“A nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) report issued Thursday reveals that the U.S. is spending as much as $33,000 per private security contractor per month — some $396,000 per year on individual guards,” RAW STORY reports.
Friendly Fire: “According to GAO, private security contractors have reported that ‘they are fired upon by U.S. forces so frequently that incident reports are not always filed’.”
High Security Costs: “GAO found that security costs represented a significant portion of the total funds spent under major reconstruction contracts.” MORE BELOW:
The report, entitled Rebuilding Iraq: Actions Needed to Improve Use of Private Security Providers, examined contractors hired directly by federal agencies to provide security in Iraq, as well as security subcontractors hired by other contractors to protect their personnel and reconstruction projects, and is viewable in PDF format here. This summary was prepared by the ranking member of the Government Reform Committee, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA).
[…..]
Reconstruction Projects Have Been Cancelled As a Result: Unexpectedly high security costs resulted in the cancellation or scaling-down of planned reconstruction projects. For example, in March 2005, USAID cancelled two electricity generation projects worth $15 million to help pay for the increased security costs of another electricity project.
Agencies Are Not Tracking Security Costs: GAO found that the Defense Department, State Department, and USAID were not adequately tracking security costs incurred under reconstruction contracts. According to GAO, “the agencies generally had only limited information readily available on the costs associated with private security providers.”
(Full article at Raw Story)
of a CEO president. I’m amazed.
that at least half of all money that disappeared in Iraq, has found its way into numbered off shore bank accounts with the names of many prominent Theives names attached to them.
Any one care to hazard a guess how many billions are under GW Bush’s name.
This shit pisses me off to no end! $396,000.00/year???? WTF??? At least 1/2 of that gets paid directly to the contractor. Let me, a recent AF veteran, lay this out for those of you who don’t know or understand why the troops have a predilection to want to shoot at these clowns (not that that is excusable behavior mind you).
I was a lowly enlisted troop with 1 stripe when I joined in 1997. Almost 5 years later, I was a Staff Sergeant Select (E-5). An E-5 makes approximately (including adjustments for housing and health care costs) about $36,000.00 annually. Let me repeat that…$36,000.00 A YEAR.
These mercenaries are over there making hundreds of thousands a year tax-free and not only are they doing, essentially, the same jobs that our troops are doing but, they, in many cases, don’t do the job correctly and wind up putting everyone (including our trained troops) at greater risk. I have heard MANY reports of how much worse the security situation is in Baghdad proper as a direct result of some of the standard operating procedures of these, alleged, security contractors. Our troops are pissed and rightfully so.
This is theivery of the highest order and nothing they do including (if some of the things I’ve heard from friends of mine in the field there are to be believed) outright murder, extortion and other high crimes is even investigated. They simply ship the offending individual either back home or to another part of the theater thereby removing themselves from any further exposure to retribution. This is unconscionable and it needs to stop!
When are the American people and these assholes within the beltway who call themselves Democrats going to wake the fuck up? This war has never been about anything other than oil, logistics, and LOTS of money for a select few! They lied to get us there, they’ve lied to keep us there and all our elected officials can do is roll over and spout, “Thank you Sir, may we have another?” Thousands upon thousands have died and many many more will never be the same as a result of this fucking fiasco. We need to get ALL of our people out of this ridiculous festival of blood, oil, and money ASAP!
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