Erinys International

Erinys International is a security company which specialises in providing security guards in conflict zones including armed personnel. Erinys International was founded in 2001 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 He was founder and chairman of Defence Systems Limited who joined the board of Erinys International in January 2004 and left in April 2004 to join Kroll. He joined the Board again as non-executive Chairman in December 2008.
• In 2002 until late 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. Although not formally on the board of Erinys International Cleary was given the title of 'Executive chairman' and was also on the board of Erinys South Africa.

Erinys logo

History of Erinys

The company has a strong link with South Africa and has often been reported as being South African. Although the company has been headquartered in Dubai and in the UK and has subsidiaries in the UK, and Iraq, it is its connections with Africa and Southern Africa in particular that are of note. It is also 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 or in other special forces regiments or most notably in a varitety 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 three 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, he in fact joined the company Erinys International shortly after it was founded, though it was at this stage very much a start up. 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 Iraqi's 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.

'Plunder of Iraqi Oil'

Erinys objects to criticism, such as that by War on Want, that it is involved in the 'plunder' of Iraqi oil. Its response states:

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 corporations and Erinys is protecting that process, then it is indeed complicit in the plunder and its statement only confirms that fact.

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.

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

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 has 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 southern 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 oof 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."

Erinys has been widely reported to be 'full of former South African special forces soldiers'. In 2004 the Cleveland based Plain dealer reported that 'Four Erinys employees have another specialty. 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.'

Cleary

The appointment of Sean Cleary as Executive Chairman also 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 Security Applications Systems International) 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. 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.

According to some reports '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 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.

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 firmsa 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".

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".

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.

Managing PBS

Few of the 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 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 | Godfrey Mcfall | 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 | Natalie Brown | Judi Donegan | Dominik Henry | | Drew Weir - Director of Operations, Erinys Iraq

South Africa circa 2003

According to the South Africa based Sunday Times in December 2003, Erinys International 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.

Personnel

'Four Erinys employees have another specialty. 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.'

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

Subsidiaries

Erinys (UK) Ltd

66 CHILTERN STREET

LONDON

UK

W1U 4JT

Company No. 05184177

Addresses

Erinys International,

25 Grosvenor Street,

W1K

References and Resources

Resources

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