Iraqi oil exports face further delays following pipeline sabotage attacks

[legin]

<<snip>>

Before the latest attacks, an Iraqi oil official had said the Iraq-Turkey pipeline would likely reopen by mid-November following completion of repair work on damage caused by earlier sabotage. The pipeline had reopened briefly Oct. 18 after a series of attacks shut it down in August. But a senior Iraqi oil official said Monday it is now uncertain when exports from the north will begin, possibly within days or as long as 3-4 weeks.

Reopening the northern export route is key to US efforts to restore Iraq's prewar oil production capacity. Iraq exported some 2.2 million b/d of crude oil before the war, with around 800,000 b/d of that total pumped through the northern pipeline system to Turkey. Iraq is now exporting around 1.2 million b/d of oil, all from its export terminals in the southern part of the country.

Iraq contracted with the South African security firm, Erinys International, to step up protection of the northern pipeline system. An Iraqi oil official said Saturday that Erinys personnel would work as watchmen over the system, but he did not elaborate on the terms of the contract. Earlier reports said Erinys (an international business-risk consultant named for a mythical avenging deity, one of the Furies) was contracted to hire 6,500 Iraqis to guard key installations, including oil wellheads, pipelines, and refineries, as well as electricity and water facilities (OGJ Online, Aug. 18, 2003).

http://ogj.pennnet.com/articles/web_article_display.cfm?Section=OnlineArticles&ARTICLE_CATEGORY=GenIn&ARTICLE_ID=191417

[legin]

1. Actually

Erinys International, from a bit of googling, appears to be a british firm:

Corporate Officers

Sean Cleary Director and Non-executive Chairman
Bahadur Hirji Company Secretary
Jonathan Garratt Managing Director
Fraser Brown Director
Alastair Morrison Director


Sean CLEARY
An acknowledged expert on risk management, strategic counsel and investment analysis in sub-Saharan Africa, Sean is a graduate in law, business administration and social sciences and a former career diplomat. Sean was a member of several constitutional commissions including those involved in the transition to democracy in Namibia and South Africa. He is Managing Director of the Centre for Advanced Governance, a division of Think Tools AG, Vice-Chairman of Meridian Worldwide LLC and a Fellow of the World Economic Forum and member of the Africa Task Force. He lecturers regularly at Defence Colleges and business schools and is widely published in academic and business journals.


Jonathan GARRATT
After a successful career with the British Army Jonathan has for the past 11 years been based on the African continent. For 9 years he was a senior manager and Director of DSL and thereafter the US global risk management group Armor Holdings, holding appointments as Managing Director Zaire/DRC, Regional Manager Central Africa, Regional Director North & West Africa, Director of Business Development and Director Southern Africa. He is a graduate of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and Henley Management College (Prize Winner: Executive MBA 2000) and speaks fluent French.

Fraser BROWN
A career soldier with the British Army before retiring after 29 years of service spent mostly with UK Special Forces engaged on sensitive assignments. Fraser served in many inhospitable and volatile regions, but specialised in South America, the Balkans and Africa, and was appointed RSM before retiring in 1999. For the past 4-years he has been retained by the international risk management industry including appointments as the Uganda Country Manager and Regional Director East Africa for Armor Holdings and Project Manager Nigeria for the Control Risks Group. He attended Salamanca University in Spain and speaks excellent Spanish.

Alastair MORRISSON
Alastair was commissioned into the Scots Guards in 1963. After service in East Africa and Aden, and as the Equerry to HRH The Duke of Gloucester, Morrison joined the SAS in 1968. He was awarded the Military Cross (MC) while commanding a Squadron during the Dhofar war in Oman in 1971 and was appointed OBE in 1978 for his part in the successful Lufthansa Aircraft hostage rescue operation in Mogadishu, Somalia in 1977. Following this operation, and prior to retiring from the Army in 1980, Alastair helped set up specialist Counter Terrorist organizations in 32 separate countries. Initially Managing Director of Heckler & Koch (UK) Ltd Alistair founded Defence Systems Limited (DSL) in 1981 and the company was subsequently to become the leading international provider of Specialist Security services, with operations in over 16 countries worldwide. Morrison was an owner, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of DSL from 1981 to 1999

[DulceDecorum]

4. Tough newbies

In Greek mythology, the Erinys were three goddesses, attendants of Hades and Persephone, who guarded the Underworld. Here on modern earth, the company has main offices in Johannesburg and Dubai, and opened a field office in Baghdad in May. A South African news report said Erinys is already providing security and risk management services to "two large multinational companies" operating in Iraq.

