Iraq Case Sheds Light On Secret Contractors

[sabra]

Source: WSJ

When Dave Boone complained that his fellow security contractors in Iraq were stockpiling weapons and padding their expense reports, his company talked him out of quitting and promised to run a tighter ship.

Later, Mr. Boone reported that colleagues guarding U.S. spy personnel had fired shots into a Baghdad neighborhood and falsely claimed they defeated a horde of snipers. This time, the company fired him -- though two of its people backed up Mr. Boone's account. He has spent more than three years trying to get U.S. officials to investigate the incident.

Security contractors in Iraq have been in an intense spotlight since employees of another firm, Blackwater Worldwide, were involved in a shooting incident last fall that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead, leading to a Justice Department investigation and efforts by the Iraqi government to clamp down on their actions. Overall, the U.S. has about the same number of contractors as military personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But a fast-growing type of government contracting largely escapes such scrutiny: secret programs, or "black" contracts, assisting intelligence agents as they operate in war zones. These contractors have carried out some of the government's most sensitive work -- conducting interrogations, manning secret prisons and guarding spy-agency personnel. The programs' existence, size and scope are classified, and so are the details of their troubles.

...

In February, Judge Edward W. Nottingham of the federal district court in Colorado ruled against Mr. Boone's claim of wrongful termination on technical grounds. Mr. Boone is appealing. The Pentagon's inspector general began a preliminary review in May. The office of Rep. Henry Waxman, the California Democrat who is chairman of a powerful House watchdog committee, initially didn't respond to Mr. Boone, but recently a spokeswoman said the office was opening a "preliminary investigation."

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121485921602717113.html?mod=hpp_us_whats_news

[gratuitous]

1. Oh please!

These slackers and terrorist sympathizers are trying to tell us that our private contractors would lie after the fact to justify shooting non-combatants? That's just so ridiculous it hardly merits discussion! So, we won't discuss it.

[Arctic Dave]

2. WTF is the point of being the chairmen

of a commitee if you don't intend on doing anything.

[Veronica.Franco]

3. NAZI America

Enjoy your stay ....