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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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March 17th,
2009 - U.S. Moves to Replace Contractors in Iraq News article from the Washington
Post |
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U.S. Moves to Replace
Contractors in Iraq Blackwater Losing Security Role; Other Jobs Being Converted to Public
Sector By Karen DeYoung Washington Post March 17, 2009 The decision not to renew
Blackwater Worldwide's security contract in Iraq when it expires in early May
has left the State Department scrambling to fill a protection gap for U.S.
diplomats and civilian officials there. Two other U.S. security
contractors with a far smaller presence in Iraq - DynCorp International and
Triple Canopy - have been asked to replace the ousted company, according to
State Department and company officials. To meet time, training and
security-clearance pressures, officials said, one or both of the firms are
likely to undertake the task by rehiring some personnel now working for
Blackwater. The Iraqi government refused
to issue Blackwater a license to perform security services after a 2007
incident in which company guards on a diplomatic protection mission shot and
killed 17 civilians in Baghdad. U.S. prosecutors have indicted five of the
guards on charges of manslaughter. Blackwater (which recently changed its
name to Xe) still has State Department contracts for air transport in Iraq
and security for U.S. diplomats in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, fallout from the
shootings - including a new U.S.-Iraq status-of-forces agreement that places
contractors under Iraqi legal jurisdiction for the first time - has led both
the Pentagon and the State Department to create new categories of
"full-time, temporary" federal jobs to handle some tasks currently
done by contractors. The Blackwater incident
helped fuel a wider debate on the overall cost and conduct of contractors.
President Obama last week ordered a government-wide review of federal
contracting procedures, saying that his administration "will stop
outsourcing services that should be performed by the government." Nowhere has that outsourcing
been larger or more contentious than in Iraq, where contractors have long
outnumbered the U.S. military presence, even at its peak of 160,000 troops. The days of massive U.S.
reconstruction contracts in Iraq are over, with little to show for tens of
billions of dollars spent, according to government auditors. While the
military continues to outsource much of its supply chain, contracts for
services such as transport and food will diminish as combat forces begin to
draw down. In a commandwide directive
issued Jan. 31, Gen. Ray Odierno, the U.S. commander in Iraq, ordered all
military units to start cutting U.S. contractors at a target rate of 5
percent each quarter and to hire more Iraqis to do their jobs. "As we
transition more responsibility and control to the government of Iraq, it's
time to make this change," he added. However, some contracted
activities, from training Iraqi forces to strategic communications, are
likely to increase as troops withdraw, and certain U.S. contractors are seen
as irreplaceable. "Human terrain" experts - civilian social
scientists and linguists hired to help the military better understand Iraq
and Iraqis - have been told that they must accept newly created government
jobs, at potentially lower salaries, or leave. The highly touted human
terrain program, which fields 20 teams of five to nine specialists in Iraq
and six in Afghanistan, was begun by Odierno's predecessor, Gen. David H.
Petraeus. Program head Steve Fondacaro
said that when hazardous-duty, locality and other government pay benefits are
added, total compensation will be competitive with the private sector at
$147,000 to $236,000 a year. He estimated that at least 60 of about 100
currently contracted specialists would accept the year-long government jobs,
with annual renewal options for up to four years, even though some have
complained anonymously on blogs that the new arrangement constitutes an
unacceptable pay cut. Avoiding legal problems in
Iraq, Fondacaro said, was more of an impetus for the move than cost-cutting.
Although no U.S. contractor has been arrested under the new status-of-forces
agreement, which became effective in January, he said the risks were too
great in a country whose legal system is "a shambles." He is also
putting the same program in place for human terrain specialists in Afghanistan. "I had to take action
to protect our people and protect our mission," Fondacaro said. Fondacaro pointed to the
Rockville-based contractor BAE Systems, which he said has informed employees
that it would no longer accept liability for any legal problems they might
have in Iraq and suggested they stay inside U.S. military installations at all
times. "So here I am, paying exorbitant contractor wages for people
whose company is not going to provide them any legal defense, and is
recommending they don't go outside" to make contact with Iraqis, he
said. "Which is mission failure." By making the specialists
into government employees, Fondacaro said, "this all goes away in one
fell swoop. ... They are protected under U.S. law and have the same rights
and privileges as U.S. troops," including immunity from Iraqi taxes and
arrest. Lucy Fitch, BAE Systems
senior vice president for communications, said the "government has told
us they wish to convert contractor positions in Iraq and Afghanistan to
government positions" when the company's contract expires in August, but
she called Fondacaro's description of company instructions
"inaccurate." BAE employees were advised
during December and January to stay inside U.S. military installations
"until we could figure out ... the legal implications and personal
risk" under the new status-of-forces agreement, Fitch said. In a
clarification last month, she said, employees were told that the company
would "assist them in finding in-country legal representation" if
they were prosecuted or sued for any reason in Iraq. If problems were related
to "actions properly undertaken for BAE Systems," she added,
"we will provide them counsel at the company's expense." The State Department has
also created new temporary government jobs in Iraq, but for a different
purpose. Following the 2007 Blackwater shooting, then-Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice ordered that a federal security agent ride along on each of
the contractor-protected convoys that carry U.S. diplomats, aid and other
civilians - including provincial reconstruction team members based in Baghdad
neighborhoods and around the country - outside their official compounds. State's Bureau of Diplomatic
Security not only handles security for embassies and other civilian outposts
around the globe but also protects foreign officials visiting the United
States. With only 1,600 highly trained special agents in the bureau, the Iraq
mandate has severely stretched the service. "You'd need the entire
[Diplomatic Security] workforce just to do Iraq," a senior State
Department official said, "leaving nothing for Afghanistan, nothing for
