Blackwater Fallout May Ripple Through Industry

A Tougher Line on Government Contracting
Blackwater Fallout May Ripple Through Industry

By Zachary A. Goldfarb
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, October 8, 2007; Page D01

Will Blackwater USA's travails spread to the two Northern Virginia companies who share a controversial $3.6 billion contract to provide security services in Iraq?

Experts say DynCorp of Falls Church and Triple Canopy of Herndon have much to gain or lose depending on the outcome of investigations into Blackwater's conduct in Iraq, where its employees allegedly fired on and killed Iraqi civilians.

"There's going to be a continuing drumbeat of bad news for this company," said Peter Singer, an expert on private security at the Brookings Institution who is critical of the industry. "As competitors, that's good news for them. . . . Maybe it means is less likely to win contracts the future."

Any new business, however, could be lost in the damage to the industry's reputation, some say. "If I were advising either of those companies, I would be worried about the Blackwater incident coming back to haunt the whole issue of private security and how it's used in Iraq," said Deborah Avant, a political science professor at the University of California at Irvine.

DynCorp is a 60-year-old company with $2 billion in annual revenue. Triple Canopy was born just four years ago and has ridden the recent boom in government contracting to collect hundreds of millions in revenue. Both will undoubtedly be subject to whatever measures are put in place to address the Blackwatersituation.

On Thursday, for instance, the House passed a bill to make all private contractors in Iraq and other combat zones subject to prosecution in U.S. courts. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, meanwhile, ordered an overhaul of U.S. Embassy security practices in Iraq, tightening government oversight of diplomatic convoys escorted by private security contractors.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/07/AR2007100701212.html?hpid=topnews

The countries of the world now look at us as being so low we hire mercenaries to do our killing.