Erinys International

Erinys International is a security company specialising in providing security guards in conflict zones including armed personnel. Erinys International was founded in February 2002 by Jonathan Garratt, a former British army officer and South African resident and Fraser Brown, also ex British Army. The firm's management has included:

• Major-General John Holmes, the former head of 22 SAS and between 1999 and 2001 Director Special Forces.
• Alastair Morrison formerly second in command of 22 SAS, was founder and chairman of Defence Systems Limited. He joined the board of Erinys International in January 2004 and left in April 2004 to join Kroll. He joined the Erinys Board again as non-executive Chairman in December 2008.
• From August 2002 until November 2003, the non-executive chairman was Sean Cleary, a former South African military intelligence and diplomatic operative (in the 1960s and 1970s) who previously ran pro-Apartheid lobbying and propaganda operations between the 1980s and the fall of Apartheid in 1994). Although not formally on the board of Erinys International, Cleary was given the title of non-executive chairman and was also on the board of Erinys South Africa.

Erinys logo

History of Erinys

The company is headquartered in Dubai and registered in the British Virgin Islands. It has subsidiaries in South Africa, the UK, and Iraq.

The company has a strong link with South Africa and has often been reported as being South African. The name Erinys was first used in the formation of Erinys South Africa on 19 July 2001. According to the South Africa-based Sunday Times, in December 2003, Erinys was headquartered in Johannesburg and directed by South Africans:

Information lodged with the DTI in Pretoria shows that the company... is steered by South Africans. Garratt is identified as a resident of the Dainfern housing estate near Midrand and has a South African ID number indicating his age as 41. Other directors of Erinys include Christian Gouws of Menlo Park, Pretoria, and Sean Michael Cleary of Constantia, Cape Town. A fourth director, Alastair Morrison, is listed as living in France. Garratt's assistant said Gouws and Cleary had resigned from the company, but their departures were not reflected in the latest data from the DTI.

Peter W. Roberts, corporate counsel to Erinys International, comments that Gouws

is not shown in the first (2002) accounts of the company. I have no idea who Christian Gouws is/was and assume that he set up the original shelf company, which he then sold to the founders of Erinys. He was never a director of the ‘operational’ Erinys.

Peter W. Roberts states that Gouws was not a director at the end of 2003 when the Sunday Times article appeared.

Erinys International was registered on 25 February 2002. The company has, though, been keen to counter the impression that it is South African and in subsequent statements has emphasised that it is led by British directors. Erinys (UK) Ltd has an incorporation date of 20 July 2004, according to the ICC Directory of UK Companies.

It has also rejected accounts that Erinys International has ever had offices in the UK noting that 'Erinys International has never had an address in the UK'. However, its own headed notepaper has in the past given the impression that Erinys International - the parent company of all of its subsidiaries - did have a London base. This stated that the 'Europe' address of Erinys International was 58 Grosvenor Street London W1K 4QN

Screengrab from Erinys headed notepaper used in response to War on Want, showing the claim that Erinys International had an office in London, created 20 December 2009

Military and mercenary backgrounds

It is clear that most of those who became involved in the various Erinys projects had worked together in one capacity or another either in the SAS, in other special forces regiments, or, most notably, in a variety of Private Military Corporations. Africa Energy Intelligence reports that:

Several of the group's executives have long experience of the [African] continent. Among them are Johnathan Garratt, the CEO and founder of Erinys group who supervised the operations of the defunct security firm Defense Systems Limited (DSL) in Kinshasa for a number of years, and Fraser Brown, Peter Roberts and Jonathan Eldridge. The latter three all worked in the past for ArmorGroup in Africa.

Africa Energy Intelligence also noted:

The boss of Kroll Security International is Alastair Morrison, founder of the security firm Defense Systems Ltd. and former shareholder in Erinys, the group that won a contract in August, 2003 to secure oil sites and pipelines in Iraq. Morrison has since sold his shares in Erinys which is managed by two of his former partners in DSL, Fraser Brown and Jonathan Garratt.

According to Corpwatch:

Alastair Morrison was co-founder and CEO of Defence Systems from 1981 to 1999. Morrison is currently affiliated with Armor Holdings, in which he holds $2.1 million worth of stock. Fraser Brown, who directs Erinys' security operations, has worked for DSL/Armor since 1999. Jonathan Garratt, Erinys' managing director, has worked for DSL and Armor since 1992. The two other Erinys officials named on the website have no apparent ties to either company: Sean Cleary is a South African risk management expert while Bill Elder previously worked as Bechtel's corporate security manager.

Although it is widely reported that Sean Cleary was amongst the founders of Erinys International, in fact he joined the company shortly after it was founded, though it was at this stage very much a start-up. The idea that he was a founder may have been encouraged by Cleary's own account in which he referred to a 'merger' between a company he directed (Strategic Concepts) and Erinys International. Cleary referred to the creation of 'a potentially larger risk management advisory business, incorporating *business* (intelligence and investigative), *environment* and *physical *risk advisory services, and growing the *socio-political* risk component (already offered by Strategic) through better marketing'.

Erinys's own account, as published in the Sunday Independent as a rebuttal to an article published in that newspaper on March 6 2005, states:

[Erinys] was not, as the [Sunday Independent] article stated, founded by Sean Cleary. In May 2002, Erinys acquired Strategic Concepts, a company managed by Cleary. His association with Erinys ended in November 2003.

Iraq

Erinys Iraq was formed in May 2003 and the Oil Protection Force (OPF) contract was awarded to it by the Coalition Provisional Authority on 5 August 2003.

According to Stephen Armstrong, writing in 2008, 'Erinys has more men in Iraq than the British army'. To exploit crucial contacts in the new Iraqi Governing Council, the firm entered into a joint venture with Nour USA, a company founded by a friend of Ahmed Chalabi. Nour USA bankrolled the new enterprise. Erinys won an $80 million contract in 2003 to guard Iraq oil installations and according to Newsday 'an industry source familiar with some of the internal affairs said Chalabi received a $2-million fee for helping arrange the contract'. Further alarms were raised when the company started recruiting many of Chalabi's former militiamen from the Iraqi Free Forces raising concerns that he was creating a private army.

