Contractors accused of firing on civilians, GIs

[maseman]

Source: MSNBC

There are now nearly as many private contractors in Iraq as there are U.S. soldiers — and a large percentage of them are private security guards equipped with automatic weapons, body armor, helicopters and bullet-proof trucks.

They operate with little or no supervision, accountable only to the firms employing them. And as the country has plummeted toward anarchy and civil war, this private army has 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.

Not one has faced charges or prosecution.


Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20231579/

---

That's great. Real nice to hear. Our soldiers getting killed by sub-contractors in Iraq. Very nice.

[Turbineguy]

1. Blackwater

looking to increase domestic work.

We shoot you over here so we won't have to shoot you over there.

[seemslikeadream]

4. except in New Orleans

[LiberalFighter]

2. If the Iraqi government was in control they could arrest, try and execute them

The Iraqi government should take control.

[maseman]

3. Not only that but don't these guys

get paid like close to six figures per year while our troops are paid minimally? Plus I am sure they have 401(k's), solid health insurance, etc.

What the hell is wrong with us? Maybe the Dems should be looking into this instead of screwing around some of the other projects they can't seem to get off the ground. I'd like to see what the yellow ribbon fucks think when they find out these chuckle-nuts are killing their beloved troops.

[rodeodance]

6. no-----it would not be that way-------"they are exempt from prosecution by Iraqis for crimes committ

Murky set of rules
They operate in a decidedly 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.

The security firms insist their employees are governed by internal conduct rules and by use-of-force protocols established by the Coalition Provisional Authority, the U.S. occupation government that ruled Iraq for 14 months following the invasion.

But many soldiers on the ground — who earn in a year what private guards can earn in just one month — say their private counterparts should answer to a higher authority, just as they do. More than 60 U.S. soldiers in Iraq have been court-martialed on murder-related charges involving Iraqi citizens.

[1monster]

11. The Iraq government, were they in control, could make its own laws about anyone

who commits crimes within its borders and throw the self-serving foreign laws out.

(That's right I used the word "foreign" to describe the US, because in Iraq, the US is a foreign power.)

The security firms could, then, insist all they wanted that their rules supercede all of US and Iraqi laws, but that would be a dog that would not hunt.

[rodeodance]

13. yes, you are right (but that is a long way from happening)

[Posteritatis]

16. Bremer gave mercs extraterritoriality for the duration of the conflict

That might have actually been the single dumbest thing done in the whole damn war, possibly even including the act of starting it.

[rodeodance]

5. Murky set of rules---read this:

Murky set of rules
They operate in a decidedly 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.

The security firms insist their employees are governed by internal conduct rules and by use-of-force protocols established by the Coalition Provisional Authority, the U.S. occupation government that ruled Iraq for 14 months following the invasion.

But many soldiers on the ground — who earn in a year what private guards can earn in just one month — say their private counterparts should answer to a higher authority, just as they do. More than 60 U.S. soldiers in Iraq have been court-martialed on murder-related charges involving Iraqi citizens.

[maseman]

8. My god

I didn't realize how scary these people are. I knew they didn't adhere to the same rules/laws, but didn't realize that had free-range of doing whatever the hell they want to.

This must end. Take the $4 billion and distribute to our soldiers for pay, armor and equipment, vet health care and mental health care.

[rodeodance]

15. much of Iraq is still ruled under the Paul Brenner rules.

[rodeodance]

7. Security firms earn more than $4 billion in government contracts, but the

Security firms earn more than $4 billion in government contracts, but the government doesn’t know how many private soldiers it has hired, or where all of them are, according to the Government Accountability Office. And the companies are not required to report violent incidents involving their employees.

Security guards now constitute nearly 50 percent of all private contractors in Iraq — a number that has skyrocketed since the 2003 invasion, when then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said rebuilding Iraq was the top priority. But an unforeseen insurgency, and hundreds of terrorist attacks have pushed the country into chaos. Security is now Iraq’s greatest need.

[rodeodance]

9. Security overruns in Iraq cost U.S. millions

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20231197/

Security overruns in Iraq cost U.S. millions

Contracts signed with British firms have mushroomed by $200 million
Related Stories

Updated: 10:30 p.m. CT Aug 11, 2007

BAGHDAD - The U.S. military has paid $548 million over the past three years to two British security firms that protect the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on reconstruction projects, more than $200 million over the original budget, according to previously undisclosed data that show how the cost of private security in Iraq has mushroomed.

The two companies, Aegis Defence Services and Erinys Iraq, signed their original Defense Department contracts in May 2004. By July of this year, the contracts supported a private force that had grown to about 2,000 employees serving the Corps of Engineers. The force is about the size of three military battalions.

U.S. officials and company representatives attributed the overruns to the cost of protecting a largely civilian workforce amid an escalating insurgency, as Corps of Engineers commanders demanded more manpower and increasingly expensive armor to guard their field staff.

[Joe Chi Minh]

10. Nearly?

[rodeodance]

12. Security overruns in Iraq cost U.S. millions

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20231197/

Security overruns in Iraq cost U.S. millions

Contracts signed with British firms have mushroomed by $200 million
Related Stories

Updated: 10:30 p.m. CT Aug 11, 2007

BAGHDAD - The U.S. military has paid $548 million over the past three years to two British security firms that protect the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on reconstruction projects, more than $200 million over the original budget, according to previously undisclosed data that show how the cost of private security in Iraq has mushroomed.

The two companies, Aegis Defence Services and Erinys Iraq, signed their original Defense Department contracts in May 2004. By July of this year, the contracts supported a private force that had grown to about 2,000 employees serving the Corps of Engineers. The force is about the size of three military battalions.

U.S. officials and company representatives attributed the overruns to the cost of protecting a largely civilian workforce amid an escalating insurgency, as Corps of Engineers commanders demanded more manpower and increasingly expensive armor to guard their field staff.

[onewholaughsatfools]

14. just maybe we just located the missing weapons

200,000 weapons unaccounted for, maybe we should look at the private contractors and ask, where did you weapons come from..........blessings

[formercia]

17. Mad Max

[BeHereNow]

18. Pat Tillman anyone? I vote that these goons killed him.

And that's why the cover up.
BHN

[dipsydoodle]

19. The contractors are enemy combatants

and presumably one day Iraq will have them all banged up in their equivalent of Gitmo.