DOCSLIB.ORG

Iraqi Reconstruction: Reliance on Private Military Contractors and Status Report

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Iraqi Reconstruction: Reliance on Private Military Contractors and Status Report IRAQI RECONSTRUCTION: RELIANCE ON PRIVATE MILITARY CONTRACTORS AND STATUS REPORT HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND GOVERNMENT REFORM HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION FEBRUARY 7, 2007 Serial No. 110–11 Printed for the use of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform ( Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/congress/index.html http://www.house.gov/reform U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 36–546 PDF WASHINGTON : 2007 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2250 Mail: Stop SSOP, Washington, DC 20402–0001 VerDate 11-MAY-2000 10:54 Aug 15, 2007 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 5011 Sfmt 5011 C:\DOCS\36546.TXT HGOVREF1 PsN: HGOVREF1 COMMITTEE ON OVERSISGHT AND GOVERNMENT REFORM HENRY A. WAXMAN, California, Chairman TOM LANTOS, California TOM DAVIS, Virginia EDOLPHUS TOWNS, New York DAN BURTON, Indiana PAUL E. KANJORSKI, Pennsylvania CHRISTOPHER SHAYS, Connecticut CAROLYN B. MALONEY, New York JOHN M. MCHUGH, New York ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS, Maryland JOHN L. MICA, Florida DENNIS J. KUCINICH, Ohio MARK E. SOUDER, Indiana DANNY K. DAVIS, Illinois TODD RUSSELL PLATTS, Pennsylvania JOHN F. TIERNEY, Massachusetts CHRIS CANNON, Utah WM. LACY CLAY, Missouri JOHN J. DUNCAN, JR., Tennessee DIANE E. WATSON, California MICHAEL R. TURNER, Ohio STEPHEN F. LYNCH, Massachusetts DARRELL E. ISSA, California BRIAN HIGGINS, New York KENNY MARCHANT, Texas JOHN A. YARMUTH, Kentucky LYNN A. WESTMORELAND, Georgia BRUCE L. BRALEY, Iowa PATRICK T. MCHENRY, North Carolina ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON, District of VIRGINIA FOXX, North Carolina Columbia BRIAN P. BILBRAY, California BETTY MCCOLLUM, Minnesota BILL SALI, Idaho JIM COOPER, Tennessee ——— ——— CHRIS VAN HOLLEN, Maryland PAUL W. HODES, New Hampshire CHRISTOPHER S. MURPHY, Connecticut JOHN P. SARBANES, Maryland PETER WELCH, Vermont PHIL SCHILIRO, Chief of Staff PHIL BARNETT, Staff Director EARLEY GREEN, Chief Clerk DAVID MARIN, Minority Staff Director (II) VerDate 11-MAY-2000 10:54 Aug 15, 2007 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 C:\DOCS\36546.TXT HGOVREF1 PsN: HGOVREF1 C O N T E N T S Page Hearing held on February 7, 2007 ......................................................................... 1 Statement of: Ballard, Tina, Assistant Undersecretary for Procurement and Policy, U.S. Department of the Army; Andrew G. Howell, general counsel, Blackwater USA; R. Timothy Tapp, managing director, business oper- ations, Regency Hotel and Hospital Co.; W. Steve Murray, Jr., director of contracting, ESS Support Services Worldwide; George Seagle, direc- tor of security, government and infrastructure division, KBR; Tom Flo- res, senior director, corporate security, Fluor Corp.; and Alan Chvotkin, senior vice president and counsel, Professional Services Council ............. 111 Ballard, Tina .............................................................................................. 111 Chvotkin, Alan ........................................................................................... 135 Flores, Tom ................................................................................................ 133 Howell, Andrew G. .................................................................................... 121 Murray, W. Steve Jr. ................................................................................. 117 Seagle, George ........................................................................................... 128 Helvenston-Wettengel, Kathryn, mother of Blackwater employee Stephen Helvenston; Kristal Batalona, daughter of Blackwater employee Wesley Batalona; Rhonda Teague, wife of Blackwater employee Michael Teague; and Donna Zovko, mother of Blackwater employee Jerry Zovko .............................................................................................................. 71 Helvenston-Wettengel, Kathryn ............................................................... 