Security Firm Guarding Dakota Access Pipeline Also Used Psychological Warfare Tactics for BP

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G4S, a company hiring security staff to guard the hotlyย contested Dakota Access pipeline (DAPL), also works to guard oil and gas industry assets in war-torn Iraq,ย andย has come under fire by the United Nations for human rights abuses allegedly committed while overseeingย a BP pipeline in Colombia and elsewhere while on otherย assignments.

Recently, the UK-based G4S placed job advertisements on its website, announcing it would be hiring security teams to work out of offices in Mandanย and Bismarck, North Dakota. Theseย two localesย are only a 45-minute drive away from the ongoing Standing Rock Sioux Tribe-led encampment unfolding alongย DAPL‘s route in Cannon Ball, North Dakota. First among the list of requiredย experienceย for both locations is service related to military police, elite military forces, or โ€œany support role in a combatย zone.โ€ย 

Monica Lewman-Garcia, Director of Communications for G4S Secure Solutions in North America, told DeSmog, โ€œG4S Secure Solutions is providing fewer than 10 security officers, assigned to remote sites and providing limited short-term unarmed patrolย services.โ€

Lewman-Garcia also stated that G4S was not on the scenes at the now-infamous Labor Day weekend incidentย in whichย private security forcesย used pepper spray against andย allowed theirย dogs to bite Dakota Accessย pipeline protesters, adding that the company had not deployed its K9 units and that those involved worked for a different company. G4S also said it could not comment on whether it was hired to be in North Dakota by Dakota Access LLC, by another company altogether, or by one of the local policeย departments.ย 

โ€œChaosย Companyโ€

Dubbed the โ€œChaos Companyโ€ in an April 2014 Vanity Fair article, G4S is often brought into the stickiestย situations, such asย overseeing security forย theย Basrah Gas Company, an Iraqi natural gas companyย whichย Shell, Mitsubishi, and South Oil Company jointlyย own.

G4Sย touts its expertise in doing high-risk security work for the oil and gas industry in a company pamphlet:

โ€œIn Nigeria, for example, its services include the provision and manning of emergency vessels operating in the Niger Delta for Chevron. It also has a considerable presence in Iraq where it is well placed to assist in the protection of the war-torn nationโ€™s oil production which could make that country the third largest oil exporter within a fewย years.โ€

An article published by The Telegraph (UK) detailed that G4S had been hired toย bring 500 personnel and 220 armored vehicles to protect Basrah Gas Company properties in Iraq. Those properties includeย two gas plants, a liquefied petroleum gas storage facility, a shipping terminal, and โ€”ย paralleling the Dakota Access situationย โ€” the pipelines betweenย them.ย 

G4S also has security contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense at both Guantanamo Bay Detention Center and the controversial U.S. military base in Diego Garcia. The British human rights group Reprieve called for an investigation of G4S as it pertains to human rights abuses which took place atย Guantanamo.

Oil and Gasย Roots

In 2008, G4S acquired the companyย ArmorGroup International PLC as a wholly-owned subsidiary.ย This company has been on the public radar in recent years for being mired in a human trafficking scandal in Afghanistan while guarding the U.S. Embassy in Kabul on a U.S. State Department contract. The U.S. Department of Justice had sued ArmorGroup for allegedly violating theย Trafficking Victims Protection Act, settling the lawsuit in 2011 for $7.5ย million.

Less well-known is that ArmorGroupย has roots connecting it to other human rights abuses and controversial tactics on behalf ofย multinational oil and gas companies through its precursor, Defense Systems Limited (DSL), a firm founded in 1981, according to a company fact sheet no longer online acquired by DeSmog. ArmorGroup purchased DSL as a wholly-owned subsidiary inย 1997.

โ€œThe company defended gold and diamond mines in Africa from thieves, and oil pipelines in Latin America from guerrillas,โ€ wrote The Financial Times in a 2005 article. โ€œIt guarded U.S. and British embassies in the Middle East and elsewhere. Often, DSL would use former British special forces troops to train foreign forces in counterterroristย tactics.โ€

BP Pipeline Human Rightsย Abuses

In the late-1990’s, DSL found itselfย in a human rights-related quagmire, revealedย first in theย 1997 documentary,ย BP‘s Secret Soldiers,ย and then in a 1998ย investigation published by The Guardian (UK) and El Espectador ofย Colombia.

The joint inquiry by the newspapers demonstrated that oil giant BP โ€œbought and supplied military equipment to a Colombian army brigadeโ€ to police its Ocensa Pipeline, a 500-mile-long tube which at that timeย exported oil to the United States.ย That brigade had โ€œbeen implicated in two massacres by rightwing death squads under its control during the civil warโ€ in Colombiaย and was said to deploy psychological warfare (PSYOPs) and counterinsurgency techniques in the attempt to win over general public support for constructing the project and to marginalizeย โ€œsubversives.โ€ย 

DSL‘s tacticsย received criticism from the human rights advocacy groupย Amnesty International. Furthermore, a United Nations Special Rapporteur on the question of the use of mercenaries also expressed concern about DSL in a letter published in October 1998ย for the company’s allegedย use ofย intimidation and tortureย inย Colombia.ย 

โ€œSpies for Hireโ€ Underย Investigation

G4S is not the only private contractor identifiedย on the ground in or around the Sacred Stone Camp related to the Dakota Access pipelineย protests.

The show โ€œDemocracy Now!โ€ revealed that a man who is employed by the firm Torchlight USA, LLC, but is appearing as a freelancer, also showed up in North Dakota. And court documents from the ongoing case in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia pitting the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reveal that another firm, 10-Code LLCย โ€” founded and run by a former Bismarck Police Department detective named Paul Olson โ€” also has entered the fold.

It’s a phenomenon author and journalist Tim Shorrock calls โ€œSpies for Hireโ€ in his 2009 book by the same name,ย a tome dedicated to chronicling theย outsourcing of U.S.ย intelligence.

โ€œG4S and other companies like it have one motive only: profit. Its work for governments and energy corporations โ€” particularly at the pipeline this weekย โ€” shows it has no respect for ordinary people or human rights,โ€ Shorrock told DeSmog. โ€œWhoever hires them should be investigated for malfeasance, because their shoddy record in security is a mileย long.โ€ย 

In that vein, theย North Dakota Private Investigation and Security Board announced that it has opened up an investigationย intoย the private security firms deployed to patrolย the pipelineย protests led by theย Standing Rock Sioux and whether those firmsย were evenย licensed to work in the state. In addition, a local county sheriff’s office has begun a similar investigation with theย North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigations, exploringย the Labor Day weekend clash betweenย security firms and protesters at a DAPLย site.ย 

Theย North Dakota Private Investigation and Security Board said it could not comment on which companies have fallen under the purview of its ongoingย investigation.

Photo Credit: Democracyย Now!

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Steve Horn is the owner of the consultancy Horn Communications & Research Services, which provides public relations, content writing, and investigative research work products to a wide range of nonprofit and for-profit clients across the world. He is an investigative reporter on the climate beat for over a decade and former Research Fellow for DeSmog.

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