More troops in Iraq means more private contractors

As more and more US troops are sent to Iraq as part of Operation Inherent Resolve private contractors follow to provide various services for the troops and the Iraq government. At present, there are already around 1,800 private contractors in Iraq who work for the US State Department. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel recently ordered another 1300 but this is likely only a fraction of the ultimate total.

 During the peak of the earlier US deployment to Iraq there were more than 163,000 private contractors in the country. The use of many private contractors often masks the total US involvement. In the earlier deployment there were frequent criticisms of the costs involved and lack of proper oversight of spending. As pointed out in an earlier article, the Pentagon has already been asking for contractors to sign up for long-term deployment to Iraq. A senior US official said that the number of contractors sent will depend on the number of US troops present and their dispersion within Iraq. Sending more contractors shows that Obama is planning on an extended war and a lengthy deployment of troops to Iraq not that long after withdrawing all US troops.

 Contractors can be responsible for a large range of services from guarding facilities and diplomats, to servicing vehicles and providing food for staff. While Obama has promised that there will be no boots on the ground in Iraq, there are already 3,100 all of whom he claims are in non-combat roles.

When Hagel recently visited Iraq, he flew over Baghdad in helicopters that were operated by private contractors paid for by the State Department. Private contractor numbers have been declining in iraq ever since 2011 but lately are rising again but by less than 5 percent according to the US State Department. After the offensive of the Islamic State into Iraq, the State Department upped the number of guards protecting the US consul in Erbil from 39 to 57 as the threat of being attacked increased. The guards are provided by a company called Triple Canopy part of the Constellis Group. Constellis did not respond to inquiries.

After US troops left Iraq in 2011, many private contractors were left to provide protection for diplomats and other services to the diplomatic community. Almost all the private contractors work for the US State Department. Even in late 2013 there were still 6,000 private contractors in Iraq working for the Pentagon, most of them supporting arms sales and delivery to the the Iraqi government, according to Pentagon spokesperson Mark Wright. However, in August the Pentagon asked for contractors to help provide advice to the Iraqi Ministry of Defense and Counter Terrorism. Service.

Iraq: U.S. helicopter makes emerency landing in metro Baghdad

   When a U.S. helicopter landed beside the Tigris River in metro Baghdad residents immediately thought that  a U.S. military operation was under way in spite of the facts that all troops are supposedly gone. One person was injured in the rough landing that was caused by technical problems.
   Although all troops are withdrawn some actually are still working for the U.S. embassy a virtual city in itself on the outskirts of Baghdad. There are also thousands of armed private contractors who work for the State Dept. still present in Iraq.
   Iraq is still plagued by insecurity with bombings and violence still common. The situation is aggravated by the policies of the Maliki government which is supported both by Iran and the U.S. Maliki seems engaged in a campaign to purge rivals particularly Sunnis. He has had many politicians arrested and charged his Sunni vice-president with supporting terrorism as well. The future looks dim unless Maliki makes deals with his opponents rather than trying to suppress them as he is doing now. For more see this article.

Sistani hits out at security contractors

This is one of the strongest statements of Sistani to date and it concentrates not only on the contrctor killings but also recent military killings of civilians. There will be more pressure for Iraq to be given the power to deal with contractor crimes. Of course there will be complete stonewalling on having US military subject to Iraqi law, that would be going way too far. In fact it remains to be seen if the US will recognise a right of the Iraqis to deal with contractors. One solution might be to make them temporary employees of the military.

Top Shiite cleric hits out at Iraq security contractors
1 day ago

KARBALA, Iraq (AFP) — Iraq's Shiite spiritual leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani lashed out at foreign security contractors on Friday accusing them of "belittling" Iraqis.

Sistani is demanding that the government pass legislation "that stops the shedding of Iraqi blood," his spokesman Sheikh Abdul Mahdi al-Karbalai said in the central shrine city of Karbala.

"The foreign security companies working in Iraq belittle innocent Iraqi citizens," a statement from Karbalai said.

"The occupying forces do the same in some of their operations, adding to the criminal acts of the takfiris (Sunni militants)."

The hard-hitting statement came after foreign security contractors Blackwater USA and Australian-managed Unity Resources Group were involved in separate shooting incidents in Baghdad in the past month in which, according to an Iraqi government toll, 19 civilians were killed.

