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Researcher
Published by CQ Press, a division of Congressional Quarterly Inc.
thecqresearcher.com
Privatizing the Military
Does the Pentagon rely too much on private contractors?
ince the Cold War ended, a downsized U.S. military has increasingly turned to private contractors to fill positions once held by military personnel. In U.S.occupied Iraq, most of the jobs involve logistical sup-
port, but several thousand contractors also work as armed security guards or help interrogate Iraqi prisoners. The privatization trend went largely unnoticed until April, when insurgents in Fallujah murdered four civilian security guards and burned and mutilated their bodies. Soon afterwards, at least two contract interrogators were implicated in prisoner abuses at Baghdads Abu Ghraib prison. The incidents have renewed questions about the effectiveness and legal status of private contractors operating in war zones and the wisdom of the Pentagons increasing reliance on private contractors. Supporters of privatization say the militarys use of contractors saves taxpayers money and improves efficiency by
A private security guard protects U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer III in Iraq.
I N S I D E
THIS REPORT
THE ISSUES ......................567 BACKGROUND ..................574 CHRONOLOGY ..................575 CURRENT SITUATION ..........579 AT ISSUE ..........................581 OUTLOOK ........................583 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................585 THE NEXT STEP ................586
The CQ Researcher June 25, 2004 www.thecqresearcher.com Volume 14, Number 24 Pages 565-588
RECIPIENT OF SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISTS AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE x AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION SILVER GAVEL AWARD
PRIVATIZING THE MILITARY
THE ISSUES OUTLOOK
CQ Researcher
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June 25, 2004 Volume 14, Number 24
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Are private contractors essential to the militarys performance? Does privatization save taxpayers money? Is more oversight needed over private military contractors?
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After the Handover Military contractors likely will continue to play an essential role in Iraq.
MANAGING EDITOR: Thomas J. Colin ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR: Kathy Koch ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Kenneth Jost STAFF WRITERS: Mary H. Cooper,
SIDEBARS AND GRAPHICS
BACKGROUND
568 569 570 575 576 581
574 576
Mercenary Armies Throughout history, paid soldiers have been the norm. Citizen Armies After the Thirty Years War ended in 1648, nations began recruiting citizen armies instead of hiring mercenaries. Military Downsizing The U.S. closed scores of bases following the Soviet Unions collapse in 1991.
Most Contractor Casualties Were in Iraq More than 500 U.S. civilians in Iraq have been killed or injured since September 2001. Defense Outsourcing Nearly Doubled Spending on private contracts hit $188 billion in 2004. Controversy Surrounds Civilian Contractors Issues range from no-bid contracts to prison abuses. Chronology Key events since 1973. Return of Draft Considered Unlikely Cost would be prohibitive, experts say. At Issue Does the Pentagon rely too heavily on private contractors?
David Masci, William Triplett CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Sarah Glazer, David Hatch, David Hosansky, Patrick Marshall, Tom Price, Jane Tanner DESIGN/PRODUCTION EDITOR: Olu B. Davis ASSISTANT EDITOR: Kenneth Lukas
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CURRENT SITUATION
579 580 582
Modern Mercenaries Military contractors have been widely used since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Cheney and Halliburton Criticism of Pentagon contracting practices in Iraq has focused on Halliburton Co. and Vice President Cheney. Tightening Oversight A recent Senate measure would tighten congressional oversight of Iraq reconstruction.
FOR FURTHER RESEARCH
584 585 586 587
For More Information Organizations to contact. Bibliography Selected sources used. The Next Step Additional articles. Citing The CQ Researcher Sample bibliography formats.
Cover: A civilian bodyguard for L. Paul Bremer III, the U.S. administrator in Iraq, is among the 6,000 private security contractors in Iraq hired by the U.S. military. (AFP Photo/Ceerwan Aziz)
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Privatizing the Military
BY MARY H. COOPER
I
THE ISSUES
ready stretched thin by downsizing and deployments in Afghanistan and other hot raqi insurgents in Falluspots. jah recently gave AmerPrivate contractors now icans a horrific glimpse make up the second-largest into a little-known and incontingent of forces in Iraq creasingly controversial asafter the U.S. military itself pect of U.S. military operalarger even than Britains troop tions. After ambushing a truck deployment. Most analysts convoy and killing four U.S. say there are about 20,000 security guards on April 28, private military contractors they burned and mutilated (PMCs) in Iraq, including 6,000 the bodies and hung them who provide non-combat sefrom a bridge. curity, serving alongside The four deaths, however, 138,000 American GIs. were not included in the PenThe armed personnel serve tagons list of American caas guards, convoy escorts and Civilian truck driver Thomas Hamill escaped from Iraqi sualties in Iraq that day. In bodyguards for U.S. officials in kidnappers after 23 days in captivity. The Mississippi fact, although the men worked Iraq, including Ambassador L. farmer came to Iraq to work for military contractor for the military, they werent Paul Bremer III, the American Kellogg, Brown and Root. Kidnapped contract workers GIs. They were civilians emadministrator of the Coalition have become pawns in the ongoing conflict in postwar Iraq. Private contractors serving as interrogators ployed by the military. Provisional Authority (CPA). 3 were also implicated in prisoner abuses at the We know that somewhere The role of private miliU.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad. around 50 private military peotary contractors in Iraq is unple have been killed in Iraq, precedented, particularly says Peter W. Singer, author of Corpo- there. David A. Passaro, a former Army given the numbers involved, says rate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Ranger hired to conduct interrogations, Marcus Corbin, senior analyst at the Military Industry and director of the is the first civilian to be charged in Center for Defense Information, an Project on U.S. Policy Towards the Is- connection with alleged prisoner abus- independent monitor of the military. lamic World at the Brookings Institu- es in Afghanistan and Iraq. 2 I cant think of any parallel in our The slain guards in Fallujah and the military history. tion. Another 300 or so have been wounded. But these are only estimates civilian prison workers are part of a Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsbecause private military casualties dont growing army of non-military person- feld and other supporters of privatizanel employed by scores of private con- tion say the militarys use of contracshow up on the public record. Private military contractors in Iraq tractors for the U.S. military in 50 tors improves efficiency by freeing up made news again in May when wide- countries around the world. Largely soldiers for strictly combat operations. spread prisoner abuses were reported unnoticed by the American public, pri- There are a great many people [in Iraq] at the U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison in vate contractors have assumed a grow- who are involved in various types of Baghdad. Three civilian interrogators ing role in the U.S. military for more enterprises or activities that . . . need were among the six soldiers implicated than a decade. security, Rumsfeld said. So a market Since the end of the Cold War in [has been created] for security forces. in the shocking physical and sexual abuse of Iraqi detainees. 1 But unlike the early 1990s, policymakers have And its been a good thing that the setheir military peers, the contractors were been reducing the size of the military curity forces around this country and not subject to military law and have not and contracting out many non-combat the world do a superb job. 4 jobs to private companies. been charged under civil law either. But some lawmakers and military But after the U.S. victory in Iraq, experts worry that because contract However, on June 18 the Justice Department charged a contractor work- violent resistance to the U.S.-led oc- workers are not bound by military law, ing for the CIA in Afghanistan with as- cupation forced the Pentagon to turn privatization may erode accountability sault in the beating of an Afghan increasingly to private military con- and blur the chain of command esdetainee who later died in a U.S. prison tractors because the services were al- sential to military operations.
AFP Photo/U.S. Army
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How is it in our nations interest to have civilian contractors, rather than military personnel, performing vital national-security functions such as prisoner interrogations in a war zone? asked Michigan Sen. Carl Levin, senior Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee. When soldiers break the law or fail to follow orders, commanders can hold them accountable for their misconduct. Military commanders dont have the same authority over civilian contractors. 5 Privatization of military tasks has become a nearly $200-billion-a-year sector of the U.S. military-industrial complex. 6 In Iraq, previously obscure firms like North Carolina-based Blackwater Security Consulting, which employed the four guards killed in Fallujah, now operate beside well-known giants such as Halliburton Co., the oil and gas conglomerate formerly headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, and CACI, an information-technology firm based in Arlington, Va. The value of civilian personnel services purchased by the Department of Defense increased from $100.5 billion in 1993 to $188 billion in 2004 a rise of nearly 90 percent. 7 Many of those billions were earned through nobid contracts. (See sidebar, p. 570.) Rep. Janice D. Schakowsky, D-Ill., a longtime critic of the often-obscure process by which private companies receive government contracts, worries about the secrecy that surrounds Defense Department contracting. She has introduced legislation to expand congressional oversight and access to major contracts signed with private firms. Im sure many important functions are done by these private contractors, she says. But at the same time, the process masks just what the U.S. commitment is in places like Iraq and allows many of these activities to literally fly under the radar of the Congress and the consciousness of the American people.
Most Contractor Casualties Were in Iraq
More than 1,000 civilian contractors working for the U.S. government in Iraq and several other countries have died or been injured since September 2001, including more than 500 in Iraq.
Deaths/Injuries
Iraq Kuwait Bosnia-Herzegovina Colombia Saudi Arabia Germany Afghanistan
529 317 60 52 51 48 44
Source: Department of Labor, based on insurance claims submitted to the U.S. government.
