Background
Custer Battles was founded in October 2001. The company was named after its founders, Scott Custer and Michael Battles. Custer is a former Army Ranger and defense consultant, while Battles is a former Army officer and CIA intelligence officer who ran unsuccessfully for the United States Congress in Rhode Island in 2002.
From 2001-2003, Custer Battles provided crisis management and security assistance to humanitarian organizations working in high-risk conflict areas throughout the world. They were one of the first companies to establish a presence in Kabul, Afghanistan in January 2002, working for various NGOs as well as the Afghan Ministry of Transportation. Domestically, they also provided critical infrastructure protection in the United States, with focus on water security. They had at least four state-wide contracts in 2002 (New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Maine, Nevada), as well as contracts with various municipalities along the eastern seaboard.
In May 2003, Custer Battles established a presence in Baghdad, Iraq. In June 2003, Custer Battles was competitively awarded a contract to secure the Baghdad International Airport. The 12-month contract with the Coalition Provisional Authority was worth $16.8 million. The company continued to expand its business in Iraq, and became a minor subcontractor operating in the country.
The company continued to expand its operations in Iraq through 2003 and 2004. Their clients included the Coalition Provisional Authority, Bearing Point, Washington Group International, Parsons, Halliburton and the U.S. Army. In early 2004, the Department of Defense initiated an investigation into one of Custer Battles' contracts with the CPA, resulting in the company being suspended from future contract considerations by the Department of the Air Force. In early 2005 Custer Battles ceased operations in Iraq.
Read more about this topic: Custer Battles
Famous quotes containing the word background:
“I had many problems in my conduct of the office being contrasted with President Kennedy’s conduct in the office, with my manner of dealing with things and his manner, with my accent and his accent, with my background and his background. He was a great public hero, and anything I did that someone didn’t approve of, they would always feel that President Kennedy wouldn’t have done that.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)
“In the true sense one’s native land, with its background of tradition, early impressions, reminiscences and other things dear to one, is not enough to make sensitive human beings feel at home.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)
“They were more than hostile. In the first place, I was a south Georgian and I was looked upon as a fiscal conservative, and the Atlanta newspapers quite erroneously, because they didn’t know anything about me or my background here in Plains, decided that I was also a racial conservative.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)