71 Letters, statements, etc., submitted for the record by: Ballard, Tina, Assistant Undersecretary for Procurement and Policy, U.S. Department of the Army, prepared statement of ....................................... 113 Blackwater family members, prepared statement of ..................................... 76 Chvotkin, Alan, senior vice president and counsel, Professional Services Council, prepared statement of .................................................................... 138 Flores, Tom, senior director, corporate security, Fluor Corp., prepared statement of ................................................................................................... 134 Davis, Hon. Tom, a Representative in Congress from the State of Vir- ginia: Letter dated December 13, 2006 .............................................................. 15 Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 19 Howell, Andrew G., general counsel, Blackwater USA, prepared state- ment of ........................................................................................................... 123 Issa, Hon. Darrell E., a Representative in Congress from the State of California, letter dated December 13, 2006 ................................................ 35 Murray, W. Steve, Jr., director of contracting, ESS Support Services Worldwide, prepared statement of .............................................................. 119 Seagle, George, director of security, government and infrastructure divi- sion, KBR, prepared statement of ............................................................... 130 Waxman, Chairman Henry A., a Representative in Congress from the State of California: Memorandum dated February 7, 2007 .................................................... 27 Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 4 (III) VerDate 11-MAY-2000 10:54 Aug 15, 2007 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 C:\DOCS\36546.TXT HGOVREF1 PsN: HGOVREF1 VerDate 11-MAY-2000 10:54 Aug 15, 2007 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 C:\DOCS\36546.TXT HGOVREF1 PsN: HGOVREF1 IRAQI RECONSTRUCTION: RELIANCE ON PRI- VATE MILITARY CONTRACTORS AND STA- TUS REPORT WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2007 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND GOVERNMENT REFORM, Washington, DC. The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10 a.m. in room 2157, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Henry A. Waxman (chairman of the committee) presiding. Present: Representatives Waxman, Lantos, Towns, Maloney, Cummings, Kucinich, Davis of Illinois, Tierney, Clay, Watson, Lynch, Higgins, Yarmuth, Braley, Holmes-Norton, Cooper, Van Hollen, Hodes, Murphy, Sarbanes, Welch, Davis of Virginia, Shays, Souder, Platts, Cannon, Duncan, Turner, Issa, Westmoreland, McHenry, Foxx, Bilbray, and Sali. Also present: Representative Schakowsky. Staff present: Phil Schiliro, chief of staff; Phil Barnett, staff di- rector and chief counsel; Kristin Amerling, general counsel; Karen Lightfood, communications director and senior policy advisor; David Rapallo, chief investigative counsel; Theodore Chuang, dep- uty chief investigative counsel; Jeff Baran, counsel; Christopher Davis, professional staff member; Earley Green, chief clerk; Teresa Coufal, deputy clerk; Matt Siegle, special assistant; Lauren Belive, Kerry Gutknecht, Davis Hake, and Will Ragland, staff assistants; Leneal Scott, information officer; David Martin, minority staff di- rector; Larry Halloran, minority deputy staff director; Jennifer Safavian, minority chief counsel for oversight and investigations; Keith Ausbrook, minority general counsel; Ellen Brown, minority legislative director and senior policy counsel; John Brosnan, minor- ity senior procurement counsel; Steve Castor, minority counsel; Ed- ward Kidd, Christopher Bright, and Allyson Blandford, minority professional staff members; John Cuaderes and Larry Brady, mi- nority senior investigator and policy advisors; Patrick Lyden, mi- nority parliamentarian and member services coordinator; Brian McNicoll, minority communications director; and Benjamin Chance, minority clerk. Chairman WAXMAN. The meeting of the committee will come to order. Today the committee will investigate potential fraud, waste, and abuse in the almost indecipherable world of contractors and sub- contractors. (1) VerDate 11-MAY-2000 10:54 Aug 15, 