Aegis Defence Services

Aegis Defence Services is a London, U.K.–based private military company with overseas offices in Afghanistan, Bahrain, Iraq, Kenya, Nepal and the United States. According to Aegis' website, it has "substantial experience and a world-wide client-base, including governments, international agencies and the international corporate sector." Aegis is a registered and active UN contractor, a major security provider to the US government and security advisor to the Lloyds Joint War Risk Committee (adapted from Wikipedia). According to its 2005 documentary, "Private Warriors", the American Public Broadcasting System's news magazine program _Frontline_ reported that Aegis first contract for the then U.S. Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq was awarded on May 25, 2004, Aegis. Valued at $292 million, Aegis was to coordinate and track all security teams operating in Iraq, as well as to protect the Green Zone. _Frontline_ further notes that part of the controversy surrounding the choice had to do with the past history of its chairman and CEO, Tim Spicer, a former lieutenant colonel in the Scots Guard who had been embroiled in several controversies in the U.K. over his previous company Sandline's work in Papua New Guinea and Sierra Leone.