www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil...
Private security contractors are the second largest military or paramilitary presence inIraq, after the United States. These contractors are more than double in number of the UnitedKingdom soldiers stationed in Iraq, who as the second largest contingent of coalition combattroops, number approximately 8500.6
The United States Department of Defense (DOD), and other government agencies responsible for reconstruction efforts, greatly underestimated the threat from insurgents or terrorists during Iraqi post conflict operations. The security situation was becoming worse during the summer of 2003, and by August of that year, it was clear with the bombing of the United Nations complex that the emerging insurgency was now targeting nonmilitary targets
For all of 2003, and most of the first half of 2004, senior U.S. officials and officersdid not act on a plan or respond effectively to the growing insurgency. They keptreferring to the attackers as “terrorists,”
This misread on the growing insurgency resulted in a gap between what security the coalition forces, limited by the number of troops on the ground, could provide, and the need for security to enable reconstruction. This gap was really the birth of the private security
While there is no mechanism in place to track the number of private security providers doing business in Iraq or the number of people working as private security employees, DOD estimates that there are at least 60 private security providers working in Iraq with perhaps as many as 25,000 employees
The complex battle space in Iraq gets more complex each and every day with the addition of more private security companies. Private contractors involved in the reconstruction efforts in Iraq are generally on their own to provide security and have done so by using a myriad of private security contractors
The growing presence of private security contractors operating in Iraq has also caused another problem – the shooting and intimidation of innocent Iraqi civilians.
Private security companies drive their distinctive sport-utility vehicles (SUVs) with heavily armed personnel in them up and down the highways and city streets in Iraq. The individual private security contractors wave their arms and point their rifles to clear traffic in their path in order to protect convoys they are escorting
Brigadier General Karl R. Horst:
These guys run loose in this country and do stupid stuff. There's no authority over them, so you can't come down on them hard when they escalate force. They shoot people, and someone else has to deal with the aftermath. It happens all over the place
The shootings became so frequent in Baghdad this summer that Horst [ADC (M) for 3ID)] started keeping his own count in a white spiral notebook he uses to record daily events
Mr.Bicanic stated further in his interview that Iraqi laws do not apply to private security companies and as a result, the private security contractor is not liable. As a result, when something happens, like a shooting, the person responsible is usually just removed from the country. 26 So in reality, the deputy interior minister has no authority to oversee the private security companies operating in his country. No wonder the Iraqi citizens are irate when a shooting occurs
Solution:
The solution is clear; in order for the new Iraqi government to be recognized as a sovereign country, it must be responsible for every aspect of security in Iraq
Sample Contract Pages Deemed Appropriate
The other pages were unecessary. This is just the public information availble on this. Imagine what happens in the classified reports, the horrors.
edit on 073131p://5America/ChicagoSun, 13 May 2012 19:49:35 -0500 by THE_PROFESSIONAL because: (no reason given)
smile at this what about halliburtons limitless oopsy off the
African coast that was very similar to BPs gulf eff up? It really does start with the contracting legal or not so hard to explain to complex who
secures what from who? How is said secured resource extracted? Who profits? Check that one out, it may shock you!
