Free Republic

Washington, D.C. - Here's a new reason for taxpayer dismay: There's increasing evidence that companies may be protesting government contract awards as a strategy to negotiate their way into contracts or to derail an award process already in place. ... In February, IBM protested the Federal Bureau of Investigation's award of a $1 billion contract to Lockheed Martin (nyse: LMT - news - people ). Big Blue dropped its dispute two months later when Lockheed announced it would use IBM as a subcontractor.

San Diego, CA (AP) -- A federal judge ordered the city of San Diego Wednesday to allow military contractor Blackwater Worldwide to begin using a new counterterrorism training facility. District Court Judge Marilyn Huff ruled that the company would suffer irreparable harm if it could not begin holding classes for Navy sailors at a converted warehouse outfitted with an indoor firing range. Blackwater sued last month to force the city to issue final occupancy permits after the required inspections were already approved, claiming officials upended normal procedures because they were concerned about political backlash. The city responded that the company...

KBR Corp. said today it would buy BE&K, the 48th largest general construction contractor in the country with 9,000 worldwide employees, for $550 million. KBR, the nation's fourth largest general contractor, was spun off last year as its own publicly traded company from Houston-based Halliburton Corp., the largest contractor for military services in Iraq.

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - The family of a contractor kidnapped in Iraq said Sunday that U.S. officials have notified them they've found a body that could be his. The family of Jonathon Cote said on the Web site Free Cote that an unidentified sixth body has been recovered near Basra, in southern Iraq. Cote was one of six Western contractors kidnapped in two separate incidents. The Getzville, N.Y., resident was working in Kuwait for Crescent Security Group when he and four colleagues were abducted in November 2006. -snip-

Since 2006, when the insurgency in Afghanistan sharply intensified, the Afghan government has been dependent on American logistics and military support in the war against al-Qaeda and the Taliban. But to arm the Afghan forces that it hopes will lead this fight, the U.S. military has relied since early last year on a fledgling company led by a 22-year-old man, Efraim Diveroli, whose vice president was a licensed masseur. With the award last January of a federal contract worth as much as nearly $300 million, the company, AEY Inc., which operates out of an unmarked office in Miami Beach, Fla.,...

The State Department confirms that two U.S. citizens have died in Iraq this week from indirect fire by rocket and mortar attacks in the Green Zone. The first person, a contractor for the US Army, died on Monday, March 24, and this afternoon, we have confirmation that another U.S. citizen has died from the latest round of fire. The State Department says of this latest death "no further details, pending notification of next of kin."

WASHINGTON - Authorities are awaiting identification of the remains of three bodies in Iraq, a U.S. law enforcement official said Tuesday, a day after the remains of two kidnapped contractors were identified. Four other kidnapped Western contractors have been missing for more than a year. The disappearances received new attention this month when the severed fingers of several men were sent to the U.S. military in Iraq. Several relatives had taken the discovery of the fingers as a hopeful sign but hopes dimmed Monday when the FBI said the remains of Ronald Withrow of Roaring Springs, Texas, and John Roy...

Authorities are awaiting identification of the remains of three more bodies found in Iraq, a U.S. law enforcement official said Tuesday. Sources say the remains are those of more missing contractors; the news comes a day after the remains of two kidnapped contractors were identified. Among the missing are Paul Johnson Reuben of Buffalo, Minnesota. The others still missing are Jonathon Cote, of Getzville, N.Y.; Joshua Munns of Redding, Calif.; and Bert Nussbaumer of Vienna, Austria. A finger from each was received by the military recently. Four other kidnapped Western contractors have been missing for more than a year. The...

"I'm just - beside myself," says Barbara Alexander Barbara has been living a nightmare since January 2007. Her son Ronald J. Withrow or Ronnie, now 40, was taken hostage in Iraq while working with a computer company. Barbara longs every day for new information about her son's safety and his whereabouts and Thursday she finally got some, but it wasn't quite the good news she was hoping for. Ronnie's severed finger had been mailed to U.S. authorities in Baghdad. "Whenever you are surprised by news like that, you know, it just sends you way on back. You're just back sided,"...