Regarding the size of the contract, Erinys International says that in August 2003 when the contract was awarded to Erinys Iraq by the Coalition Provisional Authority, "The value of the contract (to last one year) was $39.5 million. Subsequent amendments increased the size and scope of the contract and extended it to 31st December 2004, when the OPF staff and assets were handed over to the Ministry of Oil in accordance with the terms of the contract."

Erinys claims that the "Joint Venture between Erinys Iraq and Nour USA only applied to the Oil Protection Force Contract (OPF) for the Ministry of Oil (MoO) – not to any other Erinys Iraq contracts – and the JV ended when the OPF contract ended at the end of December 2004".

According to reports, by February 2004, U.S. authorities in Iraq had awarded the company more than $400 million in contracts, including a $327 million deal to supply equipment for the Iraqi Armed Forces. . Erinys argues that these claims regarding the contract are false, stating:

That contract was nothing, whatever, to do with Erinys Iraq, so the attribution to Erinys Iraq is false..

According to a report in the Washington Post, the Nour contract was formally challenged because of complaints about the bidding process. The contract was then awarded to Anham, a company described in the Post report as being only "slightly different from Nour" and as having ties to Abul Huda Farouki. Erinys went on to supply security services to Anham.

Iraq contracts

Contract	Date Started	Date Ended
Oil Protection Force	August 2003	December 2004
Gulf Regional Division	January 2004	November 2007
AG Siemens Contract	2007	N/A

The initial Erinys contract in Iraq was the Oil Protection Force (OPF) contract. This contract was active from August 2003 until December 2004 when responsibility for guarding the oil pipelines was handed over to the Iraqi government. Erinys also had a contract to provide "security and support services to the US Army Corps of Engineers" in the Gulf Region Division (GRD). The contract ran from the formation of the GRD in January 2004 until November 2007. Erinys also had a contract in 2007 to provide support to AG Siemens, which was in Iraq to "repair and refurbish several power generating plants across Iraq".

Ahmed Chalabi connection

The New Yorker's Jayne Mayer reported on the connections between Ahmed Chalabi's friend and Erinys. She writes:

Several of Chalabi’s friends have been awarded lucrative contracts. Abdul Huda Farouki, a Jordanian-American businessman who lives outside Washington, D.C., has obtained big stakes in two companies, Nour USA and Erinys Iraq, that will be paid millions of dollars to supply the Iraqi Army and to secure the country’s oil infrastructure. Farouki became a friend of Chalabi’s when he took out twelve million dollars in loans from Petra Bank.

Writing for The Guardian Suzanne Goldberg notes:

The first recruits of the 14,000-strong oil protection force raised by Erinys Iraq were members of the Iraqi Free Forces, the US-trained militia that was headed by Ahmed Chalabi, an Iraqi exile who was America's protege in the run-up to the invasion. Members of Mr Chalabi's inner circle were among the founding partners of Erinys Iraq.

According to reports, Nour USA provided the initial funding for Erinys Iraq. Nour's funder was a friend and business associate of Ahmed Chalabi, Abul Huda Farouki. Nour USA were the key beneficiary of both the oil security contract and the Iraq army procurment contract. Nour is a joint venture partner with Erinys and the Erinys security contract was amended to include Nour. According to Newsday reports, a founding partner and director of Erinys Iraq is Faisal Daghistani, the son of Tamara Daghistani, for years one of Chalabi's most trusted confidantes.

Africa News reported in 2004 that the firm's legal representative in Baghdad is Chalabi's nephew Salem Chalabi. Erinys denies that Salem Chalabi acted as its legal representative, saying:

Salem Chalabi is not and never was, Erinys Iraq’s legal representative in Baghdad. I am advised that in the early days of 2003, the Erinys MD contacted Clifford Chance to provide legal advice in Baghdad and they sent Salem Chalabi to the office. As the CFO I was also responsible for legal affairs and I certainly never met Salem Chalabi and I appointed an Iraqi lawyer, Auss Muthefer Younis, to provide legal services to Erinys Iraq from early in 2004. In 2008 the current Iraq management appointed Hadeel A. Hassan to provide legal services".

Mark Perlman writes of the controversial connections between Erinys and Ahmed Chalabi:

In addition to fueling criticism over the lack of transparency of the bidding process in Iraq, the contract has also ignited political infighting in Baghdad between two key U.S. allies. The leader of the Iraqi National Accord, an exile group with close links to the CIA, has accused one of his main rivals of orchestrating the deal for his own purposes. Iyad Allawi told the Financial Times last December that Ahmed Chalabi, the leader of the Pentagon-backed Iraqi National Congress, had engineered the Erinys contract in order to set up a private militia that would end up undermining central authority over the vital oil sector.

Erinys contests several aspects of the reported connections between itself, Nour USA and Ahmed Chalabi. According to Peter Roberts, legal counsel to Erinys:

I am aware that there is a belief that A. Chalabi was somehow instrumental in obtaining the contract (and that he was paid $2 million), but the link with Nour USA was formed after the award of the contract and it is unclear to me:

• how the Iraqi Governing Council might have been involved in the contract award which was factually made by the Coalition Provisional Authority and
• who might have paid Chalabi $2 million, since Erinys did not have that sort of money at that time

However, beyond saying that Knut Royce (and others) was wrong, I cannot deny that they said it, so, as long as the allegation is in reported speech, it is admissible.

Nour USA

In 2003 a report in the National Journal shed some light on the relationship between Nour USA and Erinys. The report said:

The company's [Nour USA] managing director, David Braus, said the Cohen Group was hired to help identify relevant American government contacts for winning business in Iraq. The Cohen Group "introduced us to people in the U.S. government who were involved in oil-industry security," Braus said. At the Cohen Group, Christine Vick and Paul Gebhard are leading the work for Nour.

As for Erinys Iraq, Braus said the firm is made up of joint-venture companies, Iraqi expatriates, and Iraqis who lived under Saddam Hussein's dictatorship. It now employs about 100 people in its Baghdad headquarters, but expects to have as many as 10,000 employees throughout Iraq by the end of this year. Braus added that the Cohen Group has also been trying to help Nour, which has a partnership with MCI and other companies, win a big mobile telephone contract in Baghdad that the provisional authority is expected to award soon.

