Private Army - Independent Contractors Fight and Die in Iraq, But Who Do They Answer To?

- ABC News
abcnews.go.com/sections/Nightline/World/iraq_contractors_040410-1.html

April 10 — What started with a trickle of special operations veterans freelancing as security consultants for the media and military contractors has grown into what is by some estimates the second-largest army in Iraq.

Iraq's overheated private security market is experiencing a wave of startups, spin-offs, and would-be soldiers of fortune trying to cash in.

"You've seen, basically, a literal private army of contractors deployed — up to 15,000," says Peter Singer, an analyst with the Brookings Institution. That would be more than the 8,000 British troops currently in Iraq, making the contractors the second-largest force after the American military.

On Friday, Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., wrote a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld asking for an accurate tally of the private security forces in Iraq and "legal justifications for their use" there.

The soldiers in this private army — units of which have engaged in battles and suffered fatalities — are among the world's best, and their clients include everyone from American diplomats, including administrator Paul Bremer, to foreign engineers and construction teams working throughout the country.

"There is a little bit of Dodge City aspect of what's going over there," says Dave Johnson, the operations director for the Steel Foundation, a private security firm that currently has more than 200 people on assignment in Iraq. "It is an enormous demand. I've never seen anything like it in the 10 years that I've been doing this kind of work in the private sector."

However, the large numbers of contractors fighting battles in Iraq on behalf of American interests is raising logistical and ethical questions.

"I don't think anyone imagined it would go this far," Singer says. "That's actually a big point of contention within the military right now. There's a real concern that actually we've pushed the envelope way past original expectations and way past where it should have been."

- Contractors’ Role

Some critics cite run-ins in Bosnia and elsewhere between civilian contractors and local authorities, and wonder if the private soldiers answer to anybody besides the private clients who hire them.

"If a U.S. military person is suspected of committing a crime, there's an established system to deal with it — court-martial," Singer says. "When a private military person is suspected of committing a crime, there's really not much legal recourse. For example, in Iraq right now, you would have to rely on local law. Well, guess what, there is no local law."

What local law exists in Iraq does not always get the first call in an emergency. For instance, when an ABC NEWS compound was caught in the middle of a firefight, ABC NEWS relied on a private security team for protection, despite being only one block away from the local police station.

"Private security was created because public law enforcement couldn't be everywhere all the time," Johnson says. "I think we're adding to the security environment. I think we're helping. And I think that it would be more of a challenge to be doing business in Iraq if there wasn't private security contractors available."

Retired Gen. Jack Keane, former vice chief of staff of the U.S. Army and an ABC NEWS consultant, says it "makes sense" to have the contracted forces in Iraq because they free up the most specialized U.S. forces.

"The security forces that we're talking about, yes, some of them are protecting key people," Keane says. "If they weren't doing that, that would require our special operations forces to do that. And quite frankly, those special operations forces are being used on reconnaissance and direct-action missions, which they're much more qualified to do."

An official from one of the security companies adds that there is a difference between what commonly are called "mercenaries" or "soldiers of fortune," and the force of security experts currently deployed in Iraq.

"The major difference would be one of ethics and focus," Johnson says. "Traditionally, mercenaries just follow the money and go offensive, without regard of or care for really anything. I think what we're doing is continuing the professional security services that we do provide here in the United States. And things that we're doing there are designed to safeguard people and assets, and completely in a defensive role."


Big Bucks

Private security experts are charging anywhere from $1,000 to $2,000 a day for their higher-end services as bodyguards.

"We're in an environment and a market right now where guys in the military can make more in a week than they used to make in a month," Johnson says.

Many of the private soldiers come from the ranks of America's special operations command, which met a few weeks ago to stem losses of their expensive-to-train forces to this new, higher-paying army.

"You can probably make double or triple, or maybe even five times as much as you make in the military," says Lawrence Korb, an assistant secretary of defense during the Reagan administration and a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. "The thing that people have to realize is the U.S. government ends up paying twice for this, because they train these brave young men. Then, if they leave and go out and work for a private contractor, we have to hire them again. So, in effect, we're paying double for it."

- ‘Outgunned and Out-Manned’

Despite all the training many of the contractors have, the risks in Iraq are enormous. Three former Army Rangers and one Navy SEAL were killed recently protecting a food convoy in Fallujah. They were working for Blackwater Security, the same company hired to protect Bremer.

Last Sunday, forces from Blackwater held off an attack by Shiite protesters on the American headquarters in Najaf until U.S. Marines could arrive.

"Generally, we're outgunned and out-manned," Johnson says. "It hasn't slowed recruiting down at all."

The surge in violence hasn't hurt the demand for the private security contractors' services, either.

"Companies themselves say that right now, a regular part of their cost of doing business [in Iraq] is somewhere between 10 [percent] and as much as 15 [percent], and in some cases 25 percent, being spent on private military protection," Singer says