While the company does not appear in international business directories and IS ONLY A YEAR OLD, its website names five managers and directors, but does not identify its ownership structure: most of whom have been affiliated with Armor Holdings, a Florida-based security company and Defence Systems Limited, a British company which merged with Armor in 1997.

A former British Special Air Services (SAS) officer, director 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.

Private Security and Oil Protection
Erinys' website touts "management experience" in providing security services for dozens of transnational corporations, such as Ashanti Gold and BP-Amoco. These companies' past security actions hint at what awaits Iraq.

Last month, for example, the Ghanaian NGO, Wassa Association of Communities Affected by Mining (WACAM), released a report detailing alleged human rights abuses at an Ashanti gold mine. It relays eyewitness accounts of Ashanti Gold SECURITY PERSONNEL TORTURING, BEATING, AND KILLING local small-scale miners between 1994 and 2002. WACAM further alleges that corporate security used guard dogs to feed on trespassers.

Private security firms DSL and Armor have also long worked in oil-rich regions for multinational corporations that have been accused of complicity in human rights violations, like the Niger Delta and Angola.
http://www.corpwatch.org/issues/PID.jsp?articleid=8328



REMEMBER WHEN.....

This raises the old specter of the McCarthy era of the State Dept. as a nest, or community, of homosexuals, though there seems to be no indication of McGeorge’s preferences in this regard. He is a former Marine and Secret Service specialist who offers seminars on "weaponization of chemical and biological agents" for $595 a session. Since 1983, he’s run his own firm, Public Safety Group Inc., which sells bioterror products to governments.

In the New York Post the next day Aly Sujo fleshed out some useful details, including news that Black Rose offers a forum for "different expressions of power in love and play," including "bondage and discipline, fetishism and cross-dressing," also that the 53-year-old McGeorge is "chubby."

"While it was unclear," Sujo wrote solemnly, "whether his experience in dominance and submission might be useful in probing Saddam’s arsenal, his group’s Web site listed a number of salty approaches for ‘coming on to the person you want to know.’" Full marks to Sujo for deft placement of the word "arsenal," but the Daily News went one better with its headline, "World body not turned off by arms inspector’s S&M," also by Derek Rose’s discovery that McGeorge "also lacks a specialized university degree–although he was once honored with a ‘doctor of S&M arts and letters’ from ‘Leather University.’" Rose cited more from McGeorge-related websites. The former chairman of the board of the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom has worked to safeguard the rights of the "‘SM-leather-fetish, swing and polyamory communities,’ and as a member of the ‘faculty’ of a three-day ‘Leather University’ conference in Florida taught the basics of rope bondage and more. Other classes included ‘Bloodsports 101,’ ‘Flagellation 201’ and ‘Pervitibles 101,’" according to the Daily News.
http://www.nypress.com/15/49/news&columns/wildjustice.cfm

Just the qualifications we had in mind......

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/07/25/1059084190346.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2951888.stm

[Nottingham]

2. This actually is spelling Doom for Rumsfeld

"The Oil must flow"

just like Dune "The Spice must flow! He controls the spice controls the universe"

but later is found out

He who DISRUPTS the Spice! Controls the Universe
He Disrupts Oil flow Gets Rumsfeld fired :bounce:

:bounce:

[progressiverealist]

3. doesn't this actually just help Halliburton?

I mean, isn't this just cash in their pockets?

[Minstrel Boy]

5. everything helps Haliburton

Good, bad, whatever. They know how to turn a frown upside-down.

It's Halliburton's world, we just die in it.

[wellst0nev0ter]

6. Quick! Give Halliburton More Money!

Hey, as far as I can tell from this administration, this ongoing Teapot Dome scandal is a cureall for whatever ailes them in Iraq.

[goforit]

7. To all the oil tycoons...............I couldn't wish anything better!!!

May all the Cheney's of the world loose what they love most.....

An abyss of wealth!!!!!