Blackwater
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Eeben Barlow
Eeben Barlow, who retired in 1991 as Lieutenant-Colonel in the South African Defence Force, is the former Europe Director of the shadowy South African Civil Cooperation Bureau in the 1980s, when he was employed by De Beers in London and was responsible for setting up front corporations to evade sanctions such as UN Security Council Resolution 418 which imposed a mandatory arms embargo on apartheid South Africa (1977-1994).[1]
His book "Executive Outcomes – Against All Odds" was published in January 2007.[2]
South African Defence Force
Eeben Barlow was commissioned in the SADF in 1975 and served with 101 Task Force, 53 Infantry Battalion, 54 Infantry Battalion, 32 Battalion (Reconnaissance Wing), Military Intelligence (Covert Collection) and Civil Cooperation Bureau (CCB), a direct action group associated with Special Forces. In Barlow's LinkedIn biography, he insists: "I was not a Special Forces operator."[3]
Barlow's final posting was Commander of CCB Region 5 which covered Europe and Middle East until, as he describes it, "I be
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Eeben Barlow
South African military officer
Eeben Barlow | |
|---|---|
| Born | Northern Rhodesia (present-day Zambia) |
| Rank | Lieutenant-Colonel |
| Unit | Special Forces 32 Battalion and Civil Cooperation Bureau |
| Commands | second-in-command of Special Forces 32 Battalion |
| Known for | Founder of Executive Outcomes |
Lt-Col.Eeben Barlow is a veteran of the South African Defence Force and was the second-in-command of its elite special forces32 Battalion Reconnaissance Wing.[1] He later served in Military Intelligence as an agent handler and later as an operative and region commander in the ultra-secret Civil Cooperation Bureau (CCB), a covert division of Special Forces. He founded the private military contractor (PMC) Executive Outcomes (EO) in 1989, and was involved in providing counter-insurgency as well as peacekeeping forces in Africa and Asia.[2][3] Barlow resigned from Executive Outcomes in July 1997 and the company closed its doors on 31 December 1998.[4] Barlow is the former chairman of STTEP, but also lectures on military matte
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Executive Outcomes: The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth
1.0 Introduction
The birth of Executive Outcomes (EO) in 1989 and the figure of its founder, Lieutenant-Colonel Eeben Barlow, represent a watershed period in the history of PMCs. Indeed, the company’s military accomplishments in less than a decade of operativity are widely celebrated. The ability to organise and rapidly deploy an elite fighting force with nearly autonomous capabilities revolutionised the understanding of military providers and operations in Africa and beyond:
“[EO is] with the possible exception of the South African army, the most deadly and efficient army operating in sub-Saharan Africa today”
(Eeben Barlow).
However, besides its formidable military effectiveness, EO has been deeply controversial, especially in South Africa. Executive Outcomes and Chairman Eeben Barlow truly capture the complexity of the private military industry. The firm was fiercely criticised both at home and abroad while, at the same time, local populations and humanitarian groups showed appreciation for its success (sourc
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