="caps">UK</span>) <a
href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/supportservices/11858387/G4S-eyes-global-market-as-it-wins-Middle-East-security-deals.html"
target="_blank">detailed</a> that <span class="caps">G4S</span>
had been hired to bring 500 personnel and 220 armored
vehicles to protect Basrah Gas Company properties in
Iraq. Those properties include two gas plants, a
liquefied petroleum gas storage facility, a shipping
terminal, and — paralleling the Dakota Access
situation — the pipelines between them. </p>
<p><span class="caps">G4S</span> also has <a
href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/clare-sambrook/nice-work-g4s-wins-118-million-guant%C3%A1namo-contract"
target="_blank">security contracts</a> with the <span
class="caps">U.S.</span> Department of Defense at both
Guantanamo Bay Detention Center and the controversial <span
class="caps">U.S.</span> military base in Diego
Garcia. The British human rights group Reprieve <a
href="http://www.reprieve.org.uk/press/police-asked-to-investigate-g4s-over-guantanamo-role/"
target="_blank">called for an investigation</a> of <span
class="caps">G4S</span> as it pertains to human rights
abuses which took place at Guantanamo.</p>
<h3>Oil and Gas Roots</h3>
<p>In 2008, <span class="caps">G4S</span> <a
href="http://www.g4s.com/en/media%20centre/news/2008/05/07/g4s%20completes%20acquisition%20of%20armorgroup%20international%20plc/"
target="_blank">acquired</a> the company ArmorGroup
International <span class="caps">PLC</span> as a
wholly-owned subsidiary. This company has been on the
public radar in recent years for being mired in a <a
href="http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/KJ06Df03.html"
target="_blank">human trafficking scandal</a> in
Afghanistan while guarding the <span class="caps">U.S.</span>
Embassy in Kabul on a <span class="caps">U.S.</span>
State Department contract. The <span class="caps">U.S.</span>
Department of Justice had sued ArmorGroup for allegedly
violating the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, <a
href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/armor-group-north-america-and-its-affiliates-pay-75-million-resolve-false-claims-act"
target="_blank">settling the lawsuit in 2011</a> for
$7.5 million.</p>
<p>Less well-known is that ArmorGroup has roots connecting
it to other human rights abuses and controversial
tactics on behalf of multinational oil and gas companies
through its precursor, Defense Systems Limited (<span
class="caps">DSL</span>), a firm founded in 1981,
according to a company <a
href="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Factsheet.pdf"
target="_blank">fact sheet</a> no longer online
acquired by DeSmog. ArmorGroup purchased <span
class="caps">DSL</span> as a wholly-owned subsidiary
in 1997.</p>
<p>“The company defended gold and diamond mines in Africa
from thieves, and oil pipelines in Latin America from
guerrillas,” <a
href="http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=12002"
target="_blank">wrote <em>The Financial Times</em></a>
in a 2005 article. “It guarded <span class="caps">U.S.</span>
and British embassies in the Middle East and elsewhere.
Often, <span class="caps">DSL</span> would use former
British special forces troops to train foreign forces in
counterterrorist tactics.”</p>
<h3><span class="caps">BP</span> Pipeline Human
Rights Abuses</h3>
<p>In the late-1990's, <span class="caps">DSL</span>
found itself in a human rights-related quagmire,
revealed first in the 1997 documentary, <em><a
href="http://mg.co.za/article/1997-07-04-bps-secret-soldiers/"
target="_blank"><span class="caps">BP</span>'s
Secret Soldiers</a></em>, and then in a 1998 <a
href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/1998/oct/17/1"
target="_blank">investigation</a> published by <em>The
Guardian</em> (<span class="caps">UK</span>) and <em>El
Espectador</em> of Colombia.</p>
<p>The joint inquiry by the newspapers demonstrated that
oil giant <span class="caps">BP</span> “bought and
supplied military equipment to a Colombian army brigade”
to police its <a
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocensa_pipeline"
target="_blank">Ocensa Pipeline</a>, a 500-mile-long
tube which at that time exported oil to the United
States. That brigade had “been implicated in two
massacres by rightwing death squads under its control
during the civil war” in Colombia and was said to deploy
psychological warfare (<span class="caps">PSYOP</span>s)
and counterinsurgency techniques in the attempt to win
over general public support for constructing the project
and to marginalize “subversives.” </p>
<p><span class="caps">DSL</span>'s tactics received
criticism from the human rights advocacy group <a
href="http://web.archive.org/web/20031118134126/http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR230441997?open&of=ENG-390"
target="_blank">Amnesty International</a>.
