by David Phinney

March 29, 2007 — Make a note of this:

“Now that contractor casualties are 20 percent, people are noticing,” a prominent Washington government contracting expert told me today.

That includes The Chicago Tribune taking notice:

“More than 770 civilian contractors working for U.S. companies have died in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion began on March 20, 2003, according to an obscure office inside the Department of Labor, which loosely tracks the figures”. (Emphasis added.)

Note the words “‘loosely tracks the figures”: Because the Department of Labor only collects the casualty numbers of those reported by contractors. There are a number who do not. The Sandi Group was fined $40,000 for forgetting to report casualties. That company runs a small army of security contractors in Iraq numbering in the thousands. It has now reported at least 186 employees who have lost their lives. (The Pentagon maintains no public records on this.)

And the injury count: 7,761 contract workers injured in Iraq. But, notes The Chicago Tribune, the figure apprears “to understate the actual number of casualties because they do not include killings of off-duty workers. Nor do they specify the nationalities of the dead and wounded.”

Other liabilities: “Now the family members of some of those American workers killed and injured in Iraq are raising their voices, complaining that the contributions of their loved ones have been forgotten by the U.S. public. Some allege that the workers were put in harm’s way without adequate protection. Others charge that their own financial and psychological hardships have been ignored by the contracting companies that promised to help them.”

More on contractor deaths and injuries.
SEE ALSO:
Contractor Deaths in Iraq Nearing 800 January 29, 2007
More than 500 Contractor Deaths in Iraq? November 2, 2005
Civilian Footprint December 21, 2006
Iraq Wounded Fight for Insurance Coverage July 11, 2006