The 3^RD meeting of the PSC WG began with a plea to quickly come together and shape the future of the Private Security Industry in Iraq or have it shaped by others. The following agenda was followed:

1. Draft Regulations

2. Weapons Cards

3. New Business Issues

4. Negative Press Reports and their consequences

5. INCIDENT REPORTING: Serious Incident Reports (SIRs)

6. OPS CENTER COORDINATION.

7. INDUSTRY ACTIVITY DAY

8. Links of interest

1. DRAFT Private Security Company Regulation

Mr. Nouri Badran is the Minister of Interior. The CPA draft PSC regulation will be fused with the Iraqi Ministry of Interior draft PSC regulation, then circulated for one last opportunity for industry comment. Currently, expect to have the new PSC regulation to Ambassador Bremer for approval NLT 30 April. Next draft for PSC comment should be expected mid-April.

2. WEAPONS CARDS

Temp Weapons Cards (TWC) are now being printed in Germany—total of 250,000, by the Defense Automated Print Service. Expect to have these cards in Baghdad o/a 14 April. TWC will be issued as required.

A participant voiced a concern about what to do now. Guidance: Press on with what you are doing. Do the best you can until we get the TWC.

Question from participant: CAN WE SUBMITT REQUEST FOR BLANK CARDS, FILL THEM OUT ON OUR OWN AND HAVE YOU APPROVED THEM.? Excellent suggestion that will be considered. Inclined toward having your rep come to the palace with a list and then administratively support the filling out of the cards here. Guidance will be provided.

3. NEW BUSINESS

A. CPA Order # 64 amended Iraqi Company Law #21 of 1997. The new order opens up Iraq as one of the most liberal investment/company ownership environments in the world. Foreign entities or persons can do business in any form in Iraq. Foreigners may buy and own an Iraqi Company or set up a branch office of their own foreign company. Unlike many countries, there are no requirements for Iraqi ownership of a minimum number of shares in new companies.

B. The mathematics of security requirements:

For the Program Management Office reconstruction contracts

60% X 2500 x 100= 150,000 steady state requirements for guards

90% (150,000) = 135,000 Iraqi Nationals

10% (150,000) = 15,000 Western Personnel

Does not include private requirements, particularly with increased foreign investment associated with liberalized Trade Law CPA Order 64.

"WE ARE CREATING A PRIVATE ARMY ON AN UNPRECIDENTED SCALE. IT WILL BE LARGER THAN COALITION FORCES AND WILL REPRESENT A FORCE FOR GOOD OR HARM DEPENDING ON OUR INSISTANCE ON THE RULE OF LAW." This PSC Army will be the largest private security force ever assembled. There are many $$ committed to ensure success."

Since demand far outstrips supply, the following is true:

TACTICAL COMPETITION, STRATEGIC COOPERATION.

That is, there will be more than enough security requirements to go around such that those who are seeking security work will find security work. On a tactical basis, companies will be competing with each other for contracts, but strategically, there is no competition.

D. RIGHTS AND RESPONSILIILITY TO THE 135,000—we must guard against wage inflation since private security could cause damaging migration out of IP and NIA.

$146 TOTAL MONTH IRAQI POLICE. ($60 Base plus $86 Hazardous Duty)

$300-600 RANGE OF TOTAL MONTHLY WAGE FOR PRIVATE SECURITY

Moreover, tremendous pressure will be internally generated to increase wages if PSCs start competing against each other for available local national hires. Ever-increasing LN hire salaries will drain money from reconstruction effort. As well, the law of unintended consequences suggests that LN PSC salaries wildly disproportionate to public sector salaries will potentially result in a migration from the public sector to the private sector. That would not be good.

PSCs are responsible to inculcate within their LN hires a sense of the Rule of Law and the appropriate place for a private security company with a civil society.

E. The 15,000 Western Professionals:

Operators who are here today are arguably the best the industry has to offer. PSC industry is high demand but low density. Tier One, Tier Two and Tier three operators are here now. Tier Bubba will be among the next wave. Existing PSC presence best suited to help establish control on new PSC (western) arrivals. Need industry self-regulation and "good housekeeping seal of approval." Need to ensure the cowboys and criminals are identified early on. Screw-ups by Tier Bubba will reflect badly on the entire industry.

4. Negative Press Reports and their consequences

FISK: http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=505772

CARLSON: http://www.keepmedia.com/ShowItemDetails.do?item_id=366991

Such articles are highly damaging and provide an inaccurate reflection of the good work being done.

