Courtesy Grayworks Canadian security advisers who work with the Grayworks company are shown with members of the Cotabato provincial police special emergency response team. The Canadians, whose faces have been blacked out for security purposes, created and trained the Filipino police counter-terrorism force.

Grayworks Members of a Canadian-trained Filipino counter-terrorism team practice rescuing hostages. Since the late 1980s and 1990s, private military firms have provided training and, in some cases, combat troops and aircraft, to governments for complicated or risky missions.

Grayworks

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It was pitch-black as the four trucks came roaring into the village on the Filipino island of Mindanao.

A strike force of 90 Philippine troops and police, led by Canadian advisers, fanned out among the one-bedroom tin shacks. They quickly took over the small community of 1,000 people, targeting several homes believed to be occupied by guerrilla leaders who advocated the establishment of a Islamic state on the island.

Operation Seminole, a raid inside a Moro Islamic Liberation Front training camp and drug lab in the village of Pikit, was underway.

William, a Canadian employed by Grayworks Security, a Filipino company providing military training to government forces, was first through the door of one of the homes, his M-16 assault rifle at ready. On the floor were two men and two women, semi-comatose from being high on drugs.

In one of the rooms, William and his men found shabu, a local drug similar to cocaine, as well as hypodermic needles and $2,000 in cash. A quick search also revealed grenade launchers, assault rifles and MILF training manuals and documents. Six people in the village with links to the outlawed guerrilla group were taken into custody and put on board the trucks.

Glancing at his watch, William realized what was supposed to be a 20-minute raid had dragged on to 90 minutes. As dawn was approaching, he realized his men could be trying to retreat in daylight in the midst of an MILF stronghold. "It was a pretty dangerous situation," recalls William, who for security reasons declines to give his full name. "I didn't want to be in there too much longer in case we faced a counter-attack."

The strike force quickly retreated with its prisoners, another successful operation for Grayworks -- which in the past several years has found itself on the front lines of the war on terrorism in South Asia. Based in the Philippine's North Cotabato province, Grayworks Security employs about 50 military trainers, most of them former Filipino army soldiers. Also on staff are an undisclosed number of Canadians who act as security advisors.

Although the company has been operating in the island nation since 1996, providing security advice to private firms as well as training for Philippine government forces, the firm has been expanding its operations rapidly in the wake of security concerns after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the U.S. "There's obviously been a lot of interest from companies after 9/11 about the safety of their employees and operations," says the 35-year-old William. "It doesn't help that after Colombia, Mindanao has one of the highest rates of kidnapping in the world."

The Canadian spoke to the Citizen on the understanding that his full name not be used and that the identities of some of his men in the photographs provided by the company be concealed.

Grayworks is part of the phenomena in the defence field that took hold in the late 1980s and 1990s during which private military firms, which provided training and, in some cases, combat troops and aircraft, were being hired by governments for complicated or risky missions.

The best known of these firms was the now-defunct, South African-based Executive Outcomes, which in 1995 defeated a guerrilla force intent on toppling Sierra Leone's government. At its peak, the company had about 500 troops available for operations, including a highly successful 1993 deal with the Angolan government. Executive Outcomes spent 14 months training an army of conscripts in Angola as well as planning and fighting in key battles against guerrillas intent on toppling the government. The company's payoff for the deal was about $56 million, but at least 20 of its men were killed or reported missing during that conflict.

In the former Yugoslavia, retired American officers hired by Military Professional Resources Inc. of Virginia took over the training of the Bosnian army. MPRI's advisers, assigned to Bosnian Croat forces in the mid-1990s, were also credited with that army's battlefield successes against the Serb military.

Critics have labelled such companies as "mercenary" organizations, but some defence analysts have argued that such private military firms play a valuable role in handling missions that some countries or organizations such as the United Nations are in no position to deal with.

For Grayworks, the Philippines has the rare mixture that can be potentially lucrative for a private security company. On one hand, the nation has a growing economy and is highly attractive to foreign companies, ranging from Canadian mining firms to American-based fruit-growers.

But the Philippines is also a security nightmare. Gangs of criminals are kidnapping foreign businessmen and rebel armies are moving throughout the country at will. The standard practice is for the bandits to demand protection payments from companies. If a firm doesn't pay up, it will find its crops burned to the ground or its mining camps attacked. Business executives are also favorites targets for abduction, with ransom demands usually set at $1 million to $2 million U.S. for every foreign hostage held.

There is also no shortage of terrorist and guerrilla groups that businesses have to worry about. The New People's Army, once thought dormant, has made a resurgence in recent months, with attacks on private companies as well as kidnappings. The guerrilla force supports itself by extorting payments from logging and mining firms. It also levies a "revolutionary tax" on Filipino companies, demanding millions of dollars from companies such as the San Miguel Beer Corp.