It was issued shortly after the US military announced that 15 women and children were killed in an operation in the Lake Tharthar region northwest of Baghdad on Thursday.

"In a short span of time, security companies kill without reason many citizens while the occupying forces attack Iraqi towns and cities, especially Jayzani, near Khalis," Karbalai's statement said.

On October 5, a double US air strike on the village of Jayzani al-Imam, 30 miles (50 kilometres) north of the capital, killed 25 people that American commanders said were Iranian-linked militants but which Iraqi authorities said included women and children.

Thursday's killings of civilians by US forces was also condemned by Sheikh Bashar al-Fayadh, spokesman for the influential Muslim Scholars' Association, one of Iraq's main Sunni clerics' organisations.

"Iraqis should unanimously call for the departure of the occupation," Fayadh said in a statement. "We have enough bloodletting of Iraqis."

He also urged action by the world community.

"Where are the human rights organisations? Score and sometimes hundreds of Iraqis are slaughtered every day and no one takes any action."

State Dept. considering phasing out private security firms in Iraq

It will be interesting to see what if anything comes of this. Blackwater has good connections with the Bush regime and the administration is likely to continue to reward them. Bush tends to be loyal until events force him to act against his friends. Since there are so many security guards in Iraq it would require a lot of trained military to replace them and they may not be available. Perhaps the guards will return but just under a new arrangement as temp. govt. employees.


State Department Considering Phasing Out Private Security Firms In Iraq
October 10, 2007 10:43 p.m. EST



Friena Guerrero - AHN News Writer
Washington D.C. (AHN) - The State Department is considering phasing out or curbing the use of private security guards in Iraq, a move that could lead to the cancellation of its contract with the controversial firm Blackwater USA.

Considering U.S. reliance on Blackwater and similar firms however, two senior officials admit the proposal could meet some difficulties, but nevertheless is one of the options the State Department is mulling after the Iraqi government demanded that private contractors be pulled out of the war-torn country.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the officials told the Associated Press that the option is part of the comprehensive security review in Iraq that Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice ordered after Blackwater guards allegedly gunned down 17 Iraqi civilians while assigned to a U.S. Embassy Convoy on Sept. 16.

Citing the lack of manpower and equipment to adequately protect U.S. diplomats stationed in Iraq, the officials said that the review panel is not expected to recommend banning all private contractors but added that the department is studying other alternatives to offer security services to American officials working in Iraq.

These include hiring Blackwater and other private guards as temporary U.S. government employees or forming Iraqi companies with Iraqi employees to protect U.S. diplomats, similar to how local guards protect embassy staff in other countries, the officials said. The latter would bring the guards under Iraqi jurisdiction, the officials explained.

Blackwater is the largest of three U.S. companies eligible to bid on specific task orders in Iraq. If Blackwater were to be eased out, its operations would have to be assumed by more companies which could force the Department to open its bidding process to other firms, including foreign companies, the officials said.

While saying that no concrete decisions have yet been made on what the review panel will recommend, the officials added that these would depend on interpretations of Iraqi and U.S. laws as well as government regulations for vendors.

We'll revoke Al-Maliki's Licence First

One wonders if an American actually said this. Given US insensitivity it is possible. I was not aware of some of the other incidents with Blackwater that are listed here. They do not get much play in the western media. We will see what if anything happens as the result of the joint investigation. The Iraqi govt. is already drawing up a law that will hold contractors responsible. I wonder what the US response will be. It is unlikely that they will fire Blackwater for sure.

This is from the following site.

'We'll revoke Al-Maliki's licence first'
The privatisation of security in Iraq threatens more than innocent civilians, reports Nermeen Al-Mufti

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The killing of 11 civilians in Baghdad two weeks ago has once again put Blackwater on the spot. The US security firm first came into the public eye in early April 2004, when four of its personnel were killed and mutilated by mobs in Falluja. Although Iraqi religious parties denounced the attacks at the time, Bush gave the town four days to deliver the perpetrators before ordering an all-out attack, one in which thousands of Falluja inhabitants perished.

