US troops, security contractors increasingly at odds in Iraq
Detained contractors say they were "abused, humiliated" by troops after recent confrontation.
In a late May incident, 16 US military contractors, all former US military personnel, were detained for three days by US Marines in Fallujah, Iraq. The military contractors say they were abused and humiliated by the US troops, a charge which the US military has said is "categorically untrue."
"I never in my career have treated anybody so inhumane," one of the contractors, Rick Blanchard, a former Florida state trooper, wrote in an email quoted in the
Los Angeles Times. "They treated us like insurgents, roughed us up, took photos, hazed [bullied] us, called us names."
The Los Angeles Times reported on Saturday the incident has not only underlined the problems that exist
between military and civilians contractors in Iraq, but has also once again called into question the way the US military treats suspects and detainees.
One military contractor, Matt Raiche, a former US Marine himself, said the Marines seemed to be particularly upset at the contractors' working conditions and the pay they received.
Although the details remain unclear, the May 28 incident reflects the long-simmering tension between the military and private business in Iraq. Even though the government has hired companies to perform many functions there � including providing security � it does not formally oversee their activities, allowing misunderstandings and disputes to fester.
Raiche said the Marines seemed resentful about the salaries contractors in Iraq are paid. "One Marine gets me on the ground and puts his knee in my back. Then I hear another Marine say, "How does it feel to make that contractor money now?' "
In an interview aired Monday on
NPR's Morning Edition, Raiche also alleges that his wife received a threatening phone call several days after he was released. She was told that if they made
a "big deal" of the incident, her husband might not make it back home alive.
Shots fired at guard tower
According to both the contractors and the military, the incident took place May 28th. But they agree about little else.
The contractors, a security convoy from Zapata Engineering, a company hired to destroy enemy ammunition in Iraq, ran into trouble near a Marine base in Fallujah. Their convoy had been stopped by a Marine captain, who wanted to know if someone in the group had fired on a guard tower a few minutes earlier.
The contractors said they had fired shots in the air to get a stalled truck to move, but no one had shot at the tower. The captain didn't believe the story, and
detained all 16 men, as well as three Iraqis who were with them.
Journalist and author, Robert Young Pelton, who spent months with contractors in Iraq and is writing a book about them, told
CorpWatch.com that the decision to detain the contractors was the "first blatant example of contractors
being treated as criminals."
"Animosity seems to be building between Bush's contractors and Bush's war," he observed.
Pelton believes that the treatment of Zapata's people has no legal basis since security contractors operate with very little legal jurisdiction hanging over them. "Contractors have carte blanche over there," he said. "The Marines knew who those people were. There's no reason to hold them for 72 hours."
There are 50,000 to 100,000 contractors in Iraq, over 20,000 of them providing private security. The
legal status of these contractors is vague under both US and international law, acording to
Foreign Policy.
The Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), the US-led entity charged with governing Iraq through June 2004, stipulated that contractors are subject to the laws of their parent country, not Iraqi law. Even US legislation created to address this issue (the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act of 2000) lacks specifics and entrusts the US secretary of defense with initiating prosecutions. Countries that opposed the war may have a particularly hard time prosecuting contractors for crimes committed in Iraq. That is especially true of countries such as South Africa that claim contractors from their country are exporting services without the government's permission.
That a larger force that all of the US's coalition partners put together. Media sources say contractors can earn as much as $750 a day, and only have to stay in Iraq 90 days.
The Associated Press points out that
little is know about how many of these people have died in Iraq.
The number of contractors killed is just as difficult to pin down, partly because the employers often keep the deaths quiet. The US military death toll, now over 1,620, would be higher but for the number of military tasks contracted out to the private sector, analysts say.
"Outsourcing troops not only outsources costs and capabilities but also casualties," said Peter Singer, who specializes in the topic for the Washington-based Brookings Institution. Security firms "have sent more troops and taken more casualties than all of our other reluctant allies combined."
The Daily Telegraph reported Saturday that Iraq's Interior Ministry may impose guidelines on private contractors after these recent incidents. Interior Ministry officials say "
at least 12 Iraqi civilians are killed by contractors every week in the capital [Baghdad]."
"Enough is enough," said an official at the interior ministry. "We are looking at ways to tighten weapons licenses, and to punish the worst cases. The culture of impunity must stop."
A senior member of one private security firm in Baghdad said: "Like it or not we are combatants. If our guarantees are removed, we would have to leave."
Finally, the
Associated Press reported Sunday that the US military says there is no "
centralized procedure" for monitoring the hundreds of millions of dollars worth of reconstruction and security contracts that the US doles out to contractors.
AP also reports The National Defense Authorization Act already requires the US defense secretary to "provide a report to Congress that would include casualty and fatality figures" for all contractors working in Iraq. But "the Pentagon missed its April 29 deadline to submit its latest report."
Also...
•
Cash puts US military contractors in bind (
New York Times)
•
US diplomat survives Iraq car bombing – police (
Reuters)
•
Immigration law as anti-terrorism tool (
Washington Post
•
Custer Battles, a banned contractor, soliciting Iraq deals (
Associated Press)
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Tom Regan
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