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Private military and security companies will be meeting tomorrow through Thursday at a conference in Miami where they will advertise their services to governments and NGOs working in the Haiti relief effort. The conference will be led by Global Investment Summits and the International Peace Operations Association (IPOA), a trade group. The IPOA launched a web page for prospective clients only hours after the devastating earthquake struck Haiti on January 12th. On it they listed eleven companies marketing their expertise in construction, emergency relief, transportation and, most notably, security services. One of these security companies is Triple Canopy, the State-Department sponsored corporation that took up Blackwater’s mantle in Iraq. Mercenary tactics such as those being practiced in Iraq and being discussed at this week’s conference hardly signal a new approach to Haiti. The practice of hiring private companies to perform security services began in Haiti during the Clinton Administration, under a program called the Worldwide Personal Protection Program. This program led to a steady stream of private US security forces operating in Haiti after the CIA’s overthrow of then-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. All proceeds from the Miami conference will be donated to the Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund.

GUEST: Bill Quigley, Legal Director at the Center for Constitutional Rights.

Read Bill Quigley’s article here: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/03/03-4