Security company CEO is a “no-show” at CWC hearing
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Hearings Reveal Lapses in Private Security in War Zones
By Pratap Chatterjee*
WASHINGTON, Jun 21, 2010
(IPS) – Jerry Torres, CEO of Torres Advanced Enterprise Solutions, has a motto: “For Torres, failure is not an option.” A former member of the Green Berets, one of the elite U.S. Army Special Forces, he was awarded “Executive of the Year” at the seventh annual “Greater Washington Government Contractor Awards” in November 2009.
On Monday, Torres, whose company provides translators and armed security guards in Iraq, was invited to testify before the Commission on Wartime Contracting (CWC), a body created in early 2008 to investigate waste, fraud and abuse in military contracting services in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Torres was asked to testify about his failure to obtain the required clearances for “several hundred” Sierra Leonian armed security guards that he had dispatched to protect Forward Operating Base Shield, a U.S. military base in Baghdad, in January 2010.
Torres didn’t show up.
An empty chair at the witness table was placed ready for him together with a placard with his name on it next to those for representatives of three other companies working in Iraq – the London-based Aegis, and DynCorp and Triple Canopy, both Virginia-based companies.
Instead, a lawyer informed the commission staff that Torres was “nervous about appearing”.
The failure of a contractor to appear for an oversight hearing into lapses was just one example that the use of some 18,800 armed “private security contractors” in Iraq and another 23,700 in Afghanistan to protect convoys, diplomatic and other personnel, and military bases and other facilities in Afghanistan and Iraq was not working.
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Other Related Posts From Ms Sparky
- Private security contractors get a 3 month reprieve from suspension order in Afghanistan
- CWC hearing – Subcontracting: Who’s Minding the Store?
- Commission On Wartime Contracting Hearing September 14, 2009 Video
- Security guards under investigation leaving Afghanistan
- Security assigned to watch guards at Kabul embassy + link to Kabul Hazing PICS
