Global Risk Strategies

Global Risk Strategies is a London based firm founded by Damien Perl, a former marine, and Charlie Andrews, a former Scots Guard officer. With a modest beginning ferrying NGO employees and media personnel to and from Afghanistan the company soon expanded its operations to renting out secure compounds in Kabul. The US authorities also gave it a contract to distribute new currency in Afghanistan and in Iraq.

The firm is helping the CPA to draft new regulations in Iraq and has also replaced Custer Battles with providing the security at Baghdad airport. The firm has around 1,500 mercenaries of various nationalities working for it in Iraq, majority of them Fijians and Gurkhas. While it pays British or US ex-

Through its senior analyst Tamara Makarenko the firm also has links to the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at St Andrews University, a right wing think-tank that provides highly ideological definitions and remedies for terrorism. According to Makarenko, civil liberties are something that one would cherish, only 'if you are a suspect with something to hide.'

The firm was amongst four whose payments were withheld by the new Iraqi government due to the lack of procedure and paperwork followed by the CPA in awarding these contracts. The companies were also accused of overcharging and of failing to deliver on their obligations. The US State Department subsequently intervened on their behalf.

Credits

--Idrees 16:52, 17 Nov 2005 (GMT)