About how many civilians contracted to the military are there in Iraq?

[patrice]

I think this is one of the enduring sources of support for this war. If relatively unskilled workers can make $100,000. or more a year, there's got to be a bunch of these folks over there.

I know we've been talking about war-profiteers for a long time now, but there is this assumption that they are folks like Cheney, so high up as to be a definite, though powerful, minority.

It is begining to be clear that there is a significant number of civilians profitting off of this war compared to other wars. Does anyone know where I can get this information? I'd like to make a sign for our monthly anti-war rally.

[Goldmund]

1. Don't hold me to it...

...but I think 20,000 is the figure I heard.

[bobthedrummer]

2. Mercenaries have made large campaign contributions.

Call them what they are-mercenaries.

Campaign Contributions of Post-War Contractors (MERCENARIES)
http://www.publicintegrity.org/wow/resources.aspx?act=contrib

But they reap huge profits.
Post-War Contractors (MERCENARIES) Ranked by Total Contract Value in Iraq and Afghanistan
http://www.publicintegrity.org/wow/resources.aspx?act=total

[patrice]

3. I have known about this stuff for a long time, but . . . .

. . . . I'm going to be sick.

Thanks bobthedrummer.

[pnb]

11. So, any person working in Iraq is a mercenary?

Sorry, but that's just plain ridiculous. For the most part, they are people just doing their jobs like the rest of us, often paid more so than us in America because of less risk/being separated from family, etc.

[Tansy_Gold]

4. I'm not sure I'd classify these as "profiteers"

And I'm only playing devil's advocate here, not really defending them.

When I think of profiteers, I think of those who are pocketing huge sums but not taking ANY risks, either physical or financial. These are the chickenhawk investors who reap windfall profits on defense materiel investments, i.e. Cheney, Carlyle Group, etc.

For the others, those who go into a war zone as a contractor in expectation of higher-than-normal pay, I think there has to be an element of awareness of hte risk and an element of choosing the potential rewards over the potential dangers. No one is, shall we say, holding a gun to their heads and making them go; they make a voluntary choice.

I would feel very differently toward workers of a company who are sent into a war zone against their will -- "Either you go or you lose your job" -- that toward those who are given an "opportunity" to make bunches of cash.

Last fall, I worked (very briefly) for a construction contractor. The president of the company was approached about a contract to send several crews to Iraq for "reconstruction." The contract would have allowed the company to pay laborers $100,000 a year (plus all living expenses) and supervisor/managers $250,000 a year for the time they were in Iraq. He posed the opportunity to two of the company's senior managers -- both of them said they would personally not go and recommended that he not pursue the offer.

[bobthedrummer]

5. Mercenaries until recently were charging wounded GI's in military

hospitals for their meals, they are motivated by money, they truly are war profiteers, employed by George W. Bush aka The War President.

Our abused and wounded GI's are no longer subjected to that outrageous policy, and GI's that paid for their food in the past will be reimbursed, as reported in this Stars and Stripes article
http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=21368

[patrice]

6. Thanks for the distinction.

Of course, they are mercenaries.

It isn't their awareness of risk that I am concerned about. In demonstrating (Washington, NYC, and Kansas City) against this war, I have run into several people who went out of their way to express their contempt for what I was doing. (This also happened at a Kerry rally here.) Several mentioned they had been "over there". Since I didn't read them as religious types, and the case for how this war makes us safer is so discredited, I was tyring to understand who these people are and what their motives are, so I can address that appropriately in my signage (which I consider street-corner media for the general public).

My next sign will say something about "Support for this war is based on x-number-of mercenaries making $$$$$ for unskilled work." PLUS they have to be protected by our TROOPS!!!

[stellanoir]

8. I heard 20,000 also.

This morning npr they said that (civil) engineers can make between $300,000 to $400,000.

[seemslikeadream]

7. I'd say over 25,000

Jenn Buck/The Dartmouth Staff
Armored sport-utility vehicles sit unused in front of trailers housing employees of Halliburton subsidiary KBR on a military base in Iraq. Each trailer has its own satellite for receiving foreign television stations.

Nonetheless, Halliburton's website continues to recruit employees -- 520 positions are currently listed as open -- to work overseas in Iraq.

The company contracts or subcontracts a vast amount of work supporting U.S. military operations in country, from construction to food service to mechanical engineering.

Among U.S. civilian workers in Iraq, Halliburton or KBR employees are rumored to be the best paid. One source in the city of Kirkuk identified KBR salaries to be between $7,000 and $13,000 per month.

"That fork-lift driver over there," he said, pointing to a man moving supplies by truck. "He makes $10,000 a month."

Many U.S. workers in Iraq are not subject to income tax and may be paid a hazard pay, housing stipend an other incentives on top of their salaries.

Some companies, however, seem to be trying to maximize profits by paying their employees far less.

A courier service worker said he was paid only $3,500 per month.

"It's not enough money for the work I do," he said. "Seven days a week with bombs going off every night."

The man said his base had been shelled 19 out of the past 22 nights.

If it weren't for the incredibly low cost of living in Iraq, he said, he would have left.

Others said their low salaries drove them to skim off the top wherever possible.

Whatever extra supplies they had they sold or traded for commodities like imported beer.

One Halliburton employee said that the high salaries paid to KBR workers may be causing inflation.

"When they see how much we are making, they can't stand it," he said.

"It is kind of ridiculous," he admitted, "how much some people make here."

more
http://www.thedartmouth.com/article.php?aid=2004041901040

[patrice]

9. Do you think there is any connection between these facts . . . .

and the money that Bob Woodward mentioned coming out of the budget for Afghanistan?

