THINK ABOUT IT
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Private security firm’s head honcho dodges bullets, misconceptions & retirement
Armed and dangerous, Alan W. Bell (above right), president of Canadian private security firm Globe Risk Holdings, takes a brief moment to relax on the job in Iraq. "We're in an industry which you're not going to be made redundant."
Interview first appeared in the Oct. 23 issue of Business Edge News Magazine
Glance around your office and ask a colleague what the worst part of his or her workday entails. In all likelihood it will go along the lines of ‘My daily commute through rush hour traffic’ or ‘Writing up year-end financial reports’ or ‘That guy Jim from accounting keeps eating all my favourite doughnuts.’ Whatever their lament is, it probably pales several shades compared to Alan W. Bell’s work week.
Bell, the president of private security company Globe Risk Holdings, works in some of the most dangerous spots in the world (Sierra Leone, Ecuador, Afghanistan) and consequently has been blown up, shot at point blank range, spent sleepless nights under a bed as bullets flew overhead — and that’s just what he’s willing to divulge."I lost my hearing in my left ear when
I was in Uganda. I was dragged out of
my vehicle and the guy tried to shoot me
with an AK-47, but he was so nervous
he missed and just fired into the ground
and blew out my eardrum." – Alan Bell
For decades the private security industry operated largely in the shadows. All that changed with the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Companies flocked to the region to make a quick — and lucrative — buck. Many had little experience in security, much less a war zone, and soon found themselves in over their heads and in the spotlight. Blackwater (now Xe Services), for example, is being investigated by the U.S. Justice Department for crimes ranging from weapons smuggling to manslaughter.
Bell plays down the hired-gun saying he prefers acting as more of a consultant to companies, planning security and providing support to the Afghan and Canadian governments. “We’re out there helping people. The work we’re doing in Afghanistan is helping the Afghans,” says Bell.
And while politicians have told an increasingly skeptical public that victory is just around the corner, Bell bluntly calls the war there “non-winnable” and questions our reason for staying there.
“The only reason we attacked Afghanistan was primarily because al-Qaida had their training schools there. Well that’s fine, we achieved that. But we stayed and now we’re trying to rebuild it and we’re trying to bring our morals, our doctrine and our way of life to a country that really doesn’t want them.”
I talked to Bell just days after he returned — albeit briefly — from yet another excursion to the war-torn country of Afghanistan.
(This version contains material that was edited out of the Business Edge version solely due to space constraints.) – TSH
1. What did your parents do for a living and what was the most important lesson they taught you?
“My father was a senior officer in the British prison service and my mother was a hospital worker.They taught me independence. To not let small things stop you from doing and being what you want to be and just getting on with life in particular.”
2. What were some of your interests growing up?
“I went to a military school at 15 and that’s where I completed my education. During that time it was athletics. I was a very good boxer. I did a lot of cross-country running. I represented the navy and county, which is equivalent to a province in Canada. I was captain of my cross-country team in the World Cross Country Championships in Spain.”
3. Was it your decision to attend military school?
“Oh yeah. You’ve got to remember when I left school there wasn’t a great deal of things you could do. My father wanted me to get a trade, so I basically joined the navy as a mechanical engineer, went through the training and qualified as a mechanical engineer in the British Royal navy. I then went on a round-the-world trip with one of Britain’s biggest aircraft carriers at the time. During this time I had interaction with British Marines. As well as being an engineer I was a qualified diver and we were doing a diving project in the middle of the Pacific with the Royal Marine Commandos and after talking to them I came to the realization I didn’t want to be a mechanical engineer, I wanted to be a commando.
“So I applied to transfer from the Royal Navy to the Marine Commandos, which was something they did not want me to do because they had spent a lot of money training me to be a mechanical engineer and a diver and they wanted to get back some of the money they had invested in me. It’s like being a pilot and the day you get your wings, you leave. So I had to go on a process of disobedience, during which they sent me to jail for numerous periods of time. I did this twice. Eventually they realized I was serious about this and they couldn’t keep putting me in military jail so they granted me my wish to transfer to the commandos.”
