Security Advisory Services
Security Advisory Services was a British private military company founded by Leslie Aspin, an arms dealer, John Banks, a former paratrooper of the British Army, and Frank Perren, a former Royal Marine, in order to recruit mercenaries for military operations abroad. In 1976, the company massively hired paid soldiers to fight in the Angolan Civil War, which was the biggest mercenary recruitment operation in Britain since the Nigerian Civil War at the end of the 1960s. History Background Starting from the 1960s, a number of British private companies were established by ex-officers of the Special Air Service(SAS) and Special Branch, forming an undercover network for the employment of former servicemen as armed bodyguards, members of assassination teams, and soldiers of private armies overseas. Some of those companies overtly advertised their security-related services (such as Saladin Security Ltd and Thor Security Systems Ltd), some had confusing names (such as Keenie Meenie Services Ltd), and some even operated as insurance or consulting firms (such as Thomas Nelson (Insurance) Ltd and Control Risks Ltd). In 1967, the founder of SAS David Stirling set up the Watchguard International Ltd, with the official mission of supplying bodyguards to heads of states in Africa and the