Oversight Of Private Security Contractors Still A Concern Th
Pepe Silvia
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"Meanwhile, the Obama administration is increasing its dependency on security firms. To make up for the withdrawal of American troops in Iraq, the Department of State plans to more than double the number of private security contractors it employs there, from 2,700 to 7,000. And more contractors of all types are headed to Afghanistan to support the troop surge there."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/1 ... 18397.html
Oversight Of Private Security Contractors Still A Concern Three Years After Massacre In Iraq
Three years ago this week, heavily armed Blackwater security contractors working for the State Department went on an unprovoked shooting spree in a Baghdad square, killing 17 unarmed Iraqi civilians and wounding 24.
The five hired guns were acting with impunity -- literally. A 2004 U.S. order, issued a day before Iraq was ostensibly given its sovereignty back, declared that foreign contractors within Iraq would not be subject to any Iraqi laws. Earlier this year, a U.S. judge threw out a criminal case against the guards on a technicality.
The Nisour Square massacre, as it came to be known, was the culmination of a series of incidents of civilian abuse by private security contractors in Iraq exposing what Melina Milazzo, a lawyer with Human Rights First, calls "a gap in both law and culture."
In the intervening years, Iraq kicked Blackwater out of the country and passed a law that ends immunity for at least some private security contractors. At the same time, changes in U.S. law and policy have led to greater agency oversight and coordination over contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But according to a new report from Human Rights First, many problems remain unaddressed.
Meanwhile, the Obama administration is increasing its dependency on security firms. To make up for the withdrawal of American troops in Iraq, the Department of State plans to more than double the number of private security contractors it employs there, from 2,700 to 7,000. And more contractors of all types are headed to Afghanistan to support the troop surge there.
But according to Milazzo, who authored the new report, there is still some ambiguity regarding whether the U.S. has jurisdiction over all private security contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, and "it would be reckless not to clarify that criminal jurisdiction before deployment."
he reporting, investigating and prosecuting of wrongdoing by contractors all remain areas of concern, she said. For instance, she said, the Department of Justice does not appear to be pursuing these cases enthusiastically.
"There've been very few contractor cases brought despite allegations of serious abuse," Milazzo told the Huffington Post. "And there've been even fewer contractors cases brought for civilian harm in Iraq and Afghanistan."
Among the report's 19 recommendations:
* Congress should enact the Civilian Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act (CEJA) of 2010 (H.R. 4567, S. 2979) to expand criminal jurisdiction over and increase investigative resources for serious crimes committed by U.S. contractors.
* Agencies should require oversight bodies to track all serious incidents reported, investigate and remediate when necessary, and maintain all supporting documentation relating to such actions taken.
* The Department of Justice should commit additional resources to investigate and prosecute contractor crime and formally announce that prosecution of contractor crime abroad is a Justice Department national priority.
* The Departments of Defense and State, as well as USAID, should develop an effective system to track the number of contractors and subcontractors employed by each agency, and report regularly to Congress and the public.
* The U.S. government should ensure federal agencies have adequate uniformed and civilian workforce to perform contracting, acquisition, audit and inspector general functions.
Blackwater Worldwide changed its name to Xe in 2009. Under that name, it continues to operate in Afghanistan, where it was recently awarded a $100 million contract to provide security at CIA bases in Afghanistan. And as the New York Times reported earlier this month, Blackwater has also "created a web of more than 30 shell companies or subsidiaries in part to obtain millions of dollars in American government contracts after the security company came under intense criticism for reckless conduct in Iraq."
Indeed, two Blackwater security personnel working for a subsidiary named Paravant, which had obtained Pentagon contracts in Afghanistan, are currently on trial in Norfolk for shooting to death two Afghans in May 2009, in what prosecutors describe as a drunken rage.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/1 ... 18397.html
Oversight Of Private Security Contractors Still A Concern Three Years After Massacre In Iraq
Three years ago this week, heavily armed Blackwater security contractors working for the State Department went on an unprovoked shooting spree in a Baghdad square, killing 17 unarmed Iraqi civilians and wounding 24.
The five hired guns were acting with impunity -- literally. A 2004 U.S. order, issued a day before Iraq was ostensibly given its sovereignty back, declared that foreign contractors within Iraq would not be subject to any Iraqi laws. Earlier this year, a U.S. judge threw out a criminal case against the guards on a technicality.
The Nisour Square massacre, as it came to be known, was the culmination of a series of incidents of civilian abuse by private security contractors in Iraq exposing what Melina Milazzo, a lawyer with Human Rights First, calls "a gap in both law and culture."
In the intervening years, Iraq kicked Blackwater out of the country and passed a law that ends immunity for at least some private security contractors. At the same time, changes in U.S. law and policy have led to greater agency oversight and coordination over contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But according to a new report from Human Rights First, many problems remain unaddressed.
Meanwhile, the Obama administration is increasing its dependency on security firms. To make up for the withdrawal of American troops in Iraq, the Department of State plans to more than double the number of private security contractors it employs there, from 2,700 to 7,000. And more contractors of all types are headed to Afghanistan to support the troop surge there.
But according to Milazzo, who authored the new report, there is still some ambiguity regarding whether the U.S. has jurisdiction over all private security contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, and "it would be reckless not to clarify that criminal jurisdiction before deployment."
he reporting, investigating and prosecuting of wrongdoing by contractors all remain areas of concern, she said. For instance, she said, the Department of Justice does not appear to be pursuing these cases enthusiastically.
