September 2003: Republican-Connected Company Partners Up with Firm to Provide Security to Western Businesses in Iraq

The Republican-connected firm New Bridge Strategies partners up with Diligence-Iraq to provide security for companies wanting to do business in Iraq. Diligence vets local employees and partners, reviews potential investments, provides daily intelligence briefs, and supplies security for company personnel and assets. Its fees are based on the level of risk involved. Diligence was formed in 2000 by two former intelligence officers, Nick Day and Mike Baker. Day, an expert in Islamic militant groups, is a former MI5 agent, and Baker was a CIA covert field operations officer specializing in “counterterrorism, counternarcotics, and counterinsurgency operations.” The company employs about 200 people—mainly former members of the US Special Forces, New Zealand’s equivalent of the Green Berets, and the Iraqi military—and has offices in London, the US, Geneva, and the Middle East. Its annual gross revenue is around $10 million. The company works hand-in-hand with New Bridge Strategies, whose chairman, Joe M. Allbaugh, formerly served as director of FEMA under President Bush. In addition to being Diligence-Iraq’s chief executive officer, Baker also serves on New Bridge’s advisory board member. Diligence received its initial financial backing from the Republican-connected lobbying firm Barbour, Griffith & Rogers (BGR). Like New Bridge, Diligence shares office space at BGR’s office in Washington DC. BGR also provided Diligence with its well-connected chairman Richard Burt, former US ambassador to Berlin, as well as its impressive advisory board. One of the advisers is Ed Mathias of the Carlyle Group. [New York Times, 9/30/2003; Washington Post, 10/2/2003; New York Times, 10/6/2003; Financial Times, 12/12/2003; Independent, 2/8/2004]