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With US Forces in Iraq Beginning to Leave, Need for Private Guards Grows

Tuesday 08 September 2009

by: Walter Pincus  |  The Washington Post

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A Blackwater helicopter flies over the site of a car bomb explosion in Baghdad. As US soldiers withdraw from Iraq, security contractors are flowing in. (Photo: Master Sgt. Michael E. Best / US Air Force)

    As the United States withdraws its combat forces from Iraq, the government is hiring more private guards to protect U.S. installations at a cost that could near $1 billion, according to the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction.

    On Sept. 1, the Multi-National Force-Iraq (MNF-I) awarded contracts expected to be worth $485 million over the next two years to five firms to provide security and patrol services to U.S. bases in Iraq.

    Under this contract, the firms will bid against one another for individual orders at specific bases or locations. These "task orders" in the past have ranged from supplying one specialist to providing as many as 1,000 people to handle security for a major base.

    Read more about the rise in US private contractors in Iraq here.

  

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Comments

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No empire relying on

 Thu, 09/10/2009 - 18:37 — Frank (not verified)
No empire relying on mercenaries to control another territory retains control of that territory for long. In this day and age, it stands to lose even more from outsourcing its security dirty work. The sincerity of claims that the emperor is acting for the good of the subjects rings hollow. Consider how well US citizens would accept governments outsourcing security tasks (e.g. policing, guarding government facilities etc) to Ugandan and Kenyan contractors, as the US is now doing in Iraq.

It just gets sicker and

 Thu, 09/10/2009 - 19:50 — radline9 (not verified)
It just gets sicker and sicker. Withdraw the troops and hire contractors for 10X the price. Mercenaries who will have very little supervision and no accountability. This is a recipe for disaster. Occupying Iraq will be the downfall of the United States. The ones who created this hell hole will never be held to account. Blackwater/Xe is still in Iraq?