Security Advisory Services

Security Advisory ServicesCompany type| Private military security firm

|

Industry| Private military and security contractor
Founded| 1975
Founder| Leslie Aspin, John Banks, Frank Perren
Headquarters| United Kingdom, Sandhurst

Area served

| Africa (Southern Rhodesia, Angola)

Key people

| Leslie Aspin, John Banks, Frank Perren
Products| Providing military combat forces
Services| Mercenary recruitment

Security Advisory Services was a British private military company founded by Leslie Aspin,[1][2] an arms dealer, John Banks,[3][4] a former paratrooper of the British Army, and Frank Perren,[5] a former Royal Marine, in order to recruit mercenaries for military operations abroad. In 1976, the company massively hired paid soldiers to fight in the Angolan Civil War, which was the biggest mercenary recruitment operation in Britain since the Nigerian Civil War at the end of the 1960s.[6]

## History

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### Background

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Starting from the 1960s, a number of British private companies were established by ex-officers of the Special Air Service(SAS) and Special Branch, forming an undercover network for the employment of former servicemen as armed bodyguards, members of assassination teams, and soldiers of private armies overseas.[7][8][9][10] Some of those companies overtly advertised their security-related services (such as Saladin Security Ltd[11] and Thor Security Systems Ltd[12]), some had confusing names (such as Keenie Meenie Services Ltd[13]), and some even operated as insurance or consulting firms (such as Thomas Nelson (Insurance) Ltd[14] and Control Risks Ltd[15][16]).

In 1967, the founder of SAS David Stirling set up the Watchguard International Ltd,[17] with the official mission of supplying bodyguards to heads of states in Africa and the Middle East.[18][19] Its actual activity, however, extended to providing forces for secret military operations and training guerilla fighters.[20] One of the Watchguard's employees was a former paratrooper John Banks.[21]

### Formation

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In the summer of 1975, John Banks published the following advertisement in a newspaper:

> Ex-commandos, paratroopers, S.A.S. troopers wanted for interesting work abroad.[22]

He opened an office of the Security Advisory Services in Sandhurst and planned to recruit mercenaries for the war in Southern Rhodesia. The recruitment was not successful,[23] but Banks managed to gather information about those willing to fight abroad.[24]

### War in Angola

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In November 1975, Norman Hall, a former paratrooper and assistant to the head of the National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA) Holden Roberto, arrived in Britain.[25] Hall brought $25,000 to the Security Advisory Services asking for help in recruiting mercenaries to support FNLA in the Angolan Civil War.[26][27] Later on, the company also received $84,000 from Terence Haig, another aide of Roberto.[28]

Dirty Dick's pub, where mercenaries gathered before going to the war in Angola

Apart from placing advertisement in newspapers, John Banks recruited paid soldiers in pubs of London.[29] Before their departure to Angola, mercenaries gathered in the pub Dirty Dick's and stayed overnight in the St George in the East church in London.[30] By various estimates, from 90 to 200 soldiers were sent to Angola by the Security Advisory Services.[31][32][33] John Banks accompanied a group of mercenaries departing from Heathrow Airport to Brussels, from where they flew on a charter flight to Kinshasa, the capital of the Angola's neighbor Zaire, without Banks.[34] Another group flew to Antwerp, where they took a charter flight to Zaire.[35]

Security Advisory Services made 6-month contracts with mercenaries and paid for their transportation.[36] According to John Banks, the company offered them $300 a week and promised them $10,000 as a reward for any Russian captured.[37][a] Some of the mercenaries were only 17 years old, without any military training and without proper equipment.[38] According to Ben Hills, a reporter for the Australian newspaper The Age, 59 paid soldiers were killed in Angola.[39] Four captured mercenaries were sentenced to death (among them three British citizens) and nine to long-term imprisonment during the Luanda Trial.[40]

## See also

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* UN Mercenary Convention
* Unlawful combatant
* Arms trade

## Notes

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1. ^ FNLA, reinforced by British mercenaries, fought against the Cuban and Soviet-backed MPLA

