DoD recommends more control over contractors

DoD recommends more control over contractors
By Lolita C. Baldor - The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Oct 4, 2007 6:23:52 EDT

SANTIAGO, Chile — A Pentagon review team has recommended the U.S. military have more control over contractors hired in Iraq and private security guards fall under the military code of justice in some cases, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday.

He said new guidelines for military commanders in Iraq probably will increase the number of private security contractors who will face prosecution or discipline for violence.

Gates said the five-member review team he sent to Iraq last week found a need for better coordination between the security details and the military.

In about one in every three cases, the team said, when military commanders got a call for help from a convoy under private protection, it involved a detail the commanders did not know about.

Speaking to reporters on a plane trip from Colombia to Chile, Gates provided the broadest description to date of the possible steps the military could take in response to the latest problems with private security companies in Iraq.

But he also said any major limits imposed on the contractors by the Iraqi government would burden U.S. forces or drastically restrict the mobility of State Department officials and other civilians who depend on the private guards.


Rest of article at: http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2007/10/ap_contractors_071003/

If ya wanna be in the Army, there's a recruiting office right nearby.
And if the military can't attract enough people, maybe it should
rethink it's silly colonialist policy in the Mideast.