Guarding oilfields with Kurdish fighters and South African supervisors?

Erinys ran the second largest training scheme in Iraq to create a private army guarding the oil pipelines and refineries. In addition to its British and South African employees, Erinys hired and trained about 14,000 Iraqis. According to Pratap Chatterjee of CorpWatch, these jobs were 'technically open to all Iraqis', but those guarding the oil refinery checkpoint in Kirkuk with whom Chatterjee spoke 'estimated 95 per cent were peshmerga'. Peshmerga means 'ready to die' in Kurdish and they fought Saddam Hussein with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. According to Chatterjee part of the reason for this is that 'the occupation forces don't trust Arabs'. The top wage for the Kurds, according to Chatterjee, was $120 per month, whereas their supervisors, 'many of whom are South African' earn $5,000 a month on average.

'Plunder of Iraqi Oil'

Erinys has objected to the implication made by War on Want that it has been involved in the 'plunder of Iraqi oil'. In its response the company stated:

Allegation made by WoW: WoW invited demonstrators to hold a protest outside the offices of companies working in Iraq, including Erinys’ offices, to campaign against the "plunder of Iraqi oil". The clear allegation is that Erinys is complicit in this plunder.

Fact: The only involvement of Erinys in oil in Iraq was to train and manage an Oil Protection Force of up to 17,500 Iraqis under a contract with the Iraqi Ministry of Oil to protect Iraq’s oil installations from attack.

The presentation of an 'Allegation' followed by a 'Fact' here would seem to imply either (a) that War on Want had alleged a greater involvement in the 'plunder of Iraqi oil' than the securing of oil fields (which it did not), or (b) that the Oil Protection Force contract cannot itself amount to being 'complicit in this plunder'. On the latter point, Erinys was appointed to guard Iraqi oil by the Coalition Provisional Authority, the unelected body which governed Iraq after the illegal invasion of the country. It is indeed arguable therefore that Erinys is 'complicit in this plunder' since it secured Iraq's oil fields whilst the US and multinational oil corporations have pushed for access.

Incident involving 16-year-old boy in May 2004

The firm also drew criticism from Amnesty International after the Observer reported obtaining photos that showed Erinys employees restraining a 16-year-old Iraqi boy 'with six car tyres around his body':

Pictures obtained by The Observer show two employees of Erinys restraining the 16-year-old Iraqi with six car tyres around his body. The photographs, taken last May, show the boy frozen with fear in a room where the wall appeared to be marked by bullet holes. This newspaper was told he was left immobile and without food or water for more than 24 hours. The firm has denied the boy - arrested for stealing a length of cable - was brutally treated. It claimed he was released without harm within minutes.

The Guardian also reported the denials by Erinys about the incident:

A statement released yesterday by Erinys said: 'This process lasted for approximately three minutes, when the youth broke down in tears, at which point the tyres were immediately removed and the individual released into the custody of his father.'

Erinys says the arrest took place last May at the Kirkuk Sector Patrol Base near the K1 gate of the Northern Oil Company compound. A company spokesman claimed the boy was a shepherd arrested by Erinys's pipeline patrol for allegedly stealing newly-laid cable. The company sent a vehicle to collect his father.

The statement said: 'On learning of the circumstances leading to the arrest of his son, the father expressed shame at his son's activities and requested that he be taught a lesson. In the presence of his father, two Erinys employees restrained the youth using tyres.'

The company claims the picture was taken not to brag but to prove 'there was no injury to the individual - no bruising, no bleeding, no torn clothing'.

Amnesty International said the pictures were 'disturbing' and called for private firms in Iraq to be regulated and monitored.

The Observer also alleged that Erinys was detaining suspects in holding cells in Kirkuk:

A source with knowledge of Erinys' operations in Iraq claimed the firm, which employs thousands of Iraqis, keeps suspects in a holding cell in Kirkuk.

The company's statement said it was authorised to detain suspects and conduct investigations. It could not interrogate but could detain suspects until they were handed over to the authorities. The restraining of the boy was a 'one-off event' in the garage of the patrol base.

When accused of 'prisoner abuse' by War on Want Erinys insisted 'Erinys has never been involved with holding prisoners in Iraq'. But its own statement admits that it has held people in detention:

The Erinys Oil Protection Force was authorised by the government to detain suspects and conduct investigations. Such investigations did not include interrogation but may have included detention until hand over to the police or coalition forces.

Perhaps there is a difference between 'detention' and being a 'prisoner', but it is not easy to understand what the difference is since those detained are not at liberty to leave.

Legal action over death of US soldier in 2005

In October 2007 Reuters reported a legal action against Erinys was launched in both Texas and London:

A British private security company is being sued in the United States over the death of a U.S. soldier hit by one of its convoys in Iraq, according to court documents... The case against Erinys, filed in a court in Houston, Texas, on Wednesday and also in London, was brought by the Perry Monroe, father of Christopher Monroe, a U.S. soldier who was struck by an Erinys vehicle while on duty in southern Iraq in October 2005.

The lawsuit accuses the Erinys convoy of ignoring warnings and travelling at excessive speed after dark without lights fully on, leading to an accident in which Monroe was hit, suffering severe injuries that led to his death.

"Even though warned that the remainder of the U.S. convoy was ahead, the Erinys PSD team employee with reckless disregard accelerated to a high rate of speed and struck Christopher with his armoured Suburban [vehicle], tearing off his right leg.

"Mr Monroe has been compelled to file this lawsuit to require the Erinys PSD team to account for its action that led to the death of his 19-year-old son," reads the suit, which also seeks unspecified damages.

Erinys, which provided security to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at the time of the incident, denied any wrongdoing... The case filed in Houston is the first time that a private security company has been accused of negligence in the case of the death of a U.S. soldier, lawyers said.

