'Wash Post': U.S. Secretly Funds Private Security 'Army' in Iraq

NEW YORK In a front-page in today's Washington Post, Steve Fainaru reveals, "Private security companies, funded by billions of dollars in U.S. military and State Department contracts, are fighting insurgents on a widening scale in Iraq, enduring daily attacks, returning fire and taking hundreds of casualties that have been underreported and sometimes concealed, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials and company representatives."

The report by the veteran Iraq reporter continues, "While the military has built up troops in an ongoing campaign to secure Baghdad, the security companies, out of public view, have been engaged in a parallel surge, boosting manpower, adding expensive armor and stepping up evasive action as attacks increase, the officials and company representatives said. One in seven supply convoys protected by private forces has come under attack this year, according to previously unreleased statistics; one security company reported nearly 300 'hostile actions' in the first four months.

"The majority of the more than 100 security companies operate outside of Iraqi law, in part because of bureaucratic delays and corruption in the Iraqi government licensing process, according to U.S. officials. Blackwater USA, a prominent North Carolina firm that protects U.S. Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker, and several other companies have not applied, U.S. and Iraqi officials said. Blackwater said that it obtained a one-year license in 2005 but that shifting Iraqi government policy has impeded its attempts to renew.


http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003599895

growing. Sort of a govt. under the covers and it started many years ago. Some times it brakes out into plane sight and we get up tight about it. Hell we have had armies in So. Am. for years but it is so under the news know one hardly thinks about it. That I think is the USA army. With over 700 bases around the world some thing is going on at all times that is not getting into the news. Course these bases do stand up for our businesses. Heck one has to recall why the Brits moved into all the countries they did. We are building an Empire and since most do not think that way it has to be done underground. Why else would we have more money in our DOD than the rest of the world. It is being funding by us and through the DOD

every penny they hand over!