ArmorGroup

ArmorGroup is a mercenary firm based in London headed by former Foreign Secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind and is one of the biggest working in Iraq.

It is 'one of two companies that have raked in a total of 15m between them' providing round-the-clock security in Iraq during the past year.[1] According to Jack Straw ArmorGroup and Control Risks are being paid a combined total of 50,000 a day to protect bureaucrats stationed in Iraq. This includes 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.[2]

The firm employs more than 1400 mercenaries in Iraq , including 700 Gurkhas who guard executives with the US firms Bechtel and Kellogg Brown & Root. The Gurkhas reportedly earn $1300 a month. Employees also guard construction sites for Bechtel and deal with unexploded ordnance across Iraq.

The firm raised eyebrows when it was discovered that Derek Adgey, one of its employees, had been jailed in the past for helping the Ulster Freedom Fighters.[3]

Phoenix

Sold to ArmorGroup in 2005 for £4m Phoenix was founded five years earlier by former SAS men Jim Devney and Michael Clifford, the only SAS member to be awarded the OBE for his services to that regiment. With Devney retired the company is run by Clifford [Western Daily Press 19 November 2005]. 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.

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 [4].

Director

• Michael Clifford OBE [5]

Resources

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