4. So you have a bit of a stubborn streak?
“No, I get bored easy and every ten years or so I change direction. I knew what I wanted to do and no one was going to get in my way even if I had to spend a couple of months in jail. You’ve got to remember this was in the ’60s and military jails were pretty rough places. You got the snot kicked out of you on a regular basis by the guards.”
5. I was going to ask you what you enjoyed least in the military but I imagine that was it.
“No, I enjoyed all of it. It was a challenge, it shaped my future really because I was determined to succeed in what I wanted to do and people would get in my way because I was in the military rank — in other words, you do what you’re told by the people above you, so I had some hurdles to climb. I just pursued them and they thought I would get fed up and go back to what I originally was. But they underestimated me and that’s why they ended up putting me in jail for one period of 36 days, another period for 40 days. So, it hardened me for my job ahead.”
6. Eventually you made your way up to the Special Air Service (SAS).
“Well, I did ten years in the Royal Marine Commandos, and achieved the rank of corps sergeant, which was quite rare at such a young age in the marines. I then worked under cover with a special unit for two and a half years in Belfast in Northern Ireland. That’s where I was picked up by the SAS who asked me if I would be interested in trying out for them, which I did. I was successful and spent 12 years with the SAS.”
7. You have worked in some of the most dangerous countries in the world. Do you ever wince going into these places?
“Not really. In the military you go where you’re sent, there was no choice about it. I worked on operations in many, many countries around the world, most of them under restricted locations, in other words your family, no one, knew what you were doing. Since I’ve been in the private sector and operated my own company there’s been times in Columbia, Ecuador and Sierra Leon where things have gone very, very bad, very very quickly and you sit and wonder ‘Why am I here?’
“There have been times when I’ve spent the night under my bed while people in the street were fighting each other and bullets were flying through the windows and the doors. And just lay there waiting for dawn so you could crawl out from under your bed. So yeah, I’ve gone through those types of moments.”
8. Have any of your children followed in your footsteps?
“Well, my daughter is an international model in New York. One of my sons is joining the Toronto police. Another is a senior manager with Enterprise car rentals. My third son is at Dalhousie University and wants to be a lawyer.”
9. Did you try to steer them away from the military?
“Yes. My middle son wanted to join the marines as a Royal Marine officer and in fact went back last year and during training broke his leg in two places, which meant he had to take a year off. So he came back to Canada and was due to go back in May. But during one of my trips to Afghanistan I was working with some of the British Marines and I didn’t like what they were saying and I came back and promptly attempted to talk him out of going back. After listening to me he decided he wouldn’t join the British Marines as an officer but would join the police. He applied for and is going through the process now to become a Metro Toronto police officer.”
10. After 22 years of service, you retired from the military. What led to that decision?
“I’d been operational all my life and I was approaching 40. I could have stayed on another few years or I was at the age where maybe it was time to make a complete change of life. I looked for certain projects or certain jobs where I could use some of my 22 years of skills, which was very difficult. So I decided to look at private and corporate security. I had a couple of job offers for the security services in Australia and New Zealand and I had a job offer here in Toronto by one of the biggest security companies in Canada (Intercon Security) and I chose Canada because it wasn’t so far away from my family in the U.K.”
11. How long did you work for them?
“About five years. One of the problems I had was that although the British military gave me many skills, none of them were business related. You could write what I knew about business on the back of a postage stamp. I didn’t have time to go to school and study for an MBA. So I got thrown in the deep end in a fairly senior management role and I listened and watched and learned very quickly. I reported to the president of the company and that helped with my business development process. Then I reached a time when I decided I had enough knowledge and would go out and give it a whirl myself and I started my own company. And we’ve been going now for 17 years.”"We're in a non-winnable situation unfortunately.
I’m glad Canada is reconsidering pulling out and
just concentrating on the rebuilding side, which
is what we’re concentrating on as opposed to the
fighting side because we’re not going to win."