Erinys evidently don't like this story to be repeated because when it was repeated by War on Want they complained. Erinys stated:

2nd Allegation made by WoW: “Erinys is also being sued in the US for the death of a US soldier hit by an Erinys convoy in Iraq in 2005”

Fact: Reuters contacted Erinys before filing its original press report on 26 October 2007 (http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL26662748) and included a statement that “There was a full and very thorough investigation by the U.S. military into the case at the time, and both Erinys and its employees were fully exonerated”. This balance has been excised from the WoW report.

This response from Erinys does not contradict the statement that Erinys was being sued in the US and London. It would be unbalanced to state that Erinys was guilty without giving their view that they have done nothing wrong. But War on Want did not express any view on their guilt or otherwise. In other words Erinys is admitting that the statement is true. It is hardly 'unbalanced' to state the truth of the matter.

Kirkuk incident 18 October 2007

According to a report in The New York Times:

A man lost his eye and two other people were wounded when private security contractors fired into a crowded taxi as it approached their convoy of sport utility vehicles in northern Iraq on Thursday.

The shootings took place when security guards working for the British company Erinys International were escorting employees of the United States Army Corps of Engineers on a highway east of Kirkuk. The guards said that a car approached “at a high rate of speed,” according to a statement issued by the Corps of Engineers. When efforts to warn it off failed, the contractors fired into the vehicle, the statement said.

One of the occupants of the car, who was interviewed from a hospital bed in Kirkuk, said that after they fired, the security contractors pointed their guns at the car to discourage those inside from climbing out. The guards then drove away without offering medical help, said the man, Zairak Nori Qadir, whose right eye was hit by a bullet.

“They fired on us, and we never threatened them,” Mr. Qadir said. “They shot us and didn’t let us release ourselves from the car until they escaped and left us covered in blood.”

“Those are savages and criminals and killers,” he said.

A man who answered the phone at Erinys’s Middle East headquarters in Dubai referred questions to the Corps of Engineers. In its statement, the Army Corps said it would appoint an officer to investigate the shooting. “No further details are available at this time,” the statement said.

Erinys's account of the incident in Kirkuk was given in a press release rebuttal of allegations made by War on Want. Their account of the incident is as follows:

The Erinys team had been deployed to escort a convoy of vehicles carrying civilian employees of the US Army Corps of Engineers on a highway east of Kirkuk in Northern Iraq. When a vehicle approached the convoy at high speed the security team initiated escalation warning procedures under the rules for the use of force specified by the US Government. These rules are a legally enforceable part of contracts between security companies and the US Army Corps of Engineers in Iraq and are designed to protect convoys from attack by mobile suicide bombers. In the incident referred to above the convoy was halted to change a punctured tyre; all sirens and flashing lights were operating and all traffic was stationary and being held at a safe distance.

Despite the sirens and flashing lights a fast-moving taxi drove around the stationary traffic towards the convoy. The Erinys team gave the specified verbal, hand and bright light warnings to the taxi, but it did not stop. Carefully aimed disabling shots were then fired into the engine block to disable the vehicle as the penultimate stage of escalation. Regrettably, injuries were caused to the passengers by a ricochet. Before leaving the scene, the Erinys team noted that the occupants (two at their count) were being given medical assistance in a nearby ambulance. A subsequent Press Release by the US Army Corps of Engineers confirmed that the Erinys team had complied with laid-down procedures.

Erinys concluded that 'the incident in Kirkuk is not an example of human rights abuse but of a professional response in self-defence against a potential vehicle-borne suicide bomb.'

However, it is misleading to refer to the unarmed occupants of the taxi as a 'potential vehicle-borne suicide bomb' and reminiscent of the spin used by the UK and US governments to displace attention from the killing or wounding of civilians by military personnel. for example, a similar logic might describe the Brazilian electrician Jean charles de Menezes as a 'potential suicide bomber', though in fact he was an innocent civilian.

Africa

Connections with Apartheid South Africa and white supremacist Rhodesia

The connections between Erinys and military and intelligence operatives formerly of the Apartheid regime in South Africa have been much reported. The basis of this is as follows. First of all the Southern African connections of the founders are extensive. Most have worked in the private military industry in Africa, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. Some have served in the military or intelligence services of Southern African States. For example Sean Cleary had a background in military intelligence and co-founder of Erinys International Fraser Brown left the British military to sign up with the Rhodesian Light Infantry where he served for 4 years in the Para Commandos between 1975 and 1979. At the time the racist Rhodesian regime was engaged in a bitter guerrilla war with the liberation movements whose demands included ending the racist system of government which denied black people the vote. The RLI remained one of only two '"all-white" units in the armed forces until the very end of the war in 1979-80'. According to some accounts the culture of the all white RLI was deeply racist and at least some of the regiment engaged in torture. According to one memoir which recounts the experiences of 'K', a veteran of the RLI:

This is painful listening. Starkly, Fuller relates K's confessions, particularly the torture of a young African woman. The veterans' conversations are saturated with racial slang and expletives, echoing the violence of their acts. He and his friends, said K, were not animals--they were "worse than animals."

South African connections

Erinys has been widely reported to be 'full of former South African special forces soldiers'. In 2004 the Cleveland-based newspaper The Plain Dealer reported that 'Four Erinys employees have another speciality. Etienne Smith, Braam "Pottie" Potgieter, Conrad Blything and Cobus Brink, all South Africans, form the personal security detail for O'Donnell. They are charged with protecting his life as he oversees the pipeline.' In 2005 a PBS journalist went on patrol with an Erinys team and observed that 'Most of them are South Africans, with thick accents.'

Africa Confidential estimates that there may be as many as 1,000 former members of the South African security forces in Iraq at present UPI reports that '1,500 South Africans also serve in Iraq' Jonathan Manthorpe of the Ottawa Citizen reports that there are '1,500 South Africans, most of them white remnants of the apartheid regime, working for security companies in Iraq.'. In an interview with PBS, Andy Melville of Erinys explained how he had "probably about 120 South Africans", working for him. Between June and August 2006 Erinys made 111 of their South African staff redundant due to the implementation of new anti-mercenary legislation in South Africa. John Holmes, a director at Erinys, said: "Altogether 111 [South Africans] were made redundant due to the pending legislation ... We felt we had to do it early on so there would be no short notice change-around when the law comes into effect. They were hugely disappointed, and so were we."