When the United States relinquishes sovereignty to the Iraqi interim government on June 30, the role of private contractors in Iraq will not end, but may even increase due to an expected escalation of violence and a continued need for security for Iraqi officials and the U.S.led $18.4 billion reconstruction effort. But the legal status of the military contractors has yet to be clarified. Iraqs new interim prime minister, Iyad Allawi, insists that civilian contractors come under Iraqi law on June 30, ending the immunity from prosecution in Iraq they now enjoy for any incident involving their work. The Bush administration wants to extend that immunity after the handover. 8 As the role of private military contractors grows in Iraq and elsewhere, these are some of the questions being raised: Can the military do its job without military contractors? Private contractors have had a long-
standing role in providing support services to the military, both at home and overseas, in peacetime and at war. During the Vietnam War, one company alone had more than 30,000 employees providing logistical support to U.S. troops, according to Doug Brooks, president of the International Peace Operations Association, an organization of military service providers. During the 1968 Tet Offensive, contractors suffered more casualties than the regular troops, he adds. Theres never been a war or a time in history when private contractors havent been used for one thing or another, he says. The U.S. military needs contractors, and it always has. The military traditionally has turned to private companies to build weapons and vehicles, construct bases and camps and provide food and other services for troops. For the past 15 years, however, private companies have supplied a widening array of products and services. Highly sophisticated weapons and equipment like satellite phones, global-positioning systems and laser designators used to precisely locate targets require skilled technicians to maintain and repair, and the armed services often hire contractors trained by the equipment producers themselves. The modern military cannot function without private contractors for some key roles, says Michael P. Peters, executive vice president of the Council on Foreign Relations, a New York City think tank. Take avionics for aircraft. You need people whove actually built this stuff to be with you and maintain it, because you simply cant train enough 18-to-22-year-olds to have the level of knowledge, background and experience to keep this very, very sophisticated equipment running. If they were to ban all civilian contractors, the military would have a difficult time functioning at all. Going to war in countries like Iraq and Afghanistan poses additional language and cultural barriers that the
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downsized U.S. military is ill-equipped to surmount on its own, Peters says, citing the civilian translators and interrogators at Abu Ghraib. When you get into a circumstance that is as big as Iraq, you have almost no other option than to hire private contractors, Peters says. The military just doesnt have enough people to perform those functions. But critics say the widening prisoner-abuse scandal in Iraq and Afghanistan demonstrates a vital weakness in the militarys growing reliance on civilian contractors to perform functions that traditionally have fallen to the military. There is no room for U.S.-hired paramilitaries and mercenaries in an interrogation cell, said Rep. Schakowsky. This is a dangerous and deadly mix that has contributed to the prisoner-abuse scandal in Iraq and could only lead to a more dangerous situation for U.S. military and civilian personnel at home and abroad, unless it is immediately stopped. 9 Because many, if not most, security contractors are former soldiers, often with considerable combat experience, they are generally considered more effective at their jobs than new Army recruits. Young soldiers fresh out of training often suffer from the 22-year-old syndrome, panicking and firing their weapons in no particular direction when they come under fire, says an industry insider who requested he not be identified. This tends to be damaging to local populations, buildings, that sort of thing. On the other hand, Brooks says contractors, many of whom have as much as 20 years experience in the field, tend to keep their cool under fire. Combat is combat, of course, but security contractors tend to be far more professional, he says. When you hire somebody with that kind of experience, youre getting quite a product. But critics point out that, unlike GIs, private contractors are free to walk
Defense Outsourcing Nearly Doubled
Spending on private contracts by the Department of Defense remained steady in the 1990s but nearly doubled in 2004. Purchases of Private Services by Defense Department (in $ billions)
$188.0
$100.5
$100.0
1993
2000
2004
Increases in Outsourcing Outpace Spending
Purchases of private services by the Defense Department grew more than twice as fast as overall Defense spending in the last four years. Increases in Defense Spending from 2000 to 2004* Overall Spending Purchases of Private Services
* First quarter only Source: Charles L. Schultze, senior fellow emeritus, Brookings Institution, based on Commerce Department data (forthcoming report).
33% 84%
away from their posts when the going gets rough, endangering U.S. forces in hostile areas. That hasnt happened, Brooks says, even during the recent escalation of hostilities in Iraq. Its true that you cant order a contractor to stay, and there were predictions at the beginning of the war that as soon as the shooting started all of these private companies would pull out, he says. However, since the Fallujah incident, security firms not only have maintained their presence but also have received
more job applications, Brooks says. People keep saying that theyre only there for the money, but its not just about money, he says. Sure, moneys important. You have to have enough money to leave your home, your career and your family for six or 12 months, live in a tent, get shot at and bombed. But its beyond money. Your money is useless if you get blown up. But critics warn that privatization has been taken to such an extreme that it may undermine the effectiveness of U.S. military operations.
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Controversy Surrounds Civilian Contractors
P
resident Dwight D. Eisenhowers famous warning in 1961 about the rapidly growing military-industrial complex focused on the makers of tanks, ships and other military hardware. His warning proved prescient. Hefty defense budgets and the emergence of the United States as the worlds leading military power have turned the defense industry into a manufacturing behemoth. In fiscal 2003, procurement contracts to the top 100 Pentagon contractors totaled $209 billion. 1 Since Eisenhowers prediction, a new category of defense contractors has emerged: Firms that provide workers to conduct security, interrogation and intelligence work once performed exclusively by military personnel. After the Cold War ended more than a decade ago, the U.S. military turned increasingly to private military contractors to meet its security and intelligence needs around the world. About 60 such firms are operating in Iraq, and more than 20 in Afghanistan. The multimillion-dollar global industry can be divided into three major sectors, according to Peter W. Singer, author of the 2003 book Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry: 2 Military provider firms offer seasoned combatants generally former members of U.S., British or South African special forces to clients such as weak governments, insurgent forces or international oil or mining companies operating in hostile areas. Executive Outcomes provided forces in several African trouble spots in the 1990s, including Angola and Sierra Leone. London-based Sandline Co., which helped repel a 1998 coup attempt in Nigeria, embarrassed Britain by shipping arms to the region in violation of a U.N. arms embargo. Both firms have since disbanded.
Military consultant firms train local police and military forces to fight in foreign conflicts. One of the leading such firms is Military Professional Resources Inc. (MPRI). Founded in 1987 and based in Alexandria, Va., it hires only American ex-soldiers and claims to work only on contracts approved by the U.S. government. MPRIs Defense Department contracts included training the Bosnian and Croatian armies in the 1990s. Refraining from sending employees into battle has not protected military consultant firms from controversy, however. Employees of Falls Church, Va.-based DynCorp (purchased in 2003 by Computer Sciences Corp.), participated in a childprostitution ring while working in Bosnia in the late 1990s, according to Human Rights Watch, Army investigators and two whistleblower lawsuits. 3 Although the employees were not immune from prosecution by local authorities for illegal acts committed outside their contractual mission, DynCorp fired them and returned them to the United States, where they did not face charges. Lawmakers tried to close contractors legal loopholes by passing the 2000 Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, which places Defense Department contractors overseas under U.S. legal jurisdiction. But because the alleged offenses in Bosnia preceded passage of the act, the DynCorp employees were not prosecuted. 4 Military support firms are farther removed from combat roles, at least in theory. The Halliburton Co. subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) and other such firms provide logistics, intelligence, supply and other services to U.S. forces around the world. In Iraq, KBR truck convoys bring food and other supplies to a dozen or more Army camps. Ac-
U.S. military doctrine says that we should not have private contractors in mission-critical roles, which are roles that affect the success or failure of operations, Singer says. But there is a whole laundry list of roles that private contractors are playing in Iraq that violate that doctrine everything from logistics, to training the Iraqi army, to protecting CPA installations and top government leaders, to escorting convoys, to conducting intelligence interrogations. If supplies break down, he continues, if the local Iraqi army doesnt get trained properly, if CPA installations are overrun by rebels, if Paul Bremer gets killed, if our convoys are overrun by insurgent forces and if in-
terrogators screw up at Abu Ghraib all these things affect the success or failure of the operation. Does privatization save taxpayers money? In addition to freeing up military personnel for combat-related duties, privatization has been embraced by the Pentagon and other government agencies as a way to save money. The White House Office of Management and Budget recently projected that privatization would save more than $1 billion over the next three to five years, primarily because contractors bidding for government contacts are expected to find ways to reduce their costs. 10
But that rationale has not always played out. During the 1980s, the Pentagons payment of $640 for a toilet seat became the symbol of waste, fraud and abuse in military spending for goods and services and triggered efforts to increase oversight of the contracting process, including an effort to make contractors compete for government business. Later, Vice President Al Gore launched a campaign to reinvent a more efficient government, and reforms were introduced aimed at streamlining contracting procedures. But charges of fraud and cronyism have continued to plague military contracting, as suggested by the current
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cording to several KBR drivers, the company bilked American taxpayers by charging the Pentagon for repeatedly moving convoys of empty trucks between U.S. encampments, exposing the truckers to attacks by Iraqi insurgents. CACI International Inc., another support firm, provides interrogators to U.S. forces administering prisons overseas under a so-called blanket purchase agreement that was originally signed with the Interior Department but subsequently utilized by the Pentagon. Steven Stefanowicz, a CACI employee, was one of three private contractors implicated in the recent prisoner-abuse scandal in Iraq. A contract translator employed by another firm, Titan Corp., also was named in an extensive Army report on the abuses by Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba. Allegations of fraud and waste by private contractors in Iraq continue to mount. At least 14 major contracts in Iraq, including a $7 billion deal for Halliburton to restore the countrys oil industry, were awarded with limited or no competition, according to a report issued on June 14, 2004, by the General Accounting Office. 5 Increasingly, the administration is turning over essential government functions to the private sector, and it has jettisoned basic safeguards like competition and supervision that are needed to protect the public interest, said Rep. Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif., a vocal critic of Bush administration contracting practices. We need more competition, not less. And we need to place the interests of the taxpayer ahead of the interests of the contractors. 6 Administration spokesmen reject the allegations of contracting misdeeds, including recent charges that the office of Vice President Cheney, formerly Halliburtons chief executive offi-
cer, was instrumental in granting the oil-services giant its nobid contract in Iraq. The vice president was not informed that Halliburton would get the contract, said Kevin Kellems, Cheneys spokesman. 7 Meanwhile, a report by the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit investigative organization in Washington, D.C., found that 14 of the top private contractors in Afghanistan and Iraq made campaign contributions in excess of $1 million from 1990 through fiscal 2002. Combined, those companies gave nearly $23 million in political contributions since 1990, the report said. In addition, in classic Washington revolving-door style, top officers of many of these firms are former Pentagon officials, while many civilian officials at the Pentagon are former employees of major defense contractors. The centers investigation found that . . . 13 [of the 14 top contractors] employ former government officials or have close ties to various agencies and departments. 8
U.S. Defense Department, Directorate for Information Operations and Reports, www.dior.whs.mil. Unless otherwise noted, information in this section is based on Singers book, pp. 73-184. 3 See Kelly Patricia OMeara, DynCorp Disgrace, Insight, Jan. 14, 2002. 4 See Gail Gibson, Prosecuting Abuse of Prisoners, The Baltimore Sun, May 29, 2004, p. 4A. 5 See General Accounting Office, Rebuilding Iraq: Fiscal Year 2003 Contract Award Procedures and Management Challenges, June 14, 2004. 6 From a statement issued May 27, 2004. 7 Quoted by Larry Margasak, Official: Cheney Not Briefed on Iraq Work, The Associated Press, June 16, 2004. 8 Maud Beelman, Winning Contractors: U.S. Contractors Reap the Windfalls of Post-war Reconstruction, Center for Public Integrity, Oct. 30, 2003.
