‘Contractors’ Archives
Democrats Adding Up the Numbers
Congress Does the Math: Not only are there 145,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, there are over 100,000 private contractors working U.S. funded contracts. Many of them are doing jobs that the military once did. They may not be Americans, but they are drawing their pay stubs from the U.S. treasury -- making them the largest deployed private military force [...]
Iraq Inspector General under Investigation
Stuart Bowen, the inspector general assigned to auditing the $22 billion in US reconstruction funds for Iraq is under investigation himself. This is nothing new. It involves complaints from former employees at the office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction filed in early 2006. What is New: Details about employees apparently [...]
Giant Sucking Sound at the Border?
DynCorp is Hiring Again: 120 openings. Compensation includes more than $134,000 in salary, much of it tax-free, plus a $25,000 bonus for signing up in time for a May 5 training session. Working Conditions: Challenging. The border is in Iraq. (more…)
Civilian Contractor Casualties
Latest SIGIR Report: Since Iraq reconstruction began, 916 death claims for civilian contractors working on U.S.-funded projects in Iraq have been filed. In the quarter ending March 31, 2007, the Department of Labor reported 146 new death claims. reports that 16 U.S. civilians died in Iraq this quarter. Since the beginning of the U.S. [...]
Spooky Business in a Strange World
by David Phinney April 25, 2007 -- The flood of emails continues pouring in about the short news story retelling Donald Vance's three-month imprisonment at Camp Cropper in Iraq. Vance says he was acting as an FBI informant while working for an Iraqi-owned private security company. He claims he was witnessing the possible illegal sales of [...]
Philippines Warns Companies to Stop Recruiting Workers for Iraq
The US economy thrives on illegal immigration here in the United States so apparently the US State Department doesn't care. It uses Philippine workers and other laborers from countries that have bans on their citizens working in iraq to build its new embassy: Asian Workers Trafficked to Build World's Largest Embassy. Well, rest assured: It's [...]
Wolfowitz: Girlfriend a ‘Must Hire’ for Iraq Contractor
It was very much business for a Defense Department contractor, SAIC: But behind the scenes, it looks like a lover or friend in high places may have been pulling the strings for the girlfriend of Paul Wolfowitz, Shaha Riza. How did Riza land a moonlight gig with the Iraq contractor in 2003? At the request of the Defense Department, according [...]
Wolfowitz: Girlfriend’s Shadowy Iraq Work
Shaha Riza and long-time companion (read: heart throb) of World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz, apparently performed moonlighting services for a Pentagon contractor during the run up to the Iraq invasion while also working for the World Bank. The Government AccountabilityProject (GAP) Notes: Riza worked as a "subject matter expert" on the Middle [...]
Private Security Contractors: ‘Who Did the Shooting?’
Steve Fainaru of The Washington Post raises some repeatedly unanswered questions about the July shooting of an Iraqi taxi driver by a Triple Canopy detail in Baghdad. Two employees are now suing the company in U.S. court. They claim the company fired them for reporting the incident as a crime. THIS raises a whole festering can of worms: U.S. [...]
American Contractor Claims he was Tortured by U.S. in Iraq: ‘My Name Used to Be 200343’
by David Phinney April 5, 2007 -- A year ago, Donald Vance learned what its like to be falsely accused by the U.S. military of aiding terrorists. He was held without charge for more than three months in a high-security prison in Iraq, and interrogated daily after sleepless nights without legal counsel or even a phone call to his family. On [...]