– Alan Bell on the war in Afghanistan
12. What kind of background do you look for in an employee?
"Mainly military. Experience in numerous hostile environments. I’m requesting a minimum ten years experience in some type of high-profile tactical team or high-end organization. I just can’t take a guy from school or someone who has just been in the security industry and throw that guy into the Amazon in Ecuador and expect them to be able to cope with the things that might happen.”
13. How many resumés do you see in a month?
“I get about six a day. I get so many it’s not funny. Some of these guys have excellent backgrounds and some of them think because they read something or saw something on TV or a movie they think ‘Oh I want to do that.’ So most of the resumes I get I have no choice but to delete them from my system.
“That was one of the reasons why I originally started a training school, because it did two things: It enabled us to pass on the knowledge of some of the high-end security skills that were lacking in this country at the time. It also allowed us to cherry-pick the good guys. It was a win-win. We passed on our knowledge to other companies and people and then we selected the best of the best and used those guys. “And that’s where I got my original cadre of people. I have about four or five guys that have been with me basically from when we started the company.”
14. What is the biggest misconception about the private security industry?
“Well, in my business I’m viewed as a military type of company, which I’m not. We don’t do military-related work. Now one of the biggest problems I had is we were doing the work that they are doing in Iraq and Afghanistan 10 years before (the wars) started and no one really paid any attention to what we did, and no one really cared. Then Iraq was invaded and everyone was saying ‘Wow, who are these guys? They’re all Special Forces guys. Blah, blah, blah.’ Not realizing there have been companies doing this work for many years in a fairly low-profile way.
"A lot of the companies around now didn’t exist until the Iraq war. Some of these companies, such as Blackwater (now Xe Services), have had many problems. They grew too fast, too soon. They started out hiring what we call Tier One operators, which are Special Forces guys on their teams. Eventually there was so much work and there weren’t enough Tier One guys to go around so they started hiring anybody. Once they lowered their standards that’s when things started happening. People overreacting in firefights. Innocent people getting killed."
“So this is one of the problems. I talk to people in their 20s, 30s, and they think going to Afghanistan and Iraq is great and they’re really looking forward to it. I tell them ‘Well, you could get killed.’ ‘Well yeah I’m not worried about that.’ And it shows me the naiveté and guys like that are just not what I’m looking for.”
15. So have companies like Blackwater and other fly-by-night operators damaged the reputation of the industry?
"Yes and no. A lot of them have and a lot of them haven't. The problem is security is hours and people, and the more people you have the more money you make and multi-million dollar contracts and things like that. What's happening now to a lot of the companies, particularly those that are very active in Iraq, they're now looking to go and do things somewhere else in other countries because they see the end is approaching.
"So they either pack up and go into Afghanistan — and that's getting limited now because the Afghan government is limiting the amount of companies that can be licensed to work there — or they're saying, 'Let's go into Africa and Central and South America.' Well that's been our stomping ground for years. And now all these other companies, because they had security people in Iraq and Afghanistan, they suddenly think they're capable of providing the same types of services in these countries. It's not that easy because there's a lot of consorting, writing, preparation of plans, you don't train people to be as aggressive, some of them may be armed, some may not be.
"And it's an entirely different environment. You can't take 200 guys out of Iraq or Afghanistan and throw them into a mining camp in Africa or Central or South America and think there's not going to be problems because these guys are wound so tight things can happen. We're not there to kill people, we're there to protect people and protect clients assets and facilities and train locals to do the job we're doing."
16. You recently returned from Afghanistan — what is your take on the situation there?
“Oh God, have you got about five days? It’s getting worse, let’s put it that way. It’s a very difficult country to operate in from a security perspective because it’s ideal for counterinsurgency operations on behalf of say the Taliban or al-Qaida. And because of where they operate it’s easy for them to move around without being seen and then they attack and disappear. Also, these guys are part of the local population, so they can blow five car bombs and then bury their weapons in the back of their houses and carry on sitting outside their houses drinking coffee and no one really knows who they are.
“We’re in a non-winnable situation unfortunately. I’m glad Canada is reconsidering pulling out and just concentrating on the rebuilding side, which is what we’re concentrating on as opposed to the fighting side because we’re not going to win. The Russians tried with twice as many soldiers as we’ve got at the moment and they left with tails between their legs 12 years after they invaded. We’re going to be no different, except we’re going to have more bodies than they did.”