2007 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 C:\DOCS\36546.TXT HGOVREF1 PsN: HGOVREF1 2 In the last 2 years I have tried to get a clear answer to what I thought was a simple question: How much money the Halliburton subsidiary named KBR and private security subcontractors were making under the Army’s troop support contract called LOGCAP. We know that the war in Iraq has given private contractors an unprecedented role in providing security services. Almost $4 billion in taxpayer funds has been paid for private security services in the reconstruction effort, alone. But sorting out overhead, subcontracts, sub-subcontracts, profit, and performance has been nearly impos- sible. For over 18 months the Defense Department wouldn’t even re- spond to my inquiry. When it finally replied last July, it didn’t even supply the breakdown I requested. In fact, it denied that pri- vate security contractors did any work at all under the LOGCAP contract. We now know that isn’t true, and today we will try to un- derstand the layers of subcontractors, with a particular
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Explaining Blackwater's Unparalleled Record of Violence in Iraq
    Wheeled Warriors: Explaining Blackwater’s Unparalleled Record of Violence in Iraq by Scott Fitzsimmons Department of Political Science University of British Columbia [email protected] On September 16, 2007, employees of Blackwater, a private security company tasked with protecting U.S. State Department personnel in Iraq, opened fire on pedestrians and motorists in Baghdad’s bustling Nisour Square. This brief but ferocious use of violence against unarmed Iraqi civilians, which came to be known as the “Nisour Square incident,” left 17 civilians dead and two dozen wounded.1 This event was one of the most violent and widely reported on incidents involving Blackwater’s personnel, but it was emblematic of their unparalleled record of violent actions during the Iraq War. In fact, the firm’s personnel fired their weapons during at least 323 incidents in Iraq between January 1, 2005, and December 31, 2007, for an average of two shooting incidents per week. Moreover, despite operating during the same period, performing the same tasks, for the same clients, and facing the same threats in the same general environment, Blackwater’s personnel killed and seriously injured far more people than their counterparts in DynCorp, one of the other major private security companies that provided protective services for the U.S. State Department during this period of the Iraq War. Stunningly, while Blackwater’s personnel inflicted at least 62 deaths and 86 serious injuries during this 1 Blackwater changed its name to Xe in 2009 and to Academi in 2011. However, since the firm is almost invariably referred to by its original name, this study will, whenever possible, do the same.
    [Show full text]
  • Human Cost of Post-9/11 Wars: Direct War Deaths in Major War Zones
    Human Cost of Post-9/11 Wars: Direct War Deaths in Major War Zones, Afghanistan and Pakistan (October 2001 – October 2019) Iraq (March 2003 – October 2019); Syria (September 2014-October 2019); Yemen (October 2002-October 2019); and Other 1 Neta C. Crawford and Catherine Lutz2 November 13, 2019 Afghanistan Pakistan Iraq Syria/ISIS3 Yemen4 Other5 Total US Military6 2,2987 —8 4,5729 710 111 136 7,014 US DOD Civilian12 6 15 1 — — 22 US Contractors13 3,814 90 3,588 1714 2 43915 7,950 64,12417 National Military and 64,12417 9,12918 48,337- 51,48320 —21 173,073- Police16 52,33719 177,073 Other Allied Troops22 1,145 — 323 11,00023 12,468 Civilians 43,07424 23,92425 184,382- 49,59127 12,00028 312,971- 207,15626 335,745 Opposition Fighters 42,10029 32,73730 34,806- 67,06532 78,00033 254,708- 39,88131 259,783 8686 Journalists and Media 125 67 86 277 75 31 536 Workers34 Humanitarian/NGO 424 97 63 185 38 807 workers35 TOTAL 157,052 66,064 276,363- 179,424 90,072 575 769,549- 308,212 801,398 TOTAL (rounded to 157,000 66,000 276,000- 179,000 90,000 600 770,000- nearest 1,000) 308,000 801,000 1 This chart tallies direct deaths caused by war violence. It does not include indirect deaths, namely those caused by loss of access to food, water, and/or infrastructure, war-related disease, etc. The numbers included here are approximations based on the reporting of several original data sources.
