Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 21. Juli 2004 / Time Line July 21, 2004
Version 3.007/21/2004
Dyncorp seeks to overturn Iraq contract
By Jimmy Burns and Thomas Catan
Dyncorp, the Texas-based private military contractor, is seeking to
overturn the largest private security deal in Iraq, claiming that
the contract was improperly awarded.
The US army surprised many in the industry last month when it
awarded a $293m contract to co-ordinate private security companies
in Iraq to Aegis Defence Services - a small UK start-up with no
experience in Iraq. More controversially, the company is run by Tim
Spicer, a former British army officer who was at the centre of a
political scandal in the UK during the late 1990s.
Dyncorp, which lost out on the contract, has a long and close
relationship with the US government, performing a range of tasks
including guarding military compounds and training the Iraqi
police.
Dyncorp has submitted a formal protest to the audit arm of the US
Congress, the Government Accountability Office, which will rule on
the dispute by September 30.
In its complaint, a copy of which was obtained the Financial Times,
Dyncorp draws attention to Mr Spicer's past involvement in the
"Sandline affair" of 1998, in which a company he was director of
sold arms to Sierra Leone in contravention of a United Nations
embargo.
Mr Spicer later touched off a political storm by claiming that he
had done so with government approval. In 1999 a UK parliamentary
committee attacked foreign office officials for treating the UN
embargo "in a disgracefully casual manner".
Mr Spicer was briefly imprisoned by the military in Papua New
Guinea, which overthrew the government when it learnt that he had
been hired to put down a rebellion.
07/21/2004
Where War Isn't Bad for Business
It's not a bad time for the defense industry, and Honeywell today
said solid growth in all four of its major business units and
healthy order rates led to a 13% rise in quarterly net income and
to an increase in its forecast for full-year earnings. The
aerospace company had a profit of $361 million, up from $319
million a year earlier, on revenue that rose 11% to $6.39 billion.
Sales in the company's aerospace unit, its biggest moneymaker,
increased 14%. Within the unit, defense and space sales grew 7%.
Sales at its automation and control-solutions business increased
7.1%. And Honeywell's transportation-systems business had the
largest increase in sales, up 15%.
Rival General Dynamics posted a 24% increase in earnings, propelled
by growth at its aerospace, information systems and technology,
combat and marine units. It's net income was $300 million, up from
$242 million a year earlier, on revenue that rose 21% to $4.76
billion, writes Wall Street Journal.
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