17. Obama has called the war in Afghanistan the 'war of necessity.'
"Well it depends on who you ask. I'm not going to get on my political high-horse but necessity for who and why? Afghanistan was forgotten for years because there's no oil, no gold, none of this none of that, well there is actually, but if you could stop the fighting long enough to mine all this stuff you'd be OK, but again a necessity for what?
"The only reason we attacked Afghanistan was primarily because al-Qaida had their training schools there, which is why we were sending guys from around the world there. Well that's fine. We did that, we achieved that, but we stayed and now we're trying to rebuild it. And we're trying to bring our morals, our doctrine and our way of life to a country that really doesn't want them. So you've got to deal with those issues as well."
18. In some circles negotiating with ‘terrorists’ is considered to be a sign of weakness or failure. What’s your take on negotiating?
“You’ve got to negotiate with these guys. I mean I’ve spoken to Taliban in Afghanistan. It’s the only way to do it. You can’t hammer these guys back into their holes in the ground and expect them to go away, they’ve got to be part of this process. For the first couple of years that was ignored and everyone just wanted to kill them because that was it. But there’s got to be a better way and that way is to bring them in and get them a government they’d be happy with to prevent all this fighting.
"You’ve got two types of Taliban: You’ve got the type of Taliban where the local villages’ young men go out there because they’re being forced to or they believe in what they’re doing and they want to clear out all the foreigners from their country. Then you’ve got the paid Taliban who get paid about a thousand dollars a month, do their training in the Swat Valley and surrounding areas and the they come in and they’re getting paid to fight. And these people are coming in from all over the world, including the U.K.
“There was a case about three months ago where they found a dead body after a contact and the individual had a tattoo of a London football club on his arm. So you’ve got a mixed bag of people from all walks of life fighting as part of the Taliban and they’re just there because they’re running out of space in Iraq and they’re moving to where the next jihad is. And the next jihad is obviously in Afghanistan. And there are thousands of those guys everywhere.”"Why would anyone want to attack Canada? It's a
nice place. Canadians are great people; we care
about human rights issues. Terrorists don't give
a damn about any of that. All they want to do is
kill people and they want to get the best bang for
their buck." – Alan Bell
19. Is most of your work done for private companies or governments?
"I work for anyone that is a legitimate company or government. Over the years we've worked with many different governments around the world and continue to do so. We work for legitimate companies. We check these companies out, we don't just grab any contract. In fact, we turn more work down than we take and that's the luxury of being the president of your own company because you can do that."
20. What would make you turn down an offer?
"Something that's very close to being illegal or asking us to do something that is illegal. Or someone who's not giving us the full story. I mean, I've been deployed to Africa and they haven't given me the whole story and I've ended up in a lot of trouble in that country because they didn't tell me that certain things had happened with the previous government. I'm there as a representative of this company and they're looking at me saying 'What's going on here?'"
21. Is the impression of private security as mercenaries valid?
"That is the way people look at it, but as I've said the big issue is the fact that we were doing this before that word was even thought of in the media and no one cared. My friends knew what I did for a living but other organizations and agencies had no idea the level we were working at in these countries and we continue to do so. We haven't changed, we don't just work in the Middle East we work in Africa, Central/South America.
"In fact when Iraq was invaded I was already doing work for the U.S. government and because the prime minister of Canada [Ed. note: at the time Jean Chretien] did not come out and say that he supported the war in Iraq I basically got black-balled and didn't work for (the U.S.) for about three years even though it was nothing to do with me, it was just our PM that said we don't support this and I got penalized. So I went through some very lean years with regards to American contracts because of that reason and that had quite a big impact on me initially so we sort of had to change direction and do other things. Our involvement in Afghanistan is on a consulting basis, we advise companies, we plan security, put security screens around companies that are operating and provide all sorts of support to the Afghan and Canadian governments."
