‘Contractors’ Archives
Whose War are they Fighting?
Poor Latin American security guards are flocking to Iraq and Afghanistan to work for U.S. companies desperate for relatively cheap employees with the type of military know-how gleaned in a region once run by generals. See the story: Iraq, Afghanistan lure poor Latin American guards
Philippines Investigates Claims of Workers in Iraq
The Philippine government launched a full-throttle investigation this week into claims of labor trafficking and smuggling made against the Kuwait contractor building the $592-million US embassy project in Baghdad. The move comes in despite of repeated statements by Bush administration officials and the contractor that the allegations are [...]
Thoughts on War Contractors
The Christian Science Monitor surveys thinkers and pundits about the battlefields filled with contractors -- now estimated to be as high as 180,000 in Iraq: Everything from who controls their activities to who cares for them when wounded remains unresolved, say experts in and out of the military. This has led to protests from families in the [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
