On September 4 1992, Peter Mc Bride, an 18 year-old father of two young daughters, was stopped by a foot patrol of British soldiers in Belfast. After an identity check and a thorough body search, which found him to be unarmed, Peter ran from the patrol and was chased by the soldiers. Two soldiers shot at him, hitting him twice in the back. Peter, seriously wounded, stumbled through a house before collapsing in the back entry behind his sister’s house. The soldiers were sentenced to life in prison for the murder, but were later released and allowed back into the army after serving only three years. Since returning to military service, both soldiers have been stationed in Iraq.

Last year, the Department of Defense granted the largest contract yet awarded for the reconstruction of Iraq to a company headed by a known abuser of human rights. Aegis Defense Services LTD. received a security contract worth $293 million. The Aegis CEO is Tim Spicer - the Lieutenant in charge of the soldiers that murdered Peter McBride. He condoned their actions, lied about the circumstances and had planned to put them back on the streets of Belfast with new weapons immediately after the murder. He went on to head Sandline International, a company with a record of disregarding international law and human rights.

Spicer is a human rights disaster and it is only typical that the Department of Defense would award such a critical and sensitive contract to a company headed by such an individual. Even with Senators John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, Ted Kennedy, Chris Dodd, and Charles Schumer calling for an investigation and a finding by the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction that Aegis had failed to verify that employees were properly qualified for the job, nothing has been done. On this anniversary of Peter McBride’s murder, we call on the Pentagon to immediately rescind this contract since a company with a human rights abuser as a CEO is “not properly qualified for the job”.

Join us at 11:30AM on Sunday September 4th outside the British Consulate at 400 N. Michigan to remember Peter McBride and demand that this contract be rescinded.

Sponsored by the Irish-American Unity Conference - Chicago.