February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Aegis is headed by Lt. Col. Tim Spicer, former Scots Guards commander in Belfast in 1992 when soldiers under his command killed an 18-year-old Catholic man, Peter McBride.
Two soldiers were convicted of McBride’s murder and jailed in 1995, but after their release from prison they were allowed to return to service in the army.
The matter has prompted a member of the House Armed Services Committee, Massachusetts Rep. Martin Meehan, to write last week to U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
It has also emerged that activities of Aegis Defence Services Ltd. are overseen by a two-man Advisory Group, one of whom is Gen.Sir Roger Wheeler GCB CBE, former chief of the UK General Staff. Wheeler was the most senior of three British Army officers to sit on the original Army Board that ruled that the soldiers who killed Peter McBride could remain in the British Army.
In his letter, Meehan told Secretary Rumsfeld: “As a member of the Congressional Friends of the Irish National Caucus, I am deeply concerned that the decision to award this contract to Aegis Defense Services sends a troubling message to the people of Northern Ireland and Irish Americans alike that the United States does not uphold its commitment to internationally recognized human rights.”
The McBride issue has also featured in recent articles in the Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe and Asian Times that highlighted Spicer’s mercenary activities in Sierra Leone and Papua New Guinea with his previous company, Sandline International.
Jean Mc Bride, mother of the murder victim, has called on those with influence in Irish-American circles to demand cancellation of the contract. Following the latest revelations, McBride said: “The chairman of this company, Tim Spicer, thought his soldiers were above the law when they shot Peter in the back. Now we find out that an advisor to the company is the general who decided that the murder of my son wasn’t anything to lose sleep over and the two soldiers could continue to wear the Queen’s uniform. These people have no shame. Now they are all busy earning money on the backs of other people’s misery.”