New Contracts Reflect Continued Presence in Iraq..

[babsbunny]

http://www.truthout.org/article/long-term-contracts-show-plans-continued-iraq-occupation


by: Walter Pincus, The Washington Post

A Blackwater security contractor in Mosul, Iraq. The depth of US involvement in Iraq is illustrated by a handful of new contract proposals made public in May.
(Photo: Jacob Silberberg / AP)

The depth of US involvement in Iraq and the difficulty the next president will face in pulling personnel out of the country are illustrated by a handful of new contract proposals made public in May. The contracts call for new spending, from supplying mentors to officials with Iraq's Defense and Interior ministries to establishing a U.S.-marshal-type system to protect Iraqi courts. Contractors would provide more than 100 linguists with secret clearances and deliver food to Iraqi detainees at a new, U.S.-run prison.

The proposals reflect multiyear commitments. The mentor contract notes that the U.S. military "desires for both Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Defense to become mostly self-sufficient within two years," a time outside some proposals for U.S. combat troop withdrawal. The mentors sought would "advise, train assist ... particular Iraqi officials" who work in the Ministry of Defense, which runs the Iraqi army, or the Ministry of Interior, which runs the police and other security units.