    [Show full text]
  • 247012037-Blackwater.Pdf
    Annotation La historia no autorizada del épico ascenso de una de las fuerzas más poderosas y secretas surgidas del «complejo militar-industrial» estadounidense.En marzo de 2004 la Guerra de Irak dio un giro decisivo tras el abatimiento de 4 soldados americanos en una emboscada de Faluya. La noticia, de gran repercusión mediática, puso al descubierto Blackwater, un ejercito privado de élite que venía operando en misiones estadounidenses desde principios de la administración Bush.El 16 de septiembre de 2007, unas inesperadas ráfagas de ametralladora disparadas en la plaza Nisour, de Bagdad, dejaron un saldo de 17 civiles iraquíes muertos, entre los que se contaban mujeres y niños. Esta matanza indiscriminada, conocida como «el domingo sangriento de Bagdad», no fue llevada a cabo por insurgentes iraquíes ni por soldados estadounidenses, pues los autores de los disparos pertenecían a una empresa secreta de mercenarios, la Blackwater Worldwide. Esta es la escalofriante historia de una compañía fundada hace más de una década en Moyock, Carolina del Sur, y que se convirtió en uno de los protagonistas más poderosos de la «guerra del terror». En su apasionante best seller, el periodista Jeremy Scahill nos lleva desde las ensangrentadas calles de Irak hasta las zonas de Nueva Orleans devastadas por el huracán Katrina, pasando por las esferas gubernamentales en Washington, para poner al descubierto a Blackwater como el nuevo y terrible rostro de la maquinaria bélica estadounidense. JEREMY SCAHILL BLACKWATER — oOo — Título original: Blackwater. The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army © Jeremy Scahill, 2007 © de la traducción: Albino Santos y Gemma Andújar, 2008 En colaboración con Editorial Planeta, S.A.
    [Show full text]
  • Senator Byron L. Dorgan Chairman, Democratic Policy Committee
    Opening Statement Senator Byron L. Dorgan Chairman, Democratic Policy Committee “Abuses in Private Security and Reconstruction Contracting in Iraq: Ensuring Accountability, Protecting Whistleblowers” Friday, September 21, 2007 10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. 226 Dirksen Senate Office Building Today the Democratic Policy Committee is holding a hearing to examine the continuing lack of accountability in private security and reconstruction contracting in Iraq. There are now nearly as many private contractors in Iraq as there are American soldiers. And when contractors operate without accountability, and come to believe that there will not be any consequence for wrongdoing, our mission in Iraq is compromised and our troops are undermined. One of the largest sectors in which private contractors are active in Iraq is the area of security. Last year the GAO estimated that there are as many as 48,000 private security contractors in Iraq, though no one knows the precise number. And these security contractors have operated in a climate of impunity. On Sunday, there was a firefight in Iraq involving private security contractor Blackwater that left at least 11 Iraqis dead. The incident is being investigated, and I certainly do not want to prejudge the results of the investigation. But we cannot ignore the fact that the Iraqi government has said that it believes that Blackwater overreacted and caused the loss of innocent life. Prime Minister Maliki said that this was the seventh such incident involving Blackwater, and he urged that Blackwater be replaced. Nearly a year ago, the Congress passed a law requiring that private security contractors be bound by the same code of conduct as U.S.
