ArmorGroup
 ArmorGroup  (Private military contractor)   | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Formation | 1981 |
| Parent organization | G4S Secure Solutions |
| Type | • military • commercial |
| Subpage | •ArmorGroup/North America |
| One of the largest private security firms operating in Iraq | |
ArmorGroup International is a British private military contractor company (now part of G4S[1]) providing protective security services, risk management, consultancy, security training and mine action services.
On 13 April 2004, The Guardian reported that former Conservative foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind had been appointed chairman of ArmorGroup, one of the largest private security firms operating in Iraq:
- Sir Malcolm Rifkind, who served in John Major's government during the 1990s, is now the prospective parliamentary candidate for Michael Portillo's safe Tory seat of Kensington and Chelsea. Sir Malcolm will be part-time and based in London. The US-owned company is not disclosing what his salary will be.
- According to its website, ArmorGroup has 7,500 employees in 50 locations including 650 employees in Iraq, as well as significant numbers in Afghanistan. It says its work is to "identify, reduce and resolve exceptional risks in complex, sometimes hostile, environments".[2]
ArmorGroup is a founder and full member of the International Stability Operations Association (ISOA), the British Association of Private Security Companies (BAPSC) and the now-defunct Private Security Company Association of Iraq (PSCAI).
According to former Labour foreign secretary Jack Straw, ArmorGroup and Control Risks were being paid a combined total of £50,000 a day to protect bureaucrats stationed in Iraq.[3] This included a £876,000 contract to supply 20 security guards for the Foreign Office - a figure that was to rise by 50 per cent in July 2004.[4]
Contents
Phoenix
Sold to ArmorGroup in 2005 for £4m Phoenix CP was founded five years earlier by former SAS men Jim Devenney and Michael Clifford, the only SAS member to be awarded the OBE for his services to that regiment. With Devenney retired the company was run by Clifford.[5] According to its website it is the UK’s leading specialist provider of close protection training to security professionals and military personnel as part of resettlement courses.[6]
It has trained men and women for the commercial sector since 2000 and holds preferred supplier status with the Ministry of Defence for Armed Forces’ resettlement training. Its website says that Phoenix-trained personnel are highly sought after and deployed on a wide variety of close protection assignments throughout the world (wherever ArmorGroup operates).
Based in Hereford the company works closely with military resettlement organisations and is registered with the Department of Education and Skills and can therefore accept students taking advantage of Career Development Loans or other government led initiatives.[7]
People
ArmorGroup was managed by Noel Philp, Chief Operating Officer; Matthew Brabin, M.D. and Christopher Beese, Chief Administrative Officer.[8]
Scandals
Warlord Scandal in Afghanistan
On 7 October 2010, the Senate Armed Services Committee released a report detailing how ArmorGroup turned to local, Afghan warlords to provide most of the guard force at a US airbase in the Herat Province in Western Afghanistan. The report included statements from many, including an Army sergeant, who said that one of the warlords used by the company "would provide money because of his contracting jobs with ArmorGroup. He had a lot of money from that and he would give that money to Taliban commanders, and they in turn would buy weapons and ammo, whatever they needed."[9]
The Danny Fitzsimons Case
On February 28, 2011, Danny Fitzsimons, a British employee of ArmorGroup, was sentenced to twenty years in prison for killing two colleagues and attempting to murder an Iraqi man. He was the first contractor to be tried in Iraqi courts. No formal inquiry was made into who armed Fitzsimons, a man who had a criminal record, pending weapons charges, had been diagnosed as having psychiatric issues, was fired from two other security companies and was known to be a problem among his peers.[10]
Resources
ArmorGroup North America | G4S | Group 4 Falck | Securicor
- Alec Klein, For Security in Iraq, a Turn to British Know-How, Washington Post, 24 August 2007.
Employees on Wikispooks
| Employee | Job | Appointed | End |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stephen Kappes | Director | November 2005 | June 2006 |
| Stephen Kappes | ? | April 2005 | November 2005 |
References
- ↑ "G4S Completes Acquisition of ArmorGroup International plc | G4S". g4s.com. 2011. Retrieved 7 June 2011.Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css must have content model "Sanitized CSS" for TemplateStyles (current model is "Scribunto").
- ↑ "Rifkind made head of Iraq security firm"
- ↑ Brian Brady "Former foreign minister cashes in on Iraq crisis", Scotland on Sunday, Published Date: 23 May 2004
- ↑ Robert Fisk and Severin Carrell "Occupiers Spend Millions on Private Army of Security Men", The Independent, 28 March 2004
- ↑ "It was a tough nut to crack but we've made £4m" Western Daily Press 19 November 2005 SECTION: News; Other; Others; Pg. 8
- ↑ Phoenix CP Homepage, Archived version of <http://www.phoenixcp.com/index.htm> dated 16 March 2005, accessed 7 September 2009
- ↑ Phoenix CP Homepage, Archived version of <http://www.phoenixcp.com/index.htm> dated 16 March 2005, accessed 7 September 2009
- ↑ "ArmorGroup official factsheet". Retrieved 16 June 2007.
- ↑ "Senate Armed Services Committee Releases Report on the Role and Oversight of DoD's Private Security Contractors in Afghanistan", Senator Carl Levin, 7 October 2010
- ↑ "Danny Fitzsimons Jailed for Iraq Security Guard Murders", BBC, 28 February 2011
