Pentagon Memo Warned on Army Contractors

MATT KELLEY

Associated Press


WASHINGTON - A year before the Iraq invasion, the then-Army secretary warned his Pentagon bosses that there was inadequate control of private military contractors, which are now at the heart of controversies over misspending and prisoner abuse.

The author of that memo, retired Army chief Thomas White, said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press that the recent events show the Pentagon has a long way to go to fix the problems he identified in March 2002.

"Clearly, there was a lot of work that had to be done and still needs to be done," White said Thursday.

In a sign of continued problems with the tracking of contracts, Pentagon officials on Thursday acknowledged they have yet to identify which Army entity manages the multimillion-dollar contract for interrogators like the one accused in the Iraq prisoner abuse probe.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld also acknowledged his department hasn't completed rules to govern the 20,000 or so private security guards watching over U.S. officials, installations and private workers in Iraq.

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http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/world/8610240.htm

Two contract workers have been implicated in the Abu Ghraib prison abuses, and investigators found that one of them, a translator working with interrogators who were trying to obtain sensitive information from Iraqi prisoners, had no security clearance at all.


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http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/energy/2555342

"There is no one minding the store here," Singer said. "We are holding soldiers accountable but not holding contractors accountable."

Although at least one Titan employee has been identified in an Army report as a suspect, neither Titan nor CACI International has been told by the Pentagon of any wrongdoing by their employees in Iraq, officials of both companies said.

Titan and CACI are two out of hundreds of defense contractors that have received billions of dollars by assisting in military operations and the reconstruction of Iraq.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/military/20040507-9999-1n7contract.html

I'm tired of hearing about disciplining the soldiers. That's an easy fix well within the abilty of the Code of Military Justice to handle. Plus, I agree that it was probably anomalous behavior, and probably at the behest of civilian contractors or CIA.

BUT: There's nothing like losing a multibillion dollar contract to send a message to other contractors that they will take seriously.

That and Rumsfeld's firing (not resignation) will demonstrate to the Arab world that President Numbnuts does understand the gravity of the issue.

But only regime change in Novemmber will start to restore whatever moral standing we ever had in the world.