DYNCORP INTERNATIONAL

'DynCorp International' (IPA: )^[2] is a United States-based private military contractor (PMC) and aircraft maintenance company. DynCorp receives more than 96 percent of its $2 billion in annual revenues from the federal government.^[3] Most recently DynCorp has publicly expressed interest in patrolling the border between USA and Mexico.¹
The company, based in Falls Church, Virginia, has provided teams for the U.S. military in major theaters, such as Bolivia, Bosnia, Somalia, Angola, Haiti, Colombia, Kosovo and Kuwait.^[4] DynCorp International also provided much of the security for Afghan interim president Hamid Karzai's presidential guard and trains much of Afghanistan's and Iraq's fledgling police force.^[5] DynCorp was also hired to assist recovery in Louisiana and neighboring areas after Hurricane Katrina.^[6][7]

Contents

History

Aviation Background

Name changes

Operations

Colombia

Hurricane Katrina

Iraq

Afghanistan

Gaza strip

Sex slavery

Aggressive behaviour in Haiti

References

External links

History

DynCorp traces its origins from two companies formed in 1946: California Eastern Airways, an air freight business and Land-Air Inc, an aircraft maintenance company. Two years after being organized, California Eastern Airways—- despite emerging as the second largest independent air carrier—- filed for bankruptcy in May 1948.^[8]

Aviation Background

Land-Air, Inc., which is the predecessor to todays DynCorp International's Maintenance and Technical Support Services (MTSS) strategic business unit, reached a major milestone in 1951, when it was awarded the first Contract Field Teams (CFT) contract by the Air Force Logistics Command (AFLC). Contract field teams provide mission support and depot-level repair to U.S. military aircraft and weapons systems worldwide. This was a major innovation in aviation services. Under the Contract Field Teams system, teams of aviation-maintenance experts are deployed anywhere around the world to provide fast, flexible maintenance services to aircraft at their home bases. DynCorp International and its predecessors have provided services under the CFT program continuously since being awarded that first contract. DynCorp has been one of the United States federal government's top 25 contractors.

Name changes

From 1951 to 2004 the company went through a number of name chages from Land-Air, Inc. in 1951 to California Eastern Airways, Inc., and in 1962, California Eastern Aviation, Inc., changed its name to Dynalectron Corporation, and then in 1987, Dynalectron changed its name to DynCorp.
In December 2000, DynCorp formed DynCorp International LLC, and transferred to it all of its international business to this entity while DynCorp Technical Services LLC continued to perform DynCorp’s domestic contracts. In March 2003, DynCorp and its subsidiaries were acquired by Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) for approximately US$914 million. Less than two years later, CSC announced the sale of three units of the business to a private equity firm, Veritas Capital, for US$850 million. The units sold were DynCorp International, DynMarine and certain DynCorp Technical Services contracts.^[9]. In December of 2004, DynCorp and CSC entered into an agreement to sell their equity interests in DynCorp International LLC, including its subsidiaries, Dyn Marine Services LLC, and DTS Aviation Services LLC, to DynCorp International Inc. In 2006, DynCorp International Inc went public on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol DCP

Operations

Colombia

Since the late 1990s, the United States has paid private military companies an estimated $1.2 billion, both to eradicate coca crops and to assist the Colombian army put down rebels that use the drug trade to finance their insurgency.
DynCorp has been awarded under competitive bid more of this business than any other company. They help Colombia's national police destroy coca crops with aerial defoliants. According to experts familiar with this operation, the company's role goes far beyond crop spraying. DynCorp employees "are engaged in combatant roles, fighting in counterinsurgency operations against the Colombian rebel groups," says Peter W. Singer, a foreign-policy fellow at the Brookings Institution and author of Corporate Warriors. "Indeed, the DynCorp personnel have a local reputation for being both arrogant and far too willing to get ‘wet,' going out on frequent combat missions and engaging in firefights." DynCorp has not responded to the allegation.
These actions do not get attention from Congress or the mainstream media.
The 1992 assassination of three DynCorp employees, whose helicopter was shot down during an anti-drug mission in Peru, received only 113 words in the New York Times.^[3]

Hurricane Katrina

DynCorp, along with partners Dewberry of Fairfax, Va., and Parsons Corporation of Pasadena, California, were awarded a contract to provide temporary housing to hurricane victims by FEMA.^[11] It is not known how many security contractors DynCorp may have sent with regards to that contract. However 13 officers were dispatched to assess possible damage to five hospitals in New Orleans, including the Memorial Medical Center and one in Biloxi, Mississippi at the request of Ross Perot and Tenet Healthcare.^[12]
Writing mainly about the involvement competitor Blackwater USA, columnist Jeremy Scahill of The Nation, stated that employees "''from companies like DynCorp, Intercon, American Security Group, Blackhawk, Wackenhut and an Israeli company called Instinctive Shooting International (ISI) are fanning out to guard private businesses and homes, as well as government projects and institutions.''"^[13] This passage seems to have angered, then president and CEO, Stephen J. Cannon enough to respond. In his letter Cannon protests Scahills use of words such as "mercenaries" and "fan out" and feels that DynCorp is the victim of bias. Clarifying that Tenet Health Organization Group engaged DI to help protect its facilities, patients and employees and assist in evacuations.^[14]

