Rights Groups Leery of Surge in Wartime Contractors

This is from Inter Press Service: -Rick

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=52862
By William Fisher

NEW YORK, Sep 16, 2010 (IPS) - Three years after security guards from Blackwater, a private
security contractor working for the U.S. Department of State,
killed 17 unarmed civilians in Baghdad, a leading human rights
advocacy group is charging that not nearly enough has been
done to improve oversight and accountability of private
contractors abroad.

Its findings and recommendations come in a new report,
"State of Affairs: Three Years After Nisoor Square," issued
by Human Rights First.

The author of the report, attorney Melina Milazzo, told IPS
that "the U.S. government has not done nearly enough to
protect innocent civilians from armed contractors."

She added that it was urgent for Congress and President
Barack Obama to take action before the planned increase in
the number of private security contractors in Iraq and
Afghanistan.

Nisoor Square is the major intersection in Baghdad where the
killings took place in September 2007. Twenty other unarmed
civilians were wounded. The security contractor involved,
Blackwater Worldwide - which later changed its name to Xe
Services - subsequently was expelled from the country by the
Iraqi government and banned from working there in the
future.

As the U.S. continues its drawdown of troops in Iraq, the
State Department plans to more than double the number of
private security contractors it employs from 2,700 to 7,000.
An additional 50,000 contractors - primarily working for the
Department of Defence (DOD) - will be required to support
the Afghan war.

The HRF report acknowledges that the Nisoor Square incident
triggered some positive reforms in U.S. law and policy. For
example, Congress has mandated greater agency oversight and
coordination over private security and other contractors in
Iraq and Afghanistan. Agencies have also, among other
things, defined their responsibility for contractor
oversight, increased their coordination over contractors,
and established common principles governing contractor
conduct.

But despite that progress, "serious deficiencies" in U.S.
agencies' reporting, investigation, prosecution and
oversight of serious contractor incidents persist. Agencies
still do not accurately track the number of contractors and
subcontractors fielded abroad. Private contractors already
far outnumber U.S. military forces in Iraq and Afghanistan,
the report charges.

"Many oversight and accountability gaps persist three years
after Nisoor Square, putting civilians at risk and
undermining U.S. national security," said HRF's Milazzo.

"Congress and the administration must work together to put
solutions in place before additional contractors are
deployed," she urged.

Among the report's 19 recommendations:

Congress should enact the Civilian Extraterritorial
Jurisdiction Act (CEJA) of 2010 (H.R. 4567, S. 2979) to
expand criminal jurisdiction over and increase investigative
resources for serious crimes committed by U.S. contractors.

Agencies should require oversight bodies to track all
serious incidents reported, investigate and remediate when
necessary, and maintain all supporting documentation
relating to such actions taken.

The Department of Justice should commit additional resources
to investigate and prosecute contractor crime and formally
announce that prosecution of contractor crime abroad is a
Justice Department national priority.

Publication of the HRF report comes barely a week after the
NATO command issued new guidelines for awarding billions of
dollars worth of international contracts in Afghanistan. A
memorandum from U.S. Afghanistan commander David H. Petraeus
said that without proper oversight, taxpayer funds earmarked
for contractors could end up in the hands of insurgents and
criminals.

He added that if "we spend large quantities of international
contracting funds quickly and with insufficient oversight,
it is likely that some of those funds will unintentionally
fuel corruption, finance insurgent organisations, strengthen
criminal patronage networks and undermine our efforts in
Afghanistan."

With proper oversight, "contracting can spur economic
development and support the Afghan government and NATO's
campaign objectives," Gen. Petraeus wrote in the
memorandum, which was obtained by the Associated Press.

Afghan and foreign private contractors provide a wide range
of services to U.S. and NATO forces – everything from food
preparation and service to helping to build large capital
projects to providing security escorts to traveling
government officials and VIP civilians.

No official figures are available from the U.S. government
regarding the exact amount of money paid to contractors. But
generally accepted estimates put the figure at about 14
billion a year.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has been outspokenly critical
of individual contractors and of the international
contracting process in general. He has charged that much of
the money earmarked for important projects is siphoned off
by high-priced contractors, subcontractors and brokers. The
result, he has said, is that the Afghan people are being
denied the benefits of these projects.

As noted by The New York Times, Afghans also complain that
too many contracts are awarded to the same contractors.

This issue was also addressed in Gen. Petraeus's memorandum.
"Contracts with a broader range of Afghan companies will
help break monopolies and weaken patronage networks that
breed resentment" among the Afghan people, he wrote.

He said, "In situations where there is no alternative to
powerbrokers with links to criminal networks, it may be
preferable to forgo the project."

The new guidance said that contracts should go to Afghans
first and if the military cannot contract with an Afghan
company, the company that is awarded the contract should be
encouraged to hire Afghan workers and subcontractors.

Blackwater (Xe) recently agreed pay the U.S. government 42
million dollars for violations that include illegal weapons
export to Afghanistan and making unauthorised proposals to
train troops in southern Sudan, The New York Times has
reported.

The company reportedly struck a deal with the U.S. State
Department to pay the fine in order to avoid criminal
charges. This will also allow it to continue to obtain
government contracts, including work in Afghanistan.

Xe Services still faces other legal troubles, including the
indictment of five former executives on weapons and
obstruction charges.

Two former guards have also been charged with murdering two
Afghan civilians.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Xe's most recent
government contract tasked the group with protecting CIA
bases in Afghanistan. The report was confirmed by CIA
Director Leon Panetta during a TV interview, the newspaper
wrote.

Blackwater (Xe) has become a kind of poster-child for
suspect business practices in wartime. During Congressional
hearings last year, it was revealed that the company's
chairman, Erik Prince, has long had close financial and
ideological ties to the administration of former President
George W. Bush.