    [Show full text]
  • Iraq War Documentaries in the Online Public Sphere
    Embedded Online: Iraq War Documentaries in the Online Public Sphere Eileen Culloty, MA This thesis is submitted to Dublin City University for the award of PhD in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. Dublin City University School of Communications Supervisor: Dr. Pat Brereton September 2014 I hereby certify that this material, which I now submit for assessment on the programme of study leading to the award of Doctor of Philosophy is entirely my own work, that I have exercised reasonable care to ensure that the work is original, and does not to the best of my knowledge breach any law of copyright, and has not been taken from the work of others save and to the extent that such work has been cited and acknowledged within the text of my work. Signed: ___________ ID No.: ___________ Date: _________ ii DEDICATION This work is dedicated to the memory of Martin Culloty. … I go back beyond the old man Mind and body broken To find the unbroken man. It is the moment before the dance begins. Your lips are enjoying themselves Whistling an air. Whatever happens or cannot happen In the time I have to spare I see you dancing father Brendan Kennelly (1990) ‘I See You Dancing Father’ iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................ vii LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................ viii ABBREVIATIONS ...................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • JAHI7205-3F74e414e6fullabstract.Pdf
    1 / 3 Table of Contents No. Title Page 1 Dampak Krisis Finansial 2008 Terhadap Angka Pengangguran di Jerman 1 - 16 2 Faktor-Faktor di Balik Perubahan Moda Masuk Billabong Internasional Ltd. dalam 17 - 30 Ekspansinya ke Indonesia 3 Perubahan Strategi Revolutionary United Front (RUF) terhadap Intervensi 31 - 52 UNAMSIL dalam Perang Sipil Sierra Leone 1999-2000 4 Peranan Ethiopia dalam Konflik di Somalia Kurun Waktu 2006 – 2009 53 - 65 5 Sengketa Kepulauan Senkaku antara Cina dan Jepang (1998-2013) 67 - 83 6 Hubungan Indonesia-China pasca Normalisasi tahun 1990 85 - 104 7 Postur Kebijakan Perbatasan Indonesia – Papua New Guinea 105 - 118 8 Pengaruh Krisis Ekonomi Global terhadap Ekspor Tekstil dan Produk Tekstil 119 - 140 Indonesia di Pasar Internasional 9 Kebijakan Luar Negeri Rusia Terhadap Suriah dalam Konflik Suriah Tahun 141 - 155 2011-2012 10 Analisis Penghentian Proyek Bendungan Myitsone oleh Myanmar terhadap Cina 157 - 175 Tahun 2009-2012 11 Disfungsi Peran UNFPA atas Kebijakan Kependudukan di Cina pada Tahun 1979 177 - 200 – 1994 12 Prestise Kebangkitan Olahraga sebagai Sarana Kebangkitan Damai China 201 - 219 13 Latar Belakang Jepang Mengirim Pasukan Militer Melaksanakan Misi Non-Tempur 221 - 233 di Iraq Tahun 2004-2008 14 Terorisme sebagai Tantangan Kelompok Etnis terhadap Negara: Studi Kasus 679 - 705 Gerakan Transnasional Boko Haram Di Nigeria 15 Strategi Advokasi OWC, ORIP, dan OPDP dalam Upaya Penyelesaian Konflik 235 - 255 Penggusuran Masyarakat Ogiek di Hutan Mau 1990-2013 16 Pemberian Bantuan Amerika Serikat kepada
    [Show full text]
  • The Labor of Private Military Contractors
    Outsourcing Sacrifice: The Labor of Private Military Contractors Mateo Taussig-Rubbo* Numerous scandals arising from the United States government's increased use of armed private military contractors have drawn attention to the contractors' legally ill-defined position. But the complexity of the contractors' relation to various bodies of law and doctrine-including military law, international law, state tort law, employment law, and sovereign immunity-is not the only salient issue. The contractors are also awkwardly positioned in relation to the traditional understanding of sacrifice, which has structured Americans' imaginings about those who kill and are killed on behalf of the nation. In this understanding, there is a mutually constitutive relationship between citizenship and sacrifice. This Article examines the contractors' relation to the tradition of sacrifice and finds that they are officially excluded from it-their deaths are not included in body counts, for instance, and they are not given medals and honors. It construes the emergence of the contractor as an effort by U.S. officials to avoid the political liability entailed in calling a loss a sacrifice and discusses the way in which the legal form of contract and the policy of privatization have been means through which this is attempted. The Article then focuses on one case in which this effort ran into difficulties: the spectacular and grotesque killing, dismembering and immolation of four Blackwater contractors in Fallujah, Iraq. In this event, individuals who had contracted their services came to be seen as having sacrificed for the U.S. In conclusion, the Article urges that while it is important to address the lack of legal clarity surrounding contractors, it is also necessary to address their position in the tradition of sacrifice and attend to the deeper issues of popular and governmental sovereignty which that tradition articulates.