SUMMARY

COMPANIES ARE WORKING INDEPENDENTLY NOW. MUST LEARN TO WORK TOGETHER TO ACHIEVE RESOPLUTION OF ITEMS OF COMMON INTEREST. IMMEDIATE ISSUES FOR PRIVATE SECURITY COMPANIES:

NO ONE PSC CAN COVER ALL IRAQ.

HOW TO COMMUNICATE WITH ONE ANOTHER. PHONE TREE.

SALARIES ARE WITHOUT CONTROL. DISCIPLINE IS NEEDED.

INCIDENT REPORTING AND LESSON(S) LEARNED.

HOW TO SELF REGULATE?

-- ASIS (American Society of Industrial Security, http://www.asisonline.org/) MODEL IS ONE IDEA. CHARTER IN BAGHDAD? BOB DISNEY SENIOR OFFICER OF ASIS. Contact xxx-xxx-xxxx email <email redacted> to discuss

-- Another organization (as yet, unknown) may also work.

-- Third approach is to develop own organization

Participants questioned suitability of ASIS in that it is based on individual membership and not organizational. But why reinvent the wheel? No time to get 55 companies to agree on charter, by-laws and the vetting of new members.

If assembled PSCs agree that a PSC Industry Association (or Guild) is important for the PSCs to have represent their interests in Iraq, then the PSCs need to figure out how to do this. The time to do it is now, CPA goes away in 90 days. Answer the question for the Iraq MoI before it is asked. PSCs need to take control of their future, before someone else does. PSCs may not like the answer if they wait.

5. INCIDENT REPORTING: Serious Incident Reports (SIRs)

PSCs agreed that a program which would have PSCs sending to capture Serious Incident Reports into one summary report which would then be disseminated throughout the PSC community. CPA/MoI PSC Coordination Office is willing to facilite this through the following steps:

- PSCs wishing to participate send SIR to <email redacted>

- SIRs will be organized and redistributed on a periodic basis as SIR Summary Report for (time period).

- SIRs should contain the following key points of information:

- What: type of incident (e.g. ambush, IED/VBIED, etc)

- When: DTG, please use Iraqi Daylight Savings Time, also general note as to unusual circumstances (sandstorm. . . etc)

- Where: Place name and geo-loc if available (GPS coord if you have it)

- Who: Any distinguishing details in appearance, age, numbers, vehicles, etc

- Lessons: what were the take-aways? What will or won't you do the next time.

PLEASE, advise if you want company specific data excised or if you are willing to receive questions on the incident. If the latter, please provide POC plus email/tel number.

6. OPS CENTER COORDINATION.

Interest has been expressed in establishment of a phone tree, communications network of some sort. PSCs passing through an area may need support of a QRF or maybe to have a broken down vehicle recovered or destroyed in place. Through the PSC WG, a list can be developed of those PSC assets and PSC ops centers contact information. Send that data to <email redacted>. Indicate the geographic area you are operating in. A list will be developed and then disseminated to the PSCWG. Provide all forms of comms, thuraya, Iridium, cell , HF, email, etc.

As Ben Franklin said at the signing of the American Declaration of Independence: "We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately."

So too it is for the PSCs operating here in Iraq. It is key that you hang together, work together and you'll be stronger for it.

7. INDUSTRY ACTIVITY DAY

17 APRIL AT ADNON PALACE 4:00 PM (1600) till COB

Kroll, donation received
EODT donation received
CTU ASIA donation received
Custer Battle donation pledged
CRG Bob Cole donation pledged
Blackwater donation pledged

Other companies wishing to donate resources for the activity day, and those who've not been able to deliver their pledge, PLEASE CONTACT :

Jim Homan xxxx xxx xxxx, <email redacted>

8. Links of interest:

http://members.cox.net/classicweb/email.htm
http://www.wargames.co.uk/Poems/Grave.htm
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110004903

Sent: Sunday, April 04, 2004 11:58 PM
Subject: PSC WG Meeting 30 March 2004 MINUTES

4 April 2004
Baghdad

Gents,

Minutes from the most recent meeting are attached. Next on the schedule is Activity Day, 17 April (details in the minutes) and the next meeting of the PSC WG will be Tuesday 20 April, 1300, Room Sxxx.

These minutes are for the exclusive use of the PSCs, their parent companies and the CPA/MoI PSC Coordination Office.

Any dissemination of these minutes beyond that group must be approved by this office.

All the best,

Lawrence Peter

_____________________________

Ministry of Interior
PSC Coordination Office
Room Sxxx
703-xxx-xxxx

There can be no triumph without loss,
No victory without suffering,
No freedom without sacrifice.

