Security Firms Hit 'Pay Dirt' in Haiti

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Global Rescue, another security firm sent a 25-man team to Haiti and is led by a former US Navy SEAL, a member of the Army's Special Forces and the Company's Chief Paramedic to Haiti three days after the disaster. The question is whether they were there to help or to profit.

They advertise: "If you have family or relatives trapped in Haiti, Global Rescue may be able to help."

This rescue-for-sale approach suggests that even in the midst of the worst  humanitarian disasters in decades, these companies cannot help but try and make a buck. Its what the word mercenary actualy means.

The phenomenon is known as "disaster profiteering," where the person with the most cash gets saved and the rest must bide their time, however desperate their situation. Even in disaster zones, there is a 'first class' and a 'cattle class' service it seems. with VIPs being  extracted before ordinary Joes.

Jeremy Scahill, hero to the 'anti-mercenary' activists - and hated in equal measure by many in the PMSC industry says that the "disaster profiteering" we are seeing is similar to the controversial private security form Blackwater's role in New Orleans in post-Hurricane Katrina

"Far from some sort of generous gift to the suffering people of the US gulf, Blackwater raked in some $70 million in Homeland Security contracts that began with a massive no-bid contract to provide protective services for [the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)]. Blackwater billed US taxpayers $950 per man, per day," Scahill observed.

The opportunism is there for all to see, with security firms scrambling to register new internet domain names such as Haiti-Security.com to attract new clientele.

The truth is that the security fims are filling a vacuum left by the sheer scame of the disaster and the fact that the UN mission was decapitated in the disaster. So the security business has no compunction racing in to fill a market need, distasteful as it seems.

Online detractors  document their case with claims  that PMSCs are just another aspect of the military industrial complex and reflect  American corporate desires to exploit Haiti's huge humanitarian need for financial gain.

David Isenberg recently wrote, "The tragedy in Haiti will represent many things to many people. For some it will be a simple moral obligation to help those in dire need. For others it will be a chance to make money." Indeed, Isenberg notes that the activities of PMSCs in Haiti will yield "varying degrees of both" and reminds us of instances in which companies have offered to support humanitarian missions at cost or pro-bono.

Jody Ray Bennett, a specialist  in the private military and security industry, the materialization of non-state forces and the transformation of modern warfare argues that "this is a remarkable chance for the industry to gain global legitimacy if it is indeed interested in such a "moral obligation" before a profit margin- and certainly a potential opportunity to remove some of the stain from its tarnished reputation."