anywhere else in the world." In postings on government
job sites last month, State solicited "Protective Security
Specialists," a new job category offering lower pay - $52,221 with
guaranteed employment for 13 months, renewable for up to five years - and
requiring less training than full-fledged agents. Riding along on convoys and
making sure that security contractors follow the rules, the official said,
does not require "all that training and experience. … We had a lot of
applicants." Listed qualifications,
seemingly designed for former security contractors, included "at least
three years of specialized experience conducting overseas protective security
operations within the last five years. Experience in Iraq, Afghanistan or
Israel is particularly desirable." External link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/16/AR2009031602720.html By Jim McElhatton Washington Times March 17, 2009 Days after the Baghdad
government decided it no longer wanted the company then known as Blackwater
in Iraq, the State Department signed a $22.2 million deal in February to keep
the embattled contractor working there through most of the summer, contract records
show. The decision keeps
Blackwater - since renamed Xe - in Iraq months longer than anyone has
suggested publicly, while raising questions about why the U.S. would pay a
contractor for work in Iraq if it may not be able to operate there legally. The State Department has
been under pressure from Blackwater critics, including several in Congress,
not to renew the company's contracts in Iraq. Much of the concern stems from
a 2007 incident that left 14 Iraqi civilians dead and six former Blackwater
guards facing manslaughter charges. One of the guards pleaded guilty, but the
company was accused of no wrongdoing in the incident. In late January, the Iraqi
government said it would not renew Blackwater's operating license and that
the company would have to leave as soon as a joint Iraqi-U.S. committee
completes its work on guidelines for the operation of private security
companies. State Department officials said they would honor the decision. On Feb. 2, a department
spokesman was asked whether officials planned to renew one of Blackwater's
contracts past May. The spokesman, Robert Wood, said the department had told
Blackwater "we did not plan to renew the company's existing task force
orders for protective security details in Iraq." But records available
through a federal procurement database show that on that same day, the State
Department approved a $22.2 million contract modification for Blackwater
"security personnel" in Iraq, with a job completion date of Sept.
3, 2009. "Why would you continue
to use Blackwater when the Iraqi government has banned the highly
controversial company and there are other choices?" asked Melanie Sloan,
executive director of the nonpartisan Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics
in Washington. State Department spokesman
Noel Clay said the contract modification involves aviation services.
"The place of performance is Iraq, but it is totally different than the
Baghdad one that expires in May," he said. Ms. Sloan called the State
Department's explanation of the Feb. 2 deal a "parsing of words"
and said "they should just be straight with us." Xe spokeswoman Anne Tyrell
declined to comment on the status of the company's work in Iraq or the Feb. 2
contract modification. She said the company was aware that the State
Department had indicated that it did not plan to renew its contracts in Iraq
but that Xe officials had not received specific information about leaving the
country. "We're following their
direction," she said. The Iraqi Embassy in
Washington had no comment on the Blackwater contract when contacted on
Monday. The State Department has
given clear indications for months that the Iraqi government might not be
renewing Blackwater's operating license. Harold W. Geisel, the State
Department's inspector general, told the congressionally mandated Commission
on Wartime Contracting at a Feb. 2 hearing that officials were awaiting the
outcome of an FBI report into the 2007 shooting incident before deciding
whether to keep Blackwater in Iraq. "The issue is not only
one of, well, what we would like to do, but it also is to some extent what
the department can do," Mr. Geisel said of decisions about the future of
Blackwater's role in Iraq, according to a transcript of the hearing. "Blackwater had certain
assets that the department determined the other contractors did not
have," he said, citing the company's 24 aircraft as an example. Nonetheless, Mr. Geisel said
his office did "advise the department that they better start planning
for when the Iraqis say this is it with Blackwater. And without getting into
diplomatic negotiations, I believe the department is planning for this
eventuality, which is clearly not too far off." Scott Amey, general counsel
for the Project on Government Oversight, a nonprofit group that investigates
federal contracting, said the State Department's decision to continue paying
Blackwater for security in Iraq raises broader questions about federal
procurement practices. "This case highlights
the fact that the U.S. government over-relies on contractors and that it
isn't in a position to hold them accountable," he said. "Continuing
to do new business with questionable actors flies in the face of spreading trust,
peace and democracy around the world." The contractor, based in
North Carolina, recently underwent a big shake-up. The company changed its
name to Xe, pronounced "zee," last month. Also, a subsidiary,
Blackwater Lodge and Training Center, which secured the State Department's
$22.2 million contract modification, was renamed. Blackwater founder Erik
Prince and company President Gary Jackson have resigned. Mr. Prince has donated
nearly a quarter-million dollars over the years to political causes. More
than half of the donations went to the National Republican Congressional
Committee and the Republican National Committee, according to a 2007
Democrat-led House committee report, citing data from the nonpartisan Center
for Responsive Politics. Blackwater also had spent hundreds
of thousands of dollars lobbying Congress, according to Senate records. It
contributed between $10,001 and $25,000 to former President Bill Clinton's
charitable foundation. Mr. Clinton released the donor information last year
to avoid conflict-of-interest questions about his fundraising activities and
the duties of his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, as President Obama's
secretary of state. Despite any political good
will that the company might have generated from its lobbying and political
activities, it was unable to dodge fallout from the Sept. 16, 2007, shooting
incident in Baghdad, in which prosecutors said six former guards went on an
unprovoked rampage, shooting innocent Iraqi civilians. Five of the former guards
have pleaded not guilty to manslaughter charges, while a sixth pleaded guilty
to voluntary manslaughter and attempted manslaughter. Attorneys for the
former guards say they fired in self-defense. External link: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/mar/17/new-deal-for-blackwater-bucks-decision-by-iraq/ |