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US Bars Audit of Vast Mercenary Army in Iraq

State Department will have 5,000 private contractors

By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff

Posted Jul 22, 2011 6:21 PM CDT

(Newser) – The US is laying the groundwork for what amounts to a mercenary army in Iraq of unprecedented size—but the State Department is withholding information about it from a top watchdog, Wired reports. “Our audit of the program is making no progress,” says Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction. The State Department holds that the 5,500-strong army of contractors, set to take over and provide security after the US military leaves, doesn’t fall within Bowen’s jurisdiction.

Bowen disagrees, and Wired notes that lax control over private contractors led to the 2007 Nisour Square killings of Iraqi civilians by Blackwater employees. Congress has drafted a bill pushing the department to allow Bowen’s team to “audit military, security, and economic assistance”—but it won’t pass for months, writes Spencer Ackerman. Head to Wired for more on the Iraq contractor controversy.

Security contractors are seen in a helicopter in Baghdad, Iraq, last month.
Security contractors are seen in a helicopter in Baghdad, Iraq, last month.   (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 20 comments
Observer
Jul 23, 2011 7:56 PM CDT
What more proof do we need? Stop this secret war insanity now. Call your Congressmen and demand that funds for this criminal bullshit are done. Fini. Kaput. This is dictatorial world domination sickness run rampant on my credit card and yours fellow citizens. So we get to pay for uncontrolled Mecenary armies, for the bribery and corruption, needed to strong-arm and grease the Big Oil machinery and keep the royalties and oil flowing to Europe and Japan. I don't want to pay for that scam.
ProbolyKnot
Jul 23, 2011 5:52 PM CDT
Does anybody here think it's time to fire all the republicans and democrats... and start over with something else... with public servants who aren't sleeping with the highest bidders at our expense?
Non-deep-thinker
Jul 23, 2011 9:35 AM CDT
What's funny here, is that if this happens in the previous administration, it's a George Bush / Dick Cheney problem.   If it happens now, then "they" shouldn't do it. It's a problem of "they". ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NDT "Tracking the interesting nuances of hypocrisy since 1997."

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