The Forward newspaper of New York is reporting that the U.S. has hired a South African security firm that is staffed by former henchmen of South Africa’s apartheid regime. The firm’s role in Iraq came to light after a South African security officer was killed in Iraq last month. The man works for Erinys International and is a former member of the Koevoet, a notoriously brutal counterinsurgency arm of the South African military that operated in Namibia during the neighboring state’s fight for independence in the 1980s. Injured in the same attack was a former officer of South Africa’s old secret police unit. Last August, the U.S. awarded Erinys an $80 million contract to protect 140 Iraqi oil installations and to train 6,500 Iraqi guards.