Tim Spicer

Neither Sandline nor Tim Spicer did anything illegal and were, if anything, victims of a wider UK political controversy. Sandline was contracted to supply weapons and professional services to the legitimate elected government of Sierra Leone. This government had been deposed by a military junta in alliance with the Revolutionary United Front, a barbaric rebel movement. The British government knew of the action, which did not contravene international law or the UN Security Council’s arms embargo. The facts are borne out by a Government investigation, two inquiries and a UN Legal opinion.

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.

Spicer was Chief Executive of Aegis Defence Services, a PMC based in London, until replaced by Major General Graham Binns in 2010. The chairman of the Aegis board of directors is former Defence minister, Nicholas Soames MP. The Board of Directors include: General Sir Roger Wheeler, Chief of the General Staff; Paul Boateng, former Labour Minister and ex-High Commissioner to South Africa and Sir John Birch, former British deputy ambassador to the United Nations.

In 2005, following the award of this contract, five United States Senators – Charles Schumer, Hillary Clinton, Ted Kennedy, Chris Dodd and John Kerry – wrote a joint letter calling on Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld to investigate the granting of the Aegis contract describing Spicer as "an individual with a history of supporting excessive use of force against a civilian population" and stating that he "vigorously defends [human rights abuses]".

In a December 2005 letter to his constituents, then-U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) called on the Department of Defense to withdraw its contract with Aegis. Obama wrote that "The CEO of Aegis Defense Services Tim Spicer has been implicated in a variety of human rights abuses around the globe ... given his history, I agree that the United States should consider rescinding its contract with his company."

In October 2004, Aegis won a $293 million three-year contract in Iraq outsourcing, among other things, intelligence for the U.S. Army.

In late 1999, Spicer left Sandline, which kept operating until 2004. The next year, he launched Crisis and Risk Management. In 2001, he changed the company's name to Strategic Consulting International and also set up a partner firm specialising in anti-piracy consulting, called Trident Maritime. In 2002, Spicer established Aegis Defence Services, which around the beginning of the Iraq War was consulting for the Disney Cruise Line.

In 1994 he left the army and founded Sandline International, a private military company.

The Sandline affair was a political scandal that became one of the defining moments in the history of Papua New Guinea (PNG), and particularly that of the conflict in Bougainville. It brought down the PNG government of Sir Julius Chan and took Papua New Guinea to the verge of military revolt. After coming to power in 1994, Prime Minister Chan made repeated attempts to resolve the Bougainville conflict by diplomatic means. These were ultimately unsuccessful, due to the repeated failure of Bougainvillean leaders to arrive at scheduled peace talks. After a number of failed military assaults and the refusal of Australia and New Zealand to provide troops, a decision was then made to investigate the use of mercenaries. Through some overseas contacts, defence minister Mathias Ijape was put in contact with Spicer. He accepted a contract for $36 million, but the deal fell through when the PNG Army found out that so much money was being spent on a job they claimed to be able to do. The Army overthrew the PNG government and arrested Spicer. He was eventually released and sued the PNG government for money not paid.

On 4 September 1992, during the Troubles, two soldiers of the Scots Guards under Lieutenant Colonel Spicer's command, Guardsmen Mark Wright and James Fisher, shot and killed a civilian in the back in Belfast, Northern Ireland. At the subsequent trial, it was heard that 18-year-old Peter McBride had been unarmed and not a threat. Immediately following the shooting, the guardsmen were interviewed by Spicer along with three other officers before they were interviewed by police. Spicer later wrote "I thought between us we could reach a balanced judgement on what happened" Spicer maintains the same version of events as Wright and Fisher, to wit, that the soldiers believed McBride was about to throw a coffee jar bomb contained in a plastic bag he was carrying. despite the fact that McBride had been searched moments earlier by members of the same patrol. The bag was subsequently found to contain only a T-shirt. Spicer defended his soldiers even after a jury convicted them of murder and the judge sentenced them both to life imprisonment on 10 February 1995. Spicer argued that in the conditions applicable to the incident, Wright and Fisher had legitimately believed their lives to be in peril. Spicer was involved in a successful lobbying campaign which contributed to the British Government's decision to free Wright and Fisher from Maghaberry Prison on 2 September 1998. Each had served one week less than three years seven months in prison for the murder. They were then flown to Catterick barracks in Yorkshire to meet their commanding officer. The following month the Army Board decided that both men could return to their unit and continue their careers in the British Army. The pair subsequently fought in the Iraq War. In the same year that Fisher and Wright shot McBride, Lt. Col Spicer was awarded the OBE "for operational service in Northern Ireland".

Timothy Simon "Tim" Spicer, OBE (born 1952) is a former British Army officer, and former chief executive officer of the private security company Aegis Defence Services. He is a veteran of the Falklands War and also served with the British Army in Northern Ireland. He became well known as the founder of Sandline International, a private military company which closed in April 2004.

Born in 1952 in Aldershot, England, Spicer was educated at Sherborne School and followed his father into the British Army, attending Sandhurst and then joining the Scots Guards. He tried to join the Special Air Service (SAS), but failed the entry course. In 1982, his unit was pulled from guard duty at the Tower of London and sent to the Falklands War where he saw action at the Battle of Mount Tumbledown.