[A-List] Iraq: trigger-happy guns for hire

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

Civilian accused of killing 'doing fine job'

MICHAEL SETTLE, Chief Political Correspondent
The Herald, May 06 2004

THE US civilian accused of killing an Iraqi prisoner was still at work
yesterday and doing a "damn fine job", according to his employers.

Executives from Virginia-based CACI International complained that they had
still not been informed by their client, the US defence department, that
their employee, working for the CIA as an interrogator, was involved in the
abuse of inmates at Abu Ghraib jail near Baghdad.

Jack London, CACI president, said: "The fact remains we are simply not able
to confirm in any fashion any CACI employee was involved in the abuse at Abu
Ghraib prison."

Ken Johnson, the company's president of US operations, added: "The employee
questioned is still on the site and still performing the duties there and,
by all accounts from our understanding, is doing a damn fine job."

It has been suggested the CIA contractor could escape any prosecution
because US Army jurisdiction does not extend to American private contractors
in Iraq.

Uncertainty about the process for dealing with a man potentially facing a
murder charge was seen by some observers as indicative of the loose
arrangements covering "mercenaries" in the war theatre.

Stories abound of heavy-handed and trigger-happy behaviour by so-called
"guns for hire". There are reports that some security firms claim powers to
detain people, erect checkpoints without authorisation, and confiscate
identity cards.

It is estimated there are at least 5000 heavily-armed foreign mercenaries in
Iraq, with another 15,000 contractors involved in roles such as driving,
communications, intelligence-gathering, and security.

Last night, a spokesman for the Foreign Office made clear that all British
contractors were "like our military, bound by the UK and UN rules of
engagement". He declined to say what they were, but made clear that if any
UK contractor fell foul of them, then he would face the full force of
British justice.

Asked if any contractor had been arrested thus far for any alleged breaches,
the spokesman said: "Not to my knowledge. The contractors have all behaved
themselves."

A recent CACI International advert illustrated an almost humdrum approach to
a far from humdrum activity. It read: "Wanted - interrogator, Baghdad, Iraq.
Under moderate supervision, provide intelligence support for interviewing
local nationals and determining their threat to coalition forces."

It also made clear the successful applicant had to have worked for at least
two years as a policeman or an intelligence agent with "experience in
conducting tactical and strategic interrogations".

A background in the military or security has produced a gold rush in Iraq,
with ex-policemen and former soldiers from around the globe flocking to pick
up lucrative wage packets for risking - and sometimes losing - their lives.
Depending on the danger levels of an assignment, security staff can earn up
to £1000 a day.

Duncan Bullivant, head of Henderson Risk, a small UK firm with 40 staff in
Iraq, said: "Doing this kind of work for a year means some people have
enough to retire on."

Thomas Hamill, the Mississippi farmer who escaped on Sunday after three
weeks as a hostage, had gone to Iraq to work as a truck driver to pay off
debts.

The widespread use of private security workers was tragically illustrated in
March, when four Americans were murdered and mutilated in Fallujah. They
worked for the secretive US firm Blackwater, which has 450 staff in Iraq,
some of whom are ex-US special forces.

But the attraction of high pay is beginning to cause problems for several
serving armies, including Britain's. More than 40 regular SAS soldiers are
understood to have applied to leave the Army in the last year.

Yesterday, the Indian government, which has turned down US requests for it
to send troops to Iraq, launched an inquiry after it was claimed private
security agencies had illegally hired 1500 former soldiers to protect
installations in Iraq.

Some thought they were heading to Kuwait and Jordan to work as butchers, but
the contracting agency had placed them as kitchen assistants at a US
military base near Mosul in northern Iraq.