Erinys is understandably sensitive about allegations of its connections with South African paramilitaries formerly working for the Apartheid regime. Peter Roberts of Erinys writes:

There were never more than fifty expatriates employed on the OPF contract (not ‘thousands’). In fact the contract required forty, but more were needed to provide management expertise. The maximum number of expatriates employed by Erinys Iraq (under the OPF, USACE and other contracts) was probably about 400. They were not exclusively British and South Africa and in 2005 I noted 21 different nationalities in the expatriate workforce.

No doubt there were a variety of nationalities working for Erinys, but this statement does not deny that significant numbers of South Africans worked for Erinys in Iraq. How many of them had been involved in Apartheid intelligence, special forces and paramilitary operations is still unknown.

South African paramilitary connections

Operatives working on contract for Erinys (albeit through subcontractors Security Applications Systems International) have had connections with South African Apartheid era paramilitary forces. News reports suggest that 'A former policeman from Pretoria and five other South Africans who worked for a company [Erinys] that provides security services to US civilians in Iraq were wounded in a suicide bombing in January.'

Francois Strydom was a South African recruit to SASI, a subcontractor to Erinys. Strydom was killed in a bombing incident in Baghdad on January 28 2004. An article for ZNet reported that Strydom was a former member of Koevoet, the South African apartheid-era paramilitary police unit, notorious for acts of violence, torture and murder. This 'counter-insurgency' unit also waged a dirty war against Namibian rebels 'that left few prisoners'. A recruit to the same Erinys subcontractor, SASI, who was also injured in the bombing was Deon Gouws, a former member of the South African Security Branch and the notorious Vlakplaas death squad. In 1996, Gouws had received an amnesty from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission after admitting to acts of petrol bombings, arson, car bombings and murder. These included:

• between 40 to 60 petrol bombings of the homes of political activists;
• a car bombing in 1986 that killed an ANC activist;
• an arson attack on the home of a doctor who was later assassinated by a Security Branch death squad;
• the deaths of at least nine recruits to the military wing of the ANC who were shot and their bodies burned; and
• the extra-judicial murder of five would-be bank robbers who were lured into a trap by the Vlakplaas.
• Involvement in the 1986 murder of regional minister and opposition leader Piet Ntuli.

According to a report for the Pacific News Service, 'There are an estimated 1,500 South Africans employed by security contractors in Iraq, according to the South African foreign ministry. Many used their backgrounds as mercenaries during Apartheid to bolster their credentials.'

Erinys has objected to accounts, such as that of War on Want, suggesting that these operatives were employees of Erinys:

Erinys carries out detailed background checks of its prospective employees and has never employed `former apartheid-era paramilitary police and mercenaries from South Africa’. The WoW reference is to an incident in January 2004, when a subcontractor to Erinys in Iraq was found to have employed such people after failing to carry out background checks: Erinys terminated that subcontract shortly afterwards. WoW would have known this by reference to articles in the Pretoria News of 29 January 2004 which stated that the individuals were employed by a sub-contractor.

The denial here turns on the definition of 'employed'. The operatives were working for a company that was subcontracted by Erinys – SASI. They were not however, directly employed by Erinys.

Sean Cleary

The appointment of Sean Cleary as non-executive chairman of Erinys also connects the company to Apartheid-era intelligence and propaganda networks. Cleary was a South African military intelligence operative in the 1960s and later became a south African diplomat based, among other places, in the US. After leaving the diplomatic service in the 1980s Cleary set up a series of companies in London and elsewhere. Some of these were reported as being lobbying and propaganda fronts for the Apartheid regime. In addition Cleary acted as spokesperson for Jonas Savimbi of UNITA, the US and Apartheid proxy engaged in subverting the Angolan government. For example Cleary's company Strategy Network International was described by The Guardian as being a key part of "an extensive network of right-wing organizations linked to the South African government". According to The Guardian's investigation, the company was 'set up in the 1980s by Sean Cleary, a former South African diplomat who once served in Washington. Cleary's group spearheaded the 1989 election campaign in Namibia for pro-South African politicians running against the Namibian independence movement, Swapo':

Subsequent investigations in South Africa have revealed that the anti-Swapo effort was the first part of "Operation Agree," a complex secret strategy by South African military intelligence designed to preserve South African economic dominance of the southern African region. Support for Unita in Angola's elections was the second phase of "Operation Agree," according to a former intelligence officer, Nico Basson, who gave extensive testimony during the investigation.

According to a report in The Independent, Strategy Network International was specifically created to lobby against economic sanctions and as propagandist for Unita, the Angolan opposition group, and for the so-called 'transitional government' of Namibia set up in defiance of UN resolution 435 on Namibian independence.

Nigeria

In August 2009 Erinys International announced the award of a 3-5 year contract by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The contract is to protect British diplomats in the Nigerian capital Abuja.

Erinys had a presence in Nigeria prior to securing the FCO contract. According to a report in Africa Energy Intelligence (AEI):

In recent years the private security industry has flocked to the oil sector and particularly to Nigeria, where Britain's ArmorGroup, Control Risks Group, Erinys and Mars Omega as well as the U.S. concern Triple Canopy all have offices.

Another AEI report claims:

Erinys, which carried out reconnaissance operations for Chevron on the Benin River, Dibi, Gbokoda, Omuro and Opuekeba oil fields which the American major was forced to close down in 2003 and which it partially re-opened in 2006. To facilitate its operations in the Delta, Erinys teamed up with the Nigerian concern Ibru Organization which is controlled by the family of Alex Ibru, former governor of Delta state and then interior minister in the first government of the late Sani Abacha. Now run by one of his sons, Michael Ibru, the group remains highly active in the Delta..

Tim Reilly, director of energy projects at Erinys International, commenting on the firms security operations in the Niger Delta, said:

"We are increasingly having to move away from addressing the symptoms and begin to start addressing the causes,". Whereas security used to involve dominating or excluding security threats, Erinys advocates combining traditional physical security measures with the adoption of moral principles on, for example, human rights.