Military to Receive Notice of Operations A new memorandum of understanding on private security contractors in Iraq, agreed to in Baghdad by Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker and Gen. David H. Petraeus, the U.S. military commander in Iraq, requires "full coordination" between military and diplomatic officials on the ground but leaves State in control of its own contractors, U.S. officials said. The agreement, which has not been published, places a military official for the first time in the tactical operations center of the embassy's security office, according to Deputy Secretary of State John D. Negroponte. The military will receive "prior notification"...

Five Western security contractors kidnapped a year ago in Iraq are still alive, their employer said Monday, stressing that authorities are exerting all efforts to secure their release. The four Americans and an Austrian colleague employed by Kuwait-based Crescent Security Group were among 14 people kidnapped Nov. 16, 2006, by men in Iraqi police uniforms who ambushed a convoy they were escorting near the southern Iraqi border city of Safwan. Crescent managing partner Franco Picco said the company has been working with the FBI to find the men. They are alive and "we do have an idea where they are."...

(The URL will not go to this email) Classification: UNCLASSIFIED -----Original Message----- From: Subject: FW: Blackwater Thanks to US Naval Officer John Doe for sharing this personal information regarding Blackwater and other security contractors in Iraq. I think you will find it counter to all you are reading here.....Hal ============================================================================ I was asked recently by a WW II veteran if I had an opinion on the activities of the men under contract with Blackwater in Iraq. Having no personal knowledge, I asked a person whom I believed had 'been there and done that.' The reply from Don Kropp, Colonel USA...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday ordered tougher oversight of private guards in Iraq, including tighter rules on the use of force, following deadly shootings involving U.S. security contractor Blackwater. The State Department said other measures included improved training and clearer rules of engagement, better coordination with the U.S. military as well as cultural sensitivity training for guards and more Arabic speakers. Rice made the move following recommendations by a panel of experts she appointed to look into the work of private security contractors after the September 16 shooting incident in Baghdad that killed at...

The Geopolitical Foundations of Blackwater By George Friedman For the past three weeks, Blackwater, a private security firm under contract to the U.S. State Department, has been under intense scrutiny over its operations in Iraq. The Blackwater controversy has highlighted the use of civilians for what appears to be combat or near-combat missions in Iraq. Moreover, it has raised two important questions: Who controls these private forces and to whom are they accountable? The issue is neither unique to Blackwater nor to matters of combat. There have long been questions about the role of Halliburton and its former subsidiary,...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The State Department may phase out or limit the use of private security guards in Iraq, which could mean canceling Blackwater USA's contract or awarding it to another company in line with an Iraqi government demand, The Associated Press has learned. -snip- The officials said Kennedy's team was not expected to recommend eliminating all private contractors because it would have a profound impact on how U.S. diplomats work in Iraq. The State Department's own Bureau of Diplomatic Security lacks both the manpower and equipment, notably helicopters, to do the job, they said. The State Department has operated...

Pentagon officials suggested yesterday that U.S. civilian security contractors in Iraq fall under the Uniformed Code of Military Justice and could be prosecuted in military courts for offenses against Iraqis. Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell told reporters that while U.S. civilians working in Iraq under Department of Defense contracts were not subject to Iraqi law, they could be held accountable under U.S. law. Iraqi officials have complained of their inability to prosecute civilian contractors, some of whom have been accused of shooting indiscriminately into crowds and killing innocent civilians. Questions have been raised whether the contractors are subject to any law...

Before the smoke cleared from the attack on a Blackwater security detail in Iraq on September 16, 2007, the mainstream media began its relentless attacks on the security contractors who have risked their lives – and in some cases given their lives - to serve our country in Iraq. Their assignment, among other things, is to protect their principals - reporters, ambassadors, Senators, Congressmen and even Secretary of State Condolezza Rice - in war-torn Iraq. It is not lost among those of us who endured the same frenzied and sensational journalism while driving trucks in Iraq for KBR in 2004/2005...

