PRIVATE CONTRACTORS IN IRAQ

This is what Petraeus said during his confirmation hearing¹:

SEN. MCCAIN: And yet, your numbers by any estimate or formula that you use, that you're receiving, are either inadequate or bare minimum. Does that concern you?

GEN. PETRAEUS: It does, sir. If you look at the Counterinsurgency Manual, for example, and you have the 1-to-50 ratio of counterinsurgents to citizens, you'd say that well, for Baghdad's population you should have somewhere around 120,000 security forces. If you add all of the U.S. forces that will be on the ground when we have the full increase in forces, including Special Operations Forces, all the Iraqi forces -- military and police -- you get to about 85,000. Not all of those are as effective as we might want them to be, particularly on the police side, as you know. However, there are tens of thousands of contract security forces and ministerial security forces that do, in fact, guard facilities and secure institutions, and so forth, that our forces -- coalition or Iraqi forces -- would otherwise have to guard and secure. And so that does give me the reason to believe that we can accomplish the mission in Baghdad with the additional forces.

The attacks on the private security forces have increased dramatically in the last year and a half and today the we learn a little more about them:

Iraq Contractors Face Growing Parallel War
As Security Work Increases, So Do Casualties

By Steve Fainaru
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, June 16, 2007; Page A01

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

The majority of the more than 100 security companies operate outside of Iraqi law...

The security industry's enormous growth has been facilitated by the U.S. military, which uses the 20,000 to 30,000 contractors to offset chronic troop shortages.

According to the logistics directorate, attacks against registered supply convoys rose from 5.4 percent in 2005, to 9.1 percent in 2006, to 14.7 percent through May 10.

The military deleted casualty figures from reports issued by the Reconstruction Logistics Directorate of the Corps of Engineers, ... logistics director Jack Holly, a retired Marine colonel ... "The only way anything gets to you here is if somebody bets their life on its delivery," said Holly, a burly civilian with a trimmed gray beard who strikes a commanding presence even in khakis, multicolored checked shirts and tennis shoes. "That's the fundamental issue: Nothing moves anywhere in Iraq without betting your life."

ArmorGroup ran 1,184 convoys in Iraq in 2006; it reported 450 hostile actions, mostly roadside bombs, small-arms fire and mortar attacks. The company was attacked 293 times in the first four months of 2007, according to ArmorGroup statistics. On the dangerous roads north of Baghdad, "you generally attract at least one incident every mission," Simpson said.


¹Copyright 2007 Federal News Service, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Federal News Service
January 23, 2007 Tuesday
SECTION: CAPITOL HILL HEARING
LENGTH: 36004 words
HEADLINE: HEARING OF THE SENATE ARMED SERVICES
COMMITTEE;
SUBJECT: NOMINATION OF LIEUTENANT GENERAL DAVID H.
PETRAEUS, U.S. ARMY, TO BE GENERAL AND COMMANDER,
MULTINATIONAL FORCES IRAQ;
CHAIRED BY: SENATOR CARL LEVIN (D-MI);
WITNESS: LIEUTENANT GENERAL DAVID PETRAEUS, U.S. ARMY;
LOCATION: 325 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING,
WASHINGTON, D.C.