"There've been very few contractor cases brought despite allegations of serious abuse," Milazzo told the Huffington Post. "And there've been even fewer contractors cases brought for civilian harm in Iraq and Afghanistan."
Among the report's 19 recommendations:
* Congress should enact the Civilian Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act (CEJA) of 2010 (H.R. 4567, S. 2979) to expand criminal jurisdiction over and increase investigative resources for serious crimes committed by U.S. contractors.
* Agencies should require oversight bodies to track all serious incidents reported, investigate and remediate when necessary, and maintain all supporting documentation relating to such actions taken.
* The Department of Justice should commit additional resources to investigate and prosecute contractor crime and formally announce that prosecution of contractor crime abroad is a Justice Department national priority.
* The Departments of Defense and State, as well as USAID, should develop an effective system to track the number of contractors and subcontractors employed by each agency, and report regularly to Congress and the public.
* The U.S. government should ensure federal agencies have adequate uniformed and civilian workforce to perform contracting, acquisition, audit and inspector general functions.
Blackwater Worldwide changed its name to Xe in 2009. Under that name, it continues to operate in Afghanistan, where it was recently awarded a $100 million contract to provide security at CIA bases in Afghanistan. And as the New York Times reported earlier this month, Blackwater has also "created a web of more than 30 shell companies or subsidiaries in part to obtain millions of dollars in American government contracts after the security company came under intense criticism for reckless conduct in Iraq."
Indeed, two Blackwater security personnel working for a subsidiary named Paravant, which had obtained Pentagon contracts in Afghanistan, are currently on trial in Norfolk for shooting to death two Afghans in May 2009, in what prosecutors describe as a drunken rage.
don't compete; coexist
what are you but my reflection? who am i to judge or strike you down?
"I will promise you this, that if we have not gotten our troops out by the time I am president, it is the first thing I will do. I will get our troops home. We will bring an end to this war. You can take that to the bank." - Barack Obama
when you told me 'if you can't beat 'em, join 'em'
i was thinkin 'death before dishonor'
what are you but my reflection? who am i to judge or strike you down?
"I will promise you this, that if we have not gotten our troops out by the time I am president, it is the first thing I will do. I will get our troops home. We will bring an end to this war. You can take that to the bank." - Barack Obama
when you told me 'if you can't beat 'em, join 'em'
i was thinkin 'death before dishonor'
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Despite Clinton Pledge, State Department Ready to Pay Billions to Mercs
Get ready to meet America’s new mercenaries. They could be the same as the old ones.
Two State Department sources who requested anonymity say a new multi-billion contract for private security firms to protect diplomats is “about to drop.” And one winner could well be Blackwater, or whatever it’s calling itself these days. So much for Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s one-time campaign pledge to ban “Blackwater and other private mercenary firms.”
Neither source would say which private security firms have won the four-year contract or how much it will ultimately be worth. The last Worldwide Protective Services contract, awarded in 2005, went to Blackwater, Triple Canopy and DynCorp. Rough estimates place that contract’s value at $2.2 billion.
This one is likely to be even more lucrative. That’s because this time, the reduction and forthcoming withdrawal of U.S. troops in Iraq is causing the State Department to splurge on private security. In June, a senior department official told the congressional Wartime Contracting Commission that the department requires “between 6,000 and 7,000 security contractors” in Iraq, up from its current 2700 armed guards. And that doesn’t even take into account those needed to guard the expanded U.S. civilian presence in Afghanistan. Mo’ mercs, mo’ money. And mo’ danger: this year, for the first time, U.S. contractor deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan exceeded troop deaths, ProPublica found.
But the mercs involved could be the same ones as last time. In a nod to open-government practices, State has pledged to pick six security companies to receive the Worldwide Protective Services contract, double the current three. But that doesn’t mean the firms who won the last time around can’t potentially re-up — including Blackwater.
The deadline to award the contract, known as the Worldwide Protective Services contract, is tomorrow, September 30, but it’s unclear whether the department will meet its long-announced goal. State is finalizing the contract right now, so if it doesn’t drop tomorrow — the last day of the fiscal year — it’ll be soon afterward.
In April, a State Department official confirmed that “any company, including Xe Services [another name for Blackwater] and its subsidiary companies, [may] submit a proposal in response to an acquisition process established on the basis of full and open competition.” Despite the slayings of civilians at Nisour Square in Iraq in 2007 — which got Blackwater de-certified by the Iraqi government — and on the road in Kabul in 2009, no federal acquisition official has ever recommended that Blackwater be barred from bidding on government contracts. That means it would violate federal law to prevent Blackwater from entering a bid. A company spokeswoman told me last year that Blackwater intended to bid on the next round of Worldwide Protective Services.
And while the contract may almost be in place, its oversight won’t. Last week, the contracting commission’s co-chairman told a House panel that even if the State Department can afford its merc surge in Iraq, “it is not clear that it has the trained personnel to manage and oversee contract performance of a kind that has already shown the potential for creating tragic incidents and frayed relations with host countries.” In other words, expect more wasted money — and the possibility of more Nisour Squares
what are you but my reflection? who am i to judge or strike you down?
"I will promise you this, that if we have not gotten our troops out by the time I am president, it is the first thing I will do. I will get our troops home. We will bring an end to this war. You can take that to the bank." - Barack Obama
when you told me 'if you can't beat 'em, join 'em'
i was thinkin 'death before dishonor'