contractors in iraq

• Contractors or Illegal Combatants? The Status of Armed Contractors in Iraq

Prior to the second Gulf War, military regulations limited contractors from being armed except in extreme situations, and only then did regulations permit them to carry sidearms.10 These restrictions were fueled by concerns that armed contractors could lose their non-combatant status and become targets of attack.11 Despite the concerns about the status of contractors, the second Gulf War saw not only an expansion of the number of contractors per soldier, but also, for the first time, PMF personnel fought in tactical engagements alongside U.S. Soldiers.12 Although exact figures are not available, it is estimated that there are currently between twenty thousand and thirty thousand armed PMF personnel operating hi Iraq.13 U.S. military figures reveal that the military alone has 6000 armed ...

• Air Force Law Review, The
• Nbr. 62, January 2008

• Contractors in Iraq

I am outraged that there are more and Afghanistan than our military and that they are not accountable to the American people even though our tax money is being used to pay for them. Vice President Dick Cheney and President Bush are responsible for setting this up to line the pockets of their cronies.

• San Gabriel Valley Tribune
• October 10, 2007

• Families Of4 Contractors Killed in Iraq Settle Lawsuit

By Bill Sizemore The Virginian-Pilot

• The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star, Norfolk, VA
• January 06, 2012

• Rep. Robert C. Scott Holds a Hearing On Enforcement of Federal Criminal Law to Protect Americans Working for U.S. Contractors in Iraq

HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE, SUBCOMMITTEE ON CRIME, TERRORISM AND HOMELAND SECURITY HOLDS A HEARING ON ENFORCEMENT OF FEDERAL CRIMINAL LAW T...

• Political Transcript Wire
• August 21, 2009

• Republicans Slam Obama's Strategy of Contractors in Iraq, Limits in Libya

Sen. Lindsey Graham said Sunday that the Obama administration's plan to replace troops in Iraq with private security contractors - what the South Carolina Republican referred to as a "mini State Department army" - puts hard-won American progress in that country at risk. The State Department has come to Congress and said, 'We're going to need over 50 mine-resistant vehicles. We need a fleet of helicopters and thousands of private security guards. I think that is a losing formula," he said in an appearance Sunday on CBS' "Face the Nation.

• The Washington Times
• April 04, 2011

• Human Rights First Holds a News Conference at the National Press Club On the Justice Department and Private Security Contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan

(CORRECTED COPY) HUMAN RIGHTS FIRST HOLDS A NEWS CONFERENCE AT THE NATIONAL PRESS CLUB ON THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT AND PRIVATE SECURITY CONT...

• Political Transcript Wire
• August 22, 2009

• Private security contractors in Iraq violate laws of war.

I. INTRODUCTION When private security contractors killed eleven Iraqis in a shootout in Baghdad, the Iraqi Prime Minister called it criminal. (1) Se...

• Suffolk Transnational Law Review
• Vol. 31 Nbr. 1, December 2007

• Soldiers of misfortune: how American private security contractors in Iraq became victimizers and victims.

Big Boy Rules: America's Mercenaries Fighting in Iraq by Steve Fainaru Da Capo Press, 288 pp. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] They were on every flight...

• Washington Monthly
• Vol. 41 Nbr. 2, March 2009

• 'Private Security Contractors' in Iraq

When you write books for a living, there are those you write for money. But once in a great while, there is the book, or if you are very lucky, the books, that you write because you have no other choice. They demand to be written. Washington Post reporter Steve Fainaru's compelling, brutal, disturbing "Big Boy Rules" falls into this second, rarer category. The nucleus of the book, which is largely adapted from Mr. Fainaru's Pulitzer Prize-winning series about mercenaries in Iraq, deals with the kidnapping and murder of five Crescent Security personnel. Crescent was one of the bottom feeders in Iraq's $100 billion dollar mercenary industry that hires "Americans and Brits, South Africans and Aussies, Fijians and Gurkhas, Peruvians who fought the Shining Path, Colombians fresh from the dru...

• The Washington Times
• February 01, 2009

• A Black Eye From Blackwater Civilian Contractors in Iraq Must Come Under a Tighter Rein

One of the necessary evils of modern warfare is the abundance of civilian contractors we have had to hire to support our troops in Iraq. Of limited use in past wars, private contractors have proliferated to an extent that we now have nearly the same number in Iraq as combat troops. Most are in support jobs - food, transport, etc. But an ever-increasing number - some reports have it as a high as 30,000 - perform as armed private security for our State Department officials and other civilian workers.

• Augusta Chronicle, The
• October 10, 2007