Opening offices across Africa

Nigeria isn't the only country in Africa where Erinys have a presence. According to a 2005 article in the Indian Ocean Newsletter:

"It is now to open agency offices in several African countries: Congo, Ghana, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania and Sudan. As part of this scheme, it has just taken the former Africa chief of ArmorGroup, Jonathan Eldridge, to run its South Africa office which will oversee the company's African expansion".

By October 2009 the Erinys website lists African offices in South Africa, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Allegations of involvement in Ghana and elsewhere

It has been occasionally reported that Erinys was involved in human rights abuses in Ghana and other places such as in Nigeria, Angola and Colombia. For example Pratap Chatterjee's book Iraq Inc. states:

In August 2003, the Wassa Association of Communities Affected by Mining (WACAM), a Ghanain nonprofit released a report detailing alleged human rights abuses perpetrated by Erinys workers at an Ashanti Gold mine. It relays eyewitness accounts of Ashanti Gold security personnel torturing, beating, and killing local small scale miners between 1994 and 2002. WACAMK further alleges that corporate security used guard dogs to feed on trespassers.

These allegations are echoed by Richard Giragosian in the Asia Times who writes that Erinys and its staff

have been further plagued by a series of questions over its security work in the Niger Delta and Angola, its role in protecting the British Petroleum pipeline in Colombia, and have been subjected to allegations of human rights violations at the Ashanti gold mine in Ghana.

Obviously Erinys could not have been implicated in any of these events before the firm was founded in 2001/2. In addition it can be noted that Erinys has specifically stated in an apology published by the South African Sunday Independent in 2005 that 'it has not conducted any activities or provided services to Ashanti, nor has it done any work in Ghana.'

Erinys also state that they have not been involved at all in Colombia and have had only one contract in each of Angola and Nigeria (as at 2009):

The only contract that Erinys has had in the Niger Delta was a consultancy project (ie it did not involve provision of security guards) and is detailed as a Case Study on the Erinys website at: http://www.erinys.net/#/case8-niger/4535132936. Erinys has never had any operations in Angola, except for a market research study on the beer market for an SA client, which was carried out using a third party in Angola. Erinys has never had any operations or contracts in any part of South or Central America.

In the case of Ghana the original source detailing human rights abuses by Ashanti security staff does not mention Erinys as the company involved. Erinys had not been created until the very end of the period covered by the report. On the other hand, ArmorGroup for which many of the senior figures in Erinys previously worked, has been employed by AngloGold Ashanti in Ghana, according to some reports.

In the case of Colombia, it seems likely that Erinys has - at some point - been confused with Defence Systems Limited, the company which was taken over by ArmorGroup in 1997. Most of the senior management of Erinys formerly worked for DSL/Armor. DSL ran the security for the Ocensa pipeline in Colombia and was implicated in significant human rights abuses there.

According to an investigation carried out jointly by the Guardian and the Colombian newspaper El Espectador, confidential documents in the Guardian's possession reveal that:

Ocensa bought and supplied military equipment to a Colombian army brigade protecting its pipeline that has been implicated in two massacres by rightwing death squads under its control during the civil war. Talks on the arms deal began soon after one well-publicised massacre of 14 people, including women and children. The chief security officer for BP and Ocensa discussed arming the brigade with attack helicopters and guns.

Ocensa security, run by the British-based security company Defence Systems Limited (DSL), proposed setting up a "psychological warfare" training course for internal security staff made up of former Colombian army officers. DSL and its ex-SAS soldiers were brought to Colombia by BP to protect its pounds 25 billion oil fields in the east and the 500-mile Ocensa pipeline that carries the crude oil to the Caribbean coast for export to the United States. Oil installations in Colombia are a military target for leftwing guerrillas, and BP receives protection from the Colombian military. But in the past two years British non-governmental organisations have repeatedly raised concerns with BP about its secret protection agreements with Colombian security forces - among the world's worst human rights abusers - and with international corporate mercenaries.

The Guardian and El Espectador investigation also found that:

While these talks were taking place Ocensa security ran a well-financed spying operation in the local community using paid informants, according to a former security official. The information was passed to counter-guerrilla brigades protecting the pipeline.

DSL employs a former Colombian army officer, Major General Herman Guzman Rodriguez, whose name appears in the Black Book of Colombian State Terrorism compiled by international human rights lawyers. The book says there is "abundant evidence and testimony" linking Gen Guzman Rodriguez to a paramilitary group responsible for 149 murders in 1987 90. He denies the allegations, which have never been investigated.

Joint ventures

Working with Airscan, manufacturer of drones

According to a report from global security.org:

The contract for aerial surveillance granted in December 2003 was awarded to Erinys Iraq, which awarded a subcontract to Florida-based AirScan Inc for aerial surveillance of the pipelines in support of Erinys. AirScan provides night air surveillance of the pipeline and oil infrastructure, using low-light television cameras.

Lobbying and political connections

Erinys has been active in lobby groups set up to pursue the interests of the private military industry.

International Peace Operations Association

Erinys was reported in 2005 to be members of the International Peace Operations Association (IPOA). According to the IPOA website Erinys is no longer listed as a member company. Current member companies include ArmorGroup and DynCorp International.

IPOA is a lobby group representing many Private Military Contractors. The group employs Alexander Strategy Group to deal with its public relations operations in Washington.

British Association of Private Security Companies

Erinys announced their intention to withdraw from the British Association of Private Security Companies in January 2009. They cited their reason for leaving as being that they were withdrawing form the organisation awaiting the UK government makes a clear statement regarding the regulatory framework for private security companies.

Erinys announces it has left the British Association of Private Security Companies, January 2009

Managing Erinys' public profile

Erinys has been active in attempting to manage its reputation by threatening legal proceedings against or sending rebuttal letters to a wide variety of news outlets and even to some non government organisations.

List of complaints and rebuttals

• Original Article, Mark Townsend, Iraq victims sue UK security firm, The Observer, 11-January-2009.

• Press Release, Erinys issues response to 11 January 2009 Observer article, Erinys International, 12-January-2009, Accessed 02-October-2009.

