Custer Battles

Custer Battles, LLC is a security company based in McLean, Virginia, that promotes its services as including "security services", "litigation support", "global risk consulting", "training" and "business intelligence".

Background

The company's founders are Scott Custer, a former Army Ranger and defense consultant, and former CIA officer Michael Battles, who ran for Congress in Rhode Island in 2002 and was defeated in the Republican primary. Battles is a Fox News Channel commentator. [1]

Custer Battles was a newly formed company with no experience in the security industry when it landed one of the first contracts issued in Iraq in the spring of 2003 to secure the airport. The no-bid contract was worth $16 million when it was awarded in the chaos after the fall of Saddam Hussein. [2]

On July 1, 2003, the company announced that it would "bring its security training expertise to the State of Maine." [3]

On April 9, 2004, BBC News reported that a Custer Battles employee and former British soldier, Michael Bloss, "was killed while guarding electrical workers near the town of Hit, west of Baghdad." [4]

A litany of complaints against Custer Battles can be found in the Forum section of ALI Capital Partners.[5]

Custer Battles is currently banned from further Department of Defense contracting.[6] A qui tam lawsuit has been filed against it by several parties seeking recovery, on behalf of the US, of allegedly fraudulent claims by Custer Battles. A copy of the complaint can be downloaded from here. They are no longer banned - it was not just removed, it was stated in a letter that they should have never been banned in the first placed.

Allegations of Unrestrained Force

"These aren't insurgents that we're brutalizing," says Craun. "It was local civilians on their way to work. It's wrong." Capt. Bill Craun is one of four former Custer Battles employees in an NBC report that allege civilian contractors used such unrestrained force in Iraq, they had to quit soon after because of disgust. "What we saw, I know the American population wouldn't stand for," Craun said referring to subcontracted local youth shooting the place up.

External links

Website

• Custer Battles, LLC, viewed April 9, 2004.
• Alexanter, Hawes & Audet, LLP. Retrieved May 5, 2005.

Articles

• "Security worker killed in Iraq", BBC News, April 9, 2004, viewed April 9, 2004.
• "Job seekers beware of Custer Battles LLC Security", Forum topic, ALI Capital partners website, viewed April 9, 2004.
• "Contractor accused of fraud in Iraq", T. Christian Miller, Los Angeles Times. October 9, 2004, The Seattle Times. Retrieved May 2, 2005.
• "Memos Warned of Billing Fraud by Firm in Iraq", Eric Eckholm, The New York Times. Late Edition - Final , Section A , Page 1 , Column 1. Oct 23, 2004. Retreived May 2, 2005.
• "Suit says politically linked firm defrauded U.S. of millions", Knight Ridder. Contra Costa Times. October 10, 2004. Registration required.
• "U.S. contractors in Iraq allege abuses: Four men say they witnessed brutality". By Lisa Myers & the NBC investigative unit. NBC Nightly News. Updated: 4:15 p.m. ET Feb. 17, 2005. Video available. Retrieved May 2, 2005.
• "U.S. contracting firm accused of bilking millions and running wild in Iraq". Deborah Hastings. Associated Press. Published in the Florence AL Times Daily. April 30, 2005. Retrieved May 2, 2005.
• Blind Oversight and Custer Battles by Onnesha Roychoudhuri. Published in Mother Jones Magazine.

Documents

• United States Ex Rel. Drc, Inc., Robert J. Isakson And William V. Custer Battles, Llc Et Alia. Case No.: CV-04-199-A Text of qui tam filing against Custer Battles.
• Senate Democratic Policy Committee Hearing - “An Oversight Hearing on Waste, Fraud and Abuse in U.S. Government Contracting in Iraq” Statement of Senator Byron L. Dorgan February 14, 2005
• Senate Democratic Policy Committee Hearing