Blackwater is a private company that does the dirty work for America in various wars, both covert and those we know about all too well. It began only 10 years ago as a sort of cheerful paintball and shooting range in the Great Dismal Swamp of North Carolina, but these days it has some 20,000 mercenaries on its books (the “whores of war”), not to mention a whole bunch of quasi-military aircraft, a military base, lots and lots of guns and connections with precisely the right people. It was brought into existence by Erik Prince, a somewhat right-of-centre Roman Catholic...

BAGHDAD, (AP) -- American convoys under the protection of Blackwater USA resumed on Friday, four days after the U.S. Embassy suspended all land travel by its diplomats and other civilian officials in response to the alleged killing of civilians by the security firm. A top aide to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had earlier conceded it may prove difficult for the Iraqi government to follow through on threats to expel Blackwater and other Western security contractors. The aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation into Sunday's incident was ongoing, said a way out of the Blackwater crisis could...

WASHINGTON - Federal prosecutors are investigating whether employees of the private security firm Blackwater USA illegally smuggled into Iraq weapons that may have been sold on the black market and ended up in the hands of a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, officials said Friday. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Raleigh, N.C., is handling the investigation with help from Pentagon and State Department auditors, who have concluded there is enough evidence to file charges, the officials told The Associated Press. Blackwater is based in Moyock, N.C. A spokeswoman for Blackwater did not return calls seeking comment Friday. The U.S. attorney for the...

WASHINGTON - The fog of war keeps getting thicker. The Iraqi government's decision to temporarily ban the security company Blackwater USA after a fatal shooting of civilians in Baghdad reveals a growing web of rules governing weapons-bearing private contractors but few signs U.S. agencies are aggressively enforcing them. Nearly a year after a law was passed holding contracted employees to the same code of justice as military personnel, the Bush administration has not published guidance on how military lawyers should do that, according to Peter Singer, a security industry expert at the Brookings Institution in Washington. A Congressional Research Service...

During a telephone conversation on Monday night, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki agreed that U.S. diplomats must be free to travel around Iraq, but how they will do that is now a point of contention. The U.S. embassy in Baghdad relies heavily on Blackwater security to guard its personnel as they visit government ministries and other sites around Iraq. American diplomats have not been able to travel outside the Green Zone since Iraq suspended Blackwater's license following a firefight Sunday that resulted in the deaths of at least eight Iraqi civilians. "We're there...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq announced on Monday it had withdrawn the license of a U.S. security firm and would prosecute employees it said were involved in a Baghdad shooting in which 11 people were killed. An Interior Ministry spokesman said guards working for Blackwater, one of the biggest foreign security contractors in Iraq, opened fire after mortar rounds landed near their convoy in west Baghdad's Mansour district on Sunday. "By chance the company was passing by. They opened fire randomly at citizens," Brigadier-General Abdul-Karim Khalaf said. Eleven people were killed, including one policeman, and 13 people were wounded, he said....

Those critics now include the Iraqi Interior Ministry, which said Monday it had revoked Blackwater's license to operate following a chaotic weekend shootout that Iraqi authorities say left eight civilians dead and 13 injured. ``The 'civilians' reportedly fired upon by Blackwater professionals were in fact armed enemies and Blackwater personnel returned defensive fire,'' company spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell said late Monday. ``Blackwater regrets any loss of life, but this convoy was violently attacked by armed insurgents, not civilians, and our people did their job to defend human life.'' ``The Blackwater guys are not fools,'' Pelton said. ``If they were gunning down...

BAGHDAD - The Interior Ministry said Monday that it was pulling the license of an American security firm allegedly involved in the fatal shooting of civilians during an attack on a U.S. State Department motorcade in Baghdad. The ministry said it would prosecute any foreign contractors found to have used excessive force in the Sunday incident. Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul-Karim Khalaf said eight people were killed and 13 were wounded when security contractors working for Blackwater USA opened fire in a predominantly Sunni neighborhood of western Baghdad. "We have canceled the license of Blackwater and prevented them from working all...

