Erinys International

Erinys International is a security company which specialises in providing security guards in conflict zones including armed personnel - also known as mercenaries. Erinys International was founded in 2002 by Jonathan Garratt a former British army officer. The firm's management includes Major-General John Holmes, the former director of UK Special Forces and head of the SAS. In 2002 and 2003, the Executive Chairman was Sean Cleary a former South African military intelligence and diplomatic operative who went on to run pro-Apartheid lobbying and propaganda operations.

History of Erinys

Although it is widely reported that Sean Cleary was amongst the founders, he in fact joined the company shortly after it was founded. The idea that he was a founder may be have encouraged by Cleary's own account in which he referred to a 'merger' between a company he directed (Strategic Concepts) and EI. 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.

Iraq

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 which 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.

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. .

Guarding Oilfields with Kurdish fighters and South African supervisors?

The firm ran the second largest training scheme in the country to create a private army guarding the oil pipelines and refineries. In addition to its thousands of 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 Iraqi's', 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.

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 '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'.

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.

'Plunder of Iraqi Oil'

Erinys objects to criticism that it is involved in the 'plunder' of Iraqi oil.

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.

As with some of its other statements in self defence, this has a rather other-wordly quality. If Iraq's oil is being plundered by US and other coroprations and Erinys is protecting that process, then it is indeed complicit in the plunder and its statement only confirms that fact.

Connections with Apartheid South Africa

Cleary

The connections between Erinys and military and intelligence operatives formerly of the Apartheid regime in South Africa has been much reported. The basis of this is as follows. First of all the appointment of Sean Cleary as Executive Chairman connects Erinys 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 Clearly 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 their 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 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.

South African paramilitary connections

Operatives working on contract for Erinys (albeit through subcontractors) have had connections with South African Apartheid era paramilitary forces. After his death in a bombing on January 28 it was reported that the victim, Francois Strydom, was a former member of Koevoet, the 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'. Deon Gouws, also injured in the bombing was 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. There are many other former South African convicts on the company's payroll.

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 clearly employed by Erinys in the sense that they were working on contract for them. They were not however, directly employed by Erinys but by a subcontractor.

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.

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 Johnathan 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 that:

'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 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 shortly 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, and two weeks earlier had brought him to Erinys International, one of the security companies in Mr. Berezovsky's building, 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 International’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.'.

People

Management

• Jonathan Garratt - Group Managing Director | Fraser Brown - Chief Operations Officer | Peter Roberts - Group Business and Legal Advisor | Maj Gen John Holmes – Director | Michael Hutchings – Director | Jonathan Eldridge - Regional Director – Africa | George Hatton - Country Manager – Iraq | Davey Kirk - Country Manager – Nigeria | Clare Harkin - Conflict Resolution Consultant | Jean Jacques N'Salanga - Country Manager - DRC and ROC

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

Subsidiaries

Erinys (UK) Ltd

66 CHILTERN STREET

LONDON

UK

W1U 4JT

Company No. 05184177

Addresses

Erinys logo

References and Resources

Resources

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