2 1
controversy over Halliburtons $7 billion no-bid contract to rebuild Iraqs oil industry. 11 Indeed, reform efforts actually opened the way for new loopholes that helped avoid congressional oversight of Pentagon contracting practices. For example, the new blanket-purchase agreement allows a government department to avoid bidding out contracts by piggybacking onto another departments existing contract with a firm for unrelated services. In this way, the Defense Department contracted with CACI to provide interrogators for Iraq using an existing agreement the firm had for unrelated services with the Interior Department.
The theory behind the blanketpurchase agreement was that the Defense Department can save overhead costs by contracting through other agencies, says Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, a nonprofit government watchdog group. But in practice, weve lost any kind of control over who is getting the contracts and what price were paying for them because there is no competition anymore. We also have no control over how prime contractors subcontract out the work to other firms. Thanks to blanket-purchase agreements, Brian says, CACI has become one of several full-service government
contractors, which basically say, We may not have the experience or expertise in what youre looking for, but well get it. Just tell us what you need, and well figure it out. The General Accounting Office (GAO) found that all of the 14 new contracts it examined were awarded without open competition, but it didnt find anything illegal. The GAO said the law allows for limited or no competition in awarding contracts when only one source is available or to meet urgent requirements. 12 Using civilians to carry out functions traditionally delegated to soldiers and military police represents another exercise in false economy, critics
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Top 10 Military Service Providers
Some of Americas largest corporations supply the U.S. military with basic services such as health insurance and computer and food services. Many smaller companies provide security services but do not appear among the Top 10, such as Titan* and CACI whose employees have been implicated in the Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse scandal in Baghdad. And some firms that provide interrogators and interpreters in Iraq do not appear on the Defense Departments list of contractors because they were hired through the Interior Department.
Sometimes the savings to taxpayers is not obvious, say proponents of privatization, especially when contractors are often paid more than twice as much as a soldier for doing the same work. But proponents of military outsourcing point out that recruitment, training, equipment, housing and health care inflate the cost for every soldier far above the base salary paid by the government. Say you pay a soldier $40,000 to do a job youd have to pay a contractor $100,000 to do, says Peters of the Council on Foreign Relations. By the time you add all those other costs, the actual cost of putting that $40,000 soldier in place may well exceed $100,000. Moreover, Peters says, the savings realized from outsourcing certain noncombat military services such as translators and interrogators are especially evident in places like Iraq. Say we need 100 Arabic-speaking Army interrogators in Iraq, he says. If you recruited 100 Arabic-speaking interrogators for Army service, youd have to pay them to sit on the shelf to wait for a situation like Iraq. The overhead and investment [required] to keep that capacity in uniform is part of what you save when youre able to turn instead to the larger economy to find such people we can call upon when we need them for a discrete period of time and without having to pay their retirement and other benefits. Should there be more oversight of private military contractors? The growing role of private contractors in the military has worried some lawmakers for years. Rep. Schakowsky has focused on the issue since visiting Colombia several years ago and learning that private contractors were playing a major role in U.S.funded counternarcotics efforts. After the scandal erupted over the abuses of detainees in Iraq by both soldiers and contractors, Schakowsky wrote to
Major Providers of Military Services
(in $ billions, for FY2003)
Value of Contracts
Lockheed Martin Corp. Northrop Grumman Corp. General Dynamics Corp. Halliburton Co. Humana Inc. Computer Sciences Corp. Science Applications International Health Net Inc. Raytheon Co. Boeing Co.
* Lockheed Martin is in the process of acquiring Titan Corp.
$4.4 3.5 2.4 2.4 2.4 2.0 1.9 1.8 1.7 1.3
Source: Procurement Statistics, Directorate for Information, Operations and Reports, Department of Defense
say. Many contractors are former Green Berets or Navy Seals trained at government expense who can make much more money doing the same work as private contractors rather than remaining in the military. Contract bodyguards in Iraq commonly earn twice as much or more than their military colleagues. 13 Military special forces are very expensive to train, Brian says. By relying on contractors, the Defense Department is essentially spending a huge amount of money to train someone and then paying a company to make a profit off that taxpayers investment. Defenders of the revolving door between the military and the private
sector say theres nothing wrong or novel about ex-soldiers using expertise gained at taxpayer expense to advance in the private sector. Airline pilots, for example, routinely get their training in the military. Indeed, Brooks, of the International Peace Operations Association, says the practice offers taxpayers a win-win opportunity. Basically, the taxpayer is getting double the service out of training a guy for one career, Brooks says. When you train a military guy, you expect to use him while hes in the military. Were getting him when hes out of the military as well, so were getting double the bang for the buck. I think its brilliant.
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President Bush askSinger of the Brooking him to suspend ings Institution says a the use of private more worrisome ambicontractors in all guity surrounding private Iraqi prisons pendcontractors is their legal ing further investistatus. We have folks gations into their within a military operaconduct. (See At tion, carrying on military Issue, p. 581.) roles, who are not part But she says the of the military, he says. White House has While the soldier who yet to respond to her commits crimes is held request. The adaccountable under the ministration contincode of military justice, ues to say that they for contractors the situuse these private milation is a little bit more itary contractors beconfused. Because pricause theyre trained vate contractors cant be to do the job, she court-martialed, they fall says. But I think under one of two other thats a mistake, systems, local law or U.S. American personnel at the Abu Ghraib prison threaten an Iraqi prisoner with dogs. At least two private military contractors have been implicated given the lack of clarextraterritorial law. in the prisoner abuses, leading critics to question how private contractors ity about whether Singer rules out local working for the military are held accountable for possible crimes. they were involved law because, There is in convincing or no local law in Iraq. In even ordering our military police to curs in a way that decreases, not in- any case, he says, CPA regulations set the conditions for interrogations creases, contractors autonomy. Because stipulate that private military contracin other words, to validate, if not di- this is a martial-law situation, the local tors are not subject to it. military commander can order contracrect, the abuses that occurred. Brooks says that concern is overstatCorbin of the Center for Defense tors to do just about anything, he says. ed because contractors are held to a Information agrees, noting that their And the contractors have to jump. higher legal standard when on overseas That doesnt satisfy Corbin, who missions than civilians in the United States. presence and participation in military operations, like the interrogations at says the military needs to establish a If a contractor commits an offense Abu Ghraib, may make it unclear to body of rules and procedures govern- that is below the level of a felony, the soldiers who is actually in command. ing private-contractor activities in war individual generally gets fired, he says. Its one thing if theyre employed zones. Just in terms of military oper- If you run a red light in the States, by and guarding private facilities, he ations, is the military supposed to go youre not going to get fired from your says. But having these semi-military, and rescue contractors when they job, but thats what happens in Iraq private contractors involved violates come under fire? he asks. Or are con- because the companies dont want to the fundamental military principle of tractors even supposed to go in to res- cross the military at all. Its harsh, becue the military? This is a new area, cause theres no real avenue for a perhaving a chain of command. Industry advocates dismiss this con- and both contractors and soldiers are son to appeal getting fired. But were cern, noting that as civilians, private woefully underserved in terms of op- in a war, right? contractors are not under anybodys erational procedures. Theyre just Contractors who commit a felony, orders technically, nor allowed to give working it out on the fly. Brooks says, are subject to the 2000 Apart from confusion in the field, Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act orders. Theyre given a contract, which says what they can and cannot do, critics worry that contractors may an- (MEJA), which places contractors workand thats essentially their chain of swer more readily to their employers ing overseas under U.S. legal jurisdicand stockholders interests than to those tion. But Singer says MEJA contains command, Brooks says. While he concedes that combat con- of the governments. Who do they two important loopholes. First, he ditions like those in Iraq may blur the respond to? Schakowsky asks. Is it says, it applies only to Pentagon conseparation of authority, he says it oc- a CEO or a general? tractors, not to those working for other
AFP Photo
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government agencies. The CACI employees implicated in the Abu Ghraib abuses were working under a contract let by the Interior Department. Also, its unclear whether the law applies to subcontractors or to third-party nationals. Many of the contractors are citizens of Iraq or other countries. Equally important, Singer says, the Pentagon has never written the regulations needed to implement MEJA. As a result, he says, Not one of the 20,000 private military contractors on the ground in Iraq has been tried under MEJA. And were led to take the fantastic leap of the imagination to conclude that over the course of one year not one person of those 20,000 has committed a crime of any kind, let alone any on the scale of Abu Ghraib. Passaro, the CIA contractor charged with assault in Afghanistan, is the first civilian to be charged in the widening prison-abuse scandal. Six soldiers implicated in the Abu Ghraib abuses are currently under prosecution in Iraq; a seventh has already pleaded guilty. 14 But the two private military contractors who also were implicated in the scandal have not faced formal charges. 15 Donald Rumsfeld continues to say that those who have committed crimes will be prosecuted under other U.S. laws, Schakowsky says. But its unclear what those sanctions will be or that anyone will be sanctioned at all. This is a very, very murky area with many problems that are now coming to light in Iraq. That legal ambiguity can also enable the government to avoid taking responsibility for mistakes or even criminal behavior by private contractors. In 2001, for example, an American company on contract for the CIA in the U.S. war on drugs mistakenly identified a small aircraft flying over Peru as a possible drug transport. Acting on the tip, Peruvian pilots shot down the plane, killing a U.S. missionary and her infant daughter. U.S. lawmakers reportedly were unsuccessful in obtaining information about the incident from the State Department or the CIA. The alleged implication of civilian contractors in torture could open the door to other avenues for prosecution. A 1994 law makes it a crime for Americans to commit torture outside the United States. But as long as administration officials refrain from calling the abuses at Abu Ghraib torture, its unlikely that the contractors will be prosecuted under that law. 16 the Romans and the Carthaginians in 241 B.C., the Carthaginians reliance on mercenaries was so complete that failure to pay the victorious soldiers sparked a wholesale revolt known as the Mercenary War, which required yet more paid foreigners to quell. In 218 B.C., a largely mercenary force accompanied the Carthaginian general Hannibal in his march across the Alps in his campaign against Rome. Like Greece, Rome relied initially on a citizen army but also on mercenaries with special skills, such as archery and cavalry. As the empire expanded and fewer Romans joined the far-flung forces, foreign mercenaries became key to Romes military might; by the end of the third century A.D., the imperial army had more Germans than Romans in its ranks. After the fall of the Roman Empire, European feudal rulers exacted military service from their serfs. But the feudal armies of Europes Dark Ages continued to rely on mercenaries, especially for expertise in the latest warmaking technologies of the time the crossbow, early firearms and cannon. Nobles and kings often preferred mercenaries to conscripts, however, because arming serfs posed the risk of rebellion. The emergence of powerful cities, such as Venice and Florence, in 13th-century Italy gave rise to a new military organization. Units of contract soldiers and sailors participated in Europes expanding local conflicts and in Crusades to the Middle East. By the end of the 14th century, mercenary troops had largely replaced feudal conscripts across Europe. The growing power of mercenary armies posed a new threat to the European order. Rather than face unemployment at the end of hostilities, individual free lances began to form companies (from con pane, for the bread soldiers received for their services). These roving militias traveled the continent in search of war, offering their
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BACKGROUND
Mercenary Armies
T
hroughout history, private armies have been the norm. Whether they were individual mercenaries signing on to bolster the ranks of organized armies or fully equipped professional armies, the ranks of the worlds military forces more often than not have been driven by the profit motive. 17 References to mercenaries date back more than 4,000 years to soldiers hired by King Shulgi of Ur (2094-2047 B.C.). The first record of a major conflict, the battle of Kadesh (1294 B.C.), speaks of hired Numidian soldiers in the army Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses II sent against the Hittites. The first citizen armies mentioned in historical accounts were raised by Sparta and a few other ancient Greek city-states, but many other Greek forces relied on paid foreign soldiers who specialized in certain skills of war, such as cavalrymen from Thessaly and slingers from Crete. Alexander the Great conquered the Persian Empire in 336 B.C. thanks in large part to mercenaries, including a 224-ship Phoenician armada. By the end of the First Punic War between
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Chronology
1970s-1980s
1973 The draft is dropped in favor of an all-volunteer military. Dec. 4, 1989 The United Nations adopts the International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries. To date, however, only 25 countries have signed and ratified or acceded to the treaty; the United States is not among them.
