Brit security team broke several rules before kidnapping

Times:

The four British security men kidnapped with their client in Baghdad this week may have committed a series of blunders leading to their capture.

Security sources said that the team protecting a British IT expert broke several basic rules.

It is alleged that they failed to vary their routine, visiting the same place every day for nearly three weeks; went to a potentially dangerous building; did not have enough guards to protect their client; and did not post a guard outside to raise the alarm in case of an attack.

GardaWorld, the security company that employs them, also has the contract to protect the British Embassy in Baghdad and the consulate in Basra.

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A source close the company insisted that it had one of the best security records in Iraq and that the captured protection team were highly experienced professionals who had taken every precaution.

The source added: “The team was confronted with 40 armed men in police uniforms inside a ministry building. There was nothing they could do.”

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But security sources in Baghdad said that there was disbelief over the abduction on Tuesday when details emerged of how dozens of Iraqi gunmen entered the ministry building unopposed and seized the five Britons without a shot fired.

One Western security source said that it was the 20th consecutive day that the IT consultant and security guards, all ex-British military, visited the building to give lectures.

“That is just inexcusable,” the source told The Times. “That is setting a routine, which is everything that you are not supposed to do.”

He said that the Finance Ministry was particularly dangerous because Bayan Jabr, the Finance Minister, used to command one of the main Shia militias. He was accused of infiltrating his fighters into the Iraqi police and running death squads. He has so far failed to comment on the abductions.

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While this criticism appears valid, clearly the people responsible for security for the building were either grossly incompetent or were in on the kidnapping. the latter seems to be the most likely and there is no indication of what kind of interrogation has been done on these folks to at least find out what their excuse is. Some reports have suggested that the British have contacted Sadr to see if his militia was involved.