http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-04-07-filipino-veterans_N.htm?POE=NEWISVA
This is politics under the motto of paralysis: Should I stay or should I go?

Blackwater
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20070406-9999-1m6potrero.html
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/04/06/america/NA-GEN-US-Halliburton-KBR.php
Contractors rarely face disciplinary action
http://www.niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=ask_this.view&askthisid=269
The Government Accountability Office, Congress’ auditing arm, counted 20 clashes between military personnel and security guards in just one five-month period in Iraq.
http://www.examiner.com/a-643050~Fuzzy_rules_lead_to_overseas_conflicts_between_soldiers_and_contractors.html
http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2007/04/army_sees_gap_in_jurisdiction.html
Contractors accompanying U.S. military forces in Iraq or elsewhere who commit crimes may be beyond the reach of law enforcement, a recent Army publication warns (pdf), because the Defense Department has not yet updated its regulations to conform to a Congressional mandate, resulting in a “gap” in legal jurisdiction.
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Army_warns_it_cant_try_criminal_0406.html
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-03-20-senator-fraud_N.htm
http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2007/04/humanitarian_crisis_in_iraq_an.html
The humanitarian crisis many feared would take place in March 2003 as a result of the war in Iraq appears to be unfolding,” says a new report (pdf) from the Congressional Research Service.
“It is estimated that in total (including those displaced prior to the war) there may be two million Iraqi refugees who have fled to Jordan, Syria, and other neighboring states, and approximately two million Iraqis who have been displaced within Iraq itself.” See “Iraqi Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons: A Deepening Humanitarian Crisis?,” March 23, 2007.
http://public.cq.com/docs/cqt/news110-000002482791.html
Murtha sent a warning to the Pentagon in the fiscal 2007 supplemental war spending bill (HR 1591) the House passed on March 23. A provision of the bill would cut 10 percent of the $52.5 billion that the legislation provides for military “operations and maintenance” unless Gates submits a report detailing the use of contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan.
House Democrats charged in the report accompanying the bill (H Rept 110-60) that “the increasing reliance on private contractors to supply basic security and logistics services” has helped increase costs of the war “well beyond those initially contemplated.”
“We are unhappy,” Murtha said, “because in my estimation, they have been able to sweep this stuff under the table all this time.”
http://www.upi.com/SecurityTerrorism/dod_lacks_details_on_112b_contract_spend/20070402-011118-8328r/
Jonas told the hearing that spending on Defense Department contracts grew from $133 billion in fiscal 2000 to $258 billion in fiscal 2005, and then to $295 billion last year.
The Iraq War has driven much of the growth in Pentagon contracting, according to government auditors, reported CQ.
Lawmakers suggested that there were as many as 126,000 contractors working for the military in Iraq, a figure that CQ said not contested by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who also testified at the hearing.
By comparison, just 9,200 contractors supported the military during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, CQ reported.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2048009,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=11
In Iraq, a total of £145m has been spent on security guards to protect British assets, with a further £20m going on police training and security advisers to the Iraqi government. Britain’s Iraqi aid budget over the same period was £644m.
The big beneficiaries have been the New York-based risk consulting company Kroll and the UK companies ArmorGroup and Control Risks. ArmorGroup, which is headed by the Conservative MP Sir Malcolm Rifkind, earned 50% of its £129m revenues from Iraq last year.
Five years ago the government published a green paper on regulating private security companies but political action has not been forthcoming. John Hilary, campaigns director of War on Want, which has been pressing for legislation, says there is political resistance at the top. “As the pressure mounts on Blair and Brown to withdraw troops from Iraq, there is a growing possibility that their role will be increasingly taken up by these private military companies,” he said. “It’s easier for the government to allow this privatisation of war and turn a blind eye to regulation. It may be politically expedient but this flies in the face of a more ethical approach to actions of British companies overseas.”