U.S. military manpower peaks at more than 3 million personnel.
1996 The Clinger-Cohen Act allows the use of multi-agency contracts, enabling a single federal agency to handle contracts for other agencies.
Iraq, topples Saddam Hussein and occupies the country. April 28, 2004 Insurgents kill four U.S. private military contractors in Fallujah, Iraq, and hang their burned and mutilated bodies from a bridge. May 2004 Three civilian contractors are implicated in a prisoner-abuse scandal at U.S. prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan. June 14, 2004 An amendment is proposed to the fiscal 2005 Pentagon reauthorization bill that would bar the government from outsourcing the oversight of Iraq reconstruction to private companies unless the government is entirely unable to do the job with federal employees. It also bars the letting of private contracts if there is even an appearance of conflict of interest for the private company. June 16, 2004 Senators reject Democrats proposals to prohibit the use of private contractors in combat missions or to interrogate prisoners and to increase the penalties for war profiteering by making it a crime to overcharge the government for goods and services in military contracts. June 30, 2004 The U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq is due to hand over the reins of government to an interim Iraqi administration. Thousands of private security contractors are scheduled to remain in Iraq, along with U.S. military personnel.
2000s
Private military contractors serve in the war on terrorism, prompting calls for greater oversight of these firms. 2000 The Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act (MEJA) places Defense Department contractors working overseas under U.S. legal jurisdiction. Sept. 11, 2001 Terrorists attack the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon, prompting President Bush to declare war on terrorism. Oct. 7, 2001 U.S.-led coalition forces invade Afghanistan and rout its Taliban rulers but fail to capture Osama bin Laden, leader of the al Qaeda terrorist organization responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks. 2002 U.S. active-duty troop levels stand at 1.4 million after falling by more than one-half in three decades. January 2003 Rep. Charles B. Rangel, D-N.Y., and Sen. Ernest Hollings, D-S.C., introduce the Universal National Service Act, which would require all American men and women ages 18-26 to perform a period of military or civilian service. April 15, 2003 The United States, with Britain and several smaller countries, invades
1990s
Military outsourcing picks up as the Pentagon downsizes U.S. forces at the end of the Cold War. 1993 A failed U.S. intervention to help the government of Somalia put down a rebellion galvanizes American public opinion against use of U.S. military forces in conflicts that pose no immediate threat to national security. 1994 The Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act expands agencies authority to buy goods and services from private companies. August 1995 After U.S. contractor Military Professional Resources Inc. (MPRI) helps Croatian forces defeat a Serbian attack, Croatia and Bosnia hire the Virginiabased firm to train their armed forces.
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Return of Draft Considered Unlikely
T
he unpopularity of the Vietnam War and the widespread perception that it was fought mostly by men from poor families who couldnt get draft deferments helped push lawmakers to replace the draft in 1973 with todays all-volunteer army. Since then, the services have met their manpower needs by offering college scholarships, technical training and other perks intended to help recruits be all you can be, as the Army promises. In the post-Cold War 1990s, the military shed jobs. The number of active-duty military personnel now stands at about 1.5 million, half the total during the Vietnam War. But conflicts in the Balkans, the Middle East, Somalia and other far-flung places posed new challenges to the U.S. military. The challenges have intensified since the Bush administration launched its war on terrorism following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The invasions and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq have further strained the downsized militarys capabilities. To meet its growing manpower needs, the Pentagon has repeatedly extended duty tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. In Iraq alone, tours have been extended for 20,000 soldiers. 1 In early June, the Army barred soldiers scheduled for deployment to either country from leaving the service, even if their enlistments were up. 2 Critics say the administration is placing too great a burden on overstretched troops as well as on the National Guard and reserves. Sen. John F. Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, called the administrations policy a backdoor draft and promised that if elected, he would add 40,000 mili-
tary personnel to the active-duty armed forces by shifting funds currently earmarked for a controversial missile-defense system. 3 Lets be honest, says Peter W. Singer, a national security expert at the Brookings Institution, the military designed the system so that you would use the National Guard and reserves if you got into a major war. This was meant to be a checking mechanism so that you wouldnt get into wars lightly. If there are situations where you dont think its worth sending in the National Guard or the reserves, then maybe its not worth doing it at all. Some administration critics say restoring the military draft would be a better and fairer way to bolster troop levels. In January 2003, Rep. Charles B. Rangel, D-N.Y., and Sen. Ernest Hollings, D-S.C., separately introduced the Universal National Service Act, which would require a period of military or civilian service for American men and women ages 18-26 in furtherance of the national defense and homeland security. Introduction of the bills and renewed talk of the draft have spawned a flurry of Internet rumors that the administration is secretly planning to reinstitute obligatory military service shortly after the fall presidential election. But most analysts dismiss such rumors. 4 Although Rangels House bill has gained 14 co-sponsors, neither chamber has acted on the measure. Indeed, support for the draft proposals seems to be more a vehicle for criticizing the Bush administrations invasion and occupation of Iraq and the social inequities in the U.S. military than determined calls for restoration of the draft. I do not think that members of this administration and Congress would have been so willing to launch a war if they had known that their own children might have to fight it, said Rangel.
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services to the highest bidder. During the Hundred Years War, companies were as feared as any official enemy, gaining a bloody reputation for extortion, killing unarmed civilians and destroying villages that refused to meet their demands for money and food. As the free companies gained strength, kings mounted military campaigns away from home to keep them occupied. But the companies continued to grow more powerful, notably the 10,000-man Great Company in Italy and Englands White Company. In Italy, nobles in Milan and other cities emulated their organization to mobilize local paid armies of condottieri, or contract soldiers, who even-
tually replaced their employers as the local ruling class. In 15th-century France, King Charles VII exploited the company model more successfully by taxing the countrys growing middle class and permanently hiring several companies. In so doing, he kept them out of trouble and created Europes first standing army since the Dark Ages. Highly effective mercenary armies from Switzerland, southern Germany and Austria often determined the outcome of conflicts across Europe, and by the 17th century European armies were essentially collections of highly paid, specialized mercenary units. War became such a lucrative enterprise that brokers who recruited and armed units and then leased them to war-
ring governments were among the wealthiest men on the continent.
Citizen Armies
T
he Thirty Years War (1618-1648) marked a major shift in notions of statehood and military organization. Like their predecessors during the Dark Ages, mercenary forces inspired public loathing by looting the countryside during the conflict. But the gradual dissolution of the Hapsburg Empire marked the rise of national sovereignty and citizenship, and mercenary armies were slowly replaced with domestic citizen armies.