A week ago today, Gen. David H. Petraeus started his rounds on Capitol Hill, reporting that security in Iraq was improving to the point that a small number of troops could begin coming home by year's end. But 10 days ago, his commanders in Baghdad began advertising for private contractors to work in combat-supply warehouses on U.S. bases throughout Iraq because half the soldiers who had been working in the warehouses were needed for patrols, combat and protection of U.S. forces.

BAGHDAD - The Iraqi government Monday ordered Blackwater USA, the security firm that protects U.S. diplomats, to stop work and leave the country after the fatal shooting of eight Iraqi civilians following a car bomb attack against a State Department convoy. The order by the Interior Ministry, if carried out, would deal a severe blow to U.S. government operations in Iraq by stripping diplomats, engineers, reconstruction officials and others of their security protection. The presence of so many visible, aggressive Western security contractors has angered many Iraqis, who consider them a mercenary force that runs roughshod over people in their...

The death toll of Americans killed in Iraq is much higher than commonly reported and may now exceed 5,000, based on Pentagon and U.S. Labor Department reports. That's because official Pentagon statistics do not count the deaths of private contractors, who are playing a much bigger role in Iraq than in most previous wars. Based on workers' compensation claims filed with the U.S. Labor Department, 1,001 contract employees had died in Iraq as of June. Adding contractor deaths to the Pentagon's statistics gives a more realistic assessment of the war’s total impact. As of late August, for example, the Pentagon...

Security company Blackwater U.S.A. is buying Super Tucano light combat aircraft from the Brazilian manufacturer Embraer. These five ton, single engine, single seat aircraft are built for pilot training, but also perform quite well for counter-insurgency work.

A contractor's story from Iraq By CARL LAVO AND RICK STAGER Bucks County Courier Times AL ASAD AIRFIELD, Western Iraq — The reason I took this job in Iraq was denial: Look, I’m still working. I haven’t been relegated to making bird houses in the basement yet. I’ve got a job, how could I be old? Also, I needed the money. So I found perhaps the single employer who would hire a retiree my age (66) at a decent salary: KBR Halliburton. The bombs and land mines I encountered in Iraq were the truths I have had to face, but...

The number of U.S.-paid private contractors in Iraq now exceeds that of American combat troops, newly released figures show, raising fresh questions about the privatization of the war effort and the government's capacity to carry out military and rebuilding campaigns. More than 180,000 civilians — including Americans, foreigners and Iraqis — are working in Iraq under U.S. contracts, according to State and Defense department figures obtained by the Los Angeles Times. Including the recent troop buildup, 160,000 soldiers and a few thousand civilian government employees are stationed in Iraq. The total number of private contractors, far higher than previously reported,...

WASHINGTON, June 25 (UPI) -- More than 70 percent of civilian workers returning from service in Iraq may be suffering from symptoms associated with post-traumatic stress disorder, Congress has been told. "I think its fair to say based on the anecdotal reports and from our survey ... that it appears most people -- let's say 70 or 80 percent of those who leave Iraq -- have some sort of emotional problem at least temporarily when they return to the United States," Dr. Lawrence G. Brown, the State Department's medical director, told the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and...

March 30, 2007 On March 27 the solons of the U.S. Senate voted to assure defeat in Iraq by setting a "date certain" -- one year from now -- for the withdrawal of U.S. forces. As the 50-48 vote was being tallied, 15 British sailors and Royal Marines were being held hostage somewhere in Iran. While the barons of bombast were rushing to the microphones to crow about repudiating this president's failed strategy, U.S. aircraft from two carrier battle groups were screaming into the air over the Persian Gulf. And in a little-noticed footnote that same afternoon, the newswires from...

