British Mercenary company Erinys sued over death of US Soldier

Soldier's father sues British company over wreck in Iraq
Dallas Morning News, TX - 18 hours agoBy KELLEY SHANNON / AP The family of an American soldier killed in Iraq when a private security vehicle collided with his 5-ton truck is suing the security ...

British security co. sued over death of US soldier
Reuters - 26 Oct 2007 By Luke Baker LONDON (Reuters) -
A British private security company - Erinys - is being sued in the United States over the death of a US soldier hit by one of its ...

They shoot civilians too..raking taxis with bullets

Private Guards Fire on Taxi; 3 Civilians Hurt, Police SayWashington Post, United States - 18 Oct 2007A US military spokesman in Baghdad said the guards were employed by Erinys International. The British firm provides security for the US Army Corps of ..

BAGHDAD, Oct. 18 -- Two men and a woman were wounded Thursday in a quiet Kurdish village in northern Iraq when guards from a British security company raked a crowded taxi with automatic weapons fire, local police said. It was the third shooting of Iraqi civilians by a private security firm in the past month.

Contractors Fire on Vehicle in Iraq The Associated Press - 18 Oct 2007Thursday's shooting happened when a vehicle approached the security guards working for Erinys Iraq Ltd., a British security company, at high speeds about 15 ...

From Mercenaries to Peacemakers? Scandals Confront Military Security Industryby David Phinney, Special to CorpWatchNovember 29th, 2005

Economist.com Mercenaries
Erinys, another British firm, was founded by Alastair Morrisson, an ex-SAS officer who emerged ... Erinys now commands a 14000-strong armed force in Iraq. ...www.sandline.com/hotlinks/Economist-Baghdad.html -

Private military companies (PMCs)—mercenaries, in oldspeak—manning the occupation administration's front lines are now the third-largest contributor to the war effort after the United States and Britain. British ones are popular, largely because of the reputation of the Special Air Service (SAS) regiment whose ex-employees run and man many of the companies. They maintain they have twice as many men on the ground as their American counterparts. According to David Claridge, managing director of Janusian, a London-based security firm, Iraq has boosted British military companies' revenues from £200m ($320m) before the war to over £1 billion, making security by far Britain's most lucrative post-war export to Iraq.
It's a lucrative business. A four-man ex-SAS team in Baghdad can cost $5,000 a day. Buoyed by their earnings, the comrades-in-arms live in the plushest villas in the plushest quarters of Baghdad. Their crew-cut occupants compare personal automatics, restock the bars and refill the floodlit pools of the former Baathist chiefs.

Established companies have expanded; new ones have sprung up. Control Risks, a consultancy, now provides armed escorts. It has 500 men guarding British civil servants. Global Risk Strategies was a two-man team until the invasion of Afghanistan. Now it has over 1,000 guards in Iraq—more than many of the countries taking part in the occupation—manning the barricades of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA). Last year it also won a $27m contract to distribute Iraq's new dinar. Erinys, another British firm, was founded by Alastair Morrisson, an ex-SAS officer who emerged from semi-retirement to win a contract with Jordanian and Iraqi partners to protect Iraq's oil installations. CPA officials say the contract is worth over $100m. Erinys now commands a 14,000-strong armed force in Iraq.
And....
It was reported in November 2006 that traces of Polonium 210 were detected at Erinys's Grosvenor Street premises in London, following the death by poisoning of former KGB officer, Alexander Litvinenko.[3]