Writing Worth Reading
Writing Worth Reading
Tim Spicer is the closest thing to the father of the private security industry you are going to hear from. He is most famous for the Sandline Affair, which was about his private security company, Sandline International, selling weapons to the legitimate but ousted government of Sierra Leone. The British navy had been refuelling Spicer’s helicopter and helping him out. There was a scandal about that because there was supposed to be a UN embargo on any sales of weapons to the country.
Your next book is all about Tim Spicer.
Yes, Tim Spicer is the closest thing to the father of the private security industry you are going to hear from. He is most famous for the Sandline affair which is sometimes known as the Arms to Africa affair. It is about his private security company, Sandline International, selling weapons to the legitimate but ousted government of Sierra Leone and the British military force there. The British navy in particular had been refuelling Spicer’s helicopter and helping him out. And there was a scandal about that because there was supposed to be a UN embargo on any sales of weapons to the country. How was this happening? There were lots of complicated political things going on.
Spicer was involved in a very significant moment in the history of the private security industry, which is when a group of South African Special Forces set up a company called Executive Outcomes, the first of these large-scale private security companies, at the beginning of the 90s. Spicer was recruited by the two men who had originally set up Executive Outcomes. So he was there on the ground for the whole thing.
It’s a ripping yarn about the start of the Sandline days. Unfortunately the book doesn’t get on to what’s happening now. But it’s a good historical book.
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Author Stephen Armstrong describes the real men who become mercenaries - the British nightclub bouncer who turned up in Iraq, picked up an AK47 and got himself some private security work. 'You have to remember that there are blokes who were trained as soldiers, then the army said, ‘You’ve served your time, out you go,’ and they are doing the best they can. And can you blame them?' Most of these people, he says, are not bloodthirsty mercenaries, they are just trying to get by using the skills they have.