Thought I'd pass this along to those who may not have seen it. This is an e-mail from a civilian contractor in Iraq. Seems to me that life in the boonies hasn't changed much over the years.....the actual names have been omitted due to obvious reasons. + + + + + + + + + Hello all! I am now a resident of Fallujah. As I have found, this is a very different place from Camp Victory, and a very different world. The Marines run Fallujah. Marines are different. Their way of life is different. More disciplined. More regimented. More...

Halliburton plans to make shares availabe to public in KBR, its engineering and construction subsidiary, in a spring offering. Halliburton CEO Dave Lesar made the IPO announcement this morning on a conference call with analysts and the media while talking about 2005 profits and 2006 plans. "Our current plan is to file for an IPO soon after we file our 10-K," Lesar said, referring to annual financial report with regulators. In the past Halliburton has filed that report with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in March. During the call, Halliburton's Chief Financial Officer Chris Gaut said the company may...

BAGHDAD, Nov. 10, 2005 – "Fire in the Hole, Fire in the Hole, Fire in the Hole." Within seconds of that radio announcement, a fiery blast shoots skyward. Second, third and fourth blasts follow in rapid succession. Only then does the concussion hit spectators a mile and a half away -- not as sound but as a shock wave. In less time than it takes to regain equilibrium, smoke plumes coalesce into a thick cloud rising hundreds of feet over the desert. Twelve separate detonations have destroyed roughly 100 tons of munitions that will no longer pose a threat to...

Four U.S. Contractors Killed in Iraq Sun Oct 23, 6:41 AM ET BAGHDAD, Iraq - An angry mob of insurgents attacked a convoy of American contractors last month when they got lost in a town north of Baghdad, killing four and wounding two, the U.S. military said on Sunday. ADVERTISEMENT The Sept. 20 attack in the mostly Sunni Arab town of Duluiyah, about 45 miles north of Baghdad, was reported for the first time on Saturday by the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph and confirmed by the military on Sunday. The convoy, which included U.S. military guards riding in Humvees,...

In light of the global outrage surrounding burning Taliban corpses, I found this story particularly enraging: U.S. Confirms Killing Of Contractors in IraqExcerpt from Washington Times article: The commander said the four men -- identified by the Telegraph as employees of the Halliburton Co. subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root -- realized their convoy had taken a wrong turn and were desperately trying to escape from the town when their vehicle was attacked by insurgents. Two contractors who were not killed in the initial firing were dragged from their vehicle, and one was shot in the back of the head, the...

Four Were Slain by Angry Mob Last Month BAGHDAD, Oct. 22 -- Four U.S. contractors were killed last month when their convoy took a wrong turn, drove into a town north of Baghdad and was attacked by an angry mob, a senior U.S. military official said Saturday. The incident, which occurred Sept. 20 in the town of Duluiyah, about 45 miles north of Baghdad, was first reported Saturday by Britain's Daily Telegraph. The senior U.S. military commander confirmed the account to The Washington Post. There was no explanation for why the military did not report the deaths earlier. The commander...

BAGHDAD (AP)--The U.S. military confirmed Sunday that four U.S. contractors were killed and two wounded in Iraq last month when their convoy got lost and was attacked by insurgents and a mob north of Baghdad. The attack happened Sept. 20 in Duluiyah, about 75 kilometers from Baghdad. It was first reported Saturday by the U.K. newspaper The Daily Telegraph. The paper said the contractors were employees of the Halliburton Co. (HAL) (HAL) subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root, the biggest U.S. military contractor in Iraq. But Maj. Richard Goldenberg, a spokesman for Task Force Liberty in north-central Iraq, said he could...

Posted: September 23, 2005 12:32 p.m. Eastern The Pentagon has barred a pair of intelligence operatives from testifying before a Senate committee about a military operation that allegedly identified a major figure in the 9-11 attacks before they occurred. Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer and civilian contractor James Smith were not allowed to answer questions posed by members of the Senate Intelligence Committee regarding "Able Danger," a secret data-mining operation that allegedly named Mohammad Atta as an al-Qaida operative a year before Sept. 11, 2001.

