Tim Spicer

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tim Spicer is a former Lieutenant-Colonel in the Scots Guards and CEO of the private security company (PSC) Aegis Defence Services. He is a veteran of the Falklands War and served with the British Army in Northern Ireland. He is a former employee of Sandline International, a private military company (PMC) which closed in April 2004.

When employed by Sandline, Lt Col Spicer was involved in military operations in Sierra Leone, which included importing weapons in apparent violation of the UN arms embargo. The controversy over this incident, and whether the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office knew of Sandline's actions, is known in the United Kingdom as the Sandline Affair; inquiries into it concluded that the FCO had known of the actions, and that Lt Col Spicer believed he was not breaking the embargo. There was speculation that the British and the US governments may have lent tacit approval to Sandline's activities. Sandline was also involved in attempts to support the government of Prime Minister Chan in Papua New Guinea in its efforts to reestablish control over the island of Bougainville. Sandline also had ties to the South African PMC Executive Outcomes.

Lt Col Spicer was involved in a controversial incident while serving in Northern Ireland in 1992. British Soldiers of the Scots Guards under Spicer's command, shot and killed an unarmed Catholic civilian named Peter McBride on the streets of West Belfast that year. Despite substantial subsequent evidence that the teenage McBride was unarmed and not a threat, Spicer stood by his soldiers even after they were indicted, arguing that in the conditions that applied at the time they had believed their lives to be in danger.

Lt Col Spicer is Chief Executive of Aegis Defence Services, a PSC based in London. The Chairman is Field-Marshal Lord Inge, former Chief of the Defence Staff and the Board of Directors include: General Sir Roger Wheeler, former Chief of the General Staff, and Sir John Birch, former British deputy ambassador to the UN.

Spicer was featured in The Guardian of May 20, 2006. The newspaper article, entitled The enforcer, said:

"Spicer is effectively in charge of the second largest military force in Iraq – some 20,000 private soldiers. Just don't call him a mercenary."

Lt Col Spicer has published his autobiography, An Unorthodox Soldier ISBN 1-84018-349-7.