Airscan

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AirScan is a Florida Based[1] airborne security and surveilence company based in the United States. The company was founded in 1989 by two retired United States military officers[2]. Airscan are one of the few private operators of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the world[3]. Airscan has a fleet of drones and Cessna 337 aircraft equipped with infrared and radar gear[4]. One of the founders of Airscan is John Mansur, a former executive in Bechtel's aeronautics division[5].

Airscan has several regularly renewed US government contracts including the protection of the area around Cape Canaveral, monitoring certain parts of the United States-Mexican border and detecting cocaine fields in Colombia as part of the U.S. fight against the drugs trade. The firm also works extensively for the oil industry. Ever since 1993 it has been protecting ChevronTexaco's facilities in the Cabinda enclave of Angola. It also has a contract to conduct surveillance on the Cano Limon pipeline in Colombia[6].

According to Journalist Robert E. Peck writing in Z Magazine:

"Florida-based, Airscan, has also been implicated in funneling Pentagon weapons for counter-insurgency operations of Uganda's People's Defense Force, as well as to rebels in southern Sudan fighting the Khartoum regime. AirScan founder, retired Brigadier General Joe Stringham, was responsible for secretive U.S. counter-insurgency activities against the FSLN during El Salvador's civil war"[7].

Angola

Airscan had a contract to watch over Chevron's facilities in Cabinda, Angola[8].

Balkans

Airscan were contracted to support the US military in the Balkans[9]. In April 2001 a report showed that:

"AirScan is operating a Cessna 337 light aircraft in Macedonia in support of US Army attempts to monitor the Kosovo-Macedonian border. One of the company's US-registered Cessnas is based at Petrovec airport to the east of Macedonia's capital, Skopje, and is equipped with a Wescam forward looking infrared pod under its port wing and datalink pod under its starboard wing.

It is understood that the aircraft has flown daily missions along the border as part of the NATO effort to interdict the movement of ethnic Albanian insurgents inMacedonia from Kosovo"[10].

"The aircraft was operating in Macedonia at the height of the fighting in Tetovo last month, two weeks before US Air Force General Atomics RQ-1B Predators arrived at Petrovic to take over the mission of providing real-time imagery support for US forces. The AirScan aircraft is operating solely on behalf of US forces and does not share the imagery with NATO forces"[11].

Canada

Canadian mining firms have worked with Airscan[12].

Colombia

According to Eric Watkins of the Oil & Gas Journal:

"In 2003, Alberto Galvis sought punitive damages from Occidental Petroleum for the deaths of his mother, a sister, and a cousin, who were among 18 civilians killed when a Colombian military helicopter dropped a bomb on a village near the Cano Limon Pipeline in an antiguerrilla operation.
Occidental was named in the lawsuit because pilots of AirScan (a security firm Occidental used to protect its oil interests) mapped targets for the Colombian military.
Occidental Petroleum denied any responsibility either for the bombing or for the deaths of the civilians"[13]

According to a report in Politics and Government Week:

"According to the LA Times, a security firm hired by Occidental to monitor guerrilla movements (another U.S. company known as AirScan) provided coordinates to Colombian military pilots when they dropped cluster bombs on Santo Domingo, a village near one of the company's pipelines. Seventeen civilians, including seven children, died in the attack"[14].

The Gazette commented on the court ruling:

"A regional court has ordered the Colombian government to pay $725,000 U.S. to villagers who survived a 1998 cluster-bomb attack by the military".

Before going on to say:

"Members of the helicopter's crew have said they were fed incorrect co-ordinates by Americans in a surveillance plane operated by AirScan, a security contractor. AirScan has denied an involvement in the attack. A government official said an appeal to the ruling had been filed"[15].

Airscan are also contracted by the US government to locate cocaine field in Colombia as part of the US war against drugs[16]

Iraq

Airscan were subcontracted by Erinys International to provide night time aerial surveillence of Iraqi oil pipelines, according to Energy Compass:

"Erinys was the major security provider, but subcontracted some work to Security Application of Indiana, while Florida's AirScan provided night air surveillance"[17].

