Los Angeles Times A Journey That Ended in Anguish

"One hot, dusty day in June, Col. Ted Westhusing was found dead in a trailer at a military base near the Baghdad airport, a single gunshot wound to the head."

"Westhusing, 44, was no ordinary officer. He was one of the Army's leading scholars of military ethics, a full professor at West Point who volunteered to serve in Iraq to be able to better teach his students. He had a doctorate in philosophy; his dissertation was an extended meditation on the meaning of honor."

"In e-mails to his family, Westhusing seemed especially upset by one conclusion he had reached: that traditional military values such as duty, honor and country had been replaced by profit motives in Iraq, where the U.S. had come to rely heavily on contractors for jobs once done by the military."

NPR - All Things Considered Military Ethicist's Suicide in Iraq Raises Questions

"T. Christian Miller of the Los Angeles Times discusses the suicide of Col. Ted Westhusing, a military ethics scholar, in Iraq. Westhusing's suicide note lashed out at officers and expressed despair over allegations of corruption and human-rights abuses against the contractors he oversaw."

news.telegraph 'Trophy' video exposes private security contractors shooting up Iraqi drivers

"A "trophy" video appearing to show security guards in Baghdad randomly shooting Iraqi civilians has sparked two investigations after it was posted on the internet, the Sunday Telegraph can reveal.

The video has sparked concern that private security companies, which are not subject to any form of regulation either in Britain or in Iraq, could be responsible for the deaths of hundreds of innocent Iraqis."

The video has sparked concern that private security companies, which are not subject to any form of regulation either in Britain or in Iraq, could be responsible for the deaths of hundreds of innocent Iraqis."

[ purported "trophy" video ]

redux [06.13.04]
NPR: Weekend Edition Army Contractor Policy Circumvented at Abu Ghraib

"Some officials say an Army policy barring the significant use of civilians for intelligence work has been circumvented, to the military's detriment. Civilian contractors interrogated prisoners at Abu Ghraib in Iraq, some of whom are now considered responsible for abuses at the prison. NPR's Libby Lewis reports."

The Seattle Times Army violated own policy on private interrogators

"Some of the dozens of private contractors hired to interrogate prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan are under investigation in connection with abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad and other prisons."

"[ The Army's top personnel official, Patrick Henry ] cited a "risk to national security" in turning over intelligence functions to private-sector workers. Private contractors may work for companies that do business with other countries and are not subject to the same chain of command that soldiers are, Henry wrote."

redux [05.21.04]
Financial Times 'Contract interrogators hired to avoid supervision'

"Several high-ranking military legal officers believe the Pentagon used private contractors to interrogate prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan in a deliberate attempt to obscure aggressive practices from congressional or military oversight, according to a civilian lawyer who has spoken with them."

""They believed that there was a conscious effort to create an atmosphere of ambiguity, of having people involved who couldn't be held to account," he said."

redux [05.03.04]
Financial Times Scandal throws spotlight on private contractors

"The mounting scandal over the torture of Iraqi prisoners at a US military prison in Baghdad has again focused attention on the Pentagon's extensive - and sometimes controversial - use of private military contractors in the Iraq war.

Employees from two companies, CACI International and Titan, participated in interrogation sessions at the Abu Ghraib prison as both interrogation specialists and linguists, according to an internal army report completed in late February."

NPR: All Things Considered Contractors Called on for Iraqi Security

"NPR's Adam Hochberg reports on the growing use of private contractors to provide security in Iraq."

redux [04.15.04]
Salon Warriors for hire in Iraq

"More than 15,000 employees of private military contractors, from giant Halliburton to tiny commando firms, are working, fighting and dying alongside U.S. soldiers. But who calls the shots in an outsourced war?"

"Known as "private military firms" (PMFs), they range from small companies that provide teams of commandos for hire to large corporations that run military supply chains. This new military industry encompasses hundreds of companies, thousands of employees, and billions of revenue dollars."

Independent Online, South Africa Deaths of scores of mercenaries not reported

"At least 80 foreign mercenaries - security guards recruited from the United States, Europe and South Africa and working for American companies - have been killed in the past eight days in Iraq."

"At least 18 000 mercenaries, many of them tasked to protect US troops and personnel, are now believed to be in Iraq, some of them earning $1 000 (about R6 300) a day. But their companies rarely acknowledge their losses unless - like the four American murdered and mutilated in Fallujah three weeks ago - their deaths are already public knowledge."

Global Guerrillas Mercenaries Unbound

"Private military services are big business. Currently, there are hundreds of firms that generate over $100 b a year in revenue (about 1/4 of the entire US military budget, and if taken in aggregate the second largest military in the world) and is growing at many times the rate of the DoD.

PMCs (private military corporations) are central to the US effort in Iraq. With between 10-15,000 PMC mercs in Iraq, they represent the second allied military force in theater. They are also used extensively in hot spots across the world (over 50 countries). Given this widespread use, large size, and the sensitive nature of their services; it is surprising that the industry is relatively free of regulation."