At the same time, the Philippines has seen a wave of attacks by the Islamic extremist group Abu Sayyaf, which has ties to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network. Abu Sayyaf car bombs killed at least seven people and injured 200 in October, despite claims by the Philippine government that the group is on the run and its guerrillas fear for their lives. This year alone, the Abu Sayyaf rebel group seized 102 hostages.

David Harris, a former Canadian Security Intelligence Service official, says countries in Asia and the Middle East are the front lines in the ongoing war on terrorism. It's in those nations that recruiting and training for organizations such as al-Qaeda is ongoing. "We need to unplug these terrorist incubators, and the Philippines is one of those," said Mr. Harris, president of INSIGNIS Strategic Research in Ottawa.

Helping unplug these "incubators" is where Grayworks comes in. "We provide an entire training package for both companies and police to give them the most up-to-date skills in counter-terrorism work," says William.

In the past, the company has been hired to provide expertise in bomb disposal methods and training executives on how to avoid being kidnapped. It has also conducted background security checks on company employees. Some of Grayworks' clients include Shoemart, one of the Philippine's largest retail store chains, the San Miguel Beer Company and Viva Shipping Lines.

The firm also created and trained the North Cotabato provincial police hostage-rescue team. Grayworks advisers, including William, instructed the team on how to storm buses and buildings as well as how to gather intelligence on guerrilla groups.

Last year, Grayworks landed one of its largest contracts to date, to protect the Dole fruit plantation in North Cotabato. The 50,000-hectare banana plantation has been a favourite target for rebels with the Communist New People's Army who demand payments from the company or threaten to burn down the operation.

William says that, unlike some other private military companies, Grayworks security specialists also go into the field on missions with the units they help train. In April 2000, a Grayworks trainer accompanied Filipino troops on a reconnaissance mission on Jolo Island to ferret out the Abu Sayyaf rebel group, which had taken 21 foreign tourists hostage.

From 100 metres away, the soldiers kept the guerrillas under surveillance, but they were spotted and a firefight began. Two of the soldiers were killed and the troops had to withdraw. The hostages were eventually released after an undisclosed ransom was paid.

The company's personnel have also conducted search-and-destroy missions against New People's Army training camps near the Dole plantation. One mission was a success, while another failed to locate the guerrillas, who have the advantage in their intimate knowledge of the rugged jungle terrain.

The Grayworks-trained North Cotabato provincial police hostage-rescue team has had its own successes. In February 2002, the unit rescued several people held by a criminal kidnap-for-ransom group known as the "Pentagon Gang." The commandos rescued Dr. Rosemarie Agustin, a Chinese doctor, after a firefight in the Linguasan Marsh, a swampland often used as sanctuary by the bandits. The U.S. government has recently put the Pentagon Gang on its list of "foreign terrorist" organizations, but William views the group as nothing more than opportunistic criminals.

"Although the gang is made up of former guerrillas from the MILF and Abu Sayyaf, these guys are in it strictly for the money," he notes.

Part of the problem with operating in the Philippines is in knowing which government officials to trust. It is not uncommon for some members of the police and military to be on the payroll of criminals or terrorists and to leak details of upcoming missions, says William. Last year there were allegations, made in the country's Senate, that high-ranking members of the Philippine army and police had secretly co-operated with Abu Sayyaf rebels, allowing some of the group's leaders to escape after they had been trapped by government troops on an island just south of Mindanao.

William notes that during the Grayworks raid on Pikit, he avoided giving advance notice of the mission to local police since it was believed that the officers were providing protection to the MILF guerrillas.

Despite the adrenaline rush from combat operations, William says his most rewarding work has been to train the small local militias who protect villages in the Cotabato province. The units, called the Barangay Defence Force, are made up of farmers, teachers and village tribesmen whose job is to defend their communities from MILF attempts to extort money or destroy crops.

The training program conducted last year is similar to one operated by U.S. Green Berets during the Vietnam war. Grayworks taught the farmers basic weapons handling, first aid and other rudimentary military skills. Also included were various agricultural techniques such as how to take care of farm animals. Grayworks trained 50 Barangay Defence Force leaders, who in turn went back to their own villages and trained their 15-member militia teams.

"Training the BDF was one of the best experiences I've had," recalls William. "Not only do you get to learn the local culture, but there is a real sense you're contributing. You're helping people protect themselves from a bunch of thugs."

Contact David Pugliese at dpugliese@thecitizen.southam.ca