Airscan are contracted for night surveillence of the two main pipelines in Iraq, Kirkuk-Amman and Kirkuk-Ceyhan[18]. The firm also have a $10 million lease contract with the Iraqi government "to provide night air surveillance of the pipeline and oil infrastructure, using low-light television cameras to try to spot and head off saboteurs trying to use the cover of darkness. Under terms of the lease, the Iraqi government has the right to buy the equipment after two years and will then use Iraqi pilots[19].

In September 2008 Airscan were awarded a further $165 million contract by the US Army for surveillance support services in Iraq[20].

Affiliations

Occidental Pertroleum | Erinys International | Bechtel | Chevron

Notes

  1. ↑ Pamela Hess, Iraq oil attacked 196 times since war, UPI, 20-January-2005, Accessed 08-December-2009
  2. ↑ About Airscan, About Us, AirScan.com, Accessed 08-December-2009
  3. ↑ Spotlight, Private Security for Pipelines?, Africa Energy Intelligence, 17-November-2004, Accessed 08-December-2009
  4. ↑ BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE AND LOBBYING/FIRMS; N. 469, Airscan in Iraq, Intelligence Online, 30-January-2004, Accessed 08-December-2009 via Nexis UK
  5. ↑ BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE AND LOBBYING/FIRMS; N. 469, Airscan in Iraq, Intelligence Online, 30-January-2004, Accessed 08-December-2009 via Nexis UK
  6. ↑ BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE AND LOBBYING/FIRMS; N. 469, Airscan in Iraq, Intelligence Online, 30-January-2004, Accessed 08-December-2009 via Nexis UK
  7. ↑ Robert E. Peck, Remilitarizing Africa for Corporate Profit, ZMagazine, October-2000, Accessed 09-December-2009
  8. ↑ Spotlight, Private Security for Pipelines?, Africa Energy Intelligence, 17-November-2004, Accessed 08-December-2009
  9. ↑ Special Report, The Balkans, U.S. News & World Report, 4-November-2002
  10. ↑ Stewart Penney, AIRSCAN POLICES BALKAN BORDER, Flight International, 21-April-2001, Accessed 09-December-2009
  11. ↑ Stewart Penney, AIRSCAN POLICES BALKAN BORDER, Flight International, 21-April-2001, Accessed 09-December-2009
  12. ↑ David Pugliese, Soldiers of fortune: In the lawless reality of much of the post-Cold War world, private security is a booming business. And Canada, once noted for peacekeeping, is emerging as a source of talented guns for hire, Ottawa Citizen, 12-November-2005, Accessed 08-December-2009
  13. ↑ Eric Watkins, The extravagant allegation club, Oil & Gas Journal, 10-August-2009, Accessed 08-December-2009 via Nexis UK
  14. ↑ Expanded Reporting, Steelworkers Join Los Angeles Activists in Demanding Occidental Petroleum Stop its Complicity of Human Rights Abuses in Colombia, Politics & Government Week, 4-August-2004, Accessed 08-December-2009 via Nexis UK
  15. ↑ Ruth Morris, Colombia must pay bombed villagers: court, The Gazette (Montreal, Quebec), 27-May-2004, Accessed 08-December-2009
  16. ↑ JOSHUA KURLANTZICK, Outsourcing the Dirty Work; The military and its reliance on hired guns, The American Prospect, May 2003, Accessed 09-December-2009 via Nexis UK
  17. ↑ Feature Stories, Iraq: Guarding the oil, Energy Compass, 17-December-2004, Accessed 08-December-2009
  18. ↑ BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE AND LOBBYING/FIRMS; N. 469, Airscan in Iraq, Intelligence Online, 30-January-2004, Accessed 08-December-2009 via Nexis UK
  19. ↑ Jackie Spinner, Iraqi Oil Gets Its Own Police Force; Recruits Defend Against Infrastructure Sabotage, Washington Post, 17-Januray-2004, Accessed 08-December-2009
  20. ↑ US Fed News, U.S. Army Awards $165 Million Contract to AirScan for Surveillance Support, US Fed News, 13-September-2008, Accessed 08-Decmber-2009 via Nexis UK
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