22. How much money does a company have to allocate towards security in countries like Afghanistan?
"Probably 30 per cent of their gross revenue. It's a fair bit of cash and it's growing. Some companies, depending on what they're actually doing will pay more. It's very expensive and that's one of the problems happening in Afghanistan now because people refuse to have all this ex-pat participation. If you want an ex-pat security guy, you're looking at US$1,000 a day. If you're looking at an Afghan security guy you're looking at US$250 a month. So you think how many Afghans you can put in the field with rifles to pay one daily salary for an ex-pat.
"So what's happening now is that companies are saying 'We don't need ex-pats' but that's the problem because now at these companies there's no oversight. If these Afghan companies who some of them are trained, some aren't. Those who aren't tend to overreact, there's no oversight, no individual to manage a situation, they just panic and shoot or drop their weapons and run away. So it's all down money now."
23. Canadians have a tendency to think they are immune to terrorism. Is this naive?
"It's very naive. I call it the deny and repress syndrome. Primarily because we haven't been attacked. The U.S. was attacked eight years ago, there's been no follow up attack so why are we worrying about terrorism. Why would anyone want to attack Canada? It's a nice place. Canadians are great people; we care about human rights issues. Terrorists don't give a damn about any of that. All they want to do is kill people and they want to get the best bang for their buck.
"And whilst we have gotten away with it so far, we uncovered the Toronto 18 and I know a lot of those guys have gone away. One guy was just found guilty and he admitted to wanting to blow up certain landmarks in Toronto that would have resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people. And these guys weren't even trained overseas. they were indoctrinated in Canada and you tell me this is the only organization that's in this position in the whole of Canada? There's bound to be other little cells like this in different cities around Canada with the same rationale, drive, guidance from their leaders, who ever they may be."
24. What industries in Canada are particularly at risk for domestic terrorism?
"Well, the obvious is oil and gas. But also our financial institutions. We've done a tremendous amount of audits of major buildings, facilities, mass transit, ports and things like that around Canada in the last three years and we've been surprised by what we've seen in terms of vulnerabilities to outside interference to terrorists or what have you."
25. Is this under-reported in the media?
"It is to a certain degree. A lot of people don't realize what is happening and how safe they are when they do certain things. The only perception of security is when we fly somewhere and go through all that security at the airport. That's our perception of security. When we don't have to fly everything's copacetic and we don't have to worry about it. We don't worry when we jump on trains, our nuclear power stations, our oil fields, cruise liners. We don't worry about any of that stuff because nothing has ever happened so we've got nothing to focus on that has been negative. This is why I coined the phrase deny and repress syndrome, because basically if the wheel is not squeaking why should we oil it.
"I came across this attitude way before 9/11. 'What are you trying to sell me Mr. Bell? Security? We have this and that.' Then you try to explain to them industrial espionage, white-collar crime, kidnap and ransom situations, and they say 'This is Canada. Things like that never happen in Canada.' When in fact they do. Some of them are not reported, some are and just fobbed off. As Canadians we like to think we live in this cloak of cotton wool and nothing ever happens and a lot of people have this impression of themselves. God forbid when we eventually get attacked that naivete will be washed away and then everyone will be pointing fingers at agencies and the government saying 'Why didn't you prepare us for this.' Everyone is trying to prepare for it but you're not getting a lot of joy out of people because they don't see a need for it."
26. You mentioned oil and gas, what is your take on the recent bombings of Encana's pipelines?
"That's another example. That's definitely not international terrorism. At the moment they're just playing, they could have done a lot more damage than they have done. They could have blown up things. I mean the way those devices were planted and the amount of explosive is just clearing the earth around (the pipelines). It's really early days for whoever is doing this. But these people are domestic terrorists, whoever they are, whatever their reason is, whether they're trying to save the environment or what have you, but one day they're going to plant a bomb and someone is going to come around and get killed. Then they'll say 'Well, we didn't what that to happen, but it happened because we're trying to save the environment.'
"It shows you that we have those people in this country and I think that's more important. But once again, why are we going to worry about that in Ontario? That's on the West Coast, that's not our problem, we don't have those problems here in Ontario, Quebec, Newfoundland or Nova Scotia because they haven't happened.