Furthermore, a United Nations Special Rapporteur on the
question of the use of mercenaries also expressed
concern about <span class="caps">DSL</span> in a <a
href="http://repository.un.org/bitstream/handle/11176/226839/A_54_326-EN.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y"
target="_blank">letter published in October 1998</a> for
the company's alleged use of intimidation and
torture in Colombia. </p>
<h3>“Spies for Hire” Under Investigation</h3>
<p><span class="caps">G4S</span> is not the only private
contractor identified on the ground in or around the
Sacred Stone Camp related to the Dakota Access
pipeline protests.</p>
<p>The show “Democracy Now!” revealed that a man who is
employed by the firm Torchlight <span class="caps">USA</span>,
<span class="caps">LLC</span>, but is appearing as a
freelancer, also <a
href="http://www.democracynow.org/2016/9/8/headlines/did_dakota_access_hire_guard_from_a_paramilitary_security_co_for_saturday_s_standoff"
target="_blank">showed up i</a>n North Dakota. And
court documents from the ongoing case in the <span
class="caps">U.S.</span> District Court for the
District of Columbia pitting the Standing Rock Sioux
Tribe against the <span class="caps">U.S.</span> Army
Corps of Engineers reveal that another firm, 10-Code <span
class="caps">LLC</span> — founded and run by a former
Bismarck Police Department detective named <a
href="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Paul%20Olson%20_%20LinkedIn_0.pdf"
target="_blank">Paul Olson</a> — also <a
href="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/10-Code%20Declaration_0.pdf"
target="_blank">has entered the fold</a>.</p>
<p>It's a phenomenon author and journalist <a
href="http://timshorrock.com/?page_id=17"
target="_blank">Tim Shorrock</a> calls “<a
href="https://www.amazon.com/Spies-Hire-Secret-Intelligence-Outsourcing/dp/0743282256"
target="_blank">Spies for Hire</a>” in his 2009 book
by the same name, a tome dedicated to chronicling
the outsourcing of <span class="caps">U.S.</span> intelligence.</p>
<p>“<span class="caps">G4S</span> and other companies like
it have one motive only: profit. Its work for
governments and energy corporations — particularly at
the pipeline this week — shows it has no respect for
ordinary people or human rights,” Shorrock told DeSmog.
“Whoever hires them should be investigated for
malfeasance, because their shoddy record in security is
a mile long.” </p>
<p>In that vein, the North Dakota Private Investigation
and Security Board announced that it has <a
href="http://bismarcktribune.com/news/state-and-regional/private-security-licensing-board-opens-investigation-into-use-of-dogs/article_d6f87664-e397-5b97-b549-23209a8f6209.html"
target="_blank">opened up an investigation</a> into the
private security firms deployed to patrol the
pipeline protests led by the Standing Rock Sioux and
whether those firms were even licensed to work in the
state. In addition, a local county sheriff's office has
begun a similar investigation with the North Dakota
Bureau of Criminal Investigations, exploring the Labor
Day weekend clash between security firms and protesters
at a <span class="caps">DAPL</span> site. </p>
<p>The North Dakota Private Investigation and Security
Board said it could not comment on which companies have
fallen under the purview of its ongoing investigation.</p>
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