I mean it just seems that "the plan" was to get Iraqi's hooked on our economic style, so you'd want to dump a bunch of money into impressing them with what capitalism does for the average guy, so they would all want to become like us.

[bigtree]

12. "Businessmen are not in short supply in Iraq."

The recently installed Iraqi Council, headed by the White House minion Chalabi, is as foreign to Iraq as anyone (Chalabi fled in 1958). http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0315/fahim.php The smartest move by the Authority so far may be its decision to withhold the bulk of the billions in frozen regime money from their control.

The Council has announced that they will "liberalize" all of the contracts for 100% participation by all outside groups; except for the oil contracts. The oil will be a U.S. concern.

"We have helped to establish an independent Iraqi central bank. Working with the Iraqi Governing Council, we are establishing a new system that allows foreign investors to confidently invest capital in Iraq's future," President Bush bragged recently. http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2003&m=October&x=20031011121533attocnich0.7477075&t=usinfo/wf-latest.html

Under an edict issued by the Iraqi/U.S. council, foreign banks are to be given immediate access, to establish themselves or buy into Iraq ventures. Under the new bank rules, six foreign banks will be allowed "fast-track" entry into the country and will be permitted full ownership of the local banks within five years.

Other moves by the Council have been the creation of a supposedly "independent" central bank; and a trade bank propped up by a gang of 13 foreign banks, and a $500 million credit from America's Export-Import Bank; more U.S. taxpayer dollars subsidizing foreign bankers. http://www.aicc.us/Vantage%20View.htm

In an economy which has never allowed outside ownership on this scale, the Iraqi citizens will almost certainly lose hold of their country and their resources, no matter how you view the U.S. advantage there.

Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WVA.) balked at approving funds requested by the White House for an Iraqi enterprise zone. "Iraq has an established, educated business class," he said. He added, "Businessmen are not in short supply in Iraq."

[bigtree]

10. Hired mercenaries just give the U.S. the illusion of clean hands

During Senate testimony last July, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said that there are "something in the neighborhood of 300,000 men and women in uniform doing jobs that aren't for men and women in uniform."

The Pentagon asserts that the increase in the private forces represents a "move toward a smaller, more nimble force than the huge multinational coalition that was assembled to push Saddam out of Kuwait in 1990." They also point out that many of the new, hi-tech weapon systems require continuous maintenance and come with their own private support army.

However, the growth of the private military forces has to be attributed to more than Pentagon micro-management. Most of the work that is being done by these private soldiers has, in the past, been performed by the regular military.

The simple, sad truth is that the length and breadth of our military engagements around the world have far outstripped our ability or will in manpower or money to maintain these men and women in overseas combat without outside support.

Kellogg-Brown & Root has snatched up contracts that directly impact our nation's involvement there: One hundred forty-two million to maintain a base in Kuwait, $170 million for help coordinating the Iraqi reconstruction dollars and $28 million for the construction of prisoner of war camps in Gitmo. There are also tangential bones collected by the reconstruction giant, like a quiet $39 million for building and operating U.S. base camps in Jordan.

Hundreds of Brown and Root employees serve as drivers, laundry attendants, carpenters, electricians, plumbers, heavy equipment operators, superintendents, site coordinators, camp managers, and engineers. In addition, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers relies on KB&R to help repair oil wells and pipelines.

The majority of KB&R's military business comes from a program called the Logistics Civil Augmentation Program, or LOGCAP for short. Brown & Root won the first LOGCAP contract in 1992 over three other bidders. http://www.export.gov/iraq/contracts/

If our Congress cannot find the will to muster our forces it may opt again for the mercenary solution that we used to withdraw our forces from Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Haiti. Our country employs private military companies who train and disperse arms and military hardware to indigenous recruits, and construct insurgent forces all around the globe, for our own political or military ambitions.

The employment of these private armies also insulates the U.S. from the sacrifices of American life and limb that might otherwise restrain our increasing domineering world aggression. These mercenary forces don't release us from the responsibility for their unlawful abuses and slaughters, however. They just give the U.S. the illusion of clean hands. We are the merchants of their misdeeds.

These are excerpts from my book, Power Of Mischief: http://www.returningsoldiers.us/pompage.htm

Here's my list of numbered, linked references for the book (253 links):
http://returningsoldiers.us/biblio.htm

[seemslikeadream]

13. Dogs of War

[Mandate My Ass]

14. Thousands

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=505772

An army of thousands of mercenaries has appeared in Iraq's major cities, many of them former British and American soldiers hired by the occupying Anglo-American authorities and by dozens of companies who fear for the lives of their employees.

Many of the armed Britons are former SAS soldiers and heavily armed South Africans are also working for the occupation. "My people know how to use weapons and they're all SAS," said the British leader of one security team in southern Baghdad. "But there are people running around with guns now who are just cowboys. We always conceal our weapons, but these guys think they're in a Hollywood film."

There are serious doubts even within the occupying power about America's choice to send Chilean mercenaries, many trained during General Pinochet's vicious dictatorship, to guard Baghdad airport. Many South Africans are in Iraq illegally - they are breaking new laws, passed by the government in Pretoria, to control South Africa's booming export of mercenaries. Many have been arrested on their return home because they are do not have the licence now required by private soldiers.


Casualties among the mercenaries are not included in the regular body count put out by the occupation authorities, which may account for the persistent suspicion among Iraqis that the US is underestimating its figures of military dead and wounded. Some British experts claim that private policing is now the UK's biggest export to Iraq - a growth fueled by the surge in bomb attacks on coalition forces, aid agencies and UN buildings since the official end of the war in May last year.