## Citations

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1. ^ Weinraub1 1976, section 1: "One is said to be Leslie Aspin, a former smuggler and double agent who negotiated an arms deal in Amsterdam for the Irish Republican Army in 1973 and then tipped off the police".
2. ^ Carroll et al. 1976, section 4: "The SAS recruiting team, headed by arms dealer Les Aspin".
3. ^ Campbell 1978, p. 11: "...John Banks set up his Security Advisory Services (SAS!) recruiting organisation above a laundrette".
4. ^ Weinraub1 1976, section 1: "Another owner is John Banks, a former Paratrooper".
5. ^ Carroll et al. 1976, p. 20: "...and former Royal Marine Frank Perren".
6. ^ Weinraub1 1976, section 1: "...the largest mercenary recruitment operation in Britain since the civil war in Nigeria in the late 1960's".
7. ^ Campbell 1978, p. 7: "...the highly organised network for the employment of former SAS members-a network that many in the SAS itself fear is transforming the regiment into a training ground for other people's private armies".
8. ^ Campbell 1978, p. 7: "...The apparent involvement of serving and recently serving officers of the SAS and the Special Branch in the mercenary trade is an alarming feature of the evidence gathered during our enquiry".
9. ^ Campbell 1978, p. 11: "SAS Group Intelligence, he claimed, 'employs, controls and runs intelligence gathering and activities in alien paramilitary organisations in the UK. It runs assassination teams, snatch teams, infiltration teams and was run by Dare Newell, retired SAS officer'".
10. ^ Bloch & Fitzgerald 1983, p. 46: "Other restless ex-SAS men join one of a plethora of security firms which provide bodyguards, training units and mercenaries".
11. ^ Campbell 1978, p. 8: "...an article on the front page of the Times announced a new company - Saladin Security Ltd said to be specialising in 'kidnap and ransom protection'".
12. ^ Campbell 1978, p. 8: "...Major Russell West, ex-SAS squadron commander and one time managing director of Thor Security Systems Ltd. Last July, the Sunday Times reported that Thor was offering for sale, in confidential brochures sent to overseas clients, secret details of security equipment".
13. ^ Campbell 1978, p. 7: "Few people have heard of KMS Ltd. Fewer still know what the name means".
14. ^ Campbell 1978, p. 8: "A director of a city insurance firm Thomas Nelson (Insurance) Ltd, Johnson has freely used his company's name to provide 'cover' for the mercenary activities".
15. ^ Campbell 1978, p. 8: "The activities of Control Risks Ltd were well known to ex-soldiers looking for employment".
16. ^ Bloch & Fitzgerald 1983, p. 49: "...another firm staffed by ex-SAS members, Control Risks".
17. ^ Bloch & Fitzgerald 1983, p. 47: "A year later he set up a company called Watchguard".
18. ^ Campbell 1978, p. 9: "As the Yemen war tailed off, David Stirling set up a new organisation which soon became recognised as the most prestigious private military organisation perhaps ever created-Watchguard (International) Ltd.".
19. ^ Campbell 1978, p. 9: "Watchguard was ostensibly designed to supply private bodyguards to overseas heads of state in Africa and the Middle East".
20. ^ Campbell 1978, p. 9: "The special forces, the brochure claimed, would train others to 'combat insurgency and guerilla warfare'".
21. ^ Campbell 1978, p. 10: "Among Watchguard's employees were, at one time or another, John Banks".
22. ^ Weinraub1 1976, section 1: "Ex — commandos. paratroopers, S.A.S. [Special Air Services] troopers wanted for interesting work abroad'".
23. ^ Weinraub2 1976, section 1: "Mr. Banks, who last year tried to recruit white mercenaries to help black Rhodesian nationalist guerrillas".
24. ^ Weinraub1 1976, section 1: "That plan, for an abortive venture against white troops in southern Rhodesia, attracted about 300 replies and resulted in a dossier of names".
25. ^ Carroll et al. 1976, p. 20: "Last November, when Roberto saw the need for foreign mercenaries, he dispatched a personal emissary-a dishonorably discharged British paratrooper named Norman Hall-to London to hire professional soldiers".
26. ^ Weinraub1 1976, section 1: "Mr. Hall, who bore a letter of accreditation signed by Mr. Roberto as well as $25,000—enlisted the help of Security Advisory Services".
27. ^ Carroll et al. 1976, p. 20: "With $25,000 of Roberto's money in his pocket, Hall had little trouble in making contact with the organization called Security Advisory Services".
28. ^ Carroll et al. 1976, p. 20: "...they were joined by a Roberto aide named Terence Haig, who brought with him a bundle of $84,000 in fresh hundred-dollar bills".
29. ^ Hoover 1977, p. 358, p. 358: "He was recruited by JOHN BANKS in the middle of January 1976, in a pub together with other mercenaries".
30. ^ Walker 1976.
31. ^ Weinraub1 1976, section 1: "...Security Advisory Services, based over an automatic laundry live and run by a former paratrooper, has recruited at least 90 mercenaries some sources place the figure as high as 200".
32. ^ Bloch & Fitzgerald 1983, p. 194: "Using a firm named Security Advisory Services as a front, he recruited a total of 120 mercenaries".
33. ^ Hills 1976, section 5: "...Security Advisory Services was the outfit that hired nearly 200 men to fight for FNLA".
34. ^ Weinraub1 1976, section 2 Third Key Figure: "...Mr. Banks, who accompanied one group of 43 mercenaries from Heathrow Airport on Wednesday aboard a Sabena airliner to Brussels from there the men—without Mr. Banks, who later returned to London—flew on a charter flight to Kinshasa, the capital of Zaire".
35. ^ Weinraub1 1976, section 2 Third Key Figure: "A second group of about 50 men left on a plane for Antwerp, Belgium, later in the day for another charter flight to Zaire".
36. ^ Weinraub2 1976, section 1: "Mr. Banks said in a telephone interview that he had received $86,000 in cash for the wages and fares of 116 Britons sent last week to fight in Angola's civil war".
37. ^ Weinraub2 1976, section 3 Served as Mercenary: "Mr. Banks said that the men were being paid $300 a week in cash, and that each man was being offered a bonus of $10,000 for any Russian captured".
38. ^ Hills 1976, section 6: "...Untrained, ill-equipped, some aged as young as 17, the recruits were".
39. ^ Hills 1976, section 7: "...Fifty-nine of them died".
40. ^ BBC 1976.

