Iraq Goes To The Dogs: Allawi, Negroponte... and now Spicer

I am sure that many Australians will be able to remember the 1997 Sandline affair, when a private militia of international mercenaries tried to invade and conquer the Papua New Guinean island of Bougainville. The leader of that ragtag army was Lieutenant Colonel Tim Spicer, a former British commando. The following year, Spicer helped smuggle arms to Sierra Leone in violation of a United Nations embargo.

Now Spicer has turned up again, with a gig to trump them all: providing the world's largest private army to the new (ahem!) "sovereign" Iraqi government.

WorkingForChange reports that "United States taxpayers will pay up to $293 million for a contract to Aegis Defence Services of London, a new company created by Spicer, to create an "integrator" or coordination hub for the security operation for every single reconstruction contractor and sub-contractor throughout Iraq, effectively creating a private military that can attack Iraqi protestors at any time anywhere in the country...

The military will pay all of Aegis' expenses, plus a pre-determined percentage of whatever they spend, which critics say is a license to over-bill. The company has also been asked to provide 75 close protection teams -- comprised of eight men each -- for the high-level staff of companies that are running the oil and gas fields, electricity, and water services in Iraq."