‘Blog Items’ Archives
PTSD
New York Times: Contractors who have worked in Iraq are returning home with the same kinds of combat-related mental health problems that afflict American military personnel, according to contractors, industry officials and mental health experts.
Armed Contractors: Transparency and Accountability
The Congressional Research Service distributed its new study on private security contractors operating in Iraq to members of Congress: The use of armed civilians to perform security tasks that were formerly performed by the military raises new transparency, accountability, legal, and symbolic issues, and practical issues regarding the possible [...]
Contractors Now Outnumber Military in Iraq
T. Christian Miller with The Los Angeles Times had been hard at work for months crunching the numbers: He reported yesterday that "The number of U.S.-paid private contractors in Iraq now exceeds that of American combat troops," according to US State Department figures that he, no doubt, had to tenaciously pull from unwilling sources. More than [...]
Iraq Contracts: Waxman Updates Data on Questionable Deals
Rep. Henry A. Waxman, the powerful committee chairman who has had Iraq contract fraud in the crosshairs for years, updates his assessment of government contracting under the Bush Administration. The update reflects what he views as worrisome trends that are just getting worse. Thoughts from the chairman of the House Government Oversight and [...]
Oops: Another KBR Cost Overrun
June 25, 2007 -- KBR forgot to keep accurate records of gasoline distribution, quartered employees in living spaces that may be larger than necessary and served meals that appeared to cost $4.5 million more than what was being eaten, according to a new Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction audit. SIGIR selectively distributed the [...]
Private Security Companies in the News Media
Researchers with the Project for Excellence in Journalism tackle news coverage over the past four years of private security companies and they suggests that it is very much on the slim side: Coverage of events inside Iraq, which includes the actions of U.S. troops there, was the third=biggest news story in the American media for the first quarter [...]
Contractors Battle for Insurance Coverage
by David Phinney The news media increasingly recognize the hidden cost of war and the injured contractor's fight for insurance coverage continues rising in recognition. Contractor Samuel Walker just may becoming the poster child/guy for telling the story: When Walker got back to the U.S., he brought some of the battlefield home with him. [...]
Blood, Sweat and Tears at New U.S. Embassy
by David Phinney WASHINGTON, Jun 8, 2007 - The U.S. Justice Department is actively investigating allegations of forced labour and other abuses by the Kuwaiti contractor now rushing to complete the sprawling 592-million-dollar U.S. embassy project in Baghdad, numerous sources have revealed. Justice Department trial attorneys Andrew Kline [...]
Investigating the Embassy Contractor
on Allegations of Labor Trafficking
The news that the US Justice Department is investigating the Kuwaiti contractor now completing the $592-million US embassy in Baghdad because of allegations about labor trafficking was first reported by Iraqslogger. One week later, The Wall Street Journal published the news on page one. The Iraqslogger piece also covers in depth the US State [...]
Contractors Overlooked
They are part of our war: So notes Rosa Brooks, a professor at the Georgetown University Law Center. " In Iraq, civilian contractors form a vast parallel army. In the Persian Gulf War, fewer than 10,000 civilian contractors accompanied more than 500,000 military personnel. In Iraq today, an estimated 126,000 Defense Department civilian contractors [...]