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Fact is, we are currently a to meet a contingency that may nation in which the poor fight not be there a couple of years our wars while the affluent from now would be tremendous, stay at home. 5 says Michael P. Peters, executive vice president of the Council on As American casualties Foreign Relations, a New York in Iraq mounted this spring, City think tank. some Republicans echoed Frankly, most military peoDemocrats concerns about ple would not in be favor of rerelying on an all-volunteer constituting the draft because military to fight terrorism. theyve become very comfortable Should we continue to burwith the all-volunteer force. Deden the middle class, who spite whats been going on in represents most all of our Iraq, the military has been able soldiers, and the lower midU.S. Marines carry a wounded comrade to a helicopter to attract and bring into the acdle class? asked Sen. Chuck while under heavy fire from North Vietnamese troops tive force a pretty steady flow of Hagel, R-Neb. 6 during Operation Hickory III in Vietnam in July 1967. high-quality people to maintain The Bush administration the manpower levels they need. continues to support the allvolunteer army and reject suggestions that it is considering a return to the draft. I dont know anyone in the executive branch of the 1 See Thomas E. Ricks, Army Personnel Chief Aims to Keep Ranks Full, The Washington Post, May 28 2004, p. A21. government who believes it would be appropriate or necessary to 2 See Bob Herbert, Level With Americans, The New York Times, June 7, reinstitute the draft, said Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. 2004, p. A27. Although he acknowledged that the military is being 3 See Dan Balz, Kerry Says He Would Add 40,000 to Army, The Washingstretched in Afghanistan and Iraq, Rumsfeld said the solution ton Post, June 4, 2004, p. A1. For background on missile defense, see Mary H. Cooper, Missile Defense, The CQ Researcher, Sept. 8, 2000, pp. 689-712. is better management of the professional military. It simply re- 4 See, for example, Jack Kelly, Rumor Aside, Drafts Return Is Most Unquires changing the rules, changing the requirements, chang- likely, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 24, 2004. ing the regulations in ways that we can manage that force con- 5 From a floor statement in the House of Representatives, May 5, 2004. 6 Quoted in Robert Burns, Defense Chief Sees No Need to Reintroduce siderably better, he said. 7 Military experts say the draft is unlikely to return anytime the Military Draft, The Associated Press, April 22, 2004. 7 Quoted in Guy Taylor, Rumsfeld Rejects Idea soon. The political cost of cranking up something like the draft The Washington Times, April 23, 2004, p. A1. of Returning to the Draft,
Advances in easy-to-use weaponry, notably the musket, contributed to the shift, since mercenaries had traditionally traded on their ability to offer specialized skills. In addition to requiring little training, muskets also gave a tactical advantage to the army with the largest number of soldiers to fire them, and rulers could more readily raise large numbers of troops through conscription than by hiring mercenaries. Meanwhile, Enlightenment notions of patriotism and citizenship made military service more appealing than during the era of serfdom. [P]eople were more willing to fight as citizens than as subjects, wrote Singer, of Brookings. Those who
fought for profit, rather than patriotism, were completely de-legitimated under these new conceptions. 18 Paid military units continued to play an important role in conflicts, however. During the American Revolution, the British government hired some 30,000 mercenaries from the German state of Hesse-Kassel to help quell the colonists uprising. Indeed, George Washingtons 1776 defeat of the Hessian units was a key victory in the march to Independence. Private military armies enjoyed a resurgence during the 200 years of European colonial expansion, when governments gave companies monopoly commercial rights to develop overseas holdings. The Dutch East India Co.,
English East India Co. and Hudsons Bay Co. fielded their own military units to defend their vast economic interests. Some of these private forces endured until the 20th century, when the companies trade monopolies ended. But the legacy of the armed charter companies endured until the 1920s and 30s in parts of sub-Saharan Africa that lacked national governments and where private companies held sway such as Rhodesia and Mozambique. With the exception of elite units, such as the French Foreign Legion or the Nepalese Gurkhas who still serve in the British and Indian armies, citizen armies raised under the aegis of sovereign nation-states became the
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saving $17 billion immediately and $7 dominant form of military organizabillion annually, according to Citizens tion. Most private military actors were Against Government Waste. 20 individual mercenaries who hired out to businesses or rebel organizations in As U.S. policymakers were downsizparts of the world where governments he great wars of the 20th centu- ing the military, they were also enwere weak, especially Latin America ry were fought with conscripted couraging privatization of non-combat and Africa. or volunteer armies. After World War jobs. Military outsourcing began in 1973, Once at the center of warfare, by II, for almost the entire second half when the draft was discontinued, near the start of the 20th century the inter- of the century, the United States and the end of the Vietnam War. To lure national trade in military services was the Soviet Union, together with their recruits, the Pentagon began contractmarginalized and mostly pushed un- respective allies in the North Atlantic ing mundane jobs like cleaning and derground, Singer writes. 19 Treaty Organization (NATO) and the cooking to private firms. Throughout With the ascendance of the nation- Warsaw Pact, maintained huge stand- the 1980s and 90s, the Pentagon pristate, for-profit military forces fell in- ing armies, still composed almost en- vatized more service jobs, including heavy creasingly out of favor, and many tirely of citizen-soldiers. construction, fuel supply and, especialgovernments even ly, technical support prohibited them. paying defense contracMeanwhile, the tors to maintain and serGeneva Conventions vice the militarys indenied mercenaries creasingly complex the legal protections weaponry. The parallel they provide for soltrends of downsizing and diers in combat. outsourcing more than Mercenaries notohalved the number of acriety increased in the tive-duty troops from 1950s and 60s, more than 3 million in when they helped 1970 to 1.4 million by fill the security vac2002. 21 A third of the reuum left as Euroduction occurred during pean colonial powthe 1990s. ers withdrew from Another rationale for most of their holdprivatizing the military, ings in Africa. Led by which intensified during such notorious figthe Clinton-Gore efforts ures as Mad Mike to reinvent governHoare of Ireland and ment, was that inviting Frenchman Bob private companies to bid Private security guards escort Afghan President Hamid Karzai Denard, mercenaries for contracts to provide (center) as he arrives in Afghanistans Ghor province in July 2003. known as les Affreux military goods and serMany military contractors are retired Special Forces personnel. (the Terrible Ones) vices would result in even more cost savings. 22 fought in wars of succession in the former Belgian Congo Competition enhances quality, But after the Soviet Union collapsed and other areas throughout the de- in 1991, ending the Cold War, the need economy and productivity, states the colonization period. Denard contin- for such large armies rapidly diminished. Office of Management Budgets Cirued to participate in coups and at- Buoyed by the promise of a peace div- cular A-76, the executive branchs doctempted coups in Africa until 1995. idend that could be invested in other ument on outsourcing. To make it easMany mercenaries active in Africa re- public sectors or returned to taxpayers ier for the Pentagon and other ceived their training under the as tax cuts, the United States and other agencies to purchase goods and services from the private sector, Congress apartheid regime of South Africa, countries downsized their militaries. adding to their reputation for ruthless Since 1988, the Pentagon has shut- passed the 1994 Federal Acquisition violence born of racism. tered 97 major military installations Streamlining Act. And in 1996 lawand reduced personnel at 55 facilities, makers approved the Clinger-Cohen
Downsizing the Military
T
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AFP Photo/Ahmad Masood
Act, enabling a single federal agency to handle contracts for other agencies. 23 But the Cold Wars end brought more than cost savings to the U.S. military. It also created a dangerous power vacuum that quickly sparked new and different threats to international security. As the superpowers withdrew from their previous areas of influence, long-simmering disputes erupted in countries ranging from the former Yugoslavia to Rwanda and Sierra Leone whose weak governments were unable to quell unrest on their own. These lowintensity conflicts were unlike those envisioned by Cold War planners, whose large armies and heavy equipment were ill suited to deal with the urban streetfighting and guerrilla tactics that characterized the new hostilities. The United States learned this lesson the hard way in 1993 when it tried to help Somalia put down a rebellion. The effort ended with TV images of a dead GI being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu and galvanized U.S. public opinion against future interventions in conflicts that posed no immediate threat to national security. Reflecting that reluctance, Congress restricted the role of U.S. troops in overseas conflicts. In trying to quell the supply of cocaine from Colombia, for example, the United States may deploy no more than 400 American soldiers. To get around the restriction, the U.S. is allowed to use up to 400 private military contractors to augment the official forces. American private military contractors also played a major role in the Balkans. The August 1995 rout of Serbian forces in Croatia, for instance, was attributed to Virginia-based Military Professional Resources Inc. (MPRI), not Croatian forces. MPRI had first entered the region through a State Department contract to monitor sanctions against Serbia. After the battlefield victory, the governments of Croatia and Bosnia hired MPRI to help retrain and modernize their forces. 24
Meanwhile, Western governments fear of placing troops in harms way and becoming mired in far-away conflicts has weakened the ability of multilateral forces to intervene in local and regional conflicts and subsequently keep the peace. Even as the number and intensity of global hostilities grew, the number of personnel in the United Nations peacekeeping operations dropped from a peak of 76,000 in 1994 to about 15,000 just four years later. 25 Yet the U.N. opposes the use of mercenary forces, having adopted on Dec. 4, 1989, the International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries. So far, only 25 countries have signed and ratified or acceded to the treaty. The United States is not among them.
As demand for mercenaries services has grown, new companies have emerged to provide a wide range of services, including logistical support; training local police forces; protecting officials and commercial sites; and armed combat.
CURRENT SITUATION
Modern Mercenaries
T
he role of private contractors in U.S. military operations has expanded greatly since the Sept. 11 ter-
The U.S. military is 35 percent smaller than it was at the end of the Cold War, but it has far more global commitments, and Iraq is the biggest military commitment in at least a generation. So theres a gap between the supply and demand of military personnel.
