Erinys International

Erinys International was founded in 2002 by apartheid-era South African military intelligence officer Sean Cleary and 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.

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.

The firm runs 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, nearly 95 percent of them Kurds since the occupation authorities don't trust Arabs. The top wage for the Kurds is $120 per month, whereas their South African supervisors earn $5,000 at an average.

Kirkuk incident

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'. The boy - accused of stealing a length of cable - had been left immobile and without food or water for more than 24 hours. The company also keeps holding cells for suspects in Kirkuk.

Connections with Apartheid South Africa

The conncetions 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 Apertheid era intelligence and propagnda networks. Cleary was a South African military intelligence operative in the 1960s and later became a south African diplomat based among tohrer 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.

After the death of one of its employees in a bombing on January 28 it was discovered 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, another employee 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 vs public interest reporting

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

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

References and Resources

Resources

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