Security companies yesterday said they have seen an upswing in demand for services in the ravaged Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina blew through the region 12 days ago. Most firms said that work could continue for years as Gulf cities emerge from the rubble and flooding to start repairs and reconstruction. "Most unfortunately, this looks like a long-term construction process for any one of the cities affected," said Tom Kennedy, senior vice president for protection services at Vance International Inc. The Oakton investigation and security-consulting company last week sent about 20 employees to New Orleans, Biloxi, Miss., and three other...

Private Security Contractors Head to Gulf By Griff Witte Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, September 8, 2005; Page A14 Companies in the Gulf Coast area hit by Hurricane Katrina are turning to an unusual source to protect people and property rendered vulnerable by the storm's damage -- private security contractors that specialize in supporting military operations in war-torn countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan. The mission is to guard against looters, not fend off coordinated insurgent attacks. But the presence of the highly trained specialists represents an unusual domestic assignment for a set of companies that has chiefly developed in...

HALFWAY, Md. - Ryan Brandt Young, a San Diego man and former Navy SEAL performing diplomatic security in southern Iraq, died Wednesday when a bomb destroyed his armored vehicle. Young, 32, a native of Halfway, Md., served in the U.S. Navy for more than 13 years, including stints as a Navy SEAL and SEAL instructor, said his father, Greg Young. Ryan Young was in Iraq as a security contractor for Triple Canopy Inc. of Herndon, Va. and was working with the Bureau of Diplomatic Security. He was riding in the lead vehicle of a motorcade escorting someone from an airport...

BAGHDAD, Iraq — American contractor Roy Hallums, who was taken hostage last November in Iraq, has been released, his ex-wife said Wednesday. "I can confirm he's been released," Susan Hallums, 53, told The Associated Press by telephone. "Considering what he's been through, I understand he's in good condition." Hallums, a 57-year-old worker for a Saudi company that does catering for the Iraqi army, was seized Nov. 1 along with two other foreigners after a gunbattle in the upscale Mansour neighborhood. An Iraqi guard and one attacker were killed.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 3 - Facing extensive damage by Hurricane Katrina to naval installations in Mississippi, the Navy turned immediately to the Halliburton Company's KBR subsidiary for tasks like restoring electricity, repairing roofs and clearing debris at bases that are urgently needed for response efforts. It is a familiar role for KBR, which under longstanding contracts has delivered the engineering equivalent of first aid to the Navy and other military and government agencies after natural disasters for more than 15 years. This time, the Halliburton unit's performance is likely to be watched especially closely, as its work under separate contracts in...

Halliburton Subsidiary Gets Storm Repair Contracts POSTED: 5:19 pm EDT September 4, 2005 WASHINGTON -- A Halliburton Company subsidiary was awarded a $12 million contract for work at Naval Air Station Pascagoula, Naval Station Gulfport and Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. The subsidiary, Kellogg, Brown and Root Services Inc., of Arlington, Va., also will get $4.6 million for work at two smaller Navy facilities in New Orleans and others in the South.

<p>Mod point of clarification: The first 100 or so replies below were posted in reaction to reports that the contractors had been fatally shot.</p>

17 employees for a contractor working on a drydocked Navy ship are in court Wednesday facing charges they had false identification documents.U.S. Attorney Paul J. McNulty said the men are illegal aliens and worked as sandblasters for Network Industries, Limited. That company is working at Metro Machine Corporation in Norfolk on the amphibious assault ship USS Bataan.According to the federal indictment, one of the men had been deported but somehow was back in the country.All are charged with having and using a false immigration document and false representation of social security numbers. Eight are also charged with aggravated identity theft."These...

According to a report in the Ft. Worth Telegram, Debra Jones has been charged in Ft. Worth, Texas federal court with illegally diverting $10 million in contracts to a company in the area in which she and her husband had a financial interest. She was an employee of the General Services Administration at the time and was allegedly diverting contracts for food preparation and serving equipment to a company doing business as Global Service Supply in 2000 and 2001. The charge accuses Jones of "personally and substantially" using her position as a federal employee to direct GSA purchases to the...