Peter W. Singer Author, Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry
Despite continued societal ambivalence about private armies, mercenaries have flourished in the post-Cold War power vacuum, characterized by small wars and weak states. Military transformation and outsourcing have swollen the ranks of these modern freelancers, many of whom are former Warsaw Pact and NATO military personnel who found themselves out of work when their governments downsized them. rorist attacks and the Bush administrations subsequent declaration of a war on terrorism. 26 At least 85 U.S. companies have contracts in Afghanistan or Iraq; about 15 of the firms are playing key roles in both countries, often filling jobs that contractors have long performed for the military, such as maintenance and repair of vehicles and aircraft, supervising supply lines and running logistics, driving supply trucks carrying food
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and fuel, setting up warehouses, prepar- about the numbers; they hire a com- tagon contracting practices, critics coning meals, cleaning bases, washing clothes pany to do something, Brooks says. tinue to complain about the departIts up to the companies that win con- ments dealings with the private sector. and building military housing. 27 But as the Abu Ghraib scandal and tracts to determine how many people Much of the criticism has centered on numerous civilian casualties in Iraqs theyre going to need to do the job. Halliburton, one of the Pentagons main escalating violence have shown, pri- Some companies may use technology, suppliers in Iraq; Vice President Cheney vate military contractors are now per- and some may hire locals. served as Halliburton CEO from 1995 Likewise, the exact number of con- until he became Bushs running mate in forming duties more closely related to combat functions. As interrogators, tractors who have been killed or 2000. Cheney asserts that although he translators and transtill receives deferred scribers, they are compensation from Halclosely involved in inliburton he has no fortelligence operations. mal ties to the firm, which And armed private oversees the reconstruccontractors also help tion of Iraqs oil industrain local Iraqi police try, and provides other and soldiers and guard services through subofficials, military insidiaries, such as Kellogg, stallations and convoys Brown and Root. 30 and non-military inI dont have anything stallations, such as oil to do with the conpipelines and electritracting process, he said cal stations. earlier this year, and I According to the wouldnt know how to Pentagon, private semanipulate the process curity companies in Iraq if I wanted to. 31 provide only defensive But new evidence Armed guards aboard a helicopter operated by North Carolina-based services. 28 Brooks, of appears to contradict Blackwater Security Co. patrol over Baghdad in May 2004. Four the contractors associCheneys assertion. Rep. Blackwater guards were ambushed and killed in April. ation, says clear rules Henry A. Waxman, Dof engagement, estabCalif., recently demandlished by the CPA, define what the ap- wounded in Iraq is unknown because ed information from Cheneys office proximately 6,000 security contractors civilian casualties go largely unnoticed about reports that he may have had a may and may not do in Iraq. They can unless they are reported in the media. hand in Halliburtons winning its $7 bildefend themselves, they can defend The Labor Department puts the death lion, no-bid contract for the Iraqi oil-rewhats in their contract be it a per- toll among civilian contractors in Iraq construction project. 32 In addition, one son, a place or a convoy and they since April 2003 at 85, compared with of Halliburtons subsidiaries, Kellogg 48 who have died in Afghanistan and Brown and Root, is the militarys single can defend Iraqi citizens, he says. The rules also define what types of other countries since 2001. But the biggest contractor in Iraq, hired to transweapons contractors may use on the job. totals do not reflect the mounting port food and other supplies to military Essentially, they are limited to light casualties resulting from the growing installations around the country. weapons, Brooks says, meaning violence in Iraq over the past two Halliburton received $3.5 billion weapons that one person can use alone, months. 29 Meanwhile, as of June 15, through its contract in Iraq last year ranging from pistols to assault rifles, but 2004, 830 soldiers had died in Iraq, alone, Rep. Schakowsky says. So were not belted machine guns, grenade launch- according to the Pentagon. talking about a lot of money, but not ers or explosives. Companies may oba lot of oversight, accountability, clartain special permits to carry larger weapons ity or sunlight on their activities. for convoy duty, he added. Schakowskys proposed bill would reDespite their conspicuous role, no quire the Pentagon to show Congress one seems to know just how many priany new contract worth more than $1 vate contractors are operating in Iraq. espite efforts to reduce the inci- million for a private firm to do business The Defense Department doesnt care dence of fraud and waste in PenContinued on p. 582
Cheney and Halliburton
D
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At Issue:
Does the Pentagon rely too heavily on private contractors?
Yes
REP. JANICE D. SCHAKOWSKY, D-ILL.
MEMBER, HOUSE ENERGY AND COMMERCE COMMITTEE, SUBCOMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND INVESTIGATIONS
FROM A LETTER TO PRESIDENT BUSH, MAY 4, 2004
DOUG BROOKS
PRESIDENT, INTERNATIONAL PEACE OPERATIONS ASSOCIATION
WRITTEN FOR THE CQ RESEARCHER, JUNE, 2004
am writing out of concern over recent news of abuse of prisoners being held by the United States at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. In particular, I have questions about the role of civilian contractors in these abuses, the investigation into the abuses and rules of accountability for U.S. civilian contractors operating in Iraq. . . . This is yet another example of questionable adherence to international human rights laws by United States forces in Iraq. It has been reported that, more than two months after a classified Army report found that contract workers were implicated in the illegal abuse of Iraqis, the companies that employ them (CACI International Inc. and Titan Corp.) say that they have heard nothing from the Pentagon and that they have not removed any employees from Iraq. The sadistic abuses of Iraqis at a U.S. military prison raise serious questions about the accountability of U.S.-hired private military contractors who are involved in illegal activity. It has been widely reported that civilian contractors are not subject to the Uniform Code of Military Conduct and that the Department of Justice is reluctant to get involved in this issue. . . . I have long held that the use of civilian contractors to carry out military functions on behalf of the United States is a dangerous policy, in large part because of the lack of accountability and oversight that exists. In particular, I do not believe that private companies should be trusted with interrogation of Iraqi prisoners. I believe that pending a thorough investigation and appropriate action, including but not limited to the dismissal and prosecution of those involved, all contracts with civilian firms for functions involving security, supervision and interrogation of prisoners, should be suspended. . . . Furthermore, I would like to know the policy of your administration regarding the directives, rules and laws governing contractors that operate on behalf of the United States in Iraq. It is my hope that the individuals named in recent press reports were not ordered to conduct such atrocious activities by U.S. personnel. However, that is something your administration should unequivocally address. . . . I maintain that the use of private military contractors by the United States military is a misguided policy [that costs] the American people untold amounts, in terms of dollars [and] U.S. lives and is damaging our reputation with the international community. It also impedes the ability of the Congress to conduct appropriate oversight and keeps the American public in the dark.
No
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yes no
June 25, 2004
n times of war, the Department of Defense has always relied on the private sector for essential services. From Valley Forge to Vietnam, private companies have been flexible and able to endure remarkable risks while supporting our troops. Private companies are able to tap into a pool of highly specialized professionals and a large network of local and U.S. reconstruction capabilities. They regularly utilize experienced military veterans while supporting and enhancing U.S. policies, lessening the burden on our young soldiers serving on the front. Consequently, our military is more focused, professional and cost effective. Attempts by partisan analysts to turn the practice of private sector support into a political football are worrying. We must ensure adequate standards, transparency and accountability. However, we should remember that redundant bureaucracy, regulations and restrictions dangerously limit the flexibility that makes the private sector so enormously cost effective. The U.S. military is immensely capable, but to demand that it radically curtail its utilization of contractors would place unnecessary stress on our soldiers struggling to bring stability to volatile regions of the world. Contrary to public opinion, the overwhelming majority of private military contracts are restricted to logistical and support services. The fact that the Pentagon also chooses to contract with private companies to provide security services to protect our reconstruction efforts is neither surprising nor worrisome. In the United States we have three times as many private guards as we do police, and while the threat levels are substantially higher in Iraq and Afghanistan, contractors are limited to defensive roles. The companies use former military personnel for this hazardous duty, and all employees are under strict rules of engagement and are limited to light weapons. They are clearly not the rogue private army that critics allege. Nor are critics honest about the numbers. Three-quarters of the 20,000-strong private security employees are, in fact, Iraqis the very people who should be providing security for their own country. Policymakers should decide where we draw the line between military and civilian operations, not contractors. Whether or not we support the policies that got us involved, it is in everyones interest that Afghanistan and Iraq be stabilized, reconstructed and democratized. The more successful the Pentagons stability operations are, the quicker American troops can be brought home. Partisan quarrels should not obscure the inherent usefulness of the private sector.
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Continued from p. 580 ton kicked out of Iraq because if its tagons latest contracts, which called for a foreign company headed by a in Iraq or Afghanistan. Over the last true, its just beyond belief. Lawmakers and Pentagon officials controversial foreign mercenary to be four years, there have been more than $7 billion in contracts let for Iraq and are stepping up investigations into in charge of overseeing contracts in Afghanistan, she says. Lets remem- allegations of waste and cost over- Iraq and coordinating contractor activruns among private contractors in ities in a U.S.-led military operation. In ber, these are taxpayer dollars. Allegations have also surfaced that Iraq. On June 15, government audi- May, the Army awarded the three-year, Halliburton fraudulently charged the gov- tors described poor oversight and $293 million contract to a British seernment and exposed drivers to un- overcharges by firms providing troop curity firm to guard employees of the necessary danger by repeatedly run- support and reconstruction projects. Program Management Office, responsible for U.S.-funded conning convoys of empty tracts in Iraq, and to run trucks in some of the a new operations center most violent areas of for contractors to help Iraq. According to 12 coordinate convoy and current and former staff movements. The employees, KBR drivers firm, Aegis Defense Serand escorts made vices, was founded just more than 100 trips on two years ago by Tom trucks carrying nothing Spicer, a controversial forbut sailboat fuel. 33 mer British special forces Under KBRs costofficer who worked for plus contract, the firm warring parties in Sierra can bill the government Leone and Papua New for every trip it makes, Guinea in the 1990s. 36 so frequent trips are in Contracts with Aegis its interest. No one and many other firms knows exactly what could run into trouble if they were charging, a measure adopted by the says Singer of the Senate on June 14 beBrookings Institution. comes law. Included as The cost is estimated Private contractors help Iraqi and U.S. military experts assess damage an amendment to the fisto be about $2,000 for to an Iraqi pipeline near Basra. The Pentagon contractors are employees of Kellogg, Brown and Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton, the cal 2005 Pentagon reaueach truck; there were oil and gas conglomerate formerly headed by Vice President Cheney. thorization bill, the mea15 trucks in each consure introduced by Sens. voy; and convoys run We have no evidence to say there Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Byron Dorgan, once or twice a day. So you can see was willful fraud, based on the work D-N.D., prohibits the government from how these services accrue over time. KBR has said it never ran empty weve done so far, said David M. Walk- outsourcing the oversight of Iraq recontrucks unnecessarily. KBR is not paid er, head of the General Accounting Of- struction to private companies unless the by the load or by the mission, said fice (GAO). But there have been very government is entirely unable to do Patrice Mingo, the companys manager serious problems. 35 The House Gov- the job with federal employees. It also for public relations. So we would not ernment Reform Committee is expected bars the letting of private contracts if be running trucks if they did not need to hear testimony in July from former there is even an appearance of conflict Halliburton employees about allegations of interest for the private company. to be run. 34 The outsourcing of oversight on Despite Halliburtons large investment of overcharging by the contractor. Iraq reconstruction is a costly, unsound in Iraq, the mounting scrutiny into its practice that never should have been operations could jeopardize its prospects permitted in the first place, and its there. Everybody knows convoys are time to close the door on it now, getting blown up by bombs as they travWyden said. This amendment can save el down the highways, says Corbin of ven the most hardened critics American taxpayers untold additional the Center for Defense Information. were surprised by one of the Pen- dollars by placing accountability for This scandal may actually get Hallibur-
Tightening Oversight
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Halliburton Co.