Iraq

In September 2005, Brigadier General Karl Horst, deputy commander of the Third Infantry Division in charge of security in Baghdad after the 2003 Invasion of Iraq, had this to say regarding some members of the private security firms operating in Iraq: "These guys run loose in this country and do stupid stuff. There's no authority over them, so you can't come down on them hard when they escalate force... They shoot people, and someone else has to deal with the aftermath. It happens all over the place."^[15]
In February 2007 federal auditors cited DynCorp for wasting millions on projects, including building an unapproved, Olympic-sized swimming pool at the behest of Iraqi police officials.^[16] The contract was a fixed-rate contract. Therefore, the building of the pool did not cause any extra burden on taxpayers.

Afghanistan

DynCorp has come under heavy criticism in Afghanistan for aggressive behaviour, with one security guard allegedly slapping the Afghan Transport Minister.^[17] They were replaced as Karzai's Presidential Guard in November 2005, apparently in a bid by Karzai to demonstrate his independence and because of DynCorp's aggressive approach.^[18] DynCorp continues with both the Afghanistan Police Program and the Poppy Elimination Programme in Afghanistan. The qualification of personnel in the police programme have been called into question by the previous minister of Interior Jalili. All DynCorp police advisors are required to have at least four years of police experience in either the U.S. or the U.K.

Gaza strip

On October 15, 2003, three DynCorp employees were killed in a bombing in the Gaza Strip. They were serving as security guards for American diplomats, supplementing the Diplomatic Security Service.^[19]

Sex slavery

In 1999 employees of the company were involved in the trading of sex slaves while working in Bosnia. A DynCorp employee, Kathryn Bolkovac, was fired after revealing that Dyncorp employees had frequented brothels where women had been imprisoned. Another Dyncorp employee, Ben Johnson, was also fired after revealing the involvement of some of his co-workers in forced-prostitution rings in Bosnia.^[20] At least 13 DynCorp employees have been sent home from Bosnia—- and at least seven of them fired—- for purchasing women or trafficking of women and children, though none have ever faced criminal sanctions.

Aggressive behaviour in Haiti

On DynCorp's website it says that since 1994 the company has trained law enforcement officials. In the case of Haiti, that meant a United Nations peacekeeping force.^[21] During a official ceremony attended by Boniface Alexandre, acting president of Haiti, his bodyguards, employed by DynCorp, were accused of assaulting two news reporters.^[22] A DynCorp employee who spent a year working with the UN peacekeeping force says he "trained some police" but "mostly guarded important people, such as the Haitian director general of police.".^[23]

References

1. “Increasing the Number of U.S. Border Patrol Agents” - statement of Robert B. Rosenkranz. June 19, 2007
2. The pronunciation of the company has been confused in the past, with mispronunciations such as "Dine-Core" (silent "p") and "Dine-uh-Core" commonplace; the proper pronunciation is "Dine-Corp," which includes the "p" sound, as stated by Herb Lanese, the new CEO, at an employee town hall meeting, January 2007 in Fort Worth.
3. Soldiers of Good Fortune Barry Yeoman
4. Outsourcing Post-Conflict Operations
5. IRAQ: Misjudgments Marred U.S. Plans for Iraqi Police
6. Storm-Wracked Parish Considers Hired Guns, , Renae, Merle, Washington Post,
7. Katrina survivors play defense against looting, , Patrik, Jonsson, Christian Science Monitor,
8. California Eastern Files Under Bankruptcy Act
9. CSC Sells DynCorp Units for 0m
10. Soldiers of Good Fortune Barry Yeoman
11. DynCorp International and its Partners in Partnership for Temporary Housing (PaTH) Awarded a Contract by FEMA
12. DynCorp International Provides Security and Relief in Louisiana After Katrina
13. Blackwater Down, , Jeremy, Scahill, The Nation,
14. Tender Mercenaries: DynCorp and Me
15. Security Contractors in Iraq Under Scrutiny After Shootings, , Jonathan, Finer, Washington Post,
16. Riding Shotgun With Our Shadow Army in Iraq Nir Rosen
17. US chides 'hostile' Karzai guards
18. Karzai's Afghan Protectors
19. American victims in Gaza bombing worked for DynCorp
20. Sex-slave whistle-blowers vindicated
21. 1994: Police Training and Civilian Policing
22. Haiti bodyguards 'beat reporters'
23. Former East Paly police sergeant returning to Iraq

External links

★ DynCorp International home page

★ Sourcewatch: DynCorp

★ ''State Outsources Secret War'', article from ''The Nation''

★ Outsourcing the Pentagon, information on Dyncorp Pentagon contracts and lobbying from ''Center for Public Integrity''

★ ''American firm in Bosnia sex trade row poised to win MoD contract'' article from The Guardian

★ "Outside the Law" - Salon investigation of activities of DynCorp and other private military contractors in Bosnia.

★ CorpWatch profile - CorpWatch profile on Dyncorp/CSC.

★ "the Windfalls of War" - Center for Public Integrity report on Dyncorp.