Iraq is "Wild West" Where U.S. Relies on Private Security: "The blurring of lines between active-duty U.S. soldiers and contracted security personnel is causing unease in Congress, as violence continues to rise in Iraq.
Some lawmakers worry that private security forces operate too far outside U.S. military control - and laws. And experts wonder what would happen if a contractor did something tragically wrong, like shoot an Iraqi child.
Thirteen Democrats wrote Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld this month to argue that providing security in a hostile area is a classic mission for the military.
'It would be a dangerous precedent if the United States allowed the presence of private armies operating outside the control of a governmental authority and beholden only to those that pay them,' wrote the Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota.
In Iraq, they said, the private armies need proper screening and supervision, or they could increase Iraqi resentment.
Roughly 20,000 private security contractors from dozens of companies operate in Iraq under contract with the Coalition Provisional Authority, the U.S.-led governing body in Iraq, plus the Defense Department and other U.S. agencies. Thousands more are on assignments for the United States and others worldwide, including in Afghanistan (news - web sites), taking on jobs like guarding officials, protecting buildings and supply convoys, and training police and soldiers.
Inside the Pentagon (news - web sites), some see these private security contractors as a smart way to plug holes left by post-Cold War downsizing and the added demands of the war on terror.
... As the violence swells, the contractors have evolved into supplemental forces and taken on risks as they find themselves in shootouts or targets of the insurgency.
Citing security concerns, defense officials won't talk about the rules covering contractors' use of force. Although experts say the policy can vary by contract, private contractors generally are allowed to fire in self-defense but not to fire first.
Even so, they have been involved in several firefights from Mosul in the north to Najaf in the south, and at least a handful of security contractors have died.
'It's the Wild West,' said Peter Singer, an expert on the privatized military industry and a foreign policy fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington"
- posted by geoff @ #