• Panorama, Daylight Robbery - What Happened To The $23 billion?, BBC One, Broadcast 10-June-2008 9pm

• Press Release, Editorial weakness and inaccuracy revealed in BBC Panorama's 'Daylight Robbery' programme, Erinys International, 12-January-2009, Accessed 02-October-2009

• David Isenberg, Protecting Iraq's precarious pipelines, Asia Times, 24-September-2004

• Jonathan Garratt, Letter of Complaint, Asia Times Online, 04-November-2004, Accessed 02-October-2009
• David Isenberg, David Isenberg responds, Asia Times Online, 6-November-2004, Accessed 02-October-2009.

• War on Want: Fabien Mathieu and Nick Dearden Corporate Mercenaries: The threat of private military and security companies Published November 2006, London: War on Want, Supported by the Campaign Against The Arms Trade.

• War on Want - Erinys, Response to allegations made by War on Want against Erinys, Erinys International, Accessed 03-October-2009.

• Original Article, A Very Private War, Africa Confidential, 11-June-2004.

• Africa Confidential - letter of rebuttal published on 5 November 2004 in relation to an article ('A Very Private War') published on 11 June 2004

• Original article: Unnamed Article, Private Eye, Issue No. 1108, 11-24 June 2004

• Private Eye, letter from Ian Hislop on 1st July 2004 in response to a complaint that Erinys made about inaccurate coverage in the issue of 14 June 2004. According to Peter Roberts, counsel to Erinys, 'It fell short of using the word 'apologise', but at least PE never repeated the same errors, so we took it no further.'

• Original Article Salim Vally and Andy Clarno, Privatised war: the South African connection, Independent on Sunday (South Africa), 20-March-2005

• Independent on Sunday (South Africa), letter published on 20 March 2005 and apology on 27 March 2005 re Clarno/Vally article on 'privatised war' March 2005 Letter.

• Original Article Opiyo Oloya, Did Askar Security Lie About Recruits for Iraq?, New Vision (Uganda), 18-May-2005

• New Vision (Uganda), Rebuttal letter published on 22 June 2005

• Defamation Case against the BBC: Duty and Honour, Waking the Dead, Series 7 Episode 3, 28-29 April 2008, The episode featured a villain with a similar name and background to former Guards officer, now Erinys boss, Jonathan Garratt.

• Miles Goslett, 'Ex Army officer sues BBC over Waking The Dead character and a 'coincidence too far', Mail On Sunday, 25-May-2008, Accessed from Lexis Nexis, 09-September-2009
• Tara Conlan, BBC says sorry over Waking the Dead, The Guardian, 21-May-2008, Accessed 09-September-2009

Managing PBS

Few private military contractors are keen to allow themselves to be filmed by journalists. Erinys was an exception in 2005 when it drove PBS producer Marcela Gaviria around Bagdhad. Gaviria reports:

One day, as I'm settling in my room to check my e-mail... I get a phone call on my Iraqna cell. It's Andy Melville from Erinys and he wants to talk to me and find out what kind of film we are doing. I offer the hotel lobby. He offers to pick me up so I can spend the day with his private security team. I briefly hesitate, but quickly call up my co-producer Martin Smith and cameraman Tim Grucza to let them know where I've gone, and 30 minutes later I'm inside a bulletproof SUV careening about Baghdad's "Red Zone" at high speed. I'm in the "client car," unsure of where we are headed and thinking this is kind of nuts.

The sirens make me the most uncomfortable. It's about as inviting as driving around Baghdad with a U.S. flag or a Union Jack hanging out the window. I'm starting to miss my discreet Iraqi driver in his beat-up Mercedes and tinted windows. Somehow, even driving in a soft-shell car seems a lot safer than running around the city in a three-car convoy with guys with big guns hanging out the window.

The guys tell me they make six runs a day. It's impressive to beat the odds six times a day, every day. For a private security detail in Iraq, the facts of life are simple: Insurgents mingle in traffic, artillery shells are buried on the roadside, suicide bombers in cars packed with explosives lurk at on-ramps, waiting for convoys like theirs to pass by. There are no reliable statistics on how many private security guards have died in Iraq, but Erinys' gets attacked once or twice a week...

The US journalist acts almost as if she is embedded with the Erinys team, and allows herself to pose for a photograph with a weapon with the Erinys operatives:

Marcela Gaviria of PBS poses with a gun with a group of Erinys operatives in Baghdad in early 2005. The picture was originally posted on the PBS website with the caption 'Gaviria with the Erinys team (faces obscured by FRONTLINE for security reasons)'

The boys are very relaxed. They seem to be enjoying the company of a visitor -- a female one to boot -- and are eager to teach me how to hold and fire a rifle. Most of them are South Africans, with thick accents. They are a charming bunch that make me laugh. And they are a close-knit group that seem to be relishing this experience.

They fire hundreds of rounds at paper bodies taped to wooden planks. It's so loud, some of them use bullets as earplugs. I'm hoping they'll do that again if I get them to agree for cameras to follow them about for a couple of days. I ask a lot of questions and get a lot of very candid answers. Henny, what are you most afraid of out here? "Having my head chopped off ma'am." Bernard, how many Iraqi insurgents have you killed? "Can't comment on that ma'am, but let's say more than I can count on one hand." China, Iraqis hate you guys… "Yeah, they have a point, but if we did this differently, we'd be losing clients."

The Erinys team have no need to fear that this report will be at all critical, but they don't leave anything to chance, threatening the journalist about what will happen if any investigative elements creep into her report:

That night Andy Melville wrote me an e-mail telling me that we have permission to film the team. He adds, "If I get a whiff that you are doing an investigative piece, I will be forced to come to the hotel and collect the footage forcibly." Luckily he never did carry out the threat.

Defamation case against the BBC

Erinys International began legal proceedings against the BBC after accusing the firm of defamation. The BBC had aired an episode of Waking the Dead which featured a fictional character who had the same name and background as Erinys Managing Director Jonathan Garratt.

