And a money sponge?
The private security firm interviewed by CNN’s Nic Robertson earlier this week in Iraq agreed to go on camera if the company was not named…. But, of course, the company’s manager Amy Clark, agreed to use her name.
The last I heard she was working for Danubia Global. The Romanian company is rumored to have been purchased from another firm, Custer Battles, for the hefty price of $1. The politically connected Custer Battles was recently found guilty of defrauding millions of dollars from the Coalition Provisional Authority on a program to exchange old Saddam dinars for new dinars. Custer Battles was also suspended from doing business under US contracts, so the transfer may have been handy in many ways.
(The case against Custer Battles is ongoing on other fraud complaints.)
In the CNN segment, Clark complains about her company being banned from the Fallujah area. She said she has no idea why.
Perhaps it has to do with the rumor that Danubia personnel are accused of indiscriminately shooting Iraqi civilians?
More on this later.
Jim, contractors have Immunity from prosecution! I worked for CB and some of the guys were EXTREMLY Trigger happy! You have some goods points, But I was hit by a roadside bomb, killed the Kurdish men in my SUV( CB cut the cost on gettting amor) I ran back to save them after pulling one guy out, while being shot at, then with another American and 3 Kurds took 16 men prisoners, when they lput down their weapons, they was no need to shoot them! In some ways contractors are good but there are some that are just F@@@ing A*******..And as for the Military, you can’t send guys to war without the proper training, equipment! Don’t take a guy who works at walmart, starbucks, sear’s who gets 2 days of training a month and deploy him to Iraq! Right? Where’s the logic? Besides some of the things that happened with CB was pure GREED! They didnt care about their Men and Kurds!
Actually, now that I think about it–connecting her name to Danubia is some pretty inside information. Danubia is an almost forgotten and buried name.
–you have an interesting source.
From: Richard Levinson [mailto:rlevinson@danubiaglobal.com]
Sent: Friday, May 05, 2006 2:51 AM
To: ‘Jerry Cullen’
Subject: update
Jerry:
I spoke with Amy earlier today – hours before your email comments on the
CENTCOM policy went out to her – and she is definitely pushing ahead with
trying to get the arming stuff accomplished via Parsons. Separately, she
said that none of the other PSC’s have obtained arming authority via their
GZ authorizations – she tried this tact yesterday – and whether valid or
not, the current arming office has ‘nationwide’ authority and is/will not
accept GZ permissions whatsoever as a basis/factor under the CENTCOM
regulation now being applied, for DGI or any other company. Amy still
thinks that we are the only company to have made application to date. There
were further developments in the investigation process. LTC Kernan (SJA)
was pretty level with her and told her many things that Amy was unaware of
regarding the investigation – including the fact that some important
information that DGI provided never made it into the preliminary report that
went up to the BGen in charge. Kernan agreed that this had to be corrected.
She and Kernan discussed at length many points about the incident/s; this
was after she discussed the same with MAJ “Buck” Evers who she met with
first yesterday. Our client (Semih/Teksen) may have forged contract
documents in order to win the contract; there is suspicion/inclination to
believe that someone/s on the US side might have colluded – so while the
investigation is going ahead, it is now going ahead not with a focus so much
on DGI but on possible contract fraud and collusion regarding other parties.
That said, while LTC Kernan raised the issue of revisiting the ban — in our
favor – it may not be possible until his efforts to press through the system
get traction. We still do not know whether all of the money owed by the USG
to the primary contractor has been paid; so we still don’t know whether
there are any moneys left that we can claim against. But, perhaps, if in
fact there is some collusion that is evident, does DGI have the right to
claim for the moneys owed DGI on the basis that there was underlying
wrongdoing that involved USG personnel to our detriment?
Otherwise, we are close to reaching agreement with another PSC to run the
convoys temporarily under their aegis, GTR’s and Tapestry tracking system.
Amy was going to meet further on this possibility during her afternoon and
evening. Hopefully we will hear more tomorrow. Please feel free to call
her directly at your convenience.
I don’t know what Amy’s comments/reply might be to your email comments. I
tried to reach Amy again, after your email, but the phone lines would never
went through.
Thanks
Richard
Richard Levinson
Director
Danubia Global Inc.