Iraq reconstruction squarely with the Department of Defense. 37 Senators have rejected two other Democratic amendments to the Pentagon bill aimed at enhancing congressional oversight of private military contractors. An amendment sponsored by Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., would have prohibited the use of private contractors in combat missions and to interrogate prisoners. Another, sponsored by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., would have made it a crime to overcharge the government for goods and services in military contracts. Its unfortunate that Republican leaders have chosen to do the White Houses bidding by killing stiff penalties for those who gouge the taxpayers, Leahy said after the June 16 vote defeating his measure. We should be defending the public, not the war profiteers. 38 Opponents said the proposals would jeopardize the effectiveness of U.S. forces at a time of growing violence in Iraq. Congress should deliberate very carefully a criminal penalty of up to 20 years for these thousands upon thousands of companies that are currently engaged, said Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John W. Warner, R-Va. 39
OUTLOOK
After the Handover
T
he United States formally relinquishes its authority in Iraq on June 30, when it will turn over the reins of government to an interim administration, pending formal elections in January 2005. But the United States will maintain a robust military presence in the country long after the formal handover. It also will retain command over U.S. and Iraqi forces and control the $18.4 billion reconstruction effort. 40
The Bush administration says it will maintain the current troop level of 138,000 in Iraq through 2005. But that may be hard to do. The Army has already extended soldiers tours in Iraq, and while the service is currently meeting its recruiting goals, it may have trouble sustaining the planned troop levels over the long-term. 41 The U.S. military is 35 percent smaller than it was at the end of the Cold War, but it has far more global commitments, and Iraq is the biggest military commitment in at least a generation, says Singer. So theres a gap between the supply and demand of military personnel. All the options for increasing the number of troops on the ground in Iraq expanding the military, calling up more National Guard reservists, reinstituting the draft and bringing in more allied forces would be politically costly, he says. Enlarging the military would force the administration to admit that they were wrong about how many troops would be needed to win the war in Iraq, restoring the draft would spark a huge outcry, and bringing in the allies would force the administration to make political compromises that it has shown its not willing to make. Indeed, the leaders of NATO members France and Turkey rejected Bushs recent call to add NATO forces to the 138,000 U.S. contingent and 15,000 soldiers from Britain and 32 other coalition members after the handover. 42 The manpower solution that imposes the least political cost to the administration, Singer says, is to rely
even more heavily on private military contractors. There are none of the costs associated with the other options, the public remains only limitedly aware of it, and when casualties happen theres not the same kind of outcry, he says. In fact, they arent even reported in the public record. Indeed, most experts predict that private military contractors will continue to play an essential role in Iraq for the foreseeable future. There arent too many short-term solutions to the manpower problem in Iraq, says Peters of the Council on Foreign Relations. Just about everybody in the active Army and Marine Corps is either in Iraq, on their way to Iraq or has just come back from Iraq. So theres not a lot of flexibility, and thats part of the challenge that the military faces.
Notes
For background on Bush administration interpretations of prisoner protections, see David Masci, Ethics of War, The CQ Researcher, Dec. 13, 2002, pp. 1013-1032. 2 See Curt Anderson, CIA Contractor Charged in Detainee Death, The Associated Press, June 18, 2004. 3 The CPA, created by the United States in early 2003 to oversee reconstruction in postconflict Iraq, will hand over authority to the interim Iraqi government on June 30. For background, see L. Elaine Halchin, The Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA): Origins, Characteristics, and Institutional Authorities, CRS Report for Congress, Congressional Research Service, April 29, 2004.
1
About the Author
Mary H. Cooper specializes in defense, energy and environmental issues. Before joining The CQ Researcher as a staff writer in 1983, she was Washington correspondent for the Rome daily newspaper lUnit. She is the author of The Business of Drugs (CQ Press, 1990) and holds a B.A. in English from Hollins College in Virginia. Her recent reports include Smart Growth, Exporting Jobs, Weapons of Mass Destruction and Bush and the Environment.
Available online: www.thecqresearcher.com
June 25, 2004
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From a television interview with WAVY-TV in Hampton Roads, Va., April 6, 2004. 5 Levin spoke May 7, 2004, at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Iraqi prison abuses. 6 See P.W. Singer, Corporate Warriors (2003), p. 78. 7 Charles L. Schultze, senior fellow emeritus, Brookings Institution, based on Commerce Department data (forthcoming report). 8 See Elisabeth Bumiller and Edward Wong, Iraq Seeks Custody of Hussein; Bush Has Security Concerns, The New York Times, June 16, 2004, p. A1. 9 Schakowsky press release following the indictment of a CIA contractor for prisoner abuse in Afghanistan, June 17, 2004. 10 Office of Management and Budget, Competitive Sourcing: Report on Competitive Sourcing Results, Fiscal Year 2003, May 2004. 11 Larry Margasak, Committee to seek testimony from Halliburton executives, The Associated Press, June 15, 2004. 12 General Accounting Office, Fiscal Year 2003 Contract Award Procedures and Management Challenges, June 2004. 13 See, for example, Andrew Buncombe, You Dont Have to Be Poor to Work There, But It Helps, The Independent (London), June 15, 2004, p. 26. 14 See John Hendren and Mark Mezzetti, U.S. Charges Contractor Over Beating of Afghan Detainee, Los Angeles Times, June 18, 2004 p. A6. 15 See Seymour M. Hersh, Torture at Abu Ghraib, The New Yorker, June 15, 2004, p. 42. 16 See Adam Liptak, Who Would Try Civilians of U.S.? No One in Iraq, The New York Times, May 26, 2004. 17 Unless otherwise noted, information in this section is based on Singer, op. cit., pp. 19-39. 18 Ibid., p. 31. 19 Ibid., p. 37. 20 www.cagw.org. 21 See Council on Foreign Relations, Iraq: Military Outsourcing, May 20, 2004, www.cfr.org. 22 For background on Clinton-era government downsizing efforts, see Susan Kellam, Reinventing Government, The CQ Researcher, Feb. 17, 1995, pp. 145-168. 23 See Robert OHarrow and Ellen McCarthy, Private Sector Has Firm Role at the Pentagon, The Washington Post, June 9, 2004, p. E1. 24 See Eugene B. Smith, The New Condottieri and U.S. Policy: The Privatization of Conflict and its Implications, Parameters, winter 20024
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Citizens Against Government Waste, 1301 Connecticut Ave., N.W., Suite 400, Washington, DC 20036; [phone]; www.cagw.org. Advocates the elimination of waste and inefficiency in government and publishes periodic exposs of porkbarrel spending. Defense Procurement and Acquisition Policy, Defense Department, 3060 Defense, Pentagon, #3E1044, Arlington VA 20301; [phone]; www.acq.osd.mil/dpap. The Pentagons office for assessing procurement policies serves as a liaison between the Defense Department and its civilian contractors. General Accounting Office, 441 G St., N.W., Suite 1139, Washington, DC 20548; [phone]; www.gao.gov. The investigative arm of Congress has conducted many studies of contracting practices of federal agencies. International Peace Operations Association, 1900 L St., N.W., Suite 320, Washington, DC 20036; [phone]; www.ipoaonline.org. Represents private military contractors. Project on Government Oversight, 666 11th St., N.W., Suite 500, Washington, DC 20001; [phone]; www.pogo.org. A watchdog group dedicated to exposing government waste, fraud and corruption, especially in military contracting.
03, pp. 104-119. Parameters is a quarterly magazine published by the U.S. Army War College. 25 See David Shearer, Outsourcing War, Foreign Policy, fall 1998, p. 70. 26 For background, see Kenneth Jost, Reexamining 9/11, The CQ Researcher, June 4, 2004, pp. 493-516, and David Masci and Kenneth Jost, War on Terrorism, The CQ Researcher, Oct. 12, 2001, pp. 817-848. 27 For more information, see Council on Foreign Relations, Iraq: Military Outsourcing, www.cfr.org. 28 Private Security Companies Operating in Iraq, an attachment to a letter from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., May 4, 2004. 29 James Cox, Contractors Pay Rising Toll in Iraq, USA Today, June 16, 2004, p. 1A. 30 Vice President Dick Cheney and Mrs. Cheney Release 2003 Income Tax Return, The White House, April 13, 2004, www.whitehouse.gov. 31 Quoted in Cheney Faults Desperate Attacks on Halliburton, CNN.com, Jan. 23, 2004. See also Robert OHarrow Jr., E-Mail Links Cheneys Office, Contract, The Washington Post, June 2, 2004, p. A6. 32 See Erik Eckholm, Evidence Suggests Cheney Knew of Oil Contracts, The International Herald Tribune, June 15, 2004, p. 4. 33 See Seth Borenstein, Trucks Made to Drive Without Cargo in Dangerous Areas of Iraq, Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service, May 23, 2004. Quoted in Kathleen Schalch, Halliburton Trucks Reportedly Traveling in Iraq Empty Instead of Hauling Supplies to Troops, National Public Radio, Morning Edition, June 8, 2004. 35 Walker testified June 15, 2004, before the House Government Reform Committee. See Erik Eckholm, Auditors Testify About Waste in Iraq Contracts, The New York Times, June 16, 2004, p. A13. 36 See Mary Pat Flaherty, Iraq Work Awarded to Veteran of Civil Wars, The Washington Post, June 16, 2004, p. E1. 37 From a press release by Sen. Wydens office, wyden.senate.gov. 38 From a press statement issued by Leahys office on June 16, 2004. 39 Quoted in Carl Hulse, Senate Rejects Harder Penalties on Companies, and Ban on Private Interrogators, The New York Times, June 17, 2004, p. A8. 40 See Jeffrey Gettelman, Iraqis Start to Exercise Power Even Before Date for Turnover, The New York Times, June 13, 2004, p. A1. 41 See Monica Davey, Recruiters Try New Tactics to Sell Wartime Army, The New York Times, June 14, 2004, p. A1. 42 See Glenn Kessler and Dana Milbank, Leaders Dispute NATO Role in Iraq, The Washington Post, June 10, 2004, p. A6.
34
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Bibliography
Selected Sources
Books
Pelton, Robert Young, The Hunter, the Hammer, and Heaven: Journeys to Three Worlds Gone Mad, The Lyons Press, 2002. This journalistic account of wars in Sierra Leone, Chechnya and Bougainville (an island that recently seceded from New Guinea) includes a description of the role of private contractors in determining the outcome of modern conflicts. Singer, P.W., Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry, Cornell University Press, 2003. Outsourcing military services enables the Defense Department to more efficiently manage U.S. military forces, but it also poses questions about congressional oversight of the military and the legal status of contractors overseas, the director of the Project on U.S. Policy Towards the Islamic World at the Brookings Institution writes. abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib prison describes interrogation techniques used by U.S. soldiers and private contractors. Schwartz, Nelson D., The Pentagons Private Army, Fortune, March 17, 2003, p. 100. Even before the United States invaded Iraq last year, the U.S. military relied heavily on private contractors to provide essential services for troops. Shearer, David, Outsourcing War, Foreign Policy, fall 1998, pp. 68-81. This review of the history of private military contractors raises the problem of their accountability to governments in an era of rapidly spreading regional conflicts. Smith, Eugene B., The New Condottieri and U.S. Policy: The Privatization of Conflict and Its Implications, Parameters, winter 2002-2003, pp. 104-119. This article in the journal of the U.S. Army War College describes the rise of private military contractors in the wake of the Cold Wars end and subsequent downsizing of the American military.