According to the Mail on Sunday the character in the BBC drama 'kills one of his friends and embarks on a shady business deal with an Iraqi villain to secure a lucrative contract.' Garratt and Erinys both sued the BBC. Garratt argued:

I can understand that they might have used the same name but everything else about my regiment, my background and my current job means this is a coincidence too far. It's all too close to the bone. The BBC is meant to be a publicly funded broadcaster with the appropriate responsibility to present a balanced view.

The BBC apologised for 'any embarrassment caused' and 'agreed to pay legal costs'. It said 'John Garret' was 'entirely fictional' and 'was not intended to bear any similarity to Jonathan Garratt.'

Litvinenko affair

Ex-KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko visited Erinys' offices in London in the month before his death from polonium poisoning. According to the New York Sun:

Litvinenko then proceeded to the Millennium Hotel, where he had an appointment to see Andrei Lugovoi, who had also served in the FSB up until 1999 and who now owned a private security firm in Moscow. He had been meeting with Mr. Lugovoi on his trips to London for several months.

The Sun reported that Litvineko had visited the offices of Erinys UK two weeks earlier:

to discuss a business proposal. According to Mr. Lugovoi, Litvinenko now wanted to discuss the progress of that venture, and so met him and his business associate Dmitry Kovtun in the crowded Pine Bar for tea. After leaving the Pine Bar, Litvinenko went to Mr. Berezovsky's office. When he returned home, according to his wife Marina, he felt ill. Two days later, he was admitted to Barnet General Hospital.

Reports from the police investigation Litvinenko's death revealed that traces of polonium 210 the radioactive substance that killed Litvinenko were found at Erinys UK’s London office in Grosvenor Street. Traces of the radioactive substance were also found at the London offices of the exiled Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky and at the Millennium Hotel in nearby Grosvenor Square.

A spokesman for the company, Erinys, said it had alerted police because Mr Litvinenko had visited its offices on a 'totally unrelated' matter some time before he was admitted to hospital. He added: 'None of our staff with whom he had contact have suffered any ill effects.'. Litvinenko had met Tim Reilly of Erinys UK Ltd on at least one of his visits to the Grosvenor Street office.

Although the Sun reported that Beresovsky owned the Grosvenor Street office block housing Erinys, the Erinys Legal counsel Peter Roberts states that

The offices in Grosvenor Street were those of Erinys UK Ltd and Titon International Ltd – with whom Litvinenko had business relations... It is erroneous to state that Berezovsky was the owner of the building: the owner of the building (and everything else in the area) was Grosvenor Estates, who sublet it via a chain of lessees to Wolverhampton Council and thence to Royal & Sun Alliance, who sublet it to Erinys UK Ltd.

People

Management

Name	Erinys Branch	Position	Joined Erinys	Left Erinys
John Holmes	Erinys (UK) Ltd	Director	20-July-2004	05-December-2008
Michael Hutchings	Erinys (UK) Ltd	Director	27-August-2009	Present
Godfrey Mcfall	Erinys (UK) Ltd	Director	14-August-2008	22-April-2009
Peter Roberts	Erinys (UK) Ltd	Group Business & Legal Advisor	03-August-2004	Present
Jonathan Garratt	Erinys International	Group Managing Director	2001	Present
Fraser Brown	Erinys International	Chief Operations Officer	2001	Present
Jonathan Eldridge	Erinys Africa (Pty) Ltd	Regional Director (Africa)	May-2005	Present
George Hatton	Erinys Iraq	Country Manager (Iraq)	2007	Present
Davey Kirk	Erinys Africa (Pty) Ltd	Country Manager (Nigeria)	2007	Present
Clare Harkin		Conflict Resolution Consultant
Jean Jacques N'Salanga	Erinys Africa (Pty) Ltd	Country Manager (DRC & ROC)	2004	Present
Drew Weir	Erinys Iraq	Director of Operations (Iraq)	-January-2004	-September-2005
Natalie Brown	Erinys (UK) Ltd	Secretary	16-April-2005	16-January-2006
Judi Donegan	Erinys (UK) Ltd	Secretary	16-January-2006	31-May-2006
Dominik Henry	Erinys (UK) Ltd	Secretary	20-July-2004	03-August-2004

Personnel

Name	Erinys Branch	Position	Joined Erinys	Left Erinys
Tim Reilly	Erinys International	Director of Energy Projects
Etienne Smith	Erinys Iraq	Tom O'Donnell's personal security team
Braam "Pottie" Potgieter	Erinys Iraq	Tom O'Donnell's personal security team
Conrad Blything	Erinys Iraq	Tom O'Donnell's personal security team
Cobus Brink	Erinys Iraq	Tom O'Donnell's personal security team

Affiliations, Subsidiaries and Addresses

Affiliations

• British Association of Private Security Companies | Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence – sent staff on courses there | International Peace Operations Association | Private Security Company Association of Iraq

Addresses and Subsidiaries

Erinys International Ltd Head Office Erinys Middle East & Central Asia Regional Office

Building 5EA, Suite 128, Dubai Airport Free Zone, Dubai. United Arab Emirates.

Erinys (UK) Ltd

66 Chiltern Street

LONDON

UK

W1U 4JT

Company No. 05184177

Erinys South Africa

Erinys South Africa (Pty) Ltd &

Erinys Africa Regional Office

Erinys House, Mulberry Hill Office Park, Broadacres Drive, Johannesburg, RSA.

Erinys Irak

Erinys Iraq Ltd.

Baghdad International Airport, Free Trade Zone, Baghdad, Iraq.

IDG Security Aghanistan Ltd

Part of the Erinys Group

Sherpor, District 10, Street 15, Lane 6, House 1020, Kabul, Afghanistan

Erinys RDC s.p.r.l.

Concession Cotex, 63 Avenue Colonel Mondjiba, Nr 3B, Ngaliema, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.

Erinys Nigeria Ltd.

Care of: Ibru Organisation Ltd, No 6 Louis Solomon Close, Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria.

Addresses

The registered office of Erinys UK Ltd until December 2007 was:

25 Grosvenor Street,

London W1K

References and Resources

Resources

• Alec Klein, For Security in Iraq, a Turn to British Know-How, Washington Post, 24 August 2007.