After many denials, US Army confirms private security contract in Iraq

[struggle4progress]

The Associated Press
Published: February 7, 2007

WASHINGTON: ... The secretary of the Army on Tuesday wrote two Democratic lawmakers that the Blackwater USA contract was part of a huge military support operation by run by Halliburton subsidiary KBR ...

Several times last year, Pentagon officials told inquiring lawmakers they could find no evidence of the Blackwater contract. Blackwater, of Moyock, North Carolina, did not respond to several requests for comment ...

The hidden contract not only cost taxpayers money, it also might have been illegal. The Halliburton subsidiary's main contract for military support services prohibited hiring subcontractors to provide armed security. That job is left to the U.S. military, unless the theater commander decides otherwise ...

On Tuesday, Army Secretary Francis Harvey wrote Van Hollen and Waxman that .... the security costs were not itemized anywhere, yet were factored into ESS' labor costs under KBR's contract, which in turn is financed by U.S. taxpayers ...

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/02/07/america/NA-GEN-US-Iraq-Contracts.php

[Richard Steele]

1. K & R

[Lasher]

2. Can't meet those military recruitment goals? Just hire mercenaries.

I'll bet the mercenaries get paid a whole boatload more than our soldiers do.

[struggle4progress]

3. " ... Some elite personnel make $33,000 a month ..."

Security Costs Slow Iraq Reconstruction
Contract Excesses Also Hamper Progress
By Renae Merle and Griff Witte
Washington Post
July 29, 2005

... The government does not know how much it spends on private security contractors in total, the GAO said. But it is more than expected. "Contractor officials acknowledge that the cost of private security services and security-related equipment, such as armored vehicles, has exceeded what they originally envisioned," the GAO said. The Pentagon estimates there are 60 private security firms with as many as 25,000 employees in Iraq. Some elite personnel make $33,000 a month. But there are no industry standards, and soldiers are not taught in advance how to interact with the armed contractors, according to the GAO. The use of contractors has led to occasional conflicts with the military. In May, the Marines detained 19 contractors for three days, claiming the contractors fired at them ...

http://www.globalpolicy.org/security//////////////////////issues/iraq/reconstruct/2005/0729costs.htm

[saigon68]

4. Some make $2,000.00 to $3,000.00 a day

[Lasher]

7. No worries about the UCMJ or those pesky Geneva Conventions

I guess they've outsourced all the support personnel such as cooks and truck drivers and now they're doing the same with combat roles. We had military cooks in the Army in 1969 but I don't know if the MOS even exists any more.

[hootinholler]

10. Wasn't a law passed last year to bring contractors under the UCMJ?

I can't find it, but I remember something about this.

-Hoot

[Lasher]

19. I missed that, Hoot. Shoot me a link if you run across it again.

Thanks.

[hootinholler]

24. Found it in the WaPo...

here.
By Griff Witte
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 15, 2007; A01

Private contractors and other civilians serving with U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan could be subject for the first time to military courts-martial under a new federal provision that legal scholars say is almost certain to spark constitutional challenges.

The provision, which was slipped into a spending bill at the end of the last Congress, is intended to close a long-standing loophole that critics say puts contractors in war zones above the law. more...

-Hoot

[Lasher]

31. Very interesting. Makes a bad thing worse, IMO.

There's something basically wrong for Senators like Graham and Specter (gave Junior authority to replace Attorneys General) to have slipped legislation into other bills like this, like a thief in the night. I wish something could be done to prevent the practice, but I guess that's a whole 'nother story.

I think trying to bring private contractors under the UCMJ just makes a bad thing worse. Nonmilitary people shouldn't be doing military things. They're trying to lend legitimacy to a very bad trend - corporate armies. It's the old 'lipstick on a pig' thing. I doubt if this would do much to help morale of our soldiers who are serving in the same area because big inequities remain. Just a couple of things that come quickly to mind are that mercenaries still get paid a lot more and can quit at any time.

And I agree with skeptics who question constitutionality of this. When you become a soldier who is subject to the UCMJ you raise your hand and swear an oath, which is a significant act of consequence. But these mercenaries and embedded journalists do not take such an oath to swear their civilian rights away, so to speak.

I appreciate your sharing this important information. Although it ran on the front page of WaPo, to me it seems to have slipped by relatively unnoticed.

Lasher

[hootinholler]

34. Of course the answer is to outlaw Mercs...

But, if you're going to have mercs operating in theater, then they need to be held to some standard of conduct.

It's a bad situation I have to agree, and it did hide in plain sight most likely because its complexity is above the attention span threshold of the average american.

-Hoot

[PassingFair]

20. And if you can't hire mercenaries, hire Mexicans.

And promise them citizenship on the other end.

...if they make it.

:puke:

[Blue_Tires]

5. lots of backroom dealing going on

makes me wonder what else we don't know about...

I kinda wish the dems had the stones to put an instant moratorium on Bilgewater, KBR, etc, until a full investigation is conducted...

[sydny1039]

6. War is a racket. This is one of the reasons the neocons wanted war with Iraq.

They knew it would make them wealthy and our Congress and government would not be able to tax them.

[annabanana]

8. NB: These are the people scheduled to get $$$$ from

bushie-boys new, burgeoning Budget... Shoveled right out of the treasury and into Dickie & his friends pockets!!

HELLO....

(You'd think that monstromedia would be jealous of all that capital heading in someone else's direction)

[Punkingal]

9. There was an article in my small hometown paper....

Last week, about a guy who worked for Blackwater and was killed in Iraq. He was a former Army Special Forces, and was retired and working for Blackwater when he was killed. There is a sign someone made on the main road through town that says something about him "giving his all" in Iraq. As if he were there as a regular soldier, instead of as a mercenary.