Articles
Ante, Spencer E., The Other U.S. Military, Business Week, May 31, 2004, p. 76. Military contracting is a growing business, with billions of dollars in contracts in Iraqs reconstruction alone, but contractors appear to operate there with little oversight by Congress or executive agencies. Avant, Deborah, Mercenaries, Foreign Policy, July/August 2004, pp. 20-28. A George Washington University political science professor answers several frequently asked questions about the use of private military contractors by the U.S. military. Burger, Timothy J., and Adam Zagorin, The Paper Trail, Time, May 30, 2004. Vice President Dick Cheneys office rejects charges that Cheney, a former CEO of Halliburton, had a hand in the companys landing a lucrative, no-bid contract to restore Iraqs oil industry. Cox, James, Contractors Pay Rising Toll in Iraq, Insurgents Target Civilian Workers, USA Today, June 16, 2004, p. 1B. Insurgents are attacking civilian contractors whose services are vital to Iraqs reconstruction. Hersh, Seymour M., Chain of Command, The New Yorker, May 17, 2004, pp. 38-43. One in a series of articles by the author into the prisoner-
Reports and Studies
Beelman, Maud, Winning Contractors: U.S. Contractors Reap the Windfalls of Post-War Reconstruction, Center for Public Integrity, Oct. 30, 2003. The watchdog group examines allegations of fraud and cronyism between high-ranking government officials and companies that receive lucrative contracts with little congressional oversight. General Accounting Office, Military Operations: Contractors Provide Vital Services to Deployed Forces but Are Not Adequately Addressed in DOD Plans, June 2003. The investigative arm of Congress finds that while the Pentagon considers private contractors to be part of U.S. forces in Iraq, it was unable to provide the cost of their contribution to the military mission. House Committee on Government Reform, Minority Staff, Special Investigations Division, and Senate Democratic Policy Committee, Contractors Overseeing Contractors: Conflicts of Interest Undermine Accountability in Iraq, May 18, 2004. Democratic lawmakers criticize the Coalition Provisional Authoritys hiring of private firms to oversee the work of private contractors in Iraq with which they have business ties.
Available online: www.thecqresearcher.com
June 25, 2004
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The Next Step:
Additional Articles from Current Periodicals
Abu Ghraib
Brinkley, Joel, 9/11 Set Army Contractor on Path to Abu Ghraib, The New York Times, May 19, 2004, p. A13. The exact actions of one of the contractors accused in the prison abuses are subject to dispute as friends call him gentle as a lamb. Epstein, Edward, and David Baker, Abuse Raises Questions About Role of U.S. Contractors, San Francisco Chronicle, May 4, 2004, p. A11. Interrogating prisoners is a highly sensitive task, but the use of private contractors in this area reflects how overwhelmed the United States is by the Iraqi occupation, experts say. Miller, T. Christian, U.S. Considers Barring Abu Ghraib Contractor, Los Angeles Times, May 28, 2004, p. A10. The government launches an investigation into how a contract to provide computer equipment and training was used to hire private interrogators. Sentementes, Gus G., and Tom Bowman, Civilians Role at Prison Studied, The Baltimore Sun, May 22, 2004, p. 4A. According to some of the soldiers stationed at Abu Ghraib, some of the contractors said they did not have to answer to the officers at the prison. Liptak, Adam, Who Would Try Civilians From U.S.? No One in Iraq, The New York Times, May 26, 2004, p. A11. Granted immunity in Iraqi courts and not subject to courtsmartial, contractors would have to be tried under U.S. laws. Miller, T. Christian, Contractors Fall Through Legal Cracks, Los Angeles Times, May 4, 2004, p. A8. The credibility of the American legal system could be undermined if no action is taken against civilian contractors who abused prisoners at Abu Ghraib. Shane, Scott, Some U.S. Prison Contractors May Avoid Charges, The Baltimore Sun, May 24, 2004, p. 1A. Since the civilian interrogators contracts ran through the Interior Department, they may not be subject to a law allowing the prosecution of Defense Department contractors.
Military Outsourcing
Dangerous Work, The Economist, April 10, 2004. Deployments increased in the 1990s as the militarys size was being reduced; private contractors, many former soldiers, filled the gap. Privatization and Peril in Iraq, The Philadelphia Inquirer, April 8, 2004, p. A19. Peter Singer, an expert on military contracting, describes a coalition of the billing that has taken the place of support from traditional allies. Bianco, Anthony, and Stephanie Anderson Forest, Outsourcing War, Business Week, Sept. 15, 2003, p. 68. Kellogg, Brown and Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton Co., is a ubiquitous presence wherever the U.S. military goes. Bredemeier, Kenneth, Thousands of Private Contractors Support U.S. Forces in Persian Gulf, The Washington Post, March 3, 2003, p. E1. Despite the thousands of contractors working for it, the U.S. Central Command says it doesnt know how many contractors or companies are present. Cha, Ariana Eunjung, and Renae Merle, Line Increasingly Blurred Between Soldiers and Civilian Contractors, The Washington Post, May 13, 2004, p. A1. The Army describes it as a mistake, but the awarding of battlefield commendations to private contractors illustrates their military role. Dao, James, Private Guards Take Big Risks, for Right Price, The New York Times, April 2, 2004, p. A1. High pay is enticing so many Special Operations members into the private sector that a senior general described meeting contractors in Iraq as being like a reunion.
Latin America
Forero, Juan, Private U.S. Operatives on Risky Missions in Colombia, The New York Times, Feb. 14, 2004, p. A3. Americans contractors captured or killed in Colombia generate little publicity and some say that was the plan all along. Marx, Gary, U.S. Civilians Wage Drug War From Colombias Skies, Chicago Tribune, Nov. 3, 2002, p. 4. U.S. pilots help to fumigate Colombias coca fields with helicopter gunship escorts; a Colombian newspaper calls them gringo mercenaries. Miller, T. Christian, Foreign Pilots Hired to Boost U.S. Drug War, Los Angeles Times, April 18, 2001, p. A1. The State Department evades the congressionally imposed limit on U.S. contractors in Colombia by hiring foreign citizens.
Legal Framework
Gibson, Gail, Prosecuting Abuse of Prisoners, The Baltimore Sun, May 29, 2004, p. 4A. The Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act passed in 2000 may be the key to prosecuting any crimes by contractors, but it is relatively untested legally.
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Lee, Christopher, Army Weighs Privatizing Close to 214,000 Jobs, The Washington Post, Nov. 3, 2002, p. A1. Even as the Army considers privatizing more jobs, it is unaware how many contractors it employs. McCarthy, Ellen, CACI Contract: From Supplies to Interrogation, The Washington Post, May 17, 2004, p. E1. Critics say that large, open-ended contracts given to private companies are intended to streamline procurement, but oversight and accountability are casualties. Merle, Renae, More Civilians Accompanying U.S. Military, The Washington Post, Jan. 22, 2003, p. A10. The ratio of contractors to military personnel in the Persian Gulf War was one to 25 or even 50; now, the ratio is closer to one in 10. Shane, Scott, Uncle Sam Keeps SAIC on Call for Top Tasks, The Baltimore Sun, Oct. 26, 2003, p. 1A. Science Applications International Corporation has grown into a giant that handles a variety of government tasks.
Fineman, Mark, Privatized Army in Harms Way, Los Angeles Times, Jan. 24, 2003, p. A1. As contractors perform more and more essential duties on or near the front lines, experts say protecting them could be difficult and expensive. Kady, Martin II, and Joseph Anselmo, Private Army Blurs the Lines, CQ Weekly, May 8, 2004, p. 1067. The scale of contracting operations and the abuses at Abu Ghraib have Congress members shocked and demanding accountability in how Iraq funds are spent. Wayne, Leslie, Americas For-Profit Secret Army, The New York Times, Oct. 13, 2002, Section 3, p. 1. MPRI trained the Croatian army to execute an offensive that threw back the Serbs and then trained the Bosnian army as part of the Dayton peace accords.
Privatizing Conflict
Hukill, Tracy, Should Peacekeepers Be Privatized? National Journal, May 15, 2004. United Nations officials staunchly oppose involving mercenaries in peacekeeping, but Secretary General Kofi Annan says he considered it during the Rwandan genocide. Pape, Eric, and Michael Meyer, Dogs of Peace, Newsweek, Aug. 25, 2003, p. 22. Humanitarian crises in Africa led to offers by mercenary companies to step in and stabilize things when governments declined to intervene; some now say such offers might be worth accepting. Tepperman, Jonathan, Out of Service, The New Republic, Nov. 25, 2002, p. 10. DynCorp contractors, like the ones hired to protect Hamid Karzai, can be responsible for key elements of foreign policy.
Private Armies
Borenstein, Seth, and Scott Dodd, Civilian Security Jobs Abound in U.S. War Zones, The Philadelphia Inquirer, April 3, 2004, p. A8. Industry leaders say standards are slipping in light of the high demand for security contractors; special-operations experience was the standard; now anyone who can handle a gun is in demand. Collier, Robert, Global Security Firms Fill in as Private Armies, San Francisco Chronicle, March 28, 2004, p. A1. The 15,000 private fighters in Iraq are part of a global industry worth at least $100 billion per year and on which the fate of governments sometimes rides.
CITING THE CQ RESEARCHER
Sample formats for citing these reports in a bibliography include the ones listed below. Preferred styles and formats vary, so please check with your instructor or professor.
MLA STYLE
Jost, Kenneth. Rethinking the Death Penalty. The CQ Researcher 16 Nov. 2001: 945-68.
APA STYLE
Jost, K. (2001, November 16). Rethinking the death penalty. The CQ Researcher, 11, 945-968.
CHICAGO STYLE
Jost, Kenneth. Rethinking the Death Penalty. CQ Researcher, November 16, 2001, 945-968.
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