Eeben Barlow

Lt-Col. Eeben Barlow is a former member of the apartheid-era South African Defence Force and was the second-in-command of its elite special forces 32 Battalion Reconnaissance Wing. 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 to mainly under-developed—but mineral-rich—countries in Africa and Asia. Barlow left Executive Outcomes in mid-1997 and the company closed its doors on 31 December 1998. Barlow is currently an independent consultant but also lectures on military matters at defence colleges and universities.

Military background

Born in Zambia, Barlow started his schooling in Francistown, Botswana and moved to South Africa in the mid-1960s. After matriculating in 1972, he joined the SADF. He was commissioned in the SA Corps of Engineers where he served as the Engineer Commander for the 53 and 54 Infantry Battalions in the South West African Operational area. Barlow was recruited to serve with 32 Battalion Special Forces in Angola. Although 32 Battalion operated independently, the SADF was supporting the UNITA rebel movement (funded by Washington and Pretoria). Subsequently, he was assigned to SADF's Directorate of Military Intelligence and then to the CCB where he commanded Region 5, an area that encompassed Europe and the Middle East.

Paramilitary

In the mid-1980s a large number of South African militants (predominantly black) escaped the country by crossing South Africa’s borders into Botswana, Mozambique, Swaziland, Malawi, Zimbabwe or Zambia where they were granted refuge and amnesty. Many of these refugees received military training in the USSR and its satellite states for the purpose of using force to overthrow the white South African government.

As a member of Military Intelligence, Barlow was tasked to infiltrate and penetrate these dissident elements to gather intelligence on their activities and planning. Later, as a member of the CCB, Barlow’s region was tasked with disruption and intelligence gathering operations in Europe and the Middle East.

Mercenary

In 1989, Barlow established the company Executive Outcomes (EO). Executive Outcomes initially trained SADF Special Forces in covert operations and intelligence gathering. He was also contracted to establish and train a covert group for the De Beers diamond company in Botswana Debswana with the aim of infiltrating and penetrating the illegal diamond-buying and smuggling syndicates.

In 1993, Barlow’s Executive Outcomes was contracted to provide security for Ranger Oil in the northern Angolan town of Soyo where Ranger Oil were trying to recover drilling equipment stored on the harbour. The harbour, in turn, was under UNITA rebel control. To achieve this, Barlow recruited men who had been retrenched from the SADF elite units as well as Koevoet. Due to this contract, Executive Outcomes became a target for a campaign led mainly by South Africa’s Military Intelligence Division, the Department of Foreign Affairs and the media.

Shortly thereafter, Executive Outcomes was awarded the contract to assist the Angolan Armed Forces (FAA) with training, strategic and tactical advice in an effort to end the war with UNITA. Despite a sustained negative campaign against it, Executive Outcomes accomplished its contract and within a year, UNITA had virtually been destroyed on the battlefield. This led to the signing of the Lusaka Protocols.

Executive Outcomes likewise assisted the Sierra Leonean government in destroying the rebel movement RUF in that country.

Barlow and his company also assisted the Indonesian Special Forces in the hostage-release operation in Irian Jaya in 1996.

Barlow was a keynote speaker during the establishment of the British Army’s rapid reaction forces. He also delivered a paper on the role of PMCs to the US Department of Defence in Washington.

Barlow publicly made it known that he supported a bill to regulate PMCs and Executive Outcomes provided several guidelines to the South African government during the formulation of a bill to regulate such companies.

Executive Outcomes was one of the first companies to be awarded a licence by the South African government to operate as a government-approved PMC.

The media finally apologised to Barlow in an article in The Star newspaper dated 5 November 2007.

External links

• A new kind of army for privatized global warfare
• East Timor and West Papua
• Northbridge Services Group
• Galago Publishing Company Eeben Barlow, "Executive Outcomes: Against All Odds" - Autobiography released June 17, 2007
• Eeben Barlow's Military and Security Blog (Barlow's current personal blog)