Reply #3: The trouble with US based "security companies" [View All]

is that they often seem to turn up whenever a government is being removed from power.

Jan Breytenbach, founder of South Africa's infamous apartheid-era Battalion 32, a mercenary group, warns that today's seemingly upstanding private-security firms will employ ex-soldiers "under false pretenses" in order to get them involved in clandestine operations. "You can think you're being hired to protect a diamond mine," he says, "but then you end up fighting other people" - or participating in a coup. He cautions ex-military men: "It's better to stay out of this stuff all together; otherwise you'll get caught with your pants down."
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0315/p06s03-woaf.html

As Haiti plunges deeper into chaos, as U.S. Marines exchange fire with gunmen in Port-au-Prince and as ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide continues to insist from exile that he was kidnapped by U.S. forces, the head of the San Francisco company that protected Aristide for the past six years wants to set the record straight.
"We did our job," said Kenn Kurtz, chief executive of the Steele Foundation, which had provided security for Aristide since 1998. "Our job was to protect the president from assassination, kidnapping and embarrassment. That’s what we did."
<snip>
Kurtz refused to discuss Steele’s role in Haiti now that Aristide is, physically at least, out of the picture. But he acknowledged that the company’s contract calls for it to protect Haiti’s head of state (whoever that may be), as well as former President Rene Preval (who is apparently still in the country) and their families.
"The contract hasn’t changed," Kurtz said.
http://www.haiti-info.com/article.php3?id_article=1725

"As always, should you or any of your I. M. Force be caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions. This tape will self-destruct in five/ten seconds. Good luck, Jim."

The ultimate test of a company’s strength is not what they say they can accomplish, but what they do accomplish. To verify a company’s strength, customers should check its past performance record. Previous customers should speak highly of their vendor in all areas of contract operation – daily responsibilities, emergency response, problem resolution, and reporting reliability. It’s also worth asking how many of the contracts won were re-competes, in which the customer decided to sign up for another extended period of time.
http://govtsecurity.securitysolutions.com/ar/security_manpower_hire_contract/

Steele Foundation: You're HIRED.