The Iraqi government would like to see Blackwater brought to account. But that is not going to be easy. The spokesman for the Iraqi Interior Ministry, Abdul-Karim Khalif, says that the ministry provided Iraqi courts with evidence against Blackwater concerning other shootings over the past seven months. In one shooting last February, three of the guards of Al-Iraqiya television were killed. On 9 September, five Iraqis were killed when Blackwater personnel fired at them near the municipality building in Baghdad. Three days later, five other citizens were wounded in another shooting on Palestine Street. Blackwater, the Iraqi Interior Ministry maintains, is also involved in the killing of an Iraqi journalist near the Iraqi Foreign Ministry building in Baghdad in February, as well as the killing of a citizen near the Iraqi Interior Ministry building in Baghdad in May.

"Most of the laws passed by Paul Bremer, the civilian administrator of Iraq under US occupation, remain in force. Some of these laws violate Iraqi sovereignty, including a law that prevents Iraqis from prosecuting any American or any individual who cooperates with America or the coalition authorities, whether civilian or military," Abu Abdullah, an Iraqi lawyer, told Al-Ahram Weekly.

Following the recent incident in Baghdad, Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki threatened to revoke Blackwater's licence. What he later discovered was that the company was working in Iraq without a licence. The Americans weren't impressed by Al-Maliki's uncharacteristic boldness. "We'll revoke Al-Maliki's licence before he revokes Blackwater's licence," a US official quipped.

Within four days of the incident, Blackwater was back in operation. A spokesman for Operation Imposing Law said that the services of private contractors in Iraq cannot be discontinued without creating a security vacuum. According to media reports, the Iraqis and Americans have formed an eight-member committee to investigate the Blackwater incident. The committee is co-chaired by a top US diplomat and the Iraqi defence minister.

Blackwater has over 20,000 personnel in Iraq, all well- armed and backed with armoured vehicles and aircraft. The company has military equipment comparable to that used by the US army and its pilots fly reconnaissance missions over Baghdad on a daily basis. Last April, one of its helicopters was shot down during clashes in Al-Fadl district of Baghdad.

According to press reports, about 34 per cent of the budget the US government initially allocated for the reconstruction of Iraq has been diverted to private security firms. The "privatisation" of the war in Iraq is well underway, The Los Angeles Times reported. In his book, Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army, American investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill links the modern security firm to the Knights of Malta, an offshoot of the Knights Templar. Blackwater's employees, he argues, share the same religious zeal of ancient crusaders.

"Private security companies -- whether American, British, or South African -- do not differ much from Iraq's sectarian militias. These companies act as if they were entitled to commit any crime on the pretext of self-defence," Abu Abdullah said. US federal authorities are currently investigating the involvement of Blackwater employees in smuggling weapons into Iraq.

Meanwhile, US airborne troops shot dead seven Iraqi civilians in the predominantly Sunni town of Al-Mahmoudiya, 20km south of Baghdad. Little else is known about the operation. But US authorities regularly claim that such attacks are part of their offensive against Al-Qaeda. Similar operations take place in Sadr City frequently, the target in that case being the Mahdi Army

Checkbook imperialism: The Blackwater Fiasco

It seems that there is a surge in contractors that has brought them to a level in Iraq that is larger than US troops. It will be interesting to see how all of this pans out. The US is not about to do away with its guards and in order to provide profits for Bush cronies and others there is no longer the manpower within the armed forces to provide these services.
Imagine the gall of Blackwater:
We have become the most responsive, cost-effective means of affecting the strategic balance in support of security and peace, and freedom and democracy everywhere.”
Translated that means that the company profits from US imperialism everywhere.

Checkbook Imperialism: The Blackwater Fiasco



Posted on Sep 18, 2007

iraqfact.com

By Robert Scheer

Please, please, I tell myself, leave Orwell out of it. Find some other, fresher way to explain why “Operation Iraqi Freedom” is dependent upon killer mercenaries. Or why the “democratically elected government” of “liberated” Iraq does not explicitly have the legal power to expel Blackwater USA from its land or hold any of the 50,000 private contractor troops that the U.S. government has brought to Iraq accountable for their deadly actions.