"In terms of security, as Canadians, we tend to focus on where the impact is and if it isn't around us we don't really see the problem. This is another problem with naivete of Canadians. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't want to live anywhere else than here. But in my business, that's why until 9/11 I did very little domestic business, most of my business was outside Canada. After 9/11 we were invited to do various different things as a result and over the span of six years we ended up working 45 per cent in Canada and 55 per cent international. Now we're probably equally balanced 50/50."
27. In many ways you make a living off conflict or at least the threat of it.
"We do. We're in an industry which you're not going to be made redundant. The thing you have to do in this industry is it's important that you're credible, that you do what you say you're going to do, because I come across so many fly-by-night companies that say they do this, they do that and they don't. But the general public doesn't know that because they've got no perception of what these guys are offering. This is one of the things I have a major problem with. Someone will say we want you to do something for us. You say certainly and then you tell them what the problems are and they turn around and say we don't want you to talk about this and I say if you bring us in to do a threat assessment and everything is wrong don't turn around and say don't say that, we have to say that."
28. Do you ever sit down at night and wish for world peace?
“I wish I didn’t have to do what we need to do. I think we’re in someway contributing to world peace in a certain degree. Primarily because we’re out there helping people. The work we’re doing in Afghanistan is helping the Afghans. The work we’re doing in Africa is helping the Africans. That’s one of the biggest problems with the onset of the Iraq and Afghanistan situations where a lot of companies were going in and they’re just trying to rape the country in terms of revenue. They hire very few Afghan nationals.
“They come in heavy duty with third country nationals and provide them where they can make money off them because you can’t make money off Afghans. Because you don’t have to pay Afghans, what you pay them is nothing compared to what you can bill. So consequently a lot of companies just don’t care.”
29. Are there any countries you refuse to work in?
“Countries that are run by despots, dictators, call them what you like. Because all you’re doing is perpetuating their ability to get a grip on the country. There’s other countries I won’t work in because there are no laws or government. Somalia is a classic case. We’ve been approached on numerous occasions to work in Somalia and I won’t touch Somalia because I won’t put my guys anywhere I won’t go. And I definitely won’t go into Somalia.”
30. Have you ever been injured?
“I’ve got a few scars up and down my body from various different things. During the Falklands War an Argentinian fired a grenade at me and it exploded right behind me in the rocks and blew me up in the air and broke my wrist, hand, arm and left shrapnel in my back — which I still have.
“In the private sector there have been a lot of times where I’ve come very close. There have been vehicles blown up in front of me, behind me, things like that. I lost my hearing in my left ear when I was in Uganda. I was dragged out of my vehicle and the guy tried to shoot me with an AK-47, but he was so nervous he missed and just fired into the ground and blew out my eardrum.
I ended up with bits of rock in my forehead and then had to walk ten miles back into Kampala to get medical attention because he stole the vehicle I was in. “I’ve been arrested a few times in Africa and thrown in jails in the Congo. All sorts of things like that. I’ve been around the block a few times but I still enjoy what I do.”
31. Can you see yourself doing anything other than this?
“Not really. I was offered a major position in the UN security infrastructure a few years ago, which would have paid me a huge, huge salary. Having worked with the UN, particularly in Africa, I thought ‘Do I really want to be involved in this?’ That could have been my swan song. I’d have a boss, have no ability to influence change, etc. I can do all of the above with my company. I don’t take risks, don’t go into harm’s way and if I think something’s stupid I just stop doing it. Could I work for somebody else? I doubt it.
“I’d never had a job interview in my life until about two years ago when I was headhunted for a particular job. I decided to go because before I retired I wanted to see what an interview was like. I’ve gone through my whole career without an interview. And I enjoyed it. It was a battle of wits. I really enjoyed the process and the interaction. Because of my attitude and the fact I didn’t really want the job this obviously came across in the interview and they thought I was great. But they didn’t realize I was just getting a bit of an experience. They offered me the job with two reservations. The main reservation was ‘We want you to take this job but we don’t think we could control you.’ That about sums it up.”
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