    [Show full text]
  • Colombian Mercenaries Fighting for Arab Coalition in Yemen Andrã©S Gaudãn
    University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository NotiSur Latin America Digital Beat (LADB) 2-12-2016 Colombian Mercenaries Fighting for Arab Coalition in Yemen Andrés GaudÃn Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/notisur Recommended Citation GaudÃn, Andrés. "Colombian Mercenaries Fighting for Arab Coalition in Yemen." (2016). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/ notisur/14400 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Latin America Digital Beat (LADB) at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in NotiSur by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. LADB Article Id: 79896 ISSN: 1060-4189 Colombian Mercenaries Fighting for Arab Coalition in Yemen by Andrés Gaudín Category/Department: Colombia Published: 2016-02-12 Since the beginning of this decade, talk in Colombia has been that hundreds of the country’s best officers and soldiers were serving as mercenaries in hot spots around the globe. Some put the number at more than 300 fighters; others said 450, and still other stretched the number to 3,300. At the beginning of this year, more specific reports indicated that most of these persons were fighting a war in the Middle East, more than 13,000 kilometers away. The setting is the impoverished Republic of Yemen, where Shiites and Sunnis––the two main branches of Islam ––are fighting each other, and where Al Qaeda and the Islamic State are present. Since March 2015, a Sunni Arab coalition headed by Saudi Arabia and made up of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Egypt, Qatar, and Bahrain has been intervening in the fight.
    [Show full text]
  • Private Security Contractors in Iraq: Background, Legal Status, and Other Issues
    Order Code RL32419 Private Security Contractors in Iraq: Background, Legal Status, and Other Issues Updated August 25, 2008 Jennifer K. Elsea Legislative Attorney American Law Division Moshe Schwartz Analyst in Defense Acquisition Policy Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division Kennon H. Nakamura Analyst in Foreign Affairs Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division Private Security Contractors in Iraq: Background, Legal Status, and Other Issues Summary The United States is relying heavily on private firms to supply a wide variety of services in Iraq, including security. From publicly available information, this is apparently the first time that the United States has depended so extensively on contractors to provide security in a hostile environment, although it has previously contracted for more limited security services in Afghanistan, Bosnia, and elsewhere. In Iraq, private firms known as Private Security Contractors (PSCs) serve to protect individuals, transport convoys, forward operating bases, buildings, and other economic infrastructure, and are training Iraqi police and military personnel. By providing security for reconstruction and stabilization efforts, many analysts and policymakers say, private contractors contribute an essential service to U.S. and international efforts to bring peace to Iraq. Nonetheless, the use of armed contractors raises several concerns, including transparency and accountability. The lack of public information on the terms of the contracts, including their costs and the standards governing hiring and performance, make evaluating their efficiency difficult. The apparent lack of a practical means to hold contractors accountable under U.S. law for abuses and other transgressions, and the possibility that they could be prosecuted by foreign courts, is also a source of concern.
