Vol. 73/No. 35      September 14, 2009

They enjoy lucrative contracts from the Pentagon, State Department, and the Central Intelligence Agency. They are used to build and guard U.S. military bases, load bombs onto aerial drones to attack Taliban and al-Qaeda groups, provide security for U.S. diplomats, train soldiers, and transport supplies in war zones. Some, working for the CIA, have planned assassinations of alleged al-Qaeda leaders.

By the end of June, the number of military contractors in Afghanistan had reached 74,000, far outnumbering the roughly 62,000 U.S. soldiers there. According to the Wall Street Journal, more than two-thirds of those contractors are Afghanis.

In December 2008 there were almost 150,000 contractors in Iraq—slightly more than the number of U.S. ground troops. The number of contractors has dropped somewhat since.

Many of the contractors carry out noncombat tasks like construction of buildings and bases, laundry, and kitchen duties that were once carried out by soldiers. Still tens of thousands of them are armed and staff checkpoints to government compounds or accompany food and fuel convoys.

The increased use of contractors allows the U.S. Defense Department to expand the number of combat-ready troops without a massive increase in the size of the U.S. armed forces and without resorting to a draft. The Defense Department has transferred soldiers out of noncombat tasks and replaced them with civilian employees under Pentagon supervisors as well.

Many of the high-ranking officials in the dozens of companies that provide contractors are former officers of U.S. military units or the CIA, what the Los Angeles Times calls “a revolving-door relationship.”

Erik Prince, a former Navy SEAL, owns Blackwater, one of the best known of the private security firms. After Blackwater guards killed 17 Iraqi civilians at a major traffic intersection in Baghdad in September 2007, the company changed its name to Xe Services in a not-so-successful bid to escape its notoriety.

Cofer Black, former head of counterterrorism at the CIA, is the chairman of Total Intelligence Solutions, a Blackwater-related operation that provides “intelligence services.”

John Shalikashvili, former chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, sits on the board of directors of L-3, a giant military contractor that operates in Afghanistan.

Former soldiers from the U.S., British, and other armies can earn as much as $33,000 a month when they sign up with one of these companies to work as a contractor in Iraq or Afghanistan.

At the same time the U.S. military encourages its most skilled troops to re-up when their tour of duty is over by offering retention bonuses that can range from a few thousand dollars to $150,000.

Even though North Carolina-based Blackwater lost its security contract in Iraq, it has continued to receive contracts from both the State Department and the CIA.

Blackwater employees—after receiving training at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada—assemble and load Hellfire missiles and 500-pound laser-guided bombs onto Predator drones launched from bases in Shamsi, Pakistan, and Jalabad, Afghanistan. CIA agents direct the pilotless planes from CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

In June, CIA director Leon Panetta reportedly ended a program begun in 2004 that hired Blackwater to assassinate alleged leaders of al-Qaeda.

According to the New York Times, about 25 percent of U.S. spooks are contractors, who receive as much as 70 percent of the U.S. spy budget.
 
 
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U.S. general sets ‘new’ plan for Afghan war
Lays ground for continued escalation
New Zealand troops are deployed to Afghanistan  
 
 
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