## References

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* "1976: Death sentence for mercenaries". BBC News. 1976. Retrieved 2022-10-08.

* Bloch, Johnathan; Fitzgerald, Patrick (1983). British Intelligence and Covert Action. London: Junction Books Ltd. ISBN 0-86245-113-2.

* Hoover, Mike J. (1977). "The Laws of War and the Angolan Trial of Mercenaries: Death to the Dogs of War". Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law. 9 (2).

* Campbell, Duncan (27 July 1978). "Soldiers of Fortune SW5" (PDF). Time Out (433): 7-11.

* Carroll, Raymond; Younghusband, Peter; Jaffe, Andrew; Macpherson, Malcolm (9 February 1976). "The Mercenary Life". Newsweek. Johannesburg-Huambo-London: 20.

* Hills, Ben (13 July 1976). "Master of 'the yobs of war'". The Age. Melbourne. p. 1.

* Walker, Martin (5 February 1976). "Gullibles' Travels - 1976 edition". Guardian.

* Weinraub, Bernard (1 January 1976). "Elusive Group in Britain Is Recruiting for Angola". New York Times. p. 1.

* Weinraub, Bernard (3 February 1976). "Briton Recruiting for Angola Group". New York Times. p. 7.

## External links

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* A photo of the building on the Yorktown Road at Sandhurst, where the Security Advisory Services office was situated
* Forms sent by Security Advisory Services to those interested in participation in the Angolan civil war