Sent: Tuesday, March 30, 2004 2:37 AM
Subject: fyi

29 March 2004

Gents -

I will be briefly referring to this article (http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=505772) pasted below, and the earlier article in Esquire (located here: http://www.keepmedia.com/ShowItemDetails.do?item_id=366991) during our get-together tomorrow.

All the best,

Lawrence

~+~

Occupiers spend millions on private army of security men
By Robert Fisk in Baghdad and Severin Carrell in London

28 March 2004

An army of thousands of mercenaries has appeared in Iraq's major cities, many of them former British and American soldiers hired by the occupying Anglo-American authorities and by dozens of companies who fear for the lives of their employees.

Many of the armed Britons are former SAS soldiers and heavily armed South Africans are also working for the occupation. "My people know how to use weapons and they're all SAS," said the British leader of one security team in southern Baghdad. "But there are people running around with guns now who are just cowboys. We always conceal our weapons, but these guys think they're in a Hollywood film."

There are serious doubts even within the occupying power about America's choice to send Chilean mercenaries, many trained during General Pinochet's vicious dictatorship, to guard Baghdad airport. Many South Africans are in Iraq illegally - they are breaking new laws, passed by the government in Pretoria, to control South Africa's booming export of mercenaries. Many have been arrested on their return home because they are do not have the licence now required by private soldiers.

Casualties among the mercenaries are not included in the regular body count put out by the occupation authorities, which may account for the persistent suspicion among Iraqis that the US is underestimating its figures of military dead and wounded. Some British experts claim that private policing is now the UK's biggest export to Iraq - a growth fueled by the surge in bomb attacks on coalition forces, aid agencies and UN buildings since the official end of the war in May last year.

Many companies operate from villas in middle-class areas of Baghdad with no name on the door. Some security men claim they can earn more than £80,000 a year; but short-term, high-risk mercenary work can bring much higher rewards. Security personnel working a seven-day contract in cities like Fallujah, can make $1,000 a day.

Although they wear no uniform, some security men carry personal identification on their flak jackets, along with their rifles and pistols. Others refuse to identify themselves even in hotels, drinking beer by the pool, their weapons at their feet. In several hotels, guests and staff have complained that security men have held drunken parties and one manager was forced to instruct mercenaries in his hotel that they must carry their guns in a bag when they leave the premises. His demand was ignored.

One British company director, David Claridge of the security firm Janusian, has estimated that British firms have earned up to £800m from their contracts in Iraq - barely a year after the invasion of Iraq. One British-run firm, Erinys, employs 14,000 Iraqis as watchmen and security guards to protect the country's oil fields and pipelines.

The use of private security firms has led to some resentment amongst the Department for International Development's aid workers - who fear it undermines the trust of Iraqi civilians. "DFID staff would prefer not to have this," said one source. "It's much easier for them to do their job without any visible security, but the security risks are great down there."

One South African-owned firm, Meteoric Tactical Solutions, has a £270,000 contract with DFID which, it is understood, involves providing bodyguards and drivers for its most senior official in Iraq and his small personal staff.

Another British-owned company, ArmorGroup has an £876,000 contract to supply 20 security guards for the Foreign Office. That figure will rise by 50 per cent in July. The firm also employs about 500 Gurkhas to guard executives with the US firms Bechtel and Kellogg Brown & Root.

Opposition MPs were shocked by the scale of the Government's use of private firms to guard British civil servants, and claimed it was further evidence that the British army was too small to cope. Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat's foreign affairs spokesman, said: "This suggests that British forces are unable to provide adequate protection and raises the vexed question of overstretch - particularly in light of the remarks by the Chief of the Defence Staff, last week that Britain couldn't stage another operation on the scale of Iraq for another five years."

Andrew Robathan, a Tory MP on the international development select committee and former SAS officer, said: "The Army doesn't have the troops to provide static guards on this scale. Surely it would have been cheaper to have another battalion of troops providing guards."

The UK's largest private security firm in Iraq, Global Risk Strategies, is helping the coalition provisional authority and the Iraqi administration to draft new regulations. It is expecting to increase its presence from 1,000 to 1,200 staff this spring, and could reach 1,800 this year. However, aid charities are disturbed by the sums being spent on security, since DFID has diverted £278m from its mainstream aid budget for Iraqi reconstruction. Dominic Nutt, of Christian Aid, said: "This sticks in the craw. It's right that DFID protects its staff, but this is robbing Peter to pay Paul."

_____________________________

Ministry of Interior
PSC Coordination
Room Sxxx
703-xxx-xxxx

There can be no triumph without loss,
No victory without suffering,
No freedom without sacrifice.

Exclusively For Private Security Company Working Group Use

Dissemination Beyond Parent Companies PROHIBITED without prior approval from CPA/MoI 703-xxx-xxxx