Were there even the faintest trace of Iraqi independence rising from the ashes of this failed American imperialist venture, Blackwater would have to fold its tents and go, if only in the interest of keeping up appearances. After all, the Iraqi Interior Ministry claimed that the Blackwater thugs guarding a U.S. State Department convoy through the streets of Baghdad fired “randomly at citizens” in a crowded square on Sunday, killing 11 people and wounding 13 others. So the Iraqi government has ordered Blackwater to leave the country after what a government spokesman called a “flagrant assault ... on Iraqi citizens.”

But who told those Iraqi officials that they have the power to control anything regarding the 182,000 privately contracted personnel working for the U.S. in Iraq? Don’t they know about Order 17, which former American proconsul Paul Bremer put in place to grant contractors, including his own Blackwater bodyguards, immunity from Iraqi prosecution? Nothing has changed since the supposed transfer of power from the Coalition Provisional Authority, which Bremer once headed, to the Iraqi government holed up in the Green Zone and guarded by Blackwater and other “private” soldiers.

They are “private” in the same fictional sense that our uniformed military is a “volunteer” force, since both are lured by the dollars offered by the same paymaster, the U.S. government. Contractors earn substantially more, despite $20,000 to $150,000 signing bonuses and an all-time-high average annual cost of $100,000 per person for the uniformed military. All of this was designed by the neocon hawks in the Pentagon to pursue their dreams of empire while avoiding a conscripted army, which would have millions howling in the street by now in protest.

Instead, we have checkbook imperialism. The U.S. government purchases whatever army it needs, which has led to the dependence upon private contract firms like Blackwater USA, with its $300-million-plus contract to protect U.S. State Department personnel in Iraq. That is why the latest Blackwater incident, which Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki branded a “crime,” is so difficult to deal with. Iraqis are clearly demanding to rid their country of Blackwater and other contractors, and on Tuesday the Iraqi government said it would be scrutinizing the status of all private security firms working in the country.

But the White House hopes the outrage will once again blow over. As the Associated Press reported on Monday: “The U.S. clearly hoped the Iraqis would be satisfied with an investigation, a finding of responsibility and compensation to the victim’s families—and not insist on expelling a company that the Americans cannot operate here without.” Or, as Ambassador Ryan Crocker testified to the U.S. Senate last week: “There is simply no way at all that the State Department Bureau of Diplomatic Security could ever have enough full-time personnel to staff the security function in Iraq. There is no alternative except through contracts.”

Consider the irony of that last statement—that the U.S. experiment in building democracy in Iraq is dependent upon the same garrisons of foreign mercenaries that drove the founders of our own country to launch the American Revolution. As George Washington warned in his farewell address, once the American government enters into these “foreign entanglements,” we lose the Republic, because public accountability is sacrificed to the necessities of war for empire.

Despite the fact that Blackwater USA gets almost all of its revenue from the U.S. government—much of it in no-bid contracts aided, no doubt, by the lavish contributions to the Republican Party made by company founder Erik Prince and his billionaire parents—its operations remain largely beyond public scrutiny. Blackwater and others in this international security racket operate as independent states of their own, subject neither to the rules of Iraq nor the ones that the U.S. government applies to its own uniformed forces. “We are not simply a ‘private security company,’ ” Blackwater boasts on its corporate website. “We are a professional military, law enforcement, security, peacekeeping, and stability operations firm. ... We have become the most responsive, cost-effective means of affecting the strategic balance in support of security and peace, and freedom and democracy everywhere.”

Yeah, so who elected you guys to run the world?

Iraq govt. pulls Blackwater licence.

This from Yahoo via AP. If the Iraq govt. tries to prosecute Blackwater personnel there will be real trouble since the US considers them untouchable just as the military personnel whose duties they are now performing. The huge increase in privatisation of former military jobs makes the neo-conservative imperialist policy a prime source of profit. Whether a war is lost or won it is a win win situation for the contractors.

Blackwater license being pulled in Iraq By BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press Writer




BAGHDAD - The Iraqi government said Monday that it was pulling the license of an American security firm allegedly involved in the fatal shooting of civilians during an attack on a U.S. State Department motorcade in Baghdad.