    [Show full text]
  • The Case of Paul Slough and the Nisour Square Massacre
    MERCENARY KILLER OR EMBODIED VETERAN? THE CASE OF PAUL SLOUGH AND THE NISOUR SQUARE MASSACRE Paul Higate University of Bristol © Paul Higate School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies University of Bristol Working Paper No. 09-11 Paul Higate is Reader in Gender and Security in the School for Sociology, Politics and International Studies at the University of Bristol. He is currently a Fellow of the ESRC/AHRC Global Uncertainties Programme with a project entitled 'Mercenary Masculinities Imagine Security: The case of the Private Military Contractor'. 1 Mercenary Killer or Embodied Veteran? The Case of Paul Slough and the Nisour Square Massacre Paul Higate University of Bristol Abstract On the 16th September 2007, five employees of the Private Military and Security Company (PMSC) Blackwater shot dead 17 Iraqi citizens in Nisour Square in Baghdad. This notorious incident generated two main explanations for the murders. The first framed the killings as the result of 'cowboy' contractors bent on destruction – the actions of militarised masculinities for whom Iraqi lives meant little. The second, with a focus on the individual principally associated with the massacre, Paul Slough, sought to humanise this U.S Army veteran with a focus on his difficult childhood growing up without a father. Taken together, these oppositional framings turn on a bad man/good man binary through seeking explanation for the shootings in the background of the perpetrator(s) involved. In this article I argue that individual backgrounds that focus on military, militarised masculinities or masculinity more widely, can be usefully complemented with a consideration of the situational aspects of violence.
    [Show full text]
  • Mercenarism and Private Military and Security Companies
    MERCENARISM AND PRIVATE MILITARY AND SECURITY COMPANIES An overview of the work carried out by the Working Group on the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination Designed and Printed at United Nations, Geneva – 1806644 (E) – April 2018 – 500 – HRC/NONE/2018/40 MERCENARISM AND PRIVATE MILITARY AND SECURITY COMPANIES An overview of the work carried out by the Working Group on the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination HRC/NONE/2018/40 Cover pictures credits : UN Photo-Sylvain Liechti / UN Photo-Jean-Marc Ferré / UN Photo-Bikem Ekberzade / UN Photo-Shafiqullah Waak / UN Photo -Stephenie Hollyman / UN Photo - Nektarios Markogiannis / UN Photo Yutaka Nagata / UN Photo-Sahem Rababah / UN Photo-Basile Zoma Table of contents 3 Table of contents Acknowledgment ............................................................................................................ 4 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 5 Introduction to the mandate ....................................................................................... 6 A. From Special Rapporteur to Working Group – an evolving mandate ............................................. 6 1) Special Rapporteur ......................................................................................................... 6 2) Working Group
    [Show full text]
  • Blackwater Vs. Bin Laden
    Blackwater vs. bin Laden PMSC involvement in American Counter-Terrorism Working Draft David Perry [email protected] ca Prepared for the Canadian Political Science Association Annual Convention June 2010, Montreal The author would like to acknowledge the funding support of the Centre for Security and Defence Studies of the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, Carleton University. 1 Since the end of the Cold War, non-state actors have taken an increasingly active role in world conflict. While private actors have been present on battlefields throughout history, contemporary Private Military and Security Companies (PMSCs) represent the corporate evolution of the profession of mercenaries. Today, these multinational corporations offer services intricately linked to warfare. 1 Since 9/11, these companies and their contractor employees have played an increasingly important role in executing all aspects of American national security strategy. Despite this reality, the majority of the literature on this subject has focused primarily on PMSC support of US military operations in Iraq.2 While the Bush Administration attempted to link the Iraq war with Al-Qaeda, and thus the wider Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), this link is contested. 3 Thus, by focusing extensively on military operations in Iraq, the current literature on the use of PMSCs by the American Government does not adequately address the use of PMSCs in support of the primary national security priority of the United States (US) since 9/11: counter-terrorism. 4 This omission is somewhat ironic, for some authors contend that PMSC involvement in Afghanistan supporting the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and its initial post-9/11 counter-terrorism activities precipitated the booming PMSC market in Iraq.5 More importantly, since private actors currently play a larger role than public state agents in several aspects of American counter-terrorism efforts, this omission fundamentally misrepresents the nature of contemporary counter-terrorism.
    [Show full text]