[tanyev]

11. But he's a hero! He killed them I-rack-is!

Why do you hate Amurrka?

[ms liberty]

12. Well, it's nice to see it coming out...

Of course it's no more than we all already knew, but now that it's official it's also officially outrageous.

I really don't like the idea of hiring mercenaries to fight our wars, period. I don't like the idea of hiring civilian contractors to feed and water our troops, either. The whole idea of privitizing these functions started with Cheney back in the 90's, IIRC.

[Zodiak]

13. We wasted an entire Iraqi city

because three killers from Blackwater were captured by Fallujans and their burned bodies were hung from bridges.

Not soldiers....mercenaries.

That one act....destroying Fallujah, was the turning point that doomed America to fail in Iraq. After one decimates a city of civilians, it is hard to win hearts and minds.

[rodeodance]

14. Lies and deciet ----time and time again.

[salin]

15. and then what? If it was an 'illegal' contract - then what?

More passes and huge contracts to Halliburton to plump up Cheney's retirement/er value of his stock options?

[spinbaby]

16. They're just now admitting it?

I thought it had been common knowlege since those Blackwater guys got lynched and hung from the bridge early on in the war.

BTW, I have a distant relative working for Blackwater. He's a former Marine, a former prison guard, born again, and sadistic--apparently their perfect hire.

[KoKo]

17. Agree....we've all know this for two years and there have been many articles

about their contracts and how they were providing services. Yet, it's not until Dems take over the Committee that those who lied now admit that there were contracts. The article says that Van Holland said there were no Contracts back in July ...but now changes his tune? Why isn't he under investigation for lying to the Committee the first time?

:crazy: We seem to know more out here on the Intenets than our own Senators do. Waxman is on it though and he was the only one who listened and collected information.

[gratuitous]

18. It's like we're in an abusive relationship

Every time we take back this abuser, in spite of the fact that it kills our children, wastes our money, alienates everyone around us, and yet we jump back into bed with it every time.

[Kaotac]

21. Someone should email O'Reilly

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercenaries

In the Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions (GC) of 12 August 1949 and the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I), 8 June 1977 it is stated:

Art 47. Mercenaries

1. A mercenary shall not have the right to be a combatant or a prisoner of war.
2. A mercenary is any person who:

(a) is specially recruited locally or abroad in order to fight in an armed conflict;
(b) does, in fact, take a direct part in the hostilities;
(c) is motivated to take part in the hostilities essentially by the desire for private gain and, in fact, is promised, by or on behalf of a Party to the conflict, material compensation substantially in excess of that promised or paid to combatants of similar ranks and functions in the armed forces of that Party;
(d) is neither a national of a Party to the conflict nor a resident of territory controlled by a Party to the conflict;
(e) is not a member of the armed forces of a Party to the conflict; and
(f) has not been sent by a State which is not a Party to the conflict on official duty as a member of its armed forces.
...

How exactly does that fit into how he continuously spouts off "Name, rank and Jihad number."

[tom_paine]

22. Don't they realize more and more people are understanding the Busheviks lie

damned near 100% OF THE TIME!

In this regard they are IDENTICAL to the Nazis, and the only difference is the murderousness of the lies they tell.

More and more people are coming to understand about the fact that Busheviks lie 99+% of the time, and are laughing at the military's "Sovietness".

But it is that way for the entire Bush Occupation of America.

[The Backlash Cometh]

23. Our government is so damn dirty.

[annm4peace]

25. Any one watching CSPAN on the Blackwater deaths?

The 4 women who's loved ones were the 4 who were killed in Fallujah and burned and strung up.

Rep Darrell Issa was so disqusting.. One of the mothers Kathryn Helvenston-Wettengel really held her own. She was awesome and all three 3 women were so brave.

Last year I watched the hearings that happened of contractors who were killed in a convoy.. of course the Republican did not ask the hard questions.

Then I saw Iraq for Sale which was a documentary which included a couple of the women.

And now I watch this hearing today. I hope somethign comes of the hearings.

[The Backlash Cometh]

32. Here's my problem with this whole issue.

We seem to have a hate them, then love them relationship with these contractors. What isn't being said, is that some of these people who took these jobs were your libertarian types who believed in the power of free market. They're the very exact people who WANTED to profit from chaos. And now that it all backfired on them, they're using GOVERNMENT to try to find justice and regulation. Why didn't they see this before? We tried to tell them, but they wouldn't listen. They never listen. And then suddenly something bad happens to them and they want to be coddled by the very same people, Democrats/Liberals, who they claimed was holding them back!

I just don't get it. At what point do we get to slap them on the back of the head and say, "I told you so."

[Doctor_J]

26. It's unbelievable, isn't it?

This gang makes the Kremlin look like the local PTA. And there are still people ut there who don't believe they would LIHOP to get where they're going :crazy:

[Morgana LaFey]

29. And even more appalling --

it's been "so damn dirty" for decades now.

[The Backlash Cometh]

33. They've been able to get away with it, because they always controlled

the information. No mas.

[paparush]

27. DEMOCRACYNOW.ORG did a GREAT segment on Blackwater

Fanatical Right Wing Christian whack job hired guns.

Have a listen (or a read)

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/26/1559232&mode=thread&tid=25

[Laurab]

28. I'm so happy the media is picking up on this stuff

there will be so much more coming out, too. Interesting times ahead....

[file83]

30. The war budget is PAYING these crooks.

TIME TO STOP THE WAR MONEY