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May 31, 2005
Marines Arrest Sixteen Private Security Contractors in Iraq
This just in. Several sources confirm that the Marines outside Fallujah arrested 16 American security contractors and two Iraqis on Saturday. They were held until today. The contractors were working convoy security for Zapata Engineering and were accused of shooting their weapons.
"There were security concerns," said a spokeswoman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which awarded Zapata a one-year contract worth $32.5 million to help dispose of captured munitions.
Who the alleged targets of the shooting were, if any, remains blurry. All were treated as prisoners, put into orange jumpsuits, blindfolded, exposed to snarling dogs and photographed according to sources. The FBI is investigating and at least some of the 16 Americans are on their way back to the United States.
No charges were filed against the contractors, according to the Army Corps spokeswoman. Zapata is not talking.
Posted by davidphinney at 04:55 PM | Comments (0)
May 30, 2005
Filipinos Protest Working Conditions in Iraq
The latest sad chapter in the use of cheap labor to support the US military in Iraq: Three hundred Filipino workers waged a labor strike and work stoppage against US military contractors Prime Projects International, a leading subcontractor to Halliburton's subsidiary, KBR.
The 300 Filipinos were joined by 500 workers from India, Sri Lanka and Nepal, all of whom were protesting delayed wages, long working hours, unsatisfactory food and inadequate accommodations.
While US workers go over to Iraq to make $80,000 to $100,000 a year tax free, sometimes even more, the story that's being ignored involves the third country nationals -- known as TCNs -- who work for wages between $500 and $1,000 a month doing things like washing dishes, preparing food, cleaning laundry, driving trucks, and performing hard hat construction jobs without the hard hats in sandals.
All the while, a number of sources in Iraq tell me that TCNs are living closer to incoming mortar fire on the outskirts of military camps, blistering temperatures, all the exotic diseases Iraq has to offer, scarce medical care, and living quarters and food that is worse than what is served to the coalition "partners."
Despite a travel ban to Iraq imposed by the government of the Philippines last year after a Filipino truck driver was kidnapped and it withdrew its own small force, Filipinos rank as the biggest supplier of manpower for US-led coalition forces, with official estimates indicating that about 6,000 Filipinos are working in various military camps.
The Philippines alarmed US officials in April when it threw its muscle behind that ban by offering to fly home the estimated 6,000 Filipino workers after two died in apparent attacks that month. According to Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo, US Embassy expressed concern several times. After all, thousands of inexpensive workers leaving Iraq would be a kick in the stomach to contractors providing support services to the occupying forces.
After some behind the scenes negotiations and reports of US pressure, the brewing US alarm died. Manila announced that although the government continues to call on all Filipino workers to return home, the repatriation would be done on a voluntary basis.
No doubt, US foreign aid is a great boon to the US objectives in Iraq.
Meanwhile, the most recent labor dispute has been "temporarily resolved."
Posted by davidphinney at 05:10 AM | Comments (1)
May 12, 2005
Spending Iraqi Assets
We're talking about billions of dollars in money from oil revenues, cash squirreled away by Saddam Hussein, and frozen bank accounts around the world seized -- and spent -- by Coalition forces, aka, per Peter Singer of Brookings, "the coalition of the billing."
The court battle over allegations that the private security company, Custer Battles, fraudulently over billed by as much as $50 million, may enter a new phase if U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III decides the U.S. wields legal jurisdiction over misspending of seized Iraqi assets -- the other food-for-oil scandal.
Custer Battles attorney John Boese argued that even if the allegations are true, it was the Coalition Provisional Authority that was defrauded and not the U.S. government. The Iraqi government holds a different view. They could use that money.
But everyone seemed to forget that it wasn't just the CPA that was spending Iraqi money. The Pentagon used $1.7 billion on Halliburton's secretly awarded contract.
Posted by davidphinney at 12:46 PM | Comments (0)
May 10, 2005
Are Contractors Terrorist Targets?
The Pentagon says no. That must be reassuring to those working in a country teeming with insurgents bent on bombing whatever travels on major roads in Iraq:
``While some attacks are intended to kill or capture contractors specifically in an effort to weaken U.S. resolve and boost insurgent campaigns, there is little evidence to support a systematic plan to attack U.S. contractors,'' said a 25-page report compiled by the U.S. Army's Project and Contracting Office, Tony Capaccio with Bloomberg reports.
I bumped into a fascinating counterpoint by Global Guerillas blogster John Robb and brilliant in its intellectual leaps...certainly worth a gander:
"The market for outsourced services provided by western and associated companies are critical to the reconstruction of Iraq, the logistics of the US military, and the operation of critical infrastructure in Saudi Arabia. It's our 'soft underbelly.' Because these services form a market network, global guerrillas can use the dynamics of the marketplace to amplify the impact of their attacks."
Posted by davidphinney at 05:26 PM | Comments (0)