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The Interior Ministry said it would prosecute any foreign contractors found to have used excessive force in the Sunday shooting. It was latest accusation against the U.S.-contracted firms that operate with little or no supervision and are widely disliked by Iraqis who resent their speeding motorcades and forceful behavior.

Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul-Karim Khalaf said eight civilians were killed and 13 were wounded when security contractors believed to be working for Blackwater USA opened fire in a predominantly Sunni neighborhood of western Baghdad.

"We have canceled the license of Blackwater and prevented them from working all over Iraqi territory. We will also refer those involved to Iraqi judicial authorities," Khalaf said.

The spokesman said witness reports pointed to Blackwater involvement but said the shooting was still under investigation. It was not immediately clear if the measure against Blackwater was intended to be temporary or permanent.

Blackwater, based in Moyock, N.C., provides security for many U.S. civilian operations in the country.

Phone messages left early Monday at the company's office in North Carolina and with a spokeswoman were not immediately returned.

The U.S. Embassy said a State Department motorcade came under small-arms fire that disabled one of the vehicles, which had to be towed from the scene near Nisoor Square in the Mansour district.

An embassy official provided no information about Iraqi casualties but said no State Department personnel were wounded or killed. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media.

He said the shooting was being investigated by the State Department's diplomatic security service and law enforcement officials working with the Iraqi government and the U.S. military.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki late Sunday condemned the shooting by a "foreign security company" and called it a "crime."

The decision to pull the license was likely to face a challenge as it would be a major blow to a company that was at the forefront of one of the main turning points in the war.

The 2004 battle of Fallujah — an unsuccessful military assault in which an estimated 27 U.S. Marines were killed, along with an unknown number of civilians — was retaliation for the killing, maiming and burning of four Blackwater guards in that city by a mob of insurgents.

Tens of thousands of foreign private security contractors work in Iraq — some with automatic weapons, body armor, helicopters and bulletproof vehicles — to provide protection for Westerners and dignitaries in Iraq as the country has plummeted toward anarchy and civil war.

Monday's action against Blackwater was likely to give the unpopular government a boost, given the contractors' widespread unpopularity.

Many of the contractors have been accused of indiscriminately firing at American and Iraqi troops, and of shooting to death an unknown number of Iraqi citizens who got too close to their heavily armed convoys, but none has faced charges or prosecution.

The question of whether they could face prosecution is a gray legal area. Unlike soldiers, they are not bound by the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Under a special provision secured by American-occupying forces, they are exempt from prosecution by Iraqis for crimes committed there.

Khalaf, however, denied that the exemption applied to private security companies.

Iraqi police said the contractors were in a convoy of six sport utility vehicles and left after the shooting. A witness said the gunfire broke out following an explosion.

"We saw a convoy of SUVs passing in the street nearby. One minute later, we heard the sound of a bomb explosion followed by gunfire that lasted for 20 minutes between gunmen and the convoy people who were foreigners and dressed in civilian clothes. Everybody in the street started to flee immediately," said Hussein Abdul-Abbas, who owns a mobile phone store in the area.

The wartime numbers of private guards are unprecedented — as are their duties, many of which have traditionally been done by soldiers. They protect U.S. military operations and diplomats and have guarded high-ranking officials including Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Baghdad.

They also protect journalists, visiting foreign officials and thousands of construction projects.

Blackwater has an estimated 1,000 employees in Iraq, and at least $800 million in government contracts. It is one of the most high-profile security firms in Iraq, with its fleet of "Little Bird" helicopters and armed door gunners swarming Baghdad and beyond.

The secretive company, run by a former Navy SEAL, is based at a massive, swampland complex. Until the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, it had few security contracts.

Since then, Blackwater profits have soared. And it has become the focus of numerous controversies in Iraq, including the May 30 shooting death of an Iraqi deemed

Another area opens for investment in Iraq

The entire article is at Iraq Slogger. There are huge numbers of private contractors in Iraq and there are just not enough spaces in the US military health care facilities in Iraq. Of course the Iraqi facilities are crumbling and ill supplied so no contractor is going to use them. Only Iraqis deserve such ill treatment.

DoD Contractor Medical Care May Be Privatized
Pentagon Explores Options as Contractors Overwhelm US Mil Medical Facilities
By EASON JORDAN Posted 22 hr. 38 min. ago