From the Pat Finucane Centre:
Family to raise Iraq contract with US consul in Belfast
The family of murdered Belfast teenager Peter Mc Bride are to meet the US Consul in Belfast tomorrow. (Tuesday August 9 at 10am) Jean and Kelly Mc Bride, mother and sister of Peter, called for the meeting to protest the Pentagon decision to award a $293 million security contract in Iraq to Aegis Defence Services whose CEO is former Scots Guards officer Lt Col Tim Spicer.
AS CO of the regiment in North Belfast in 1992 Spicer sought to justify the murder of the unarmed teenager by soldiers under his command. On various occasions Spicer claimed that Peter had not been searched, was carrying a bomb and was linked to the IRA. A trial judge ruled that all of the above was untrue. Despite this Spicer has continued to lie about the circumstances of the murder
[Following] his army career Spicer set up a mercenary company, Sandline International, which was involved in bringing South African mercenaries to Papua New Guinea in an attempted coup which failed. He was arrested as a result. His company was then involved in the Arms to Africa scandal in Sierra Leone in violation of a UN arms embargo.
The decision to award the Iraq security contract to Spicer’s company has provoked controversary in the US where a number of high profile senators wrote to Secretary Rumsfeld raising their concerns. Since December 2004 the PFC has been involved in correspondence with the Pentagon demanding that the contract award be investigated since Spicer, in our view, has justified a human rights abuse and has a questionable record of integrity and business ethics.
The Mc Bride family will be accompanied at the meeting by members of the Pat Finucane Centre. Speaking in advance Jean Mc Bride said, "Spicer should never have been awarded this contract. He is unfit to be put in charge of armed men in any circumstances but especially in Iraq where civilian contractors have already been linked to human rights violations. He is on record as having lied about the murder of Peter and now the Pentagon claims he is trustworthy!"
See more on Peter Mc Bride and the Spicer